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<blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 5700294" data-attributes="member: 14159"><p>The survivability of D&D 3.5, as preserved in the OGL and SRD's (and in the same breath, d20 Modern for the same reasons) is independent of any single website, company, or person.</p><p></p><p>Thanks to the Open Gaming License, it can be put up by any person, any time, any place, legally.</p><p></p><p>If I wanted to, I could buy a domain and host all the SRD's for download, even put up a nice and user-friendly HTML version. If I wanted to make my own Player's Handbook for a game which was virtually identical to D&D 3.0, 3.5 or d20 Modern, but with the trademark omitted, legally nobody can stop me. WotC can't unring the bell or put the genie back in the bottle.</p><p></p><p>If WotC tomorrow decided to suddenly switch to a new, incompatible D&D 5e, ended all support for 4e on DDI, took the books out of print, and aggressively enforced their trademarks and copyrights with regards to web material, they could be quite effective at reducing the prevalence of 4e.</p><p></p><p>WotC essentially did that with 3.5, and years later it thrives and flourishes, and is apparently the largest single competitor to 4e. All future editions of D&D will have to compete against this nigh-immortal version in the marketplace, and that immortal has the advantage of being free.</p><p></p><p>Will it be around in a few centuries, who the heck knows, but I feel very confident in saying that D&D 3.x will be in circulation long, long after 4e and other "closed" editions of D&D (or virtually any other RPG out there now) have faded to dust. I sincerely believe that only the complete end of the RPG hobby will extinguish it and for that reason a century from now it may be the only RPG from our era still played, if people are still playing what we would recognize as tabletop RPGs.</p><p></p><p>A single copyrighted product can be pulled from the market, I'm talking about the D&D 3.x engine, aka the d20 System, as made open-source through the OGL and SRD's. That is under an open license and cannot be removed from the web.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="wingsandsword, post: 5700294, member: 14159"] The survivability of D&D 3.5, as preserved in the OGL and SRD's (and in the same breath, d20 Modern for the same reasons) is independent of any single website, company, or person. Thanks to the Open Gaming License, it can be put up by any person, any time, any place, legally. If I wanted to, I could buy a domain and host all the SRD's for download, even put up a nice and user-friendly HTML version. If I wanted to make my own Player's Handbook for a game which was virtually identical to D&D 3.0, 3.5 or d20 Modern, but with the trademark omitted, legally nobody can stop me. WotC can't unring the bell or put the genie back in the bottle. If WotC tomorrow decided to suddenly switch to a new, incompatible D&D 5e, ended all support for 4e on DDI, took the books out of print, and aggressively enforced their trademarks and copyrights with regards to web material, they could be quite effective at reducing the prevalence of 4e. WotC essentially did that with 3.5, and years later it thrives and flourishes, and is apparently the largest single competitor to 4e. All future editions of D&D will have to compete against this nigh-immortal version in the marketplace, and that immortal has the advantage of being free. Will it be around in a few centuries, who the heck knows, but I feel very confident in saying that D&D 3.x will be in circulation long, long after 4e and other "closed" editions of D&D (or virtually any other RPG out there now) have faded to dust. I sincerely believe that only the complete end of the RPG hobby will extinguish it and for that reason a century from now it may be the only RPG from our era still played, if people are still playing what we would recognize as tabletop RPGs. A single copyrighted product can be pulled from the market, I'm talking about the D&D 3.x engine, aka the d20 System, as made open-source through the OGL and SRD's. That is under an open license and cannot be removed from the web. [/QUOTE]
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