Re: [HoE] Year of the Copyright Infringement

[DarrinBrig@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/17/99 11:42:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
toadpooka@usa.net writes:

> What bothers me is that I learned of this by sitting down at a table and 
> seeing a flyer.  The first
>  word I made out was "Reckoning," in the Crackhouse font, no less.  Their 
> gimmick is known as "The
>  year of the Reckoning," and all the ad stuff uses Crackhouse.

I think Shane's a little too busy with other stuff to be concerned with this.

Having never seen this flyer and having no idea what WW is up to, I of course 
feel competent to offer my own opinions into the fray:

"The Reckoning" is not a PEG invention. Heck, if you wanted to get into the 
mythological Joseph Campbell stuff, Judgement Day stories go back before 
humans started writing things down.  PEG took a lot of really cool concepts 
based on religion, mythology, and history, and wrapped them up with some cool 
RPG rules. The game system kicks ass.  The fact that PEG is still publishing 
in a market as unforgiving as RPGs is a testament to the quality of the 
product they've put out.

As for Crackhouse, that font is getting SO MUCH use nowadays in movie 
trailers, adds, not only after HOE but even before HOE was released.  Its a 
very popular font that came out of the short-lived "grunge" fad fonts that 
predate HOE.  I'm not so sure the popularity has all that much to do with 
HOE's release... there are so many media outlets using that font now (and 
some of them were using it before HOE came out) that I don't think you can 
attribute its use as being inspired by PEG, anymore than you can accuse a 
company of using Helvetica or Tekton after someone else has some success with 
it.

Of course, in the RPG market, the font and the idea of the "Reckoning" have 
been used very successfully by PEG.  If you haven't noticed, the RPG market 
is FULL of copycats... you could even accuse PEG of copying WW's style by 
making hardcover glossy rulebooks, but WW actually stole this idea from 
someone else, who stole it from someone before that, and so on... the entire 
market isn't so much everybody ripping everyone else off as its more of a 
long dialog... once a particular "strategy" starts to be successful, 
everybody joins in until a new, better strategy comes along.  Market 
evolution, if you will.

The idea of a "Great Shift" in a RPG system was not invented by PEG either.  
Lots of game systems rely on this old tool to keep a game system fresh and 
interesting.  FASA brought the Clans into BattleTech. Traveller has undergone 
many different incarnations. In TSR's Forgotten Realms, we have the "Time of 
Troubles". Then there's Paranoia with Pre-Crash, Post-Crash, and whatever the 
heck they're calling the lame setting they're trying to push now.  The fact 
of the matter is, all RPG systems MUST undergo change or they DIE.

Now, lets get to the meat of your missive... it is somewhat circumspect that 
WW is choosing the term "Reckoning" and using the afore-mentioned font.  It 
does sound suspiscious... however, even if they are trying to rip off PEG, I 
don't see that it can do much damage. If anything, it will only promote the 
sale of both systems, perhaps inspiring more crossovers, and both companies 
get happy.  Heck, if WW starts "copying" PEG, in my opinion the quality of 
their products can only improve.  

I think during the last decade the RPG industry has had a lot of success 
dispelling the myth that they directly "compete" with one another.  I for one 
am very very happy that most companies are open to crossovers.  Gamers have 
their favorites, of course, but ALL gamers play a HUGE number fo games, and 
*in general* they buy games from a lot of different companies.  I *like* this 
atmosphere of cooperation between companies, I think it makes them all a lot 
stronger and a lot more creative.