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>>their own, using all of our rules, cards, etc etc and there would be nothing we could do about it, since they own ALL of it.<<

The only people that owns the copyrights to the games that we have published is us. That goes for "our" trademarks as well. Now, ideas are free and can be pillaged if they so chose, unless we decide to try and patent our game mechanics (yeah, right. Even if we could, it would not come close to being worth the expense). However, I believe we have successfully, by in large, targeted niche audiences that Hasbro really can't afford to market to. Too diverse and too fragmented to create a suitably large enough market for a company of their size.

>>They have been kind enough in the past to allow our existence, asking only that we disclaim that they own all copyrights to the game. Hopefully things will continue as they are.<<

I assure you that Hasbro has not "allowed" our variants existence. On the contrary, while I can not go into details, I can see there was one overt (illegal) effort done a few years ago to specifically remove our products from select distributors in the hopes of putting us under. About the time that the newly acquired Avalon Hill was gearing up to release A&A Europe. No, what we publisher we HAVE a legal right to publish. Any intellectual property of theirs referenced in any of our publications are done so in a manner that is allowed by law. Hasbro may be gracious or they can be total asses, I don't care. Ultimately they can do little to effect our business short of flinging frivelous lawsuits around. And those can have potentially huge consequences for them if conducted the slightest bit wrong; hence why they avoid them like the plague usually.

>>Any thoughts on what this means to the expansion market?<<

The new A&A game will not differ from the old A&A game much. Sure, a new game box and they'll be switching over to use scultps from their newer incarnations. My bet is simply that the last print run of A&A is or will shortly be sold out. Its time for them to reprint. By putting it into a smaller box, Hasbro will have a greater chance of putting the game back into mass market store shelves like Toys R Us and such, like the game use to be. By switching over to the newest game pieces, Hasbro can effectively get rid of the old molds, sell them off, and simplify their supply logistics for the A&A game series. So I don't see much changing. These are just practical business decisions on the part of Wizards of the Coast. At most we might see "more" interest in A&A and the A&A gaming genre if they are successful in getting Toys R Us and other mass market retailers to stock and sell the new edition. That'll be a good thing for us variant publishers.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
www.guildofblades.com