Gygax's views on OGL

[FireLance]

About bringing in new players.

I can see how a single consistent rule system such as d20 would help to bring new players into the hobby. A new player may not be interested in role-playing games as such, but he might be interested in the setting of a specific novel, TV series or movie, e.g. Middle Earth, the Star Wars universe, Pokemon, Harry Potter, etc, or he may be interested in a particular genre such as espionage, action, horror, anime, etc.

And let's face it, getting people into the hobby is still mostly done by an experienced player or DM teaching a new player the basics. No matter how interested a person is a particular setting or genre, it is not likely that he will go to the local game store, pick up an RPG based around that, and start playing.

The d20 system has two advantages in this respect. First, because there are so many publishers out there, there is a good chance (barring licensing issues) that there is a product that caters to the new gamer's area of interest. Second, because of the consistent system, the learning curve for the experienced player is less steep. He doesn't have to master a new system to run a game that would interest the new player.

 

[Staffan]

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.

From what I understand, the timeline goes something like this:
1. Peter Adkison starts WOTC, mainly to publish a "capsystem" called The Primal Order (a metasystem for playing gods in various RPGs).
2. Various people helping out get a part of their pay as WOTC stock rather than cash.
3. The whole Magic the Gathering thing. Again, many of the involved people are paid in stock.
4. WOTC takes off like a rocket.
5. Years pass. WOTC buy and then sell off various RPGs (like Ars Magica and SLA). Pokemon craze makes WOTC even more filthy rich. They buy D&D.
6. Stockholders tell Peter "Hey, we're sitting on this stock that's nominally worth quite a lot, but since WOTC isn't publically traded we can't sell them on the stock exchange. So, either you start paying out significant dividends, introduce the stock on the stock exchange, or figure out some other way we can actually get some money out of this stock."
7. The solution hit on is to sell the company to Hasbro. Stockholders get rich. Peter stays on as boss of WOTC, but below the top brass at Hasbro.
8. Hasbro sells Hasbro Digital to Infogrames. As part of the sale, Infogrames gets the digital rights to all Hasbro games - including D&D.
9. Peter Adkison gets angry about it, and resigns. As part of his resignation, he gets right to first dibs on anything formerly WOTC Hasbro decides to sell.

 

[Ranger REG]

So you blame the stockholders?

 

[marketingman]

Chain of command is stockholders to board of directors to CEO. But since the shares had a par value they could have been sold at anytime to either the comapny or other shareholder with a transfer. Major Shareholder could control the Board of directors there by controlling the CEO postion.

You have to remeber that when Hasbro bought WOTC it was for over 300 million two years earlier the entire industry was valued at that number. So Hasbro made WOTC the value of the entire industry.

Do not get me going about stock splits or other valuation. Or I ture into Jopjo tyhe circus MBA..

 

[maddman75]

And that is the Crime to RPG players everywhere that is the d20 system. Nobody makes their own system anymore. People that do are pushed out of the market. Look at 7th Sea. That was a TERRIFIC game, and now it is dead, because they tried to d20ize it, and nobody liked it that way.

Now you only have a choice of buying d20, Gurps, Palladium, or Whitewolf. Those are the only 3 non-d20 systems that you see in stores, and even those are far rarer than d20.

Today there are not enough alternatives to d20. Great systems like Earthdawn, 7th Sea, etc cannot compete with d20, and so, they die. Instead of producing their own systems that might be even better than d20 (and it would not be difficult) they start churning out subpar d20ized versions of stuff.

So in that regard I agree with Gary. Not because I think that WOTC should not be allowed to share its IP. I just don't like the idea that is now basically the only show in Town, unless you want to buy something that is Out of Print or have to buy it online because stores don't sell it!

As a huge fan of Unisystem, I have to strongly disagree with that sentiment. There is certainly a lot more out there than White Wolf, d20, and Palladium.

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, we do not mean to leave Unisystem out of the many rules system that can potentially be multi-genre. It was created out of WitchCraft but now made famous in Buffy and Angel RPGs.

 

[Incenjucar]

My theory is this: When WotC is capable of providing all-good suppliments and satisfying every gamer need without losing money (Something which, to my knowledge, no gaming company has -ever- done), Gary can say they made a bad decision. Until then, OGL is fine with me. I only own two OGL products, but competition has its place.

 

[Ourph]

This whole debate has left me with one burning question in my mind. Maybe someone can answer it for me. It honestly has me stumped.

Most people in the RPG community agree that the proliferation of poor quality, fluff-filled splatbooks (with a few decent bits here and there) during the 2e AD&D era was bad for the hobby, turned a lot of gamers off D&D and TSR and did nothing to bring new players in.

Yet I see people in this thread saying that the proliferation of poor quality, fluff-filled splatbooks (with a few decent ones here and there) from independent RPG publishers is great for the hobby.

What's the difference?

 

[Philip]

This whole debate has left me with one burning question in my mind. Maybe someone can answer it for me. It honestly has me stumped.

Most people in the RPG community agree that the proliferation of poor quality, fluff-filled splatbooks (with a few decent bits here and there) during the 2e AD&D era was bad for the hobby, turned a lot of gamers off D&D and TSR and did nothing to bring new players in.

Yet I see people in this thread saying that the proliferation of poor quality, fluff-filled splatbooks (with a few decent ones here and there) from independent RPG publishers is great for the hobby.

What's the difference?

The proliferation of poor quality, fluff-filled splatbooks is bad when there is no alternative. Once you have bought two bad splatbooks from a company, you probably won't buy anymore. Furthermore, you might blame the IP (D&D sucks) instead of the company (TSR sucks)

The proliferation of the same when there are alternatives is not so bad. You can still get good material another way. Additionally, bad rep is more likely to affect a company than the brand, which is good.

 

[Incenjucar]

Precisely. Now we, as a gaming community, can say "up yours, your material sucks" without outright having our hobby collapse and die.

And heck, we can actually perpetuate 3e even after WotC moves on or is, Elysium forbid, liquidiated.

There's a lot of pre-3e gamers that would LOVE to have that power so they could attempt to keep 2e and 1e and before going.