Noticing a couple threadlocks at the BI forum today got me wondering about their policy regarding looking for games and players on the boards- which is, by the way, "you can't". It seems like a silly rule. The nearest I've seen to an official explanation for this policy is Dave Allen's response in this thread.
Bad publicity? Really? That's the concern? That's the reason why the BI forums aren't a central hub for finding online and offline WFRP games? That seems a little bit strange.... The odds against a serious incident occuring seem to be very high- and the odds that it would be somehow 'blamed' on BI are even higher. Lots of companies provide this sort of service to support their game- for instance, take a look at the extensive efforts that Wizards goes to to make sure that people can find a D&D game: RPG Gamer Classifieds. A whole forum and multiple subforums, just for the purpose of advertising what is already one of the most popular and widely played RPGs in the world. WFRP is much less well known, and has a much more scattered player base. I've often wished that there were some way to find WFRP games- particularly play by post games- that was easier than just running out to every single gaming website on the net and searching for games individually at PlayByWeb, ENWorld, and a dozen others. Here's hoping that BI eventually sees the light on this one- or that an acceptable unofficial alternative comes along.
By "bad press". I think that they're more worried about the implications (however remote) of younger WFRP players coming into contact with, for want of a better phrase "bad men".
ReplyDeleteRead into that what you will...
Oh, that's exactly what they're worried about; Dave Allen has said as much on the Forums. However, I think that again we're dealing with a remote possibility, and one that other companies have been able to address.
ReplyDeleteWoTC has a lot of very young players (D&D is a common first RPG, not to mention all the Magic kids) and still is willing to run a game advertisement service. BI is already running a web forum and referring people to GW's local clubs, who are no more or less likely than any other organization to house pedofiles. It seems that the risk involved is minimal- both in terms of liability and publicity- and what risk there is the company is already exposed to by running an online meeting place for gamers of any sort.
In other news, Dave has gone to some effort to see what can be done on the BI boards- such as running online-only games that take out the element of direct, real-world contact. I get the feeling that the 'no game advertising' policy is one that has been set from On High by GW's lawyers- several BI moderators have mentioned that they wish that they could offer the sort of services that players are clamoring for.