Hero Wars
Issaries, Inc. |
Fan Material1. Greg Sez. Mr. Glorantha speaks to his intent."Hey, I made that up!"Granting Credit ProperlyWe all have a connection to what we create. It is in the nature of creativity and art. And naturally we all want credit and recognition for what we have done. The legalese of the contract is imposing and, from a creative sense, far more harsh than anyone but the law is comfortable with. It states what Issaries, finally and ultimately, can do with your creation-your ideas. But we need to protect ourselves and future contributors from suit-happy legal problems, too. Hence the ruthless legal terms.But Issaries doesn't want to steal your ideas, and wherever possible Issaries intends to ensure that appropriate credit is given where it is known to be due. We have not been perfect in that, and we have tried to amend errors within the limits of our best efforts, and we'll strive to improve some more. I hope it is plain that we have always tried to be inclusive in credits, sometimes to the point of being an in-joke. I, Greg, personally want to include the best possible credits where we can. But of course I can't agree to being complete or being right, because Issaries only has second-hand knowledge of where this comes from. We can not possibly vet submissions to find other peoples' credits, which is why we require a guarantee from the authors that the material is original with them, and that they have gotten written permission from other contributors. But back to the artistic reality, anyone who contributes to Glorantha really has to acknowledge several things about the creation of the world. Through official, fan, online and pub discussions ideas get shared. Sometimes people think the same idea simultaneously and share it, and if it's a strong image or a substantial work then it keeps its shape more as it gets passed around. Shared ideas in an artistic environment causes certain things to happen. People lose track of where something was mentioned, but people want to use it. So it's easy to imagine a cool idea that ends up in a submission to Issaries. It gets published and it enters canon. I hope everyone who is playing with Glorantha and Hero Wars is willing to let such events occur. But what about larger things? What about the actual larger-scale, substantial material that you, the creator, have published? I will repeat, wherever possible Issaries intends to ensure that appropriate credit is given where it is known to be due. After a certain point referencing the source material becomes pointless and silly. If you wrote an article on the hand tools of the slarges, and it's used in an Issaries product, some kind of credit is deserved. But if those hand tools subsequently appear in all 23 books of the Slarge Campaign, then granting credit every time gets stupid. Issaries intends to ensure that appropriate credit is given when it is due. "My Idea has Disappeared!"Stealing your ideas.I note that many people have read this document as a claim of Issaries to the right to steal their ideas. I recognize that the document makes people feel as if that were true. Since I am Issaries, I will address this idea directly. First, it does not say that. Please see the FAQ about ideas and copyrights.I am not a thief. I am not short of ideas. I have been working on Glorantha for 39 years have not written down everything that I have imagined, nor everything that I even think is true. Ideas and interesting things for Glorantha come easily to me. I have no need to steal. Furthermore, the concept of theft requires that the owner will be bereft of it. Ideas cannot be stolen. I have lost nothing to the thousands of fans who have played in Glorantha, filling it with their ideas and fun. I have not been diminished because everyone uses Glorantha, my ideas, for their own game campaigns, fan publications, magazine articles, web sites and limitless chats and forums. No one has stolen these from me. In a very real way, this policy asserts my right to use the fan publications in the same way their they have used my material. I did not think that such would be construed as theft. "Why isn't my material official?"My artistic brainTo me, Greg, Issaries is a significant part of my life's work. For four decades I have been working on it. Just like everyone else I have a vested interest in my creative work. I am burdened with the obligations of protecting my IP in the hope that someday some B-movie or video game will pay for my grandson's college. If this offends you, please do not contribute to Glorantha in any way. But essentially I want to keep shaping Glorantha now, consciously, and create a broad an deep stable skeleton of canon from which people can work in the same general direction.I am flattered and pleased by your contribution to Glorantha, and humbled by your interest. I am totally aware that your contribution of time and artistic energy to it is a great sacrifice of time and work, and I consider this to be the ultimate compliment for the world. If you think that is just me speaking bullshit, please come and ask me in public what I think. Now, not everything is right that anyone thinks they know about Glorantha. Even me, so famous for it that we now have a new verb for being gregged. But in fact, some things are more right than others. And people have, and even write up, their conflicting ideas. And ultimately it comes down to my choice on deciding what is and is not right, or which version is more right. But rather than trying to gauge degrees of correctness, I have really only one measure: what is good enough for Issaries to publish. That is what makes it official. It is the ultimate mark of admiration and approval from me. I do not have time to read websites or fanzines anymore. I will write what I know, share it with authors and work to make it part of Glorantha. I rely on those authors to work with me, to integrate (or not) other people's work, and accept that I am a picky bastard and feel free to reject portions or indicate improvements. If I throw out or ignore something, sorry for the bad feelings, but there is nothing personal about it. |
