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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheFindus" data-source="post: 7647778" data-attributes="member: 75791">I have always found it hard to understand why on earth WotC designed the OGL. As I have said upthread, legally it would have been easy to design something with almost the same marketing and networking effect but with more control over the use of the IP. But I think I finally have the reason why something so obviously damaging to a company's development of future editions was designed anyways.You said it right here: It was the sense that the game rules are not valuable. But, Mr. Dancey, they are. The 3e game rules are valuable, because they form the basis of the game people want or do not want to play. The DnD brand by itself did nothing to stop players from moving away from 4E, because these players did not like the rules of that 4E game. This is not a marketing issue. It is a matter play style.RPGers are really fond of what they consider "their" game. And the rules of the game make that game.  And since Paizo can legally keep producing 3e, there is a never ending supply for just that 3e game. Whereas buying 1st and 2nd edition material on Ebay falls into the category of going to an antique book store without much current support. This makes it so much harder for just the brand "DnD" to reach out to those who now have a valid alternative. So, with that possible alternative version of the game, when was WotC going to change to a new version? When most people are fed up with the old version? When everything has been said in 3e? When players do not want to play high level campaigns in 3e anymore? What kind of percentage of unsatisfied players has to be reached in order to make a change viable? 51%? 70%?After all, you do not want to loose too many players. And you want to reach out to new players, too, for which the old rules might not be enough. I guess these questions are hard to answer in general. And these decisions are on top of the actual designing process of the new version itself.With the OGL in place, it makes these decisions almost impossible to make. The competition, however, empowered by the OGL, can just lean back and observe and then decide what they are going to do. Especially if they, like Paizo, have been empowered by WotC to publish their flagship magazines for years as well. That's some network-building-opportunity for Paizo right there. But what a mess for WotC!</blockquote>

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