A Quote from Robin Laws

[GoodKingJayIII]

The D20 companies that everyone expected to die have finally suffered their extinction event--just in time for the 4th ed. OGL! Let's hope the commons are a little less tragic this next go round.

So if the extinction event was not the announcement of 4th ed, may I ask what Robin is referring to? Or maybe I'm just misreading what he's written? Thanks for any insight on this.

 

[scourger]

Can you provide a link?

 

[Frostmarrow]

Can you provide a link?

Laws

I don't get it either. Is 4ed a saviour for the d20-companies?

 

[Glyfair]

I don't get it either. Is 4ed a saviour for the d20-companies?

This is what I think this is based on.

As many publishers have pointed out, the d20 license is perceived now as an albatross. Most consumers connect it with a lack of quality and avoid products with that logo. That is why Paizo is publishing OGL and not d20, for example.

Now that most of those poor quality publishers have disappeared in the print market. Hopefully now that 4E is here the "4E d20" logo will have the intended effect of drawing D&D players to the product, instead of chasing them away.

Sure, the PDF market is still the Wild West. However, I don't think that they really trade on the d20 logo. Differentiating the quality publishers there is much more difficult.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sure, the PDF market is still the Wild West. However, I don't think that they really trade on the d20 logo. Differentiating the quality publishers there is much more difficult.

It's not hard to find out which publishers (and creators) have the best reputations, though, especially as many of them also publish in the hard copy world. Ari's a known quantity, for instance, whether you're getting a PDF of his work or a book.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

It's not hard to find out which publishers (and creators) have the best reputations, though, especially as many of them also publish in the hard copy world. Ari's a known quantity, for instance, whether you're getting a PDF of his work or a book.

If you can trust a vampiric mouse...
(Joking, just in case someone needs to be told.)

The Auld Grump

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Cool Gly, thanks for that insight. Makes more sense now.

 

[SiderisAnon]

The D20 companies that everyone expected to die have finally suffered their extinction event--just in time for the 4th ed. OGL! Let's hope the commons are a little less tragic this next go round.

My interpretation of this is that Robin Laws is talking about the number of d20 publishers present in the "Commons". Sound less like he's talking about publishers and more talking about publishers not showing up to GenCon. I know of several publishers have said they weren't going to be at GenCon this year, so perhaps it was a more industry-wide thing.

My opinion anyway.

 

[SteveC]

If I may: I think Robin is talking about the Tragedy of the Commons, by old Mr. Malthus. Take a look at this link to see what I mean.

This argument is trotted out a lot to deal with issues of open access to limited resources, and I usually don't agree with it's application (but as to why, that's an issue that borders on politics, so let's not go there).

In this case, I think it is spot on as the article I linked to says:

...benefits of exploitation accrue to individuals or groups, each of whom is motivated to maximize use of the resource, while the costs of the exploitation are distributed among all those to whom the resource is available.

That Robin Laws is one smart cookie...hopefully a cookie that will be involved with 4E in some capacity.

--Steve

 

[Glyfair]

That Robin Laws is one smart cookie...hopefully a cookie that will be involved with 4E in some capacity.

I agree with that. His blog is on my regular rotation. I don't always agree with his game design comments, but his reasoning is always interesting.