D&D 4E Does the OGL/D20 liscense hurt 4e? Should 4e be open?

[Pramas]

It's worth noting that no one has really good data on game industry sales. The comic industry has Diamond and they have such a monopoly on sales that their lists are a pretty accurate indication of what's going on in that field. The game industry has Comics and Games Retailer and ICV2. Comics and Games Retailer collects reports from retailers each month and they make some lists based on that data. The trouble is that it comes from a self-selecting pool of retailers and their info may or may not be indicative of what's going across the lion's share of stores. ICV2 puts together lists quarterly and they talk to distributors and others to find out general trends. It's hard to say how accurate their information is. That's why throwing around any of this data as proof of anything is a dodgy proposition.

 

[Ranger REG]

I could care less if 4e is OGL. Heck, I could care less about the OGL. Has it brought some good products like Mutants & Masterminds, sure. But I hate when I see threads about an OGL or D20 system book and fans are complaining about the lack of OGC in the book etc. If you are a gamer what the heck does it matter if a book has OGC? Can you use it? Back when the D20STL was new I knew people who were OGC snobs... they weren't publishers etc. JUst fans. So basically, at this point who CARES if 4e is OGL? The OGL's time is essentially over, the D20 license time is essentially over. It was much like Image comics, right time, right place but now that time and place are in the past.

I doubt OGL will go away anytime soon. The existing SRDs depends on the OGL. There are still potential to use and modify the SRDs without having to add 4e material to it (and designate new 4e material as OGC).

If that means WotC takes one path, and third-party companies take a different path, so be it.

I agree with some of the others that the d20 System Trademark [Use] License is nearing the end of its life. Sadly, it's not a big brand to customers as D&D.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I remember when Arbitron (or maybe it was SoundScan -- it's been more than a few years) switched from voluntary reports of what sold to tracking what retailers sold via barcode scans. It was like an earthquake hit the entertainment industry, since it became pretty clear that the self-selected stuff was highly skewed, to put it mildly.