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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mike Eagling" data-source="post: 7650765" data-attributes="member: 6703609">Some proportion of consumers, true, but without any figures it's nothing more than conjecture. I do agree that it isn't how I buy rule books or other game supplements.Ah, but in the case of Pathfinder the licence surely is the issue. The game is essentially d20 with the serial numbers filed off. Without the OGL Pathfinder would have been less likely to exist if not impossible. As you say, game mechanics are not covered by copyright but the similarities between PF and DnD3x are arguably more than just mechanical.Someone more knowledgable than me can probably confirm or deny this but I was under the impression that the SRD being published online is a consequence of the OGL rather than altruism on the part of Paizo? The RPG equivalent of publishing GPL source code?There does seem to be an opinion that the OGL was a marketing ploy that didn't pan out the way WotC and later Hasbro intended, as far as their profit margin is concerned, and ultimately that is what Hasbro cares about. If they can charge for products and services then they will and its up to us to decide whether or not to pay for them. Luckily, the OGL has made PF and all manner of other systems available and enabled a host of third parties to support them. And that's without the various closed source systems out there that are doing ok for themselves.For my part, I don't play 4e and i'm unlikely to buy into DnDNext, so what Hasbro do with DnD won't really affect me. I think it's unlikely they'll go down the OGL route though. I like the OGL and think its great for the hobby but I'm not sure I'd like it so much if I was a game publisher.</blockquote>

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