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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 2771286" data-attributes="member: 2067">This is the entire concept of the OGC put into practice. An OGCWiki is not only a good idea, the concept of Open Gaming was *invented* for such a thing. The idea that only some elite cabal of the published and writing can have a say leaves a bad taste in my mouth. OGC was made, largely, as a benefit to the consumers -- so that we wouldn't have to have seven different systems for psionics and thirteen different ways to to ley line magic and twenty-and-a-half mass combat systems and a half-dozen airship design systems. Thus, it means the best of the best floats to the surface and is supported by democratic means. The best system for X will get support.The publishing community has thus far stauchly resisted any attempt to actually use it that way. In part, this is modeled on WotC, who do their own things while only giving occasional nods to the OGC. So rather than use any source but the SRD for their game design, most companies think they can do it better, while mentioning the boogeyman of "devaluing" lurking in the closet. The first is an issue of pride, while the second is an issue of fear. Free material is in no way devalued, despite mentions to the contrary. The mechanics might be free, but the way it's presented -- the book, the binding, the art, the setting, the imagination and use of these things is not. People don't pay for water, they pay for water bottled up and presented in dynamic designs with promise of French moutain springs in them. The gaming community is stuck paying for mechanics when they should be paying for setting, for flavor, for fluff. IMHO, it's really a matter of time. We're in transition, right now. People still want to publish like the old companies did, only now with the ability to use d20 mechanics without paying for them. Someday, we'll see the occasion when you can't just publish a collection of feats and PrC's in a pdf and have people pay for them. The industry can fall as people are bloated with rules-glut, or they can change and adapt. Don't sell people rules. Sell people a game. Use the best of the rules others have designed, throw your own in there, dress it up in pretty art with a big pagecount and have the consumer enjoy.Perhaps there's another problem with the simple sample size -- the gaming community isn't that big, after all. The industry needs to buck this trend of following in WotC's footsteps and embrace everything it can do -- which includes getting rules material for free.</blockquote>

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