7 hours ago, Decorus said:The problem remains no digital copies which hurts the rpg for Star Wars.
Everybody knows this. The terms of the license don't allow it. We can't fix it. Asmodee can't fix it. Only Lucas Licensing can. Convince them. Stop whining at us about it.
13 hours ago, Daeglan said:Everybody knows this. The terms of the license don't allow it. We can't fix it. Asmodee can't fix it. Only Lucas Licensing can. Convince them. Stop whining at us about it.
Asmodée tried that very recently and failed. Lucasfilm refuses to discuss it. Perhaps it'll be possible when it's time for the license to be renewed. It's usually at that time you can renegotiate it.
7 hours ago, WolfRider said:Asmodée tried that very recently and failed. Lucasfilm refuses to discuss it. Perhaps it'll be possible when it's time for the license to be renewed. It's usually at that time you can renegotiate it.
At the risk of being told to cease striking a deceased equine again...
You’d have to get EA in on it, too. The odds of both contracts coming up for renewal at the same time are slim. And, if LFL didn’t want to alter the terms of the licenses off-cycle, I’d think the chances of them agreeing to change them with one off-cycle are only slightly better.
Interersting to hear that Asmodee did try to get the change and LFL wasn’t interested in doing it. That, along with other things (the tabletop game terms remaining essentially unchanged since the late 80s, Funko altering the design of Pops for Star Wars instead of asking for different terms, etc), serves to strengthen the notion that LFL is reluctant to change the terms of existing licensing agreements; that their stance is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And in their view, this one aspect isn’t broken enough to change the contracts.
I would love to see either a reprint or 2E for this system. Though I feel the system is great as is, the problem with it was not any of the rules (except vehicle combat), but in license from Star Wars to control the PDF market. That FFG was unable to print their own PDFs created a pirate market that saturated the market with unauthorized PDFs and also killed the digital market. Places like the Trove made it impossible to push sales of hard backs, which kept going out of stock. If the new publisher wants to correct the errors of FFG they need to address these issues or they are doomed to repeat them.
8 minutes ago, R0bperry said:I would love to see either a reprint or 2E for this system. Though I feel the system is great as is, the problem with it was not any of the rules (except vehicle combat), but in license from Star Wars to control the PDF market. That FFG was unable to print their own PDFs created a pirate market that saturated the market with unauthorized PDFs and also killed the digital market. Places like the Trove made it impossible to push sales of hard backs, which kept going out of stock. If the new publisher wants to correct the errors of FFG they need to address these issues or they are doomed to repeat them.
Once more, with feeling...
Convince EA that it’s worth opening up their contract to other possible changes not in their favor just to untangle a technicality for another company’s benefit.
12 minutes ago, Nytwyng said:Once more, with feeling...
Convince EA that it’s worth opening up their contract to other possible changes not in their favor just to untangle a technicality for another company’s benefit.
I don't think it's realistic to expect anything to happen here before EA's 10-year contract runs out and is up fo renewal.
1 minute ago, micheldebruyn said:I don't think it's realistic to expect anything to happen here before EA's 10-year contract runs out and is up fo renewal.
Right. And even at that, if LFL (and EA) are fine with rubber-stamping a renewal, it won’t even happen then.
If we assume that they do, for some reason, renegotiate and eliminate that technicality, it still won’t benefit Edge/Asmodee until their contract can be modified.
But, the fact that the terms remain largely unchanged since the late 80s when WEG got the first RPG license (creating this situation in the first place), it seems that they’re pretty good with just using that proverbial rubber stamp. (Meanwhile, I’d imagine most licensees are reluctant to open up to changes lest they end up seeing their contracts hobbled like Kenner did.)
On 3/26/2020 at 5:00 AM, Swordbreaker said:I feel like in this day and age, the no PDF thing is one of the biggest hurdles the Star Wars RPG is facing, not that its Asmodee/FFG's fault. It would go a long way to alleviate some of the heartache that the overseas crowd has to go through just to get the books. It just seems so ridiculous that they're under such a stranglehold.
I would be far far more likely to spend money on this if I could have convenient PDFs that would likely be just a little cheaper.
On 6/26/2020 at 7:47 AM, Nytwyng said:If they’ll stop beating theirs.
We’ve heard at least 17 (thousand) times by now that they’d like to see PDFs for the game.
What you seem to fail to realize is that these are different people answering a question not everyone reads 12 pages of content before they answer a question. Yes I’d love pdfs. Yes we get that it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
Would ePub be a format that is interesting? I mean these are digital but Star Wars books do get published that way... Also I heard that Marvel does use a digital app as well to allow people to read their Star Wars comics. Haven’t seen that myself yet but that could be interesting.
2 hours ago, DanteRotterdam said:Would ePub be a format that is interesting? I mean these are digital but Star Wars books do get published that way... Also I heard that Marvel does use a digital app as well to allow people to read their Star Wars comics. Haven’t seen that myself yet but that could be interesting.
I believe the sticking point was not that EA holds the righst to all Star Wars in electronic media, but that they do have the monopoly on Star Wars games in electronic media.
16 minutes ago, micheldebruyn said:I believe the sticking point was not that EA holds the righst to all Star Wars in electronic media, but that they do have the monopoly on Star Wars games in electronic media.
Correct. When the RPG (and video/electronic game) license was first written in the mid-/late-80s, home internet wasn’t a thing, and the PDF format didn’t even exist. No one considered these things that they had no reason to consider when drafting the specific terms. The end result was terms written with language that makes distribution of the RPG in any electronic/digital form fall under the video/electronic games license.
”But wait, Nytwyng, ya jerk,” you may ask, “FFG has posted PDFs and apps for every single one of their Star Wars games. Explain that, smart guy!” As near as anyone can figure, these PDFs and apps slip through a loophole, in that they’re largely useless without buying the physical game(s) that contain the rules and context. So...you get character sheets, or tournament guidelines, or other supplementary material that’s gibberish or a dice roller app with proprietary dice symbols that are indecipherable without the core book/set for the game you’re playing; they don’t deliver “how to play” content. My only guess about the Free RPG Day module that’s posted is that it likely gets around a similar loophole because it was initially distributed in hard copy for free.
3 hours ago, Rean411 said:What you seem to fail to realize is that these are different people answering a question not everyone reads 12 pages of content before they answer a question. Yes I’d love pdfs. Yes we get that it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
No, I get that. All the more reason to continue answering. I was, admittedly, a little short in the reply that you quoted, though.
2 hours ago, Nytwyng said:No, I get that. All the more reason to continue answering. I was, admittedly, a little short in the reply that you quoted, though.
I should apologize myself for being a little short.