Lords of Waterdeep

[Glen211]

Lords of Waterdeep is a great game. Is there a reason why it is not on BGA?

[Jest Phulin]

As with any game, there are one of two reasons that it is not on BGA:

Reason 1 -- the entity who holds the rights to the game has not allowed it to be on BGA. BGA cannot simply put a game up on the site because they want to; a horde of copyright laws would shut it down. Now, with this, it is not up to the users to pester the rights owner to let it be allowed. BGA does work with publishers and distributors to get the rights to implement it. Having users randomly enter the negotiations can cause problems.
Also, there is a wide variety of opinions by rights owners about on-line play. Some say "hey, the more people playing our game, the more exposure, and the more copies we will sell." Others are "hey, we only make money off our games by people buying physical copies, so no way are we allowing people to play our games without a physical set." I've heard rumor that this last one is done on another site to the extent that they are allowed to have virtual games going, but for *every* simultaneous virtual game that is running, they have to have purchased a physical copy.

Reason 2 -- BGA holds the rights, but nobody has completed the coding necessary to implement it. BGA does not hire a programming staff. A game gets implemented when someone with the talent and the time volunteers to write it. For more information on this, check out the Developer's forum. I believe there is information there about how to volunteer.

[squarerootofthree]

Pretty much everything Jest Phulin said is correct. I'll just add... as Lords of Waterdeep is a game from Wizards of the Coast, there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that ever ending up on this site. They keep an iron-clad grip on their intellectual property and they'll never license a game of theirs for free to a site like BGA. The best option you have is the official iOS app (if you happen to have an Apple device).

[Glen211]

That's unfortunate. I only get to play it a couple of times a year. I would love to play it more often.

[Jaxom]

LoWD would be an amazing addition to BGA. We need more worker placement games!

[knknerl]

LoWD would be an amazing addition to BGA. We need more worker placement games!

I agree!