Request: Actual Play forum

[Chris Goodwin]

We don't have a forum devoted to people's game reports. I know that I really enjoy reading them on other boards when they are posted. I'd like to see a forum devoted specifically to that.

Anyone else?

[Victor]

Seconded, heartily.

It sure beats going to a con, and sticking a sign that reads, "Tell me about your character" to Steve Long's back... although perhaps not quite as entertaining. :p

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Victor
Seconded, heartily.

It sure beats going to a con, and sticking a sign that reads, "Tell me about your character" to Steve Long's back... although perhaps not quite as entertaining. :p

LOL!:D
Keith "I laughed so hard I broke all my furniture" Curtis

[BobGreenwade]

This would be second only to an Art forum on my wish list.

A forum for campaign reports might even get Monolith back on track in writing his Tales of the Fearless Coward -- and I've really been wanting to know how that game's been going. I also know for sure that I'd use it once I get my own game going.

Calling the forum "Actual Play" (or something similar) could also open up the forum to things like the logistics of gaming... for that matter, it could even be done by changing the name of the "Player Finder" forum, expanding that forum's purpose.

[Hugh Neilson]

Originally posted by Victor
It sure beats going to a con, and sticking a sign that reads, "Tell me about your character" to Steve Long's back... although perhaps not quite as entertaining. :p

Whether you love game reports or hate them, you should be in favour of such a forum. If you ove thekm, there will likely be more posted, and you can find them easily. If you hate them, you don't go to that forum, and you can politely redirect (or mercilessly flame) anyone posting these elsewhere.

This would be a win/win.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson
Whether you love game reports or hate them, you should be in favour of such a forum. If you ove thekm, there will likely be more posted, and you can find them easily. If you hate them, you don't go to that forum, and you can politely redirect (or mercilessly flame) anyone posting these elsewhere.

This would be a win/win. Hmmm... all of the above would also be true of an Art forum. ;)

[Victor]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
Hmmm... all of the above would also be true of an Art forum. ;) I'm guessing the issue there (or one of them) has to do with copyrights. If someone uploads something they don't have permission for, DOJ might have to prove due dilligence in attempting to prevent it, which would likely require more of Ben's time for policing than anyone really wants.

That being said, I'd like to see an Art board too, but I just don't think it's likely to happen.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Victor
I'm guessing the issue there (or one of them) has to do with copyrights. If someone uploads something they don't have permission for, DOJ might have to prove due dilligence in attempting to prevent it, which would likely require more of Ben's time for policing than anyone really wants. I don't think it's really any more likely with an Art thread than it already is. We have extensive artwork threads in the Champions and Fantasy Hero areas -- in the case of Storn's big threads, so extensive that they're now almost impossible to wade through.

I'd also like to be able to make art/picture requests, or occasionally volunteer to do a bit of graphics work for folks once I've finished re-installing all my software on my new (to me) machine.

[Balok]

eBay might be the model, here. Knowing that it is impossible to police all the auctions, they take a reactive position: they provide a mechanism through which the owner of a copyrighted item (or his representative) may complain, along with a promise to investigate and take action.

If it works for them, it should work for Hero. Steve might have to take off his designin' hat and put on his lawyerin' hat for awhile, though... :)

[Hugh Neilson]

Originally posted by Balok
eBay might be the model, here. Knowing that it is impossible to police all the auctions, they take a reactive position: they provide a mechanism through which the owner of a copyrighted item (or his representative) may complain, along with a promise to investigate and take action.

If it works for them, it should work for Hero. Steve might have to take off his designin' hat and put on his lawyerin' hat for awhile, though... :)

Big issue here. Ebay cannot avoid this issue while still carrying on their business. Hero can. Why would Hero want to dedicate limited staff resources to following up on complaints rather than writing game books whose sales pay the bills? That wuld be bad business. Does anyone here want Hero to factor, say, a half time employee following up on complaints into their pricing?

I find ebay a poor analogy. Their business is their website. Hero could still publish without a website, or could use it as purely a promotional animal. That they make discussion groups available is commendable, and I hope it generates goodwill commensurate with the resources it requires. But I don't think the resources required to police for copyrights would be worthwhile.

If I were Steve, I wouldn't go ahead with the art thread absent some legal advice that they aren't placing themselves at risk of liability in so doing. And I wouldn't be inclined to rank that legal advice as a very high soending priority either.

[Balok]

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson
Big issue here. Ebay cannot avoid this issue while still carrying on their business. Hero can.

True, however, copyright law does not, AFAIK, take into account the nature of your business. Otherwise I could make a statement along the lines of 'But I can't conduct my Napster-like filesharing business without infringing copyrights, so you have to let me do it! That's clearly a ridiculous statement. Likewise, eBay could be put out of business if they routinely accepted bootleg material and did nothing about it.


Originally posted by Hugh Neilson Why would Hero want to dedicate limited staff resources to following up on complaints rather than writing game books whose sales pay the bills? That wuld be bad business. Does anyone here want Hero to factor, say, a half time employee following up on complaints into their pricing?

This is a more realistic objection, but it turns on how frequently complaints actually occur. I think half-time budgeted to this is excessive.

But if they determined that the forum was costing them too much money, they could surely shut it down at that time.


Originally posted by Hugh Neilson I find ebay a poor analogy. Their business is their website. Hero could still publish without a website, or could use it as purely a promotional animal.

As I said above, I don't agree that this is a reasonable difference. Copyright violation is wrong no matter who is doing it or how their business operates. Why should one organization's remediation approach not be valid for any other organization?

If you're aware of law that says there's a distinction, please cite it. Because it just doesn't make sense to me.

[BobGreenwade]

As I've said before, I don't think people illegally posting copyrighted material would be so much of a problem if an Art forum was formed.

eBay is a bad example for a different reason than Hugh states: people make money selling stuff on eBay. The profit provides motive for less than scrupulous individuals to do copyright ripoffs. With no profit for the users here, there's a much lower likelihood that it'll happen.

For those instances where it does happen, well, the DOJ guys monitor the board regularly and frequently, and we Hero fans are quick to let them know when something wonky is going on. Very little out-of-line stuff lasts very long around here. That's part of the advantage of running a small house with a small but dedicated fan base.

On another note... Balok, I don't think Hugh was saying that the copyright law is different based on the size or nature of the business, but rather that the necessity of confronting it is different for eBay than for DOJ because of the nature of their respective businesses. eBay has little choice if it wants to keep going; Hero could do just fine without allowing file attachments or inline graphics on the board at all.

[Hugh Neilson]

Originally posted by Balok
True, however, copyright law does not, AFAIK, take into account the nature of your business. Otherwise I could make a statement along the lines of 'But I can't conduct my Napster-like filesharing business without infringing copyrights, so you have to let me do it! That's clearly a ridiculous statement. Likewise, eBay could be put out of business if they routinely accepted bootleg material and did nothing about it.

You misunderstand my comment. What I meant was not that ebay can get away with infringing copyrights, but that their business exposes them to the issue automatically. To absolutely prevent bootlegs appearing they would have to close down.

As such, they have no choice but to spend time and money creating, maintaining and administering a process of dealing with (inevitable) copyright violation issues.

[Hugh Neilson]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
On another note... Balok, I don't think Hugh was saying that the copyright law is different based on the size or nature of the business, but rather that the necessity of confronting it is different for eBay than for DOJ because of the nature of their respective businesses. eBay has little choice if it wants to keep going; Hero could do just fine without allowing file attachments or inline graphics on the board at all.

If only you had posted 5 minutes earlier...

Thanks.

[Balok]

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson
You misunderstand my comment. What I meant was not that ebay can get away with infringing copyrights, but that their business exposes them to the issue automatically. To absolutely prevent bootlegs appearing they would have to close down.

Okay, I see the point now. Thanks for clarifying. Sometimes Friday rolls around and I've used up that week's brain allocation. :)