Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 4409818" data-attributes="member: 59506">Whether or not they understand it, or are aware of the 3PP market, it affects the industry nonetheless.  In the 90's, before WoTC bought TSR, the gaming industry in general was in danger of collapsing.  There were a lot of good games out there, but for the market, it ended up being too many games.  Everyone had there own system along with there settings and campaign worlds.  If you wanted to play Rifts, you had to use Palladium rules; if you wanted to play Vampire, you had to use White Wolf rules; if you wanted to play Shadowrun, you had to use Shadowrun rules, if you wanted to play Star Wars, you had to use West End Games D6 rules.  There was just too many games out there and a lot of game companies and really good games disappeared.  When WoTC made the OGL, suddenly, these small game companies could get in on the market with products that WoTC wasn't going to make anyway.  If you loved a campaign setting that another game had, you didn't have to go buy there system rule books in order to play it, odds were they had a D20 version.  There is no doubt that the OGL saved the RPG industry.  However, the GSL seems to be doing the opposite, causing the industry to break apart again.  History has shown that the industry can't survive that way, and whether people understand or not, it will affect WoTC.  Nothing happens in a vaccuum.  Damage to the Industry is Damage to WoTC. Fortunately, even if the RPG market goes the way of the Dodo, and WoTC becomes just a memory, the OGL will still be there, and I'm sure, on the internet (along with other open systems) in infinate permutations, for as long as people are interested in role playing.</blockquote>

Verification