Lalato said:
I noticed quite a few people saying that if 4e isn't OGL, they wouldn't buy it... I'm one of the few ENWorlders that is not a DM or RPG Collector so I'm intrigued by this idea. Other than d20, are there any systems that have an OGL component?
Yes. But it doesn't help other games as much as D&D.
One of the main reasons people want D&D to continue to use the OGL is that it creates a market for third-party D&D materials without each of them having to negotiate a separate license. This allows said third-parties to fill in gaps that WotC--for whatever reason--chooses not to.
This works because D&D is the dominant player & so much bigger than everyone else. Creating a product compatible with another company's system isn't attractive to a lot of companies because that's your product encouraging the purchase of a competitor's product.
Creating a product compatible with D&D, however, is attractive because you simply couldn't truly compete at WotC's level. In fact, it lets you ride their coat-tails a bit.
That's the theory, at least.
In reality, the third-party companies that are still leveraging the d20 SRD have moved away from being compatible with D&D. (& likewise away from the d20 license+OGL to just OGL.) Things are looking a lot more like they did before the OGL. Although, my impression may be wrong. I can think of at least a few third-party products that are still essentially D&D add-ons.
I also think a lot of the smaller players are beginning to realize that working together can raise all boats. That while individually the best they can do is ride WotC's coat-tails, together they have a better chance of building something stronger.
I'm totally different. I got tired of games going out-of-print. It's embarrassing to tell new players that they have to go to ebay or a second-hand store to get their own copy of the rules. I got really tired of things like 3.5e following so quickly on the heels of 3e; the revision of Star Wars d20; the first printing of Decipher's LotR; the first printing of the C&C PHB. If it hadn't been for updating the SRD to 3.5, I might have never bought another WotC product.
