Lord_Blacksteel
Adventurer
HA! Mr Mona...
The OGL had a huge impact - it allowed other companies to legitimately get on the D&D bandwagon for the first time in a long time, letting them sell some of those products while doing their other thing too. Green Ronin did all kinds of interesting things within the OGL (Freeport, M&M) then turned around and updated Warhammer FRP that had nothing to do with the OGL. Look at other non-OGL games that launched (or relaunched) during that time - Savage Worlds, Hollow Earth Expedition, Runequest, Shadowrun 4th, Star Trek (Dechipher), Aces & Eights, Gurps 4th - heck even Rifts got a new main book!
The OGL boom brought a lot of players back, brought in a fair number of new players, started a lot of companies that have done well, and gave a kick in the pants to the entire industry.
The 4th ed changeover is having a similar effect though maybe not as large in some ways. The Retro clone movement has really taken off since 4th was published. Pathfinder is making lots of waves. Kenzer's Hackmaster Basic has promise. Mongoose Traveller seems to be doing well. Hero just went to 6th edition. It's once again a major "point of change" to give it a name and some companies will do really well with it - like Paizo.
I'm not sure that the WOTC size comparisons matter a whole lot - success is the important thing here. What I hope is happening is that Paizo is keeping a segment of the playerbase engaged that otherwise would have left the hobby, while WOTC is bringing in a new crowd who didn't know or care about RPG's before. If that works out then we end up with more players than we would have had otherwise. I know very few people who will only play one game so it should give some hope to everyone, no matter which edition you hate : )
The OGL had a huge impact - it allowed other companies to legitimately get on the D&D bandwagon for the first time in a long time, letting them sell some of those products while doing their other thing too. Green Ronin did all kinds of interesting things within the OGL (Freeport, M&M) then turned around and updated Warhammer FRP that had nothing to do with the OGL. Look at other non-OGL games that launched (or relaunched) during that time - Savage Worlds, Hollow Earth Expedition, Runequest, Shadowrun 4th, Star Trek (Dechipher), Aces & Eights, Gurps 4th - heck even Rifts got a new main book!
The OGL boom brought a lot of players back, brought in a fair number of new players, started a lot of companies that have done well, and gave a kick in the pants to the entire industry.
The 4th ed changeover is having a similar effect though maybe not as large in some ways. The Retro clone movement has really taken off since 4th was published. Pathfinder is making lots of waves. Kenzer's Hackmaster Basic has promise. Mongoose Traveller seems to be doing well. Hero just went to 6th edition. It's once again a major "point of change" to give it a name and some companies will do really well with it - like Paizo.
I'm not sure that the WOTC size comparisons matter a whole lot - success is the important thing here. What I hope is happening is that Paizo is keeping a segment of the playerbase engaged that otherwise would have left the hobby, while WOTC is bringing in a new crowd who didn't know or care about RPG's before. If that works out then we end up with more players than we would have had otherwise. I know very few people who will only play one game so it should give some hope to everyone, no matter which edition you hate : )
