The Great CGL Rumors and Speculation Thread Options

[LurkerOutThere]

Penta sums up things nicely.

I firmly believe even and especially with some of the writers I like are leaving due to financial issues that the best thing for the brand and therefore for the fans is if CGL gets it's house in order and continues to make books.

[emouse]

Hey, not all of us who live on the BTech forums are that bad.

I think it's a difference in opinion toward Catalyst that the players have, based on how they've seen their game change.

The general opinion of how Catalyst has handled Battletech has been very positive. In part because of real improvements of the game production quality that started toward the end of Fanpro's run and blossomed under Catalyst. Also, the 'faceless corporate villain' for most of that run has been WizKids, who had restrictions put on Catalyst to keep Battletech from conflicting with MechWarrior. Battletech is also a game that's had very little change in mechanics since 2nd edition back in the 80s.

Put all that together, and you have a lot of Battletech players who are pretty happy with Catalyst.

Not that there aren't unhappy people, but it is also an official Catalyst forum. While there might be some particularly negative opinions that get weeded out, it's still a popular forum. On top of that Battletech is a game where the rules changes that have taken place are mostly tech additions. If you don't like something, you can play in an era prior to it existing. That's something else Catalyst has done more to encourage.

[Adam]

Making a good product takes time and effort. If as much effort went into shadowrun as went into battletech that fact checking would be assumed. From the battletech books I have picked up the production value of the battletech books bitch slap the shadorun books so hard I'd say SR needs dentures but you kind of need a jaw to place them in.

BattleTech got a head start in several respects: color books sooner, they had a large fact checking/proofreading pool built up [something we were working to build on a Shadowrun side and making some good momentum with,] and the BattleTech developer job has been stable with one person since Catalyst started, unlike the Shadowrun developer job. And of course, the 20th Anniversary plans, of which only some of the announced titles have yet to materialize.

Unfortunate, very unfortunate. I can only wish it had played out differently.

[McCummhail]

For my part, I can do little but Howl at these proceedings:

"What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up
their brains and imagination?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars!"

To AH, Adam, Jessica, and all the others I hope the best for you.

[Cain]

Unfortunate, very unfortunate. I can only wish it had played out differently.

Speaking as an expert more than an insider, how would you have done things differently? We all know you've done excellent work on many game lines; as a game developer, how would you have handled things?

AH: we might have had a few differences, but I have nothing but respect for you. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

[Malachi]

Speaking as an expert more than an insider, how would you have done things differently? We all know you've done excellent work on many game lines; as a game developer, how would you have handled things?

Great question. I highly doubt Adam will answer it.

[SecGuard]

Quick question, but if the freelancers who have been posting here are breaking their NDA's by doing so, does that mean they forfit any payments?

I have no idea if they do or not just interested.

[DireRadiant]

NDA aren't total blackouts of information.

As an aside, CGL certainly doesn't pay enough or have enough to be worth those kind of NDAs.

[Adam]

Great question. I highly doubt Adam will answer it.

Check out the big brain on Malachi! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[JM Hardy]

Quick question, but if the freelancers who have been posting here are breaking their NDA's by doing so, does that mean they forfit any payments?

I have no idea if they do or not just interested.

It ends up being simple--if your work gets published, you deserve to be paid. Period.

Jason H.

[Catadmin]

RE: NDAs, my day job has a stricter and more complicated NDA than Catalyst has. While I can't and won't disclose the specifics, Catalyst's NDA is fairly basic. "Don't post or discuss out of house information that the general public doesn't already know or can't find out about through other sources".

All NDAs have that as the base of their legalese, but some go further than that. Some authors (not CGL types) have told me of NDAs so strict that they can't even tell anyone they've ever worked for the company until the product gets published. And if the product gets shelved, they have to keep completely mum.

[Stahlseele]

OK, that's it, i'm calling SR dead as of now.
Without Ancient History and all the rest, it basically is, anyway.
No matter what happens to CGL, Shadowrun will never be what it was again.

[bluedragon7]

As far as i understood most of the freelancers, while they would not work anymore for CGL they might work again for SR.
Therefore CGL might be dead but SR only will be if it stays with CGL

[DWC]

OK, that's it, i'm calling SR dead as of now.
Without Ancient History and all the rest, it basically is, anyway.
No matter what happens to CGL, Shadowrun will never be what it was again.

That, or we're being set up for the biggest April Fool's Day joke ever.

[Stahlseele]

Wonder if the Freelancers would/could consider contacting Pegasus Spiele.

[Cergorach]

OK, that's it, i'm calling SR dead as of now.
Without Ancient History and all the rest, it basically is, anyway.
No matter what happens to CGL, Shadowrun will never be what it was again.

If it already wasn't what it was, how can it ever be what it was again? Your aiming at: It won't be what it is now, but it already wasn't what it was... Now I'm confused (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Stahlseele]

Smart allec/know it all <.<

[Dwight]

OK, that's it, i'm calling SR dead as of now.
Without Ancient History and all the rest, it basically is, anyway.
No matter what happens to CGL, Shadowrun will never be what it was again.

Huh? Come in off the ledge. Not to minimize AH, or his fan archive, but I don't believe he contributed any official material prior to 4e.

[Doc Byte]

"Always in motion is the future."

[tete]

That, or we're being set up for the biggest April Fool's Day joke ever.

You mean this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEu0o62ycmg

[Stahlseele]

Huh? Come in off the ledge. Not to minimize AH, or his fan archive, but I don't believe he contributed any official material prior to 4e.

If i am not mistaken, he was there from 2nd Edition on. Maybe even 1st.
Certainly in 3rd. That man basically IS the Shadowrun Universe incarnate.
There's not much he does not know about the universe and the background.

[Demonseed Elite]

AH has been a well-informed fan for a long time, but he hasn't been a freelancer that long!

[Ancient History]

Huh? Come in off the ledge. Not to minimize AH, or his fan archive, but I don't believe he contributed any official material prior to 4e.

Very little. I helped with some background in the SOTA books (hellcows, Or'zet, etc.) and I did some ghost writing to clean up System Failure (for example, I helped Lars kill Captain Chaos). Pretty much everything else was SR4.

Thanks again to everyone for the kind words and thoughts.

[Stahlseele]

Ok, then i got something mixed up a bit there somewhere . .

[Dwight]

Very little. I helped with some background in the SOTA books (hellcows, Or'zet, etc.) and I did some ghost writing to clean up System Failure (for example, I helped Lars kill Captain Chaos). Pretty much everything else was SR4.

Thanks again to everyone for the kind words and thoughts.

Ah, so your first credited work was the SR3 -> SR4 character converter web freebie?