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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rasyr" data-source="post: 1949172" data-attributes="member: 2855">Well, I would not say overwhelming.... <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" /> While it is likely that a new gamer will get a WOtC PHB, it is not a sure thing. That is what I was trying to point out.Yes, RPGs are luxury items, and gamers do have a reputation for being somewhat stingy. <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" />Not the way I see it. WotC could just as easily do the same thing via pricing to garner in those players and get them to upgrade. Too many will do it without thinking twice. Many others will no doubt complain and hem and haw for a little while and then upgrade. It will be relatively small minority of D&D players who do not upgrade. At least that is my opinion of it.Somebody mentioned that the first run of 3.0 PHBs was about half a million copies. Most third party publishers do runs of 10k or less. This basically places them back in the same boat as any publisher who has not gone the way of d20.IF, and I repeat, IF 4.0 is not OGL, guess what is going to happen? the d20 logo will be applied to 4.0 and all those third party products carrying the logo will have their d20 STL pulled, and be required to destroy those products (the destruction option is up to WotC, not the individual publisher). That alone will seriously hurt, if not outright kill, many d20 companies. Shoot, this is what happened with the move from 3.0 to 3.5, and 3.5 was released as OGL. Too many companies could not afford to update everything and ended up going down.Yes, this is all speculation on my part, but it is also something that I do think will happen if 4.0 is not released via OGL.....And as to your comment about competition between rpg companies being a myth, sorry but I have to agree with Pramas on that one. WotC already has a long history of  moving release dates for card games and CCG expansions to the detriment of competitors. And I think that same mentality was part of the reason why 3.5 came out 2 years before originally scheduled. Think about it for a sec. Malhavoc  announces its alternative PHB (the first such to be announced) and what happens? Shortly afterward 3.5 is announced. Malhavoc is told there are no issues about using the name Arcana Unearthed, and shortly afterwards Unearthed Arcana is announced (the gap between the two long enough for UA to actually be written). Valterra announces his controversial book, and boom! the d20 license gets changed before he can publish.The point is that some of WotC's actions do appear to be based upon the actions of its competitors. Thus while WotC may be in a class all by itself (through sheer volume), it does consider other companies competitors.  I'd almost be willing to bet that even though Dancey pointed out to people that yes, they could print the entire SRD, that it was doubted that anybody would ever do it. He has already said that the sheer number of people publishing via the OGL and d20 STL surprised the heck out of them, that the number was greater, by an order of magnitude, than was originally projected.That last bit (order of magnitude) is enough to think that the OGL is adversely affecting WotC's bottom line, and I know for a fact that Hasbro, WotC's parent, cares very very deeply about that bottom line. I had a friend who worked sales at WotC. He was given the very worst sales area. He made large increases in the sales in his area, much greater than previous salesmen who had that area, and you know what happened to him? He lost his job because he did not meet the sales quota, which was the same for every area. His sales increased every month, and were always higher than the sales for that area before it was assigned to him, and yet he still lost his job. Bottom Line. That is what it all boils down to.Does the OGL hurt WotC's bottom line? Yes, it does. This may only be a tiny drop in the bucket to them, but it still affects the bottom line.</blockquote>

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