jmucchiello
Hero
Why do you care about someone making money off of "someone else's work" when that someone else created a license giving people that ability? Are you saying creative people CAN'T give away their works for free?
D&D 5E So, 5e OGL
- Thread starter Michael Morris
- Start date
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
You could make D&D-compatible stuff before the OGL, too (WotC, in fact, made some of their early money doing that). Part of the OGL strategy is to offer a safe harbor for folks who are willing to play ball in a way that keeps them making D&D material rather than making competing games. It's not really an accident that 4e's GSL was not supported by the third party - everyone publishing for PF is essentially still making (and presumably making at least some profit off of) 3e D&D. 4e was a competing game. If 5e doesn't want to be a competing game, going OGL is a smart choice - that would at least let people support it in addition to 3e.
I am admittedly not the most neutral source, but I don't think I'll really ever understand this instinct. To make money off of someone else's work is what it means to participate in capitalism in specific and society in general. That's what productivity gains are, that's what your boss does, that's what the people who invest in your company do, that's what every employee does. You drive to work on roads made by the efforts of others (thereby getting your profit from their labor) you "look professional" at your job interview because of clothes made by others (also profiting from their work), you can work hard because you're fed by food that others have produced (getting profits from the energy they've made and made available to you) - we are all held tightly together in a web of obligation and benefit that probably only the most isolated of mountain-men can claim any sort of independence from (and even they have their knowledge, given to them by those who have come before).
Part of why I'm a booster for the OGL is because it creates that community and is explicit about its interdependence. If Mearls couldn't write Iron Heroes, he wouldn't be heading up D&D today and 5e might've been less of a success. If Path-heads didn't have their game, the Edition Wars would've seen more casualties in the form of "people who just don't play D&D anymore." We build on the successes that have come before. It's not like Erik Mona is rolling around in a pile of ill-gotten loot born out of the sweat of theproletariat game designers of years past. Well, probably not, anyway.
The idea that this just lets people "rip off" D&D is just unnecessary tribalism from where I'm sitting - the hobby rises and falls as a whole, not just on the strength or weakness of its most successful publisher.
GMforPowergamers said:
I am admittedly not the most neutral source, but I don't think I'll really ever understand this instinct. To make money off of someone else's work is what it means to participate in capitalism in specific and society in general. That's what productivity gains are, that's what your boss does, that's what the people who invest in your company do, that's what every employee does. You drive to work on roads made by the efforts of others (thereby getting your profit from their labor) you "look professional" at your job interview because of clothes made by others (also profiting from their work), you can work hard because you're fed by food that others have produced (getting profits from the energy they've made and made available to you) - we are all held tightly together in a web of obligation and benefit that probably only the most isolated of mountain-men can claim any sort of independence from (and even they have their knowledge, given to them by those who have come before).
Part of why I'm a booster for the OGL is because it creates that community and is explicit about its interdependence. If Mearls couldn't write Iron Heroes, he wouldn't be heading up D&D today and 5e might've been less of a success. If Path-heads didn't have their game, the Edition Wars would've seen more casualties in the form of "people who just don't play D&D anymore." We build on the successes that have come before. It's not like Erik Mona is rolling around in a pile of ill-gotten loot born out of the sweat of the
The idea that this just lets people "rip off" D&D is just unnecessary tribalism from where I'm sitting - the hobby rises and falls as a whole, not just on the strength or weakness of its most successful publisher.
Perram
Explorer
The OGL was created for this exact thing to happen in the event that D&D were to no longer be published or were to no longer be in the spirit of the game. They did this because TSR almost tanked D&D. It was an insurance policy so that even they couldn't kill off D&D. Pathfinder is just doing what the OGL was explicitly created to do, as are the many OSR projects out there. And as for other people's work? Paizo as a company was founded by those people who did that work.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Kramodlog
Naked and living in a barrel
Well, you might be a downer at parties with what you say, but bringing good beer can balance that out. And you'll be invited back.
-Josh is a real downer with his dead baby jokes.
-Yeah, but he always brings good beer! This is the only reason why I keep inviting him.
aramis erak
Legend
If WotC (or anyone else) gets a judgement that its OGL 1.0a is invalid, there won't be a PF 2.0, because it would be a derivative work, and require permission of the original work's author/publisher to be published.
If we are dreaming then I wish that WotC managed to fight off Hasbros take over attempt.
Man, imagine if DnD was still being produced by a company of gamers? That would be awesome!
Fight off Hasbro's takeover attempt? It wasn't a takeover attempt, or anything to fight off. WotC was sold perfectly willingly. There was nothing to fight off.
Shh, cant hear you....dreaming about the perfect gamer company.
GMforPowergamers
Legend
see, I disagree Hasbro has done nothing but improve the set up in my mind...
Similar Threads
- Locked
