Wow, some great news there: OGL, Hollywood interest, another monster book eventually, and something not mentioned yet - great sales figures.
I seriously doubt the 5e license will be the exact same as the 3e OGL. There's no way they want another Pathfinder. That said, I don't know what the right answer is.
But...
Pathfinder only came about because WotC left 3.5 behind. If they stick with 5e and develop and evolve it instead, I doubt another Pathfinder could ever arise.
This. You took the words out of my mouth, although I would take it a step forward: Pathfinder came out not only because WotC left 3.5 behind, but because 4E didn't have the broad appeal they hoped for. A large chunk of the community wanted a more traditional game; couple this with the OGL and you have a context ripe not only for Pathfinder, but the OSR. Although I think it is more accurate to say that the birth year, or re-birth year, of the OSR was with Dragonsfoot in 1999 and then gained momentum with Dungeon Crawl Classics, Castles & Crusades, and then later Labyrinth Lord and the rest. In other words, by the time 4E came out the OSR was already thriving and thus wasn't as much reactive to 4E as it was to 3E.
Actually - that might be an important point to keep in mind. There's always going to be a revival and reaction to the new iteration of the game. It is simply inevitable. But the scale and degree of it can vary depending upon the edition itself, how WotC handles, etc. We can see the range of difference between the OSR which, what, accounts for a few percent at most of the total D&D fan-base? Versus Pathfinder, which actually took over the number one spot. Given that the reception of 5E is seemingly *much* better than 4E, and given that they're bringing back the OGL and overall seem much more attuned with "What the people want," I don't expect to see another Pathfinder. At most we might see
Nerath: the RPG or
Power Source or some other kind of 4E revival, but it would likely be small, and I'm not even sure if the licensing would allow for it.
This sucks.
after the great news of no kender I am super bumbed at the idea of an OGL... I was really hopeing for a much more limited license.
... no it's not. It made for a far worse edition war over the last 5 years, and even made the overall community more fractured and tribal.
You're blaming this on the OGL? I think the "fracturing" and "etribalism" occurred a bit later than that, and that the worst edition war in my memory was in 2008-09, not back in the halcyon days of the OGL (2000-03ish).
BS... yes Piazo does a good job but lets not pretend that if they had to start from scratch instead of a prebuilt game it would be just as good. those deep pockets built the frame for piazo... they were just WotC deep pockets.
Yes, true, and people seem to forget that Paizo--whatever their strengths--are riding on the coat-tails of WotC and TSR. While I wouldn't applaud Paizo necessarily for excessive creativity or innovation, what I do applaud them for is how they handled their product. They did D&D right. They created a product format, and a quality level, that has set the standard for the last five years.
so would I.... just in a limited way.
You're being vague about what your problem is with the OGL, other than the possible relation to creating another Pathfinder and/or edition war, which to me is tenuous at best.