Just a Bill hat geschrieben:
thodekey hat geschrieben:
Another possibility could be to just add the vineyard from Hills and Sheep and use it in the same way as a garden?
Yep, I've considered that too, and may try it the next time I play.
thodekey hat geschrieben:
So, in the end: honestly, I'm a bit relieved the C1 artwork came to an end...the C1 stuff I have has enough variation to keep a Carcassonne game fresh, interesting and...free from artwork mix-ups.
Have to admit I felt this way too ... and then I went and ruined it all by buying the C2 base game on sale. ::)
And now some of the boring legal/philosophical stuff I warned about.
Initially I did not want to "support" C2 financially. In every part of our lives (food, housing, transportation, entertainment...), I think it's important to use our wallet to vote for the quality we want. If we don't do that, we train companies that they can feed us any old crap (high-fructose corn syrup, Hewlett-Packard home printers,
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) and we will still pay for it. When something we love changes in a way that it stops being what we want/need, for some of us there is the hope that if we don't support the new version of the thing, maybe they will go back to the old version. But often this is a foolish hope.
But of course, setting aside the controversial artwork changes, the "supplementalization" of farming to become optional, and the issues with the style, accuracy, and organization of the new rulebooks, there are some good things about C2. The visual overhaul appears to be bringing in some new players, and the new expansion mechanics thus far seem positive — positive enough that I want to play them. And so arises the ethical question a person in my shoes must face: buy the thing I want but don't really want to support, or homebrew it? Ultimately I think I must support it. HiG/KJW created some new gameplay that looks like it will have value to me, and I should pay for the privilege to own it just like everyone else.
But having decided to let them have my dollars after all (dangit), I still don't want to mix the art styles. So I'm becoming a "converter" (or at least trying to). I have no guilt about this since I have actually purchased, new, the two C2 products I want to play. Because of that, creating alternate art for myself in no way infringes on HiG's intellectual property or causes them to lose a sale — as long as I don't
distribute it. And this point is pretty important.
Hence my comment above about not posting a downloadable Big Top tileset when I'm finished. When discussing copyrights and trademarks, people often make ignorant statements like, "But I'm not selling anything!" However, the legal protections aren't about profit; they are about
distribution. We're not allowed to distribute materials that would infringe on anyone else's IP, regardless of the benefit (or lack) to ourselves. If we make available for distribution a knock-off item that causes even one person to use the knock-off instead of buying the actual thing, then we have robbed the IP holder of a sale; and that's not right.
So if and until there is some kind of permission from HiG to post such things, I think we need to be careful about posting downloadable, print-ready alternative tiles that directly compete with product they are trying to sell. We should restrict what we put up to only a few limited examples, and they should be in low resolution.