Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamikaze Midget  Personally, trying to avoid "copy & paste publishing," while an admirable goal on the surface, seems to be more trouble than it's worth.
I mean, where's the competition, here? There were a few 3e products that did the copy-and-paste thing extensively, but they either did very new things as well (like Arcana Unearthed), or were mere format shifts (the Pocket SRD), both of which weren't products anyone at Wizards seemed to have much of an interest in making. They filled a void, and I'd be more than a little surprised to hear the people who bought those products not already owning a PHB/ DMG/ MM or at least using the online SRD extensively. |
My guess is that it's not a competition issue. It's an issue of barriers to entry. In the "copy & paste publishing" scenario, anyone with a little time, a few thousand bucks, and a desire to be a game publisher can flood the hobby game channel with poorly-selling product that chokes the profit out of the RPG category. That was very much the state of the industry circa 2005.
Eliminate that, and create a scenario in which
every single word of a 65,000-word sourcebook must be original, and you create a barrier to entry that will restrict the volume of new product entering the RPG marketplace--hopefully a restriction that favours product more likely to sell.
[Is this the end-all-and-be-all solution for avoiding a glut? Hardly. But I bet a lot of decisions about the
GSL are being made with glut-avoidance in mind.]
And yet another word from our sponsors
