Hi All:
Thanks for the comments and the speculations about the game. I'll try to
answer your questions as best I can.
Technically, anyone who publishes derivative BNW material is in violation of
the copyright. If you push the material by using the trademark, you're
infringing upon that trademark too. As the author and former owner of the
material, I have no special status with regard to this, since I've sold the
rights to someone else (AEG). Most game companies just don't bother pursuing
action against anyone who's not selling infringing materials since it's hard
to prove damages, likely not worth it, and they actually enjoy the support.
That said, I make my living by designing games and writing. The amount of
time I have in a day is limited, and I have a family to feed. If I'm going to
write anything, I'd prefer that it help me with that basic goal. The rest of
my time I like to spend with my wife and two-year-old son.
In other words, the chances of me taking a lot of time to provide free
support for BNW aren't good. It's not that I wouldn't love to. It's just that
it's not worth my time.
If I could, I'd raise the money to buy BNW back and start up my own game
company. Honestly, BNW wouldn't be all that expensive for me to buy back--in
relative terms. It would be in the low tens of thousands of dollars. But if I
were to do that, I'd have to start up a new game company to publish more
materials for it. Otherwise, I'd be flushing that investment down the drain.
I've given this a lot of thought because it honestly does pain me to see
something I worked so hard on go gently into that good night. But I just
don't see it happening. If I was going to go to the trouble of starting a
game company again, I'd likely be better off doing a new game from scratch.
I'm still noodling around some ideas about how to save the game, but the
risk-benefit ratios would have to be right. Unfortunately, I haven't come
across the right plan yet. If I do, you'll be among the first to know.
Either way, I'd like to thank you all again for your incredible support. As
long as someone somewhere is actually playing the game, it's never really
going to be dead.
Take care,
Matt Forbeck