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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rasyr" data-source="post: 2643142" data-attributes="member: 2855">But there are some who are disputing it. Right here in this very thread. There is at least one person who has been saying that he thinks SRDs (plural) are part of support for products, support that should be given away for free to the public.Mark, the rest of this post is most definitely not aimed at you. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> It is meant as just a generalized comment on things.A few weeks ago I started a thread where I had stated that the OGL had failed in general. I was derided, laughed at, and argued with over my opinion (no real biggie, I normally have thick skin hehe). Then along comes Merric post something that Charles Ryan stated over on the WotC forums. And you know what? Mr. Ryan's comments actually support my opinion that the OGL has failed in some respects.There were several motivations and goals for the creation of the OGL (and the SRD to go along with it). First of all, it was to allow other companies to produce products that support D&D (not d20, but D&D). Products that WotC did not want to do because they felt that those products would not produce enough of a return to make them worthwhile (i.e. adventures and such).Also, the OGL (in conjunction with the d20STL, which was envisioned and created at the same time) was to allow companies to create and share the mechanics that they came up with to produce a better system overall. And to do all of this with as little direct supervision from WotC as possible.THe OGL was meant to reduce the total number of systems on the market overall, by getting companies to switch over to using d20 (thus ultimately supporting D&D in their eyes).Now these are quite likely not the only reasons, but they are the three that stand out the most. And in the long run they failed, all three of them (to one degree or another). (the bolded portion is important here..)Now, how did they fail, you ask?1) Support of D&D through 3rd party products - When first placed under the OGL, the number of companies that jumped on the bandwagon, or came into existance (and jumping on the bandwagon) was higher than expected, by several orders of magnitude. I can see you sitting there saying that that means it was successful, but sorry, your wrong. Something can fail by not doing well enough, but something can also fail by doing too well, as in this case.So many people jumped into publishing that the market was very quickly flooded with product, the vast majority of which was outright garbage. You had multiple books on just about any topic.  And guess what? Relatively few of them were the adventures that WotC had been hoping for. There were at least a thousand products out for 3.0, and out of those thousand, you had maybe a few dozen adventures. The vast majority of products were of the type that WotC itself was planning on doing. There was also a small number who went in different directions and started experimenting (M&M, Spycraft, etc.)So, out of so many products, very few were doing what WotC wanted them to do. That means that this goal failed.2) Cross-polization of development - This is another failure. Those products that include material from products produced by other companies stand out as the exceptions. They are not the rule. The total number is just a tiny fraction of the total number of d20 products produced and IIRC, none of them are from before 3.5 was released (I could be wrong about this, am just saying that I don't remember any).Thus, this goal also failed overall as well.3) Reduction of the number of systems - Did not happen, plain and simple. While some companies toyed with d20, or did dual-statted material, most of the companies that existed before the OGL never touched it, or kept it completely seperate from their normal system (such as White Wolf did). New systems continued to be released (HARP, Omni Sytem, Dogs in the Vineyard, Meddling Kids, etc.). Revisions of older systems took place (GURPS). Systems that that were thought to be dead came back (WEG's d6 system). Thus this goal also failed.Now of these three goals, the one that WotC is currently addressing is the first one, the support products. WotC is getting back into doing adventures. That alone says that WotC thinks that #1 in my list has failed. Here is Mr. Ryan's quote from the first page again so that you can read it in context with what I have just said.</blockquote>

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