The open gaming license essentially says "you can use our
game to make up anything you want", in a way, it's 'legal plagiarism'. As
one lawyer said at the time (I'm paraphrasing) ..."The game is dice and
statistical math, how would you regulate that ?" Believe me , they tried
to regulate it. All through the 80's and 90's , there were tricky lawsuits
related to copyright infringement, and the OPEN GAMING LICENSE was WotC's answer to put a stop to it. Why couldn't
they just make it illegal to use the rules? Well, these rules everybody
is stealing and changing to make their own game are partially derived
from an article written long enough ago to be considered "public
domain" ( ie "open soucre" material). This legal snag tends to
turn off copyright and intellectual property lawyers. It's an article
written by HG Wellls ( and since it wasn't
in print for 75 years, it became "public domain"), and legally, is
"free". TSR managed to protect the
rights to the games, but not the rules, per say, since it's a 'reinterpretation'
of this HG Well's
article. This is what they call
"a gray area".
Back in the 1880's HG Wells (of War of the
Worlds fame) invented the "war game". Yes, when he wasn't turning out
classic sci-fi novels, he was inventing a new kind of game. He drew up the
instructions in an article: basically, a game played with miniature figurines
(of soldiers, calvary units etc) and models of castles and towers. Each
piece was assigned points and a number of spaces
it could move. Craftsmanship of the miniatures is a big fetish here. These are
elaborate set ups, with working (doll house like) cut aways, opening / closing
drawbridges and so forth. Then you move your men around, and plan (in
miniature) large scale 'war games'. It's was a nice diversion to help take your
mind off of Jack the Ripper.
Now a days, if you are a hot shot video game
maker, and you are hired to make the next Spider Man video ("movie
tie-in") game , you already know you'll need to add certain devices
to play the game. For instance, the player, as Spider Man, will need a virtual
life bar, a power bar, a map or layout of the city, and inventory list of items
you need to work through the game. If your running the new Sims game, you need
similar stuff. Ditto for those computer games...everything from Civilization to the new Tom
Clancy "first person shooter" games. All that stuff, you have to
thank, in a round about way, HG Wells. Because it's public domain, anyone can
use these "devices". His rules on minature war gaming have
been worked into countless games. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
"So, HG Wells plays with toys...So
what?" So, flash forward to the 1950's...Boardgames are huge
moneymakers...Sure they've been around for years, but when the mass production
apparatus is put into place, they go global. And in a few years, RISK
and STRATEGO become hot hot hot! And they are , basically, HG Well's
miniature soldier game...for kids! But the game that didn't make it as big were these
other games, which added the "alternate history" dynamic to the game.
Imagine how the south could have won the Civil War...what would Germany
need to do, in order to win WWII...Yeah, well, these games appealed to
history buffs...and Gary Gygax and Dave Arnoson were big history buffs. Up
Next! NERDS UNITE!
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