That's one thing I love about capitalism, is that you don't have to just go along with the masses. When I say, 'we have to do it together!' I'm urging everyone who's skittish about paying high prices for questionable content to resist the temptation to buy things on impulse or because of habit. : ] To each their own, and there's more choices of what to own than in the entire history of the world.
It's not a perfect system, but it sure has it's advantages.
Also, in response to the arguement that companies will go out of business if we don't buy from them, I say good. When people lose their jobs and companies go under, it's a simple correction of an inefficient situation, unless the companie dies in an unfair way or is somehow cheated out of its marketshare. I'm not saying it's a good thing that people see their companies die, and their jobs evaporate! Far from it! But it's better for everyone if the inefficient, lower-quality business fail while the good ones succeed. Remember, this isn't a living thing here, it's just a business, the employees of which can find other things to do.
Let's face it, game companies are feather merchants. The big secret is, gamers don't need game companies. All we need to play are some dice, some paper, and a few pencils. All the rules, all the technical aspects, even the game worlds and modules are just a convenience to let us play more easily.
Don't let the OGL fool you. Freely available roleplaying systems, hell, freely available games of all kinds, have been around for years. Like James F. Dunnigan wrote in a book about wargames a couple decades ago, I refuse to call them 'ameteur' because a lot of them are really good. I've played a few free systems, and I'm always impressed by what people will turn out 'just for fun'.
-S
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