Gygax's views on OGL

[Dogbrain]

Well, we will never really know, but Gygax himself thought the best way for AD&D to go forward after 2nd edition was by rereleasing 1st edition, since it had the best rules.

Hmmm... I wonder what would have happened then. Maybe it would have been as successful as 3e, with the same kind of marketing muscle behind it. Hard to tell.

You mean, just like Disney has been such an INCREDIBLE FINANCIAL SUCCESS in recent years from releasing tired old rehash after tired old rehash? (That's sarcasm based on Disney's recent financial floundering from having released tired old rehash after tired old rehash.)

You can't run a product like D&D only on nostalgia, you can only run it into the ground.

 

[Maggan]

1 lost customer at least

You mean, just like Disney has been such an INCREDIBLE FINANCIAL SUCCESS in recent years from releasing tired old rehash after tired old rehash? (That's sarcasm based on Disney's recent financial floundering from having released tired old rehash after tired old rehash.)

You can't run a product like D&D only on nostalgia, you can only run it into the ground.

Yeah, that's a more than likely outcome, I think. They would have lost me as a customer at least if they had gone with rereleasing AD&D 1st.

Rereleasing D&D Rules Cyclopedia though, that would have hooked me! But hey, 3e hooked me real good as well.

Cheers!

Maggan

 

[RFisher]

By the time Apple did try to allow clones, the battle was already decided because Microsoft finaly came out with a viable alternative. Had Apple allowed cloning before Windows 95, they may well have won. It's a moot point now.

Plus, when Apple did allow clones, it was really only the appearance of clones. Apple still bore all the R&D costs & tried to control the clone makers too much. That has to be one of the greatest blunders in the history of business.

Apple's failings on the OS front can't be forgotten either. While they were staying on the forefront on the upper levels, they were neglecting core OS features. (The excuses don't matter.) With Win95 Microsoft had the most important core OS features and decent backwards compatibility and some good UI ideas stolen from NeXT. They also a more solid OS in WinNT with less backwards compatibility. Apple may have had them solidly beat on the details & the upper layers, but they couldn't compete without the crucial low level features.

The weird thing is that the original name, Dangerous Dimensions, was the one TSR had a problem with. TSR dropped the suit when they changed the name to Dangerous Journies, but GDW still canned it.

TSR didn't drop the suit. See What was the result of the GDW/TSR lawsuit? They eventually bought DJ. (In fact, you can now buy a PDF of it from the same sources that sell PDFs of classic TSR products!)

 

[woodelf]

Really? I'm sure there are people playing Mutants & Masterminds, Farscape, Babylon 5, or whatever, who wouldn't have ever picked up a D&D book.

And, who says those people are picking up D&D books now? Is there any evidence that anybody (much less significant numbers of anybodies) picked up a non-D&D D20 System book, especially a licensed property, who had never before played D&D, and subsequently got into D&D? It seems dubious, at best, to me: if they'd wanted to play D&D before, it'd've been plenty easy to find the books, and plenty easy to find other players.

Secondly, it's not clear whether Gygax was speaking of the well-being of D&D or of RPGs in general. If the latter, it is unlikely that anybody who bought B5 D20 or Farscape D20 because of teh license tie-in wouldn't have done so if they hadn't been D20 System. In fact, there were probably a few sales lost to otherwise-non-gamers who weren't interested in also buying a D&D PH to play a game in the universe they love (and, being novice gamers, didn't realize that they could get around that "requirement").

Finally, if you simply mean that it's good that the people playing B5 or Farscape happen to be doing so using D20 System, whether or not they will ever cross over into other D20 System games (like D&D), i'd say that's dubious: if someone really is an isolated customer in the market (only interested in Star Wars, or B5, or Stargate, or whatever), then the fact that the game shares a system some other games is unlikely to make any difference, one way or the other.

 

[woodelf]

The bookstore near me has three roleplaying shelves - 1.3 shelves are WOTC, 1 shelf is OGL support material and the remaining .7 of a shelf has everything else. OGL is not a dungeon masters aid it is a publishing strategy.

Wow! They must have bunches of copies of the WotC stuff, or you're talking small shelves--WotC hasn't produced more than a few dozen books since the advent of D&D3E, have they? Oh, wait, do you mean literally "shelves", not "shelving units"?

 

[Emiricol]

I love the OGL. I love not having to read someone's attempt to reinvent the wheel every time I pick up a new game. I love the ability to publish something if I want to, whether it is good or not. In this day of the Internet, anyone who buys a product that sucks can pat themselves on the back - they shoulda done their homework better (as I should have before buying Strongholds & Dynasties, but hey).

People can say the OGL games out there would have been done anyway, but they wouldn't have. They'd be something else. The market decides what's best. For every single OGL product out there, I can point to a non-OGL competing product. The argument is specious.

Gygax, while I respect the man tremendously and can't say enough how grateful I am for the creation of D&D, failed to run a company well. He didn't kill TSR, but it sure didn't evolve and had a horrible reputation well before he lost control of his own company. He doesn't have to create OGL content, and I hope he has the conviction of his words to avoid doing so. Meanwhile, most of what I buy will continue to be OGL and D20 products.

 

[Ranger REG]

What, like Mutants & Masterminds? A big hit, by all accounts, and swiftly becoming the default for superhero games?

Sorry, that slipped from my mind by the time of my posting.

But do keep in mind, MnM do not follow the same distinguished format as D&D and many d20-labeled products. Of course, that doesn't mean it is a failure. It is a big hit that is now undergoing second printing.

 

[Ranger REG]

My perfect world would be with JUST Peter Adkison at the head of WOTC.

I dunno. AFAIC, he willfully resigned from that position and left the company behind with a trunkload of Hasbro cash and a smile on his face. I'd probably see him in a better light if he had at least filed a lawsuit against Hasbro for wrongful termination, at least gesture-wise.

Brutal opinion: it's a trend to build a company up in value then sell it to a larger corporation.

 

[woodelf]

Q5) You have mentioned on numerous occasions that WoTC is not taking its responsibility to the industry when it comes to widening the appeal of the RPG game genre and bringing in new gamers. Does the presence of the OGL at all assist WoTC in making steps towards this goal?

No. All the OGL does is to allow virtually any sort of design to utilize D&D game material. The result might develop products that appeal to existing game enthusiasts, but it does virtually nothing in regards to bringing in new players.
[/quote

Here i agree with him 100%: WotC, and then Hasbro, has done the entire RPG community/hobby/industry a disservice by being more exclusive and self-centered than TSR ever was. But the WotC OGL has almost nothing to do with this, and the D20STL only slightly more. Both of them could exist as they do today and WotC could simultaneously be doing a lot more to grow the hobby and keep it healthy.

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, woodelf, we'll see if the upcoming D&D Basic Set will bring in new players by itself ... even though the best way to get into D&D and into the RPG hobby is to find a group in your area willing to take in new blood and teach them.