recent Ryan Dancey quote about SRD and OGL

ggroy · December 04, 2010, 02:42:27 PM

Quote from: Aos;423098This was more or less going on at the end of the 2e era, was it not*? I think that many people who didn't play 4e will probably be over their anger by the time 5e shows up and will not only give it a chance, but will want to like it, because it will fill that D&D sized hole in their hearts.

*honest question.

No idea offhand. I wasn't playing any rpg games back in 1999-2000. At the time, I was on a 15+ year hiatus away from rpg gaming.

Thanlis · December 04, 2010, 04:36:42 PM

Quote from: Morcant;423078Doesn't the success of Pathfinder indicate what really happened?

Nah. I mean, you've still got to consider the recession, the effect of WoW subscribers going from 0 to 11 million worldwide, and so on. Gaming doesn't exist in a vacuum.

But yes: my original point was that without the OGL, Wizards doesn't have a competitor who can provide customers with something very close to the previous edition. The OGL prevented WotC from making a clean break, and while that was good for me and good for you and good for other customers, I'm not at all sure it was good for WotC.

StormBringer · December 04, 2010, 05:42:19 PM

Quote from: Thanlis;423193Nah. I mean, you've still got to consider the recession, the effect of WoW subscribers going from 0 to 11 million worldwide, and so on. Gaming doesn't exist in a vacuum.

But yes: my original point was that without the OGL, Wizards doesn't have a competitor who can provide customers with something very close to the previous edition. The OGL prevented WotC from making a clean break, and while that was good for me and good for you and good for other customers, I'm not at all sure it was good for WotC.

I'm not disagreeing with your point, I think it is a good one. I will add that it didn't have to be bad for WotC; they very well could have turned it into a major bonus.

I did have a number of problems with 3.0 when it first came out, and the underlying reason for the OGL (to lock players/producers into the d20 system). I can't deny it was ultimately good for the industry at least, and it was good for WotC at the time.

Thanlis · December 04, 2010, 10:38:26 PM

Quote from: StormBringer;423209I'm not disagreeing with your point, I think it is a good one. I will add that it didn't have to be bad for WotC; they very well could have turned it into a major bonus.

I did have a number of problems with 3.0 when it first came out, and the underlying reason for the OGL (to lock players/producers into the d20 system). I can't deny it was ultimately good for the industry at least, and it was good for WotC at the time.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. If the OGL had been extended to 4e, that would have been interesting. Actually, for real fun, you use a Creative Commons license for the sake of making a clean break and tidying up all those questionable product identity claims.

Nightfall · December 05, 2010, 12:00:09 AM

Quote from: Cole;420586It's probably hard to find someone who wants to get an open source marriage.

Unless they live in Utah maybe...

John Morrow · December 05, 2010, 01:17:02 AM

Quote from: Cole;420586It's probably hard to find someone who wants to get an open source marriage.

I didn't think about this the first time, but seeing it quoted later in the thread reminded me that people here should probably read the Salon article Death to the Minotaur (Part 2 here) by John Tynes about the corporate culture during the early days at WotC (if they haven't read it already). You should know why your comment reminded me of this article by the end of Part 1.

Cole · December 05, 2010, 01:21:40 AM

Quote from: John Morrow;423285I didn't think about this the first time, but seeing it quoted later in the thread reminded me that people here should probably read the Salon article Death to the Minotaur (Part 2 here) by John Tynes about the corporate culture during the early days at WotC (if they haven't read it already). You should know why your comment reminded me of this article by the end of Part 1.

Hard, I said, not impossible.

I've read that article before; it's very interesting, but it seems that everything turns into an enormous shitshow, which comes as little surprise to me.

John Morrow · December 05, 2010, 10:40:02 AM

Quote from: Cole;423286I've read that article before; it's very interesting, but it seems that everything turns into an enormous shitshow, which comes as little surprise to me.

Yes. And I think it also provides some insight into the mindset of Peter Adkison and others at WotC that relates to the topic of this thread -- the adoption of the OGL, Hasbro, and pulling away from the OGL.

RPGPundit · December 06, 2010, 08:46:12 AM

Quote from: Aos;423098This was more or less going on at the end of the 2e era, was it not*? I think that many people who didn't play 4e will probably be over their anger by the time 5e shows up and will not only give it a chance, but will want to like it, because it will fill that D&D sized hole in their hearts.

*honest question.

I agree but only IF, like 3e, 5e represents a return to roots.

RPGPundit

Aos · December 07, 2010, 08:19:21 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;423594I agree but only IF, like 3e, 5e represents a return to roots.

RPGPundit

Yeah, that was my stance as well.