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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alphastream" data-source="post: 7647854" data-attributes="member: 11365">Can you show me the proof? It's a real question. I'm on board with various groups being interested, or regional interest, but I would like to see real numbers.We can find a store to paint any picture. I think <a href="http://www.rpg.net/columns/designers-and-dragons/designers-and-dragons4.phtml" target="_blank">Shannon Appelcline's 2010 estimates</a> are probably a more likely situation. If by candor you mean me being honest about how I feel about an industry I care about greatly, always. I'm not a Wizards guy, though I do work for free for AoA and I have had a few articles published. My main claim should be opinionated loudmouth... Seriously, my questions are honest. I honestly question how much the OGL contributed to 3E, versus how much it cost Wizards in the long run. We can blame them for not jumping in fully, but it isn't clear to me that they should have. They really were in a position where they had to change versions. They had nothing going on at the end of 3E and the edition was about to die. While we all know they didn't do the best job of selling 4E, it still did very well. Was the main issue that they could never turn off the old game because of the OGL? If so, why would they want a new OGL to pin them into never turning off 4E? What is the benefit? Can we give it any rough numbers? If the OGL was all about selling core books, I think it is likely 4E sold more core books than 3E did. Factor in the loss of revenue to Pathfinder and other OGL 3E stuff during the 4E timeframe and it has to be revenue negative. If the OGL was about creating a big industry, we saw as much boom as bust. If as Ryan said the OGL was about making it so everyone played one version of D&D, that didn't work at all - it did the opposite. If it was about creating freelancers... ok, I can buy that one, though DDI is doing that as well. Potentially the OGL can help Wizards focus on one area and get 3PPs to provide others (like adventures), but I think that also creates long-term problems of potentially losing out on design space you would grow to a few years later. I also don't think Wizards wants to shrink in size and work largely through 3PPs beyond core stuff, as seems to have been part of the original plan. Have someone else write Greyhawk, FR, Dark Sun? I think it would hurt in the long run or require costly oversight that would make any overall benefit negligible. I understand the benefits of open source in software (while being aware how it has failed many companies). I'm a big fan of how Eclipse Phase uses open source. Those guys seed their own torrents and sell hackable versions of their awesome game, but it makes sense for them. The same thing would not make sense for Wizards. I similarly don't see how the OGL makes sense long term. I welcome feedback on how it could make sense, particularly any financial insight.</blockquote>

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