Quote:
Originally Posted by Morrus  Fortunately, it is only YHO. 
With all due respect, this is not even close to true. Dozens of 3rd party companies were created on the sterngth of the OGL and provide a living to those involved. Other than the company owners themselves, I know how much I've paid out to freelancers in the last few years, and believe me it's many, many thousands of dollars. Multiply that by dozens upon dozens of companies, there's a whole industry out there making a difference to a lot of peoples' lives.
I know damn well I've been responsible for introducing new artists and writers who have gone on to do very well in the industry. And I'm far from the only one! WotC may have profited a little peripherally. But the big winner was the third-party publishers. Many companies have been launched, and are successful to this day because of the OGL and the d20 STL. I own one of them, and it's far from the biggest or most successful. |
Of course each
3pp has profited much more relatively than
Wotc. But I was not talking about the
3pp. I was talking about the hobby. I believe that if it were not for the
OGL we would have seen (as hobbyists) many alternative efforts regarding games and systems. It was not the
OGL just by itself responsible to the proliferation of production, it was also the growth of online applications such as internet traffic and sellable pdfs. I am not sure talent would have gone wasted. On the contrary I believe it could have been more productive for the hobby, trying to expand its own authentic strengths.
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