NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnRTroy" data-source="post: 4041782" data-attributes="member: 2732">But this can and does happen all the time.  And the reason why I use bands is that a lot of the people who like "free/open" source use the argument that the big record companies are exploiting the talent, which is why I used that analogy.   And people sue whether NDAs or EULAs, etc, are reasonable.  Negotiation and lawsuits are part of it all.   That's truly the way the system works.And Wizards isn't even doing that!  They are using their legal means to change their own game system (which they never abandoned the copyright to) and not use a bad contract.Fans of the OGL keep saying that was the intent, but it was pretty clear that nobody expected dozens of people to create free alternatives to the for pay rules.  Basically, regardless of the OGL, my own ethics as a writer tell me that if I take somebody's hard work and just copy items for free, I am doing something wrong.  I don't like to steal people's hard work.  (And I'm not talking about people making supplementary products, but rather the "cut-and-paste" everything into an on-line document types).There is a small cult-philosophy that declares the OGL was designed for people to take whatever the want, give back to the community, etc.  In point of fact, it is simply a license graciously given to us by WoTC, which I think some have exploited a bit.WoTC has only a vested interest in keeping people buying their products.  The d20 gamespace are not all D&D buyers.  Just because there's a common set of certain rules doesn't mean they are all compatible.  The gaming market has existed before d20 ever came into play, RPGs have had competition since the late 1970s.  Nobody really complained about conversions.  I'm sure WoTC has done their own market research and determined what's best for them.  Has anybody really gotten any hard-fast numbers on whether or not the existence of the d20 license and the OGL has significantly increased the players in the RPG market.  I'd love to see a statistical breakdown and polls to determine this.The OGL had a few negative impacts on their own bottom line.  (1) It encouraged freelancers to form their own companies instead of working for Wizards, which I think hurt them somewhat--as a consumer I love what some of them worked on though!  (2) It allowed for free alternatives, especially with the SRD.  Personally, I wish people would prove them (and me) wrong!  Keep using the d20 ruleset based on 3e.  That's the way to prove that Wizards is wrong.  Support Spycraft, Acrana Evolved, M&M, and the other games and keep playing the existing 3rd Edition.  If enough of you really care, Wizards will feel it.But so many people still want to suck from the D&D teat that they feel they must upgrade to 4e.  Nobody has to do it.</blockquote>

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