Critical Success
Just a day ago, there was a fear that Hasbro and Wizards would never back down. The gaming community was furious and heartbroken. Our sense of betrayal was palpable.
Wizards of the Coast didn’t just back down. They learned their lesson. Not only has Wizards stated that they will not attempt to revoke the OGL, they’re putting the entire SRD 5.1 in a Creative Commons license to prove that they’re serious about making this status permanent. They have, almost literally, put their money where their mouths are.
Critical Failure
This is about honor.
If I am the first word you’re getting about this, leaks from Wizards of the Coast (a Hasbro subsidiary, and trust me, this is important right now) have revealed a plan to “deauthorize” the original version of its Open Gaming License, 1.0(a), and replace it with a new version. A relatively recent article from Gizmodo about this fiasco can get you up to date about what Hasbro planned and where we stand as of this writing.
The fan base has had a great many issues with the new license, not the least of which is that is in no way “open,” but IMO the attempt to “deauthorize” the original OGL 1.0(a) is the most egregious, both from an ethical standpoint and in the public opinion backlash that came from it. The TL;DR version is that by every indication we have, Wizards/Hasbro wants to destroy the old OGL despite the fact that it was intended to be irreversible. They gave their word, and now they’re planning to betray everyone who relied on that oath despite their disingenuous statements to the contrary.
Canon Fire
Apparently we’re arguing over the importance of canon now. Ay dios mio. Well, this is something that matters to me as a writer, so here’s my two bits.
IMO, the biggest problem we have is that the community (fandom, artists, and critics – and that Venn diagram is far from a 100% overlap) is really discussing two things when they talk about “canon” for a franchise. One type of canon is continuity – the sequence of events that takes place in a story or series of stories set in the same timeline. The other is what I’m going to refer to here as legacy – the body of stories and/or legends that constitute the foundation of a setting/franchise/narrative.
They are not the same thing.
Mild, old-ish (no later than 2018) spoilers for the Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, DC, and Marvel franchises past the jump.
Sentinel-Earth comes home at last
I just got my Absolute Power books today.
Make no mistake, I am proud of my work on Dramatis Personae. It was a major contributor to my current contract as Dyskami’s Creative Director. I cannot say enough about how much the upcoming BESM Multiverse means to me. So why is Absolute Power so special?
Should Shapeshifters Do It For A Change?
Disney has announced that Morph is going to be a regular on X-Men ’97, and they’re going to be non-binary. My first reaction was to erupt with delight. The 90s X-Men Animated Series is still my favorite adaptation of Marvel’s magnificent mutants, and as a non-binary fanby, to see this sort of inclusion fills my soul with joy.
There’s a reason that the word “discourse” is becoming a dirty word in fandom. Bigots spewed their now-typical bigotry, some for clickbait, others because they’re just bigots. Those who actually learned something from X-Men, or already knew it and became X-Fans because of it, responded with varying degrees of appropriate scorn, welcoming the inclusion. Yet comments referencing the apparent lack of surprise at a shapeshifter being non-binary made me question whether it was becoming an unwise stereotype. Short answer: no. The longer answer is in the full article. Read More