Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="SiderisAnon" data-source="post: 5770046" data-attributes="member: 44949">From a purely corporate perspective, OGL leads to brand dilution and loss of profits as the limited gamer budget goes to other companies.&nbsp; As a gamer, I loved the variety of products that came out for 3.5 using the OGL.&nbsp; As a business owner, I look at some of the absolute garbage that was published and the number of different companies publishing cheap versions of the PHB and I cringe.I just do not see Hasbro ever allowing another OGL version of the game.&nbsp; Ever.&nbsp; Not as long as they're still publishing D&amp;D.&nbsp; I believe we will only ever see OGL again if Hasbro decides to basically give up on publishing new D&amp;D material and someone convinces the suits to free the game into the wild before closing the doors.Ultimately it does not matter in the slightest about how &quot;popular&quot; or &quot;well received&quot; D&amp;D is from a purely &quot;good feeling&quot; perspective.&nbsp; Not to the corporation.&nbsp; They only care about the amount of money the line makes.&nbsp; If it means more profit for the corporation, they're going to go with 100% of a smaller pie rather than a partial share of a bigger pie, unless someone with an MBA can convince them that the partial share is highly likely to mean more ultimate dollars.&nbsp; To me this doesn't seem probable because, especially in this economy, companies are risk adverse.&nbsp; This is particularly true in a situation like this, where the people who are making the decision will look bad if they take a risk and lose, but whose jobs are not on the line if they play it safe.To be clear:&nbsp; Yes, a game being &quot;popular&quot; can well mean that it sells more copies.&nbsp; That's part of what marketing does.&nbsp; Generating games and people playing the game does lead to more sales of books.&nbsp; However, there's a huge difference between creating buzz and popularity and the massive leap to making the gamers and 3rd party gaming industry love Hasbro because they went OGL.&nbsp; When I say &quot;popular&quot; and &quot;well received&quot;, I am referring to the buzz on the internet and the feelings of the diehard and vocal minority.&nbsp; Ultimately, the only &quot;popularity&quot; that matters to the corporation is the one that has dollar signs attached.If you don't think there's a difference, take a look at the message boards for any popular MMO sometime.&nbsp; You will find a hue and cry of how the game is failing, how all these things being done are horrible and game destroying, and how they're all cancelling their subscriptions.&nbsp; Yet the dollar amounts seen by the companies don't reflect this.&nbsp; Things don't have to be &quot;popular&quot; or &quot;well received&quot; to put money in the bank, especially since a vast majority of your customers will never even see the &quot;unpopular&quot; shouting and couldn't care less.That said, I do expect there to be licenses for third party companies to produce products for D&amp;D.&nbsp; WoTC has never kept up on certain products; they need someone to product things like modules and corner-case splat books.&nbsp; I just hope it's done a little more smoothly than what happened with 4th Edition.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="SiderisAnon, post: 5770046, member: 44949"] From a purely corporate perspective, OGL leads to brand dilution and loss of profits as the limited gamer budget goes to other companies. As a gamer, I loved the variety of products that came out for 3.5 using the OGL. As a business owner, I look at some of the absolute garbage that was published and the number of different companies publishing cheap versions of the PHB and I cringe. I just do not see Hasbro ever allowing another OGL version of the game. Ever. Not as long as they're still publishing D&D. I believe we will only ever see OGL again if Hasbro decides to basically give up on publishing new D&D material and someone convinces the suits to free the game into the wild before closing the doors. Ultimately it does not matter in the slightest about how "popular" or "well received" D&D is from a purely "good feeling" perspective. Not to the corporation. They only care about the amount of money the line makes. If it means more profit for the corporation, they're going to go with 100% of a smaller pie rather than a partial share of a bigger pie, unless someone with an MBA can convince them that the partial share is highly likely to mean more ultimate dollars. To me this doesn't seem probable because, especially in this economy, companies are risk adverse. This is particularly true in a situation like this, where the people who are making the decision will look bad if they take a risk and lose, but whose jobs are not on the line if they play it safe. To be clear: Yes, a game being "popular" can well mean that it sells more copies. That's part of what marketing does. Generating games and people playing the game does lead to more sales of books. However, there's a huge difference between creating buzz and popularity and the massive leap to making the gamers and 3rd party gaming industry love Hasbro because they went OGL. When I say "popular" and "well received", I am referring to the buzz on the internet and the feelings of the diehard and vocal minority. Ultimately, the only "popularity" that matters to the corporation is the one that has dollar signs attached. If you don't think there's a difference, take a look at the message boards for any popular MMO sometime. You will find a hue and cry of how the game is failing, how all these things being done are horrible and game destroying, and how they're all cancelling their subscriptions. Yet the dollar amounts seen by the companies don't reflect this. Things don't have to be "popular" or "well received" to put money in the bank, especially since a vast majority of your customers will never even see the "unpopular" shouting and couldn't care less. That said, I do expect there to be licenses for third party companies to produce products for D&D. WoTC has never kept up on certain products; they need someone to product things like modules and corner-case splat books. I just hope it's done a little more smoothly than what happened with 4th Edition. [/QUOTE]

Verification