Has 3rd Party Material Helped (!!!) WotC ?

[Yeoman]

The games I've been in (and ran) recently have been wizards only. I bought some 3rd party books here and there (mostly mongoose, ffg, and malhavoc) but neither myself nor the groups that I've been with have been real keen on them. The only 3rd party book I've been impressed with recently was Arcana Evolved, that one has had my group mining it for some things. Also myself and the people in the 2 groups I have been in recently must be the only people out there who don't like green ronin books.

 

[Mokona]

I want good looking art in color. Most 3rd party books use black and white art or sketches.

 

[Henry]

I swear that looking back five years ago, Ryan Dancey's proselytizing the OGL to the other Wizards execs was as if he knew the company would begin imploding one year later, and all those top-notch designers would need work in the industry, or something. But it's completely unproven, unsubstantiated, and untrue.

As it is, it's helped WotC, it's helped the consumers, and a few top-notch designers aren't doing too poorly off of it, either.

 

[Diremede]

I agree with the OP. While in my personal campaign, with my weekly regulars I use a myriad of materials from both WoTC and 3rd party products, when I play at a game day or play in other games the material is usually limited to the core books, just to keep it simple. Pretty much every player has the PHB and the DMG. While WoTC does have its "complete" series, there are some rules in the complete series that I don't like, and some of the new base classes and prestige classes that I don't like and will not allow in my campaign.

As for 3rd party materials, it really just depends on what it is. I use the following for my campaign Tome of Horrors, Tome of Horrors II, Poisoncraft by Blue Devil Games, some monsters out of the Creature Collection, and some concepts and ideas out of other materials that I have fit into my campaign world.