Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 7696319" data-attributes="member: 3285">Wizards of the Coast's famous experiment in open design allowed more game designers to contribute to Dungeons & Dragons than ever before.  But the same freedom to publish compatible games resulted in a glut of products that confused consumers and clogged game store shelves, resulting in the D20 "bubble" bursting. With the arrival of a new open game license from Wizards of the Coast, will history repeat itself?[ATTACH=full]118725[/ATTACH] <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/books-library-education-literature-768426/" target="_blank">Picture courtesy of Pixabay.</a><h3>D&D is About Sharing</h3>Open gaming has its roots in open source coding, spearheaded by Richard Stallman of MIT. In open source coding, code isn't owned by any one company or person but rather a shared platform everyone benefits from.  In return for this openness, coders become familiar enough with the system that they are incentivized to create ancillary products supporting the platform.  The GNU General Public License (GPL) was part of how the Linux operating system came about.Ryan Dancey, vice president of the D&D brand at the time, modeled the Open Game License on the GPL. Dancey elaborated on Stallman's approach in <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/md/md20020228e" target="_blank">The Most Dangerous Column in Gaming</a>:Of course, open gaming was not a new concept for Dungeons & Dragons. It was a key part of the how the game was developed, spearheaded by co-creator Gary Gygax, who knit disparate ideas into a cohesive whole.  In the days before the Internet, fanzines served a similar role in testing ideas with a broader gaming populace. A prime example is <a href="http://www.conchord.org/xeno/aande.html" target="_blank">Alarums & Excursions,</a> which is still in circulation today. Jon Peterson in <a href="http://amzn.to/1X1VWLp" target="_blank">Playing at the World</a> explains how the exchange of ideas worked:In this manner, Alarums' purpose was similar to the goals of the Open Game License (OGL):Thanks to Peterson's scholarship, we now know that Gygax <a href="http://playingattheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-precursor-to-chainmail-fantasy.html" target="_blank">incorporated quite a bit from other contributors</a>:Dancey was convinced that what made D&D great in its early days could be replicated again. He got his chance at the turn of the century with the OGL.<h3>Opening the Gates</h3>Dancey's plan was to strength D&D's dominance in the RPG market by sharing the content with <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/md/md20020228e" target="_blank">as many publishers as possible</a>:From a marketing perspective, it worked. Shannon Appelcline explains in <a href="http://amzn.to/1UHtMXk" target="_blank">Designers & Dragons - The 90s</a>:Dancey believed that, just like the GPL, the OGL would <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/md/md20020228e" target="_blank">make the overall system better</a>:That's not how things turned out.  <a href="http://www.earth1066.com/D20FAQ.htm" target="_blank">Faustus von Goethe explains in the D20FAQ</a>:Mike Mearls, current D&D brand manager, <a href="http://mearls.livejournal.com/151714.html" target="_blank">explains what went wrong</a>:Eventually, the iterative improvement did come about thanks to Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder, as described in <a href="http://amzn.to/1prsYtB" target="_blank">Designers & Dragons - The 00s</a>:Pathfinder's widespread adoption finally fulfilled the promise of an evolved version of the game.  But the road to Pathfinder was littered with the corpses of failed companies.<h3>The Wreckage Left Behind</h3>The promise of the Open Game License <a href="http://www.earth1066.com/D20FAQ.htm" target="_blank">burned bright and fast</a>:Appelcline explains when the first cracks began to appear in the market:WOTC suddenly realized that a model that was supposed to bolster sales of the core D&D brand could also harm it. Wizards also transitioned Dungeons & Dragons from 3.0 to 3.5 with little warning, stranding publishers with product that was suddenly perceived as incompatible with the new system.The industry took a dive.  It was becoming clear that WOTC had lost interest in sharing the brand with the community. It would be some time before the company would release another open gaming license.<h3>The Game System License</h3>With the Fourth Edition of D&D came the Game System License (GSL).  It included language to prevent another Book of Erotic Fantasy as <a href="http://harbinger-of-doom.blogspot.com/2012/02/d-5th-edition-ogl-gsl-srd-ddi-and-so-on.html" target="_blank">Brandes Stoddard explains at Harbinger of Doom</a>:The license was tweaked after its released, but it wasn't enough. Publisher after publisher gave up on the license, in part because the GSL could prevent publishers from using their original OGL material. <a href="http://geek-related.com/2008/06/18/the-gsl-is-finally-released/" target="_blank"> Mxyzplk explains on Geek Related</a>:In short, the GSL went the opposite direction of the OGL, becoming so restrictive that nobody wanted to use it.  So they didn't. But that didn't stop them from publishing compatible content under the OGL. Appelcline again:By most measures the GSL was a failure.  Ironically, it made the OGL even more of a success, fueling the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2891-Is-the-OSR-Dead" target="_blank">Old School Renaissance</a>. It wasn't until this past January when Wizards tried again.<h3>The OGL Returns!</h3>Wizards released a new System Reference Document along with a new Open Game License, which is similar in format to the original OGL. The <a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd" target="_blank">new document</a> includes much (but not all) of the Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. What it doesn't allow is publishing in WOTC's established setting.  For that, WOTC released something new, the <a href="http://www.dmsguild.com/whatisdmsguild.php" target="_blank">Dungeon Master's (DM) Guild</a>:The DMs Guild allows authors to place Dungeons & Dragons-compatible content in the Forgotten Realms and sell it at a 50% royalty via OneBookShelf. What this means is that the DM's Guild channels the creative output that caused the glut the first time, with several important controls:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It's electronic, so there's no danger of clogging physical distribution channels, creating too much inventory, or having a back catalog that doesn't sell.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It's managed by OneBookShelf, the company who owns DriveThruRPG and also manages D&D Classics.  This ensures that there are established content and distribution guidelines -- or to put it another way, the DM's Guild is essentially one giant friendly local game store (FLGS). This includes the ability to be rated by customers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It can be curated by WOTC. The content can be leveraged by WOTC for other products s et in the Forgotten Realms like the Neverwinter MMO and Sword Coast Legends.</li> </ul>This time around, WOTC is using the carrot over the stick.  For those who prefer to simply use the rules without indicating compatibility and using the D&D brand, the OGL is still available.  But for authors who are looking to elevate the visibility of their writing and potentially work for WOTC in the future, the DM's Guild seems like a good compromise.</blockquote>

Verification