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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sernett" data-source="post: 1545421" data-attributes="member: 7670">We understand that printing OGL content would be helpful for d20 authors and players who like to post campaign info online, but making the content of the magazines open creates more risk than benefits for the magazines. The magazines don't need to print OGL content like a second party d20 producer because we have a special license from Wizards of the Coast. Thus, our decision about OGL content is based on what it might do for the magazines and what Wizards of the Coast wants. The benefit to the magazines of having open content is that we might pick up a small number of subscriptions or newsstand sales from the folks who refuse to buy the magazine because they like to collect d20 content and post it online for their player's use or because they want to use it in their d20 freelance writing. The risk to the magazine is that someone regularly posts the magaine's contents online shortly after the magazine's release, potentially hurting newstand and subscription sales, and that back issue sales would drop because folks can find the material posted on the web. So we're weighing the potential gain of a few sales against the potential loss of many sales. Good arguments have been made on both sides of the issue, but the end result is that the benefit to the magazines doesn't seem great enough to outweigh our concerns.Also, Wizards of the Coast owns all the content produced in the magazines (with some exceptions made for certain fiction authors), and Wizards of the Coast often takes game elements from the magazines and puts them in its products. I can't speak to why Wizards of the Coast doesn't produce more open content. I suspect they've analyzed the market and make decisions based on that research. But in any event, they see the magazines as resources, a fact that would be diminished if the content has been posted online or picked up in d20 products. Being a valued and respected resource for Wizards of the Coast is important for the magazines' continued success.</blockquote>

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