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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wasgo" data-source="post: 1490129" data-attributes="member: 18170">Right, meant GNU. And I won't attack your analogue too much because you do admit it's flawed, but keep in mind the majority of Red Hat's money doesn't come from casual users, it comes from business users. It's primarily an enterprise platform. Compare that to Mandrake which targeted casual users and they nearly went bankrupt twice. They had to beg for money online. Users buying from Red Hat aren't buying the software or the source code; in most cases they're buying the tech support.I think a lot of my concern on this project is the nature of Unearthed  Arcana itself. In the case of most books, production value is vital. But since AU is full of all sorts of things that can be taken in pieces, this is more of an issue. Since no one group will use all the rules (or even most of them), printing off what they need beceomes more convient. And out of all the projects to hurt, this is WotC's first major OGC product. Considering they don't have to acknowledge the OGL at all, it's a solid step in the right direction and I personally wouldn't want to discourage it.Quick point, there's a big differnce between the SRD and standard content. In terms of the core books, WotC is simply what most gamers will purchase. Even if there was an alternative Player's Handbook, with just as good production values and $10 cheaper, most with go with the original; they buy the brand name. On the other hand, take something like Green Ronin's Shaman's Handbook. The entire book was OGC and when it came out, someone republishing it would almost certainly hurt their sales. In the same vein, people don't need UA. It's a variant rules book, and if they could just download the rules they want online, there would be very little incentive to buy it. There isn't that same must own feeling the core books have.Also, I personally think it's not exactly the nicest thing to do to put any of the PDF'd files into republished form. If they can still be bought, that still takes away (even just a little) income from the publisher. On the other hand, books that went into print, I think eventually putting their OGC online after they are no longer in print is a good thing. It's nice that this material might not fade into obscurity the way past editions did.</blockquote>

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