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Mike Mearls On the OGL
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<blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 4317298" data-attributes="member: 697"><p>It's illuminating to me that the motives and reasons for misreading my post are, in some ways, addressed in the next post I'm working on.</p><p></p><p>In essence, there are a number of factors in the RPG business that make good faith efforts at open source development difficult at best.</p><p></p><p>You'll notice that organizations like Mozilla are non-profits, though they have other ways of generating revenue other than selling the fruits of the open source development they support.</p><p></p><p>By the same token, many open source projects produce software that helps a business or organization profit indirectly. Example: The Apache web server is robust, which avoids down time, which makes a company's online store more profitable (less time spent fixing it, fewer customers lost, etc).</p><p></p><p>The RPG business lacks that layer of user. We have only publishers and users, and, users don't profit via better rules. They might save some time or have more fun with a game, but the superior rules don't make them more money.</p><p></p><p>OTOH, publishers do make more money off better rules. Yet, only one person can sell a core rulebook, and that's where all the money is.</p><p></p><p>So, it makes a lot of sense for publishers to utilize open material in the way we saw things develop: publishers creating core rulebook fiefdoms by "forking" the SRD. Economically, that makes sense.</p><p></p><p>However, that doesn't mean that it makes sense in terms of fostering open source development. We can't rely on economic motivators to drive open source RPG development.</p><p></p><p>Yet, I believe that open sourced, shared, and interactive design is the best way to foster the next generation of designers and creators. The indie movement centered on the Forge (setting aside the ideological particulars of that movement) showcases how a community founded and centered on design can cultivate and grow a better understanding of RPGs. That's something we need more of, and I think true open development can foster that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mearls, post: 4317298, member: 697"] It's illuminating to me that the motives and reasons for misreading my post are, in some ways, addressed in the next post I'm working on. In essence, there are a number of factors in the RPG business that make good faith efforts at open source development difficult at best. You'll notice that organizations like Mozilla are non-profits, though they have other ways of generating revenue other than selling the fruits of the open source development they support. By the same token, many open source projects produce software that helps a business or organization profit indirectly. Example: The Apache web server is robust, which avoids down time, which makes a company's online store more profitable (less time spent fixing it, fewer customers lost, etc). The RPG business lacks that layer of user. We have only publishers and users, and, users don't profit via better rules. They might save some time or have more fun with a game, but the superior rules don't make them more money. OTOH, publishers do make more money off better rules. Yet, only one person can sell a core rulebook, and that's where all the money is. So, it makes a lot of sense for publishers to utilize open material in the way we saw things develop: publishers creating core rulebook fiefdoms by "forking" the SRD. Economically, that makes sense. However, that doesn't mean that it makes sense in terms of fostering open source development. We can't rely on economic motivators to drive open source RPG development. Yet, I believe that open sourced, shared, and interactive design is the best way to foster the next generation of designers and creators. The indie movement centered on the Forge (setting aside the ideological particulars of that movement) showcases how a community founded and centered on design can cultivate and grow a better understanding of RPGs. That's something we need more of, and I think true open development can foster that. [/QUOTE]
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