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In contrast to the GSL, Ryan Dancey on OGL/D20 in WotC archives
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<blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 4322860" data-attributes="member: 697"><p>No. Publishing products for money doesn't hijack the community. However, turning the community's outputs so that they benefit only a publisher, and indirectly its fans by giving them something to buy, would be hijacking the community.</p><p></p><p>I think that open gaming would be hijacked if people saw the process Paizo is using for Pathfinder as what open gaming is supposed to be. The Pathfinder process is an open playtest in that anyone can simply show up and take part. The goal of the process is to create a product that Paizo will sell for its own direct economic benefit, and for the indirect benefit of publishers that choose to produce Pathfinder-compatible products.</p><p></p><p>There's a reason why you can get Firefox, the various Linux distributions, and other open source programs for free. When you remove economics from the equation, you allow the community to better express its needs and dictate the direction of development. The community picks its needs and goals. The publisher's needs and goals are already set: profit by publishing the rules.</p><p></p><p>There's also an important aspect to open development undermined when you involve a publisher too closely to the process. The relationship between a publisher and participants in the process is unequal. The publisher picks what gets pursued, what gets used, and what the goal is. The publisher is in charge.</p><p></p><p>In a true open environment, the users are in charge. You have people "in charge" in the sense that they organize things, but if they go against the users they aren't in charge for long, or they're left in charge of a project without users.</p><p> </p><p>So, it would be a pity if "open source development" was hijacked to mean "development that allows for free licensing" or "open playtesting", because it sells the concept short.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mearls, post: 4322860, member: 697"] No. Publishing products for money doesn't hijack the community. However, turning the community's outputs so that they benefit only a publisher, and indirectly its fans by giving them something to buy, would be hijacking the community. I think that open gaming would be hijacked if people saw the process Paizo is using for Pathfinder as what open gaming is supposed to be. The Pathfinder process is an open playtest in that anyone can simply show up and take part. The goal of the process is to create a product that Paizo will sell for its own direct economic benefit, and for the indirect benefit of publishers that choose to produce Pathfinder-compatible products. There's a reason why you can get Firefox, the various Linux distributions, and other open source programs for free. When you remove economics from the equation, you allow the community to better express its needs and dictate the direction of development. The community picks its needs and goals. The publisher's needs and goals are already set: profit by publishing the rules. There's also an important aspect to open development undermined when you involve a publisher too closely to the process. The relationship between a publisher and participants in the process is unequal. The publisher picks what gets pursued, what gets used, and what the goal is. The publisher is in charge. In a true open environment, the users are in charge. You have people "in charge" in the sense that they organize things, but if they go against the users they aren't in charge for long, or they're left in charge of a project without users. So, it would be a pity if "open source development" was hijacked to mean "development that allows for free licensing" or "open playtesting", because it sells the concept short. [/QUOTE]
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In contrast to the GSL, Ryan Dancey on OGL/D20 in WotC archives
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