BOOM! Swedish Paradox acquires White Wolf

There is also the possibility of Paradox simply working with WOTC, if it turns out their IP is integral. If they do that, a digital VtES project might be able to be jumpstarted by leveraging the codebase for either Magic Online or Duels. Everybody wins. And who wouldn't want to work with Paradox these days? They are a very different company than CCP. They have a great rep and a stable of very strong properties. WW, WOTC and Paradox franchises already have a lot of fans in common.

Even though it's exciting news, I cannot see how an online VTES game would effectively work without the face-to-face interaction with other players.

It would be nice that they did a PC game with updatable content (new expansions etc.), just to have a centralized support to playtest decks etc (maybe similar to the old school MTG computer game). It would also be cool to play some drafts with friends.

Anyway, the important thing here IMO is the relaunch of VTES, hoping that they also include the VEKN expansions. That would just be over the top!

It'd be tricky. I've been sitting here musing about it over coffee. I think the way to go would be some kind of asynchronous play on phones and tablets? I have various ideas about how it could work but I'm sure Paradox has vastly more competent people at their disposal.

BenPeal wrote:

The two main things are US Patent No. RE 37,957 and the Deckmaster trademark on the backs of the cards. There may be other elements - I honestly don't know - but those are the two most significant ones.

Is there any sharedable-with-the-outside-world, not-under-an-NDA clarity on who owns the intellectual property rights to the cards created by WotC? Did the copyright for - say - the cards in Jyhad or Dark Sovereigns get transferred to White Wolf (then CCP, and now possibly Paradox), or was there a temporary licence for WW to use them which has expired etc? Similar for anything else that might have been created or part-created by Wizards - say, icons, the original rulebook etc.

jamesatzephyr wrote:

Is there any sharedable-with-the-outside-world, not-under-an-NDA clarity on who owns the intellectual property rights to the cards created by WotC? Did the copyright for - say - the cards in Jyhad or Dark Sovereigns get transferred to White Wolf (then CCP, and now possibly Paradox), or was there a temporary licence for WW to use them which has expired etc? Similar for anything else that might have been created or part-created by Wizards - say, icons, the original rulebook etc.

I personally don't have that information. I'm not trying to hide it - I really don't know. When I met with Steve Wieck, I did ask "What exactly does the Wizards license involve?" but he just mentioned the aforementioned patent and Deckmaster trademark, and that there were likely some other things but he didn't have the particulars handy. By "meeting with Steve Wieck", I really mean he happened to be passing through Germany while on vacation with his family, and Johannes and I met up with them for lunch. So, it wasn't a formal meeting, but rather a casual, friendly lunch and of course we talked about V:TES a bit.

So would letters to Paradox reminding them that VTES is still being played, and that there are a lot of people who would be delighted to buy new and reprinted cards be of any help?

brettscho wrote:

So would letters to Paradox reminding them that VTES is still being played, and that there are a lot of people who would be delighted to buy new and reprinted cards be of any help?

I would imagine so. Advertising ourselves seems like a good idea.

BenPeal wrote:

I personally don't have that information. I'm not trying to hide it - I really don't know. When I met with Steve Wieck, I did ask "What exactly does the Wizards license involve?" but he just mentioned the aforementioned patent and Deckmaster trademark, and that there were likely some other things but he didn't have the particulars handy. By "meeting with Steve Wieck", I really mean he happened to be passing through Germany while on vacation with his family, and Johannes and I met up with them for lunch. So, it wasn't a formal meeting, but rather a casual, friendly lunch and of course we talked about V:TES a bit.

From the point of view of Steve - when CCP refuse to licence it alone for totally understandable "Defending a lawsuit is expensive, regardless of the outcome" reasons - this sort of stuff is trivia. If Wizards/Hasbro were to agree to patent and Deckmaster, this sort of stuff - can I reprint Anson? can I use the "Animalism" symbol? can I use the tri-snake symbol on cardbacks? - is really just nickle and dime contractual addenda. (Assuming you needed Wizards' consent, and that WW/CCP didn't already own those things.)

In the context of a go-it-alone "Well, hmm, do we actually need Hasbro's consent?" - which wasn't the situation Steve Wieck was contemplating, obviously - it all becomes a little more murky. Can I reprint Temptation of Greater Power or Arika? Can Hasbro issue smackdowns for using the Quietus symbol? And so on. If either Paradox and/or OneBookshelf are willing to contemplate that in a world without CCP being involved, it might become more relevant.

jamesatzephyr wrote:

In the context of a go-it-alone "Well, hmm, do we actually need Hasbro's consent?" - which wasn't the situation Steve Wieck was contemplating, obviously - it all becomes a little more murky. Can I reprint Temptation of Greater Power or Arika? Can Hasbro issue smackdowns for using the Quietus symbol? And so on. If either Paradox and/or OneBookshelf are willing to contemplate that in a world without CCP being involved, it might become more relevant.

I'm sure that Paradox would also ask the question, "Well, hmm, do we actually need to make V:TES? Can we make a new CCG with the WOD setting that doesn't involve anything Wizards did at all?" I know a lot of you will say, "Well that won't be V:TES so I won't play it", which is totally fair. You've been buying V:TES cards for 20 years and you want to keep using them. The thing is, Paradox might not see partnering with Wizards as a viable option, so we might not get what we want regardless. Is there a way to remake V:TES that would make this community happy?