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In contrast to the GSL, Ryan Dancey on OGL/D20 in WotC archives
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<blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 4322932" data-attributes="member: 7394"><p>I agree with you in principal, though to be honest, I think you're oversimplifying the issues. You cannot compare software to gaming for a couple of reasons. Open source software, created and published by a community, works because the output is electronic. It's difficult to get gaming to work the same way because the ultimate desired goal is a printed product that is useful at the gaming table. Granted, you can always try to run a game from a laptop, but my experience is that this is simply not happening at this point in time. People find it more convenient and more easy to have books at the table they can reference.</p><p></p><p>If there is a need for printed product, then there is a need for profit-motivated company involvement. Someone has to take a financial risk for printing and distributing the material, not to mention assemble the rules into a cohesive manuscript, put it through editing, add some aesthetically pleasing formatting, and art. If you don't have those elements, then what you have is a jumble of rules, some of which will be more balanced and better written than others.</p><p></p><p>Since there is currently no way for a community project to turn into a printed product without it going through some sort of company, the RPG model is inherently different than software. That does not make these independently produced projects any less open, it simply means that the only way for them to be fully realized is for money to change hands.</p><p></p><p>What I see as the real test of open gaming is the extent to which the publishers who benefit from the open license open up their own material. If they open up their new rules for others to use and expand upon as they see fit, then they have added to community content, regardless of whether that content was originally released for profit or not. In that respect, I feel that open gaming has been mostly successful. Right now, the only ones I see trying to claim that open gaming is a failure is the same company that created it because they now perceive it as a threat. Open gaming under the OGL is alive, it is successful, and my belief is that it will outlast the GSL, though in ten years, the open products being released might not resemble the 3.5 rules very much. Evolution.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Darrin Drader, post: 4322932, member: 7394"] I agree with you in principal, though to be honest, I think you're oversimplifying the issues. You cannot compare software to gaming for a couple of reasons. Open source software, created and published by a community, works because the output is electronic. It's difficult to get gaming to work the same way because the ultimate desired goal is a printed product that is useful at the gaming table. Granted, you can always try to run a game from a laptop, but my experience is that this is simply not happening at this point in time. People find it more convenient and more easy to have books at the table they can reference. If there is a need for printed product, then there is a need for profit-motivated company involvement. Someone has to take a financial risk for printing and distributing the material, not to mention assemble the rules into a cohesive manuscript, put it through editing, add some aesthetically pleasing formatting, and art. If you don't have those elements, then what you have is a jumble of rules, some of which will be more balanced and better written than others. Since there is currently no way for a community project to turn into a printed product without it going through some sort of company, the RPG model is inherently different than software. That does not make these independently produced projects any less open, it simply means that the only way for them to be fully realized is for money to change hands. What I see as the real test of open gaming is the extent to which the publishers who benefit from the open license open up their own material. If they open up their new rules for others to use and expand upon as they see fit, then they have added to community content, regardless of whether that content was originally released for profit or not. In that respect, I feel that open gaming has been mostly successful. Right now, the only ones I see trying to claim that open gaming is a failure is the same company that created it because they now perceive it as a threat. Open gaming under the OGL is alive, it is successful, and my belief is that it will outlast the GSL, though in ten years, the open products being released might not resemble the 3.5 rules very much. Evolution. [/QUOTE]
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In contrast to the GSL, Ryan Dancey on OGL/D20 in WotC archives
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