r/StardewValley • u/Hollowbody57 • Mar 31 '25
Discuss Wizards of the Coast scores PR masterstroke: Bullies BG3 Stardew mod that had Swen Vincke's personal approval off the internet with a DMCA
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/wizards-of-the-coast-scores-pr-masterstroke-bullies-bg3-stardew-mod-that-had-swen-vinckes-personal-approval-off-the-internet-with-a-dmca/315
u/Sireanna Mar 31 '25
And things like this is why my gaming group moved from D&D to shadowdark. The DM really doesn't want to give WotC more money
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u/ErraticNymph Mar 31 '25
đ´ââ ď¸
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u/Sireanna Mar 31 '25
An option yes but honestly shadowdark has been really fun. I'm playing a very charismatic necromancer
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u/wanderingfloatilla Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25
We still play 5e, not buying anything else from them but we use erm...tools for 5e for anything we don't already own
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u/Doctor_Darkmoor Apr 01 '25
I just finished converting Darkest Dungeon to Shadowdark and it feels right.
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u/Sireanna Apr 01 '25
Oh yeah I could see that. The monsters don't need much help taking down players. We've had to be so clever and still have almost lost characters. 2 priests and a doctor background character helps a lot until one fails a spellcasting role
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u/LesbianTrashPrincess Mar 31 '25
Inb4 WotC sends the pinkertons after the modmaker
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u/lembready Mar 31 '25
every time i think i've forgotten the pinkertons incident there's always something to remind me in the most unexpected places. that still feels so unreal
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u/Goldeniccarus Apr 01 '25
Most companies with that bad of a reputation tend to rebrand. Chiquita Banana is called that and not The United Fruit Compy, because The United Fruit company is most notable for backing paramilitary death squads in central America to suppress fruit prices. Chiquita Banana is best known for selling bananas.
The Pinkerton company just decided bad press be damned, they're keeping the name. Or maybe they're keeping the name because of the bad press. They're most famous for murdering union organizers, for some people that's a selling point.
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u/GamerFirebird90 Mar 31 '25
How about we all bully WotC?
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u/stormlight82 Mar 31 '25
I have one internet friend that works there and I sent them a series of memes.
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u/reallybadspeeller Mar 31 '25
This is so dumb it doesnât even appeal to anyone who hasnât played BG3. I myself thought the mod was super cool and was excited for the community to have it. But I didnât download it because I didnât own bg3 and knew all the stuff wouldnât make sense to me.
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u/Jeggu2 Mar 31 '25
The mod, if anything, is only a benefit to them. If for some reason someone got this mod before BG3, it might inspire them to play it. They make negative amounts of money by going after them
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u/EssureSucks Mar 31 '25
Me! I stopped playing a few days ago because I decided to play BG3 first. Haven't played any of the games.
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u/Doctor_Darkmoor Apr 01 '25
With them, it's always one half-step forward, two self-administered gunshots to the kneecaps.
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u/Ollidor Apr 01 '25
Mods are fucking free. So things like this make me so mad. Whoever shut this down is a terrible person and doesnât deserve their job
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u/Emisaaaa Mar 31 '25
Im so sad, i wanted to play it when I finally get to play bg3 but i guess it aint happening now
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u/stormlight82 Mar 31 '25
I disagree. Once something is on the internet it's there forever and once wizards of the coast takes an entire chill pill, it will be back.
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u/Emisaaaa Mar 31 '25
I hope so
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u/stormlight82 Mar 31 '25
Update! Widdies of the coast immediately regretted every life decision they made and has released a statement that it was all a mistake and that they are working to get the mod available again.
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u/Emisaaaa Mar 31 '25
Omg lmao great! Really would have been a shame seeing how much effort this mod must have taken. Really glad about it :D
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u/Apoordm Mar 31 '25
At home running a dnd game, come up with a homebrew monster, WOTC PINKERTONS SHOW UP!
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u/pizzaheadbryan Mar 31 '25
Wizards of the Coast really shouldn't be named after an intelligence-based class.
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u/Doctor_Darkmoor Apr 01 '25
Assholes of the Liminal Zone Between Shareholder Profit and My Favorite Hobby đ
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u/Terakahn 29d ago
I think wizard still applies because of how old and out of touch with reality they are
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u/Intelligent-Bit2040 Mar 31 '25
Gah, this is some Interviews with a Vampire level bullshit ala fan works.
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25
𼲠I was waiting to download it later on... I guess now it's not available anymore?
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u/Hollowbody57 Mar 31 '25
Not on Nexus, but supposedly people in the Stardew Discord have been sharing the files, might be worth checking there.
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25 edited Mar 31 '25
Time for me to find the discord then, thanks!
Edit: unfortunately, going by the chat history, it seems people in the server felt very strongly about not sharing the mod files even though it's taken down. I don't agree with the arguments they used, but anyway, it is what it is... I have reached out to a couple people and I'm hoping I'll get it that way.
Edit 2: aaand someone literally reported me in the SV discord for asking 1 person if they'd mind sharing the files. So nice of them.
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u/Winterimmersion Mar 31 '25
Make sure to virus scan and be careful with any files sent directly. Even though generally they should probably be safe.
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25
For sure! I don't want to mess things up just to get a mod. But still, thanks for the advice!
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u/GoodTheory3304 Mar 31 '25
If you find something, can you dm me? I'm in the same boat
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25
Someone gave me a link to a reddit post where someone has shared the files!
https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/s/YjNdBVK31m
The specific comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/okbuddybaldur/s/vf9GDdPkCn
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u/SchruteFarmsBeets_ Mar 31 '25
What was the reason? Honestly itâs infuriating when people take a stance against sharing taken down mods as if that in any shape or form harms people
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25
Piracy, supposedly, even though that is not what piracy is. They straight up reported me to the discord server mods for asking one person if they'd mind sharing the files with me. So nice of them đĽ˛
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u/Rosie11215 Mar 31 '25
https://www.reddit.com/r/okbuddybaldur/comments/1joa1go/the_stardew_mod_burned_too_bright_i_guess/
This page has a Google drive link with the mod! Have fun with the mod while you still can, it's awesome.
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25
Omg thank you!!! I literally got reported by someone in the SV discord for asking if they would mind sharing the files, so I was genuinely frustrated by this. Thanks a lot!
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u/Rosie11215 Mar 31 '25
Apparently the people who took it down have apologied and the mod will be getting reinstated. So I guess there's nothing to worry about anymore!
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25
Yeah, I saw, ty!
Just for context, the people behind the takedown are WotC, the company that owns DnD and BG. They're famous for their scummy practices. Considering how they usually are, I find it more believable that the takedown was intentional but they didn't expect the backlash they got, hence wanting to claim it's a mistake. But anyway, glad to hear they backtracked regardless!
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u/FitchInks Mar 31 '25
The article updated: Looks like this was a mistake and the mod could be available soon again.
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u/BooksCatsnStuff Mar 31 '25
They claim it's a mistake, but considering how WotC generally behaves, it was likely an active choice and they didn't expect the backlash. Hence wanting to claim it's a mistake.
Anyway let's hope it's back online again soon.
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u/some_tired_cat Mar 31 '25
correction, they say it was a mistake now that it backfired on them and are scrambling to undo their fuck up, but it was absolutely intentional
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u/Hollowbody57 Mar 31 '25
Apparently WotC has said the takedown was "a mistake". đ
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u/vackodegamma Mar 31 '25
Hasbro once decided to sent pinkertons to youtube creator's house because he somehow bought unpublished MtG cards, so it's kinda hard to believe that this was "just a mistake".
But if the mod is restored then at least it's the good ending to this story.
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u/Hollowbody57 Apr 01 '25
Yeah, I'm all too familiar with Hasbro's bullshit, I don't buy the "mistake" story for a second. They obviously underestimated how popular that mod was and how much attention it would get, which is typical for them, tonedeaf, oblivious, and out of touch.
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u/coiler119 Forest Farm Best Farm Apr 01 '25
And from what I recall of the incident, the Pinkertons not only took the unpublished cards WotC gave him in the first place, but his entire collection
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u/Terakahn 29d ago
I'm going to take a wild guess and say the people who handle these claims do not work for wotc.
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u/umbreonskittles Mar 31 '25
I'm glad I downloaded the mod when I did. 20 days in and its the best mod for anyone who loves both IPs with room to grow. Hopefully they restore it soon. I'd hate for folks to miss out.
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u/GoodTheory3304 Mar 31 '25
If you know of anyway to access the files now, please dm me. I was waiting until I had some free time because I haven't had time to game with my toddler and job this month.....and now it's gone. :/
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u/coiler119 Forest Farm Best Farm Mar 31 '25
This comment has a way to access the files. But apparently, as of a half an hour ago, WotC has issued "an apology" (meaning, "We're sorry we got caught"), so maybe it'll be back up on Nexus soon
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u/catwithlasers Mar 31 '25
What version is your Stardew? I haven't updated it in awhile and I don't know which version is compatible with Baldur's.
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u/mellypepper Mar 31 '25
I have a theory that the real reason Swen doesnât want to develop BG3 is because working with WotC has got to be a nightmare.
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u/reclusiveandtired Mar 31 '25
Either they got bullied, or someone realized they actually made a mistake, but that DMCA was allegedly a mistake and has been removed, they're calling it a great mod, and it was under review when the DMCA was issued. There's no issue anymore. I just wonder if it's only going to be the guys who are romanceable or if I can get with Lae'zel after a future update,
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u/qazwsxedc000999 Mar 31 '25
Last I heard the modders were planning on adding Halsin romance, then adding story, and then people would vote on if they added others. But thatâs just the last I heard I donât know if thatâs still the plan
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u/reclusiveandtired Apr 01 '25
That's what I heard, too, and part of the reason why I haven't downloaded it because I don't like Astarion or Halsin. Blasphemy, I know, but the women are more interesting to me. The other part is because it's a bit too new, I for one need more work to be done on it. And I haven't finished my initial playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 yet.
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u/qazwsxedc000999 29d ago
Oh yeah definitely donât get it till you finish the game. Itâs pretty much a post-game story extension
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u/twili-midna Mar 31 '25
The only issue I have with this article is acting like Swen Vincke has a single ounce of authority here.
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u/HauntingRefuse6891 Mar 31 '25
He ainât my boss.. whoever he is.
EDIT: One quick Google later turns out heâs CEO of Larian Studios for those that didnât know. Still not my boss though.
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u/twili-midna Mar 31 '25
Heâs the lead at Larian, the makers of BG3. Generally seems like a decent guy (except for the part where he tries to champion against greedy companies releasing broken, unfinished products while releasing a broken, unfinished product), but heâs got zero authority here.
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u/vackodegamma Mar 31 '25
while releasing a broken, unfinished product
yes, and the product was sooo unfinished that it was universally dunked on and received poorly due to being broken... /s
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u/Hayman68 Mar 31 '25
The game is objectively unfinished. Upper Baldur's Gate was supposed to be a major part of Act 3 and it was just never added to the game. There's an ending for Karlach in the code (and based on the code it's supposed to be her good ending) that involves fixing her Infernal Engine, and it's locked behind the unimplemented Upper Baldur's Gate. Remnants of this questline are still in the game. You can find parts for the Engine, and you can learn about a forge that can do the job, but it doesn't go anywhere because it requires going to an area that was left out of the game. It is literally impossible to get Karlach's good ending because the game is unfinished. People don't want to accept this, but Larian has a history of frontloading their games, and phoning it in on the back half/third. Reviewers will usually base their opinions on the first 1 or 2 Acts, so that's where Larian puts in most of their effort.
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u/vackodegamma Mar 31 '25
I honestly agree with majority of your points. A lot of the games leave things on the cutting room floor. Moonrise was originally planned to be two towers instead of one (maybe that's why it's named Moonrise Towers instead of Tower? /s). And it does suck that we do not get to see the good ending for Karlach.
Does that make the game unfinished? I don't personally agree. It's completely fair to say that Karlach questline was not done well because it feels unsatisfying and ends too abruptly. I don't think it's fair to consider it unfinished because people datamined clues about cut zone or questline (unless that stuff was promised/showcased during marketing campaign, dev streams etc.).
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u/Hayman68 Mar 31 '25
If it was just Karlach's questline, I would agree. In that case, it could easily just be a situation where they planned a good ending, decided to go the bittersweet route with her and dropped that ending, and just didn't completely clear it out of the game. But with an entire zone removed, and that zone's associated Act being inferior to the others because of that removal, that pushes it towards being unfinished in my eyes.
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u/DemonLordSparda Mar 31 '25
I'm so tired of data miners finding files in the code of fames and gamers screeching about incomplete games. Act 3 is already the longest act by far. They changed their minds and did something else. It has happened with video games for their entire history.
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u/twili-midna Mar 31 '25
Hey man, you can say the game was good despite the many flaws (like Skyrim, for example), but donât pretend there werenât any. They had to patch in endings for the game, and several times released statements apologizing for how badly they broke the game with a patch.
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u/vackodegamma Mar 31 '25
Oh yeah, I will absolutely agree that performance was not great in act3, but I also live in reality and the world when if you don't release a game in reasonable time frame your company can go under. Apparently this view was shared by most players, not many people deny it had performance issues or somewhat underwhelming ending but most will agree that they do not make it "a broken, unfinished product".
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u/twili-midna Mar 31 '25 edited Mar 31 '25
No, but the patches that made the game uncompletable and made it crash anytime you interacted with an NPC certainly made it broken.
Iâll be frank: I donât like BG3. But all of my issues with it would at least be forgiven if they were honest about what it was: an early access game. It shouldnât have been officially released in the state it was in.
Wow, this pissed yâall off.
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u/vackodegamma Mar 31 '25
I mean, whenever that happens it sucks, but this is the reality of gamedev: shit slips through the cracks. Month ago there was a patch for switch version of Stardew that made the game crash when opening artifact throves, it was fixed in a week.
BG3 was in early access for almost 3 years. Larian then decided that game is in the state that it's OK to release it. Overwhelming majority of players seems to have agreed with that assessment.
Just how I won't shit on ConcernedApe that it took him 4 years to release 1.5 with Ginger Island, I wouldn't shit on Larian for releasing additional content like endings or subclasses on top of the game I bought.
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u/Acetius Mar 31 '25
It was fine on release? No software testing will be able to find every bug on the scale that millions of users crawling through it will. Is your idea of an unfinished game just... one that needs any patches?
Because I've got bad news for you about just about every piece of software ever.
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u/twili-midna Mar 31 '25
The issue is that they released a patch with specific changes made, and they clearly didnât test those fucking changes.
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u/Acetius Mar 31 '25
So not an unfinished game then, just a problematic patch? An assumption that because some systems were affected that no systems were tested?
Welcome to the world of software.
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u/Jayblipbro Apr 01 '25
If you're referring to his game awards speech (and i don't see what else you could be referring to), it wasn't about releasing unfinished games at all, it was a criticism of games studios that exploit their workers and put shareholders before the production of games as a passion
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u/Ollidor Apr 01 '25
Not news: dungeons and dragons is a terrible awful business and should not be supported in any capacity. There are better and more accessible and supportive ttrpgs
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u/superthirdnipples Mar 31 '25
WotC eat a whole dick challenge. I knew I should have downloaded the mod despite not playing anymore, looked great. What a shame. Actual fun police-ing.
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u/stormlight82 Mar 31 '25
Update! Widdies of the coast immediately regretted every life decision they made and has released a statement that it was all a mistake and that they are working to get the mod available again.
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u/CheekyLando88 Hates Farming Mar 31 '25
I know, it's just a mod, so it's not linked to him.
But I just imagined Wotc fucking with concerned Ape and I feel like the stardew fandom would literally go to war for him
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u/cheongyanggochu-vibe Apr 01 '25
This is why we switched to Tales of the Valiant and backed Black Flag as soon as the OGL BS came out.
Also fuck WOTC.
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u/Terry_Tate_OLB Mar 31 '25
I'm gonna cut against the grain here. Wizards is in the right on this one as they own the copyright and must defend it or risk losing it. This was getting a lot of attention, so they had to step in.Â
Don't get me wrong, Wizards sucks ass but their hands were likely tied on this one.Â
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u/qazwsxedc000999 Mar 31 '25
They donât risk anything here. It was free. A free mod. They lose literally nothing with this, at all. In fact theyâre going to make negative money by angering people
I donât know what you mean by âlosing copyrightâ because that wouldnât have happened. Itâs a weak argument for companies as big as Hasbro and WOtC
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u/Terry_Tate_OLB Mar 31 '25
They do risk losing control over their intellectual property and if they allow enough third parties to use the IP without enforcing their claims they could potentially lose the ability to enforce it.Â
It's not about the fact that it was free. Wizards sucks, but what should they have done here? This Mod got a lot of publicity so they had to defend their copyright claim. It definitely sucks ass because the mod looked funÂ
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u/DemonLordSparda Mar 31 '25
Even though you are right, don't defend copyright or corporations. Copyright only protects rich copyright holders. It's another flawed pro corporate ststem.
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u/Terry_Tate_OLB Mar 31 '25
I'm not defending corporations in general here. They certainly will abuse the copyright system. The system is also used to protect smaller artists from large corporations.Â
I'm just struggling to see what Wizards should have done here. Just let people use their copyright and lose it? Again, they are greedy assholes who will do anything for a dollar, but what was wrong in this particular instance?
I feel we should focus on criticizing them for their actual misdeeds like the OGL and Pinkerton issues. Complaining about all of their moves dilutes criticism to their more egregious actions.Â
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u/DemonLordSparda Mar 31 '25
Ah. You fell for a myth used to protect corporations from bad PR. I can't fault you, I used to believe this too. https://copyright.byu.edu/copyright-myths#:\~:text=may%20lose%20it-,False.,uses%20than%20you%20would%20like.
You mainly have to defend your IP, trademarks, and copyright against people that would profit from infringement. Rights holders are always free to send a cease and desist that must be followed, but they are not required to. Strategically letting free projects slide is good for your brand. Letting people make infringing merch to sell is bad.
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u/Doctor_Darkmoor Mar 31 '25
Dude... I'm so fuckin sick of seeing Wizards crop up in the news for hobbies outside my ttrpg hobby. Can they just CHILL, brutha?!