OGL? SUccess or failure?

[Turjan]

TSR, in it's late days, went from having a very hands off net policy to having a very agressive one. One online representative, one Rob Repp, was notorious for contacting the ISP of anyone hosting any material that could be tied to D&D and did his level best to have them shut down.

Ugh. These were really ugly times. I know that this behaviour led me to completely boycott the P&P game. If you know the computer game 'Baldur's Gate', then you may remember that you had to build your characters there using things like THAC0 and AC. These were on your 'character sheet', and you had to deal with them. I remember a 'cease and desist' when someone on a board that I frequented dared to ask what THAC0 actually means, and he got a one sentence answer to this question. There was actually someone reading this game board and sending out threats per e-mail! Absolutely pathetic!


That's why in my view I (also) see these two effects of the OGL as the most important:

1) Everybody talks about WotC as 'the 800 lb. gorilla', recognizing their position as the dominant company in the RPG market. However, there is nothing comparable to all this T$R vitriol nowadays. You can always point your finger to the SRD and tell "See, this company is giving their game system to the public domain! What do you complain about?" I think that this effect on public relations is worth a lot! It results in a general climate of good will towards the company.

2) The freedom to discuss the d20 game system in the public (public is used here in the somewhat limited sense of the active online P&P gaming community, including d20 publishers) leads to a constant development of the game system with a continually replenished pool of ideas from all sides. Even if a d20/OGL publisher takes these ideas and sells product on this basis, WotC is able to do the same afterwards, given their much higher market presence compared to their competitors. In one way or the other, many good ideas have found their way back to the source during the last years. It's a bit like outsourcing of your research facilities without having to pay a dime. If WotC likes some of the ideas very much, they can even hire the designer .


I'd say these are the main benefits. I'm not sure whether these goals will still be worth the same five years from now. Changes in the distribution sector of RPGs (the death of game stores) might get rid of competitors much more effectively than the whole OGL idea ever imagined. However, I see the OGL at the moment as a full success. For WotC, that is .

 

[wingsandsword]

Turjan has a good point. One of the main benefits of the OGL was restoring good faith in the makers of D&D after the horrible "T$R" era, when lawyers who were asleep when the "Fair Use" provisions of copyright were discussed in Law School alienated their fan base. Much like the message-board story you gave, I recall reading in Knights of the Dinner Table tales they have shared from the production of Shadis, where every time they ever even mentioned AD&D in an article or a product review, they'd get a Cease & Desist to stop mentioning the existence of the game and using the name in articles. Of course, on advice of counsel they ignored those letters, knowing they'd never stand up in court (saying you can't publish a product review because it violates their trademarks to mention their products in a review context? That's a new one).

Now, when the OGL premiered, I heard so many conspiracy theories. People were afraid that WotC would just mine the web for people's homebrew material, republish them, making a fortune off of Joe Gamer's homebrew classes/feats/spells, and the little guy wouldn't get a dime for it. Fears that somehow it was a big conspiracy to steal gamers ideas, or to sue everyday gamers them for not following the technical wording of the license ran rampant in many corners. They never panned out.

The OGL, in the long run, has also ensured the immortality of D&D. Not the name per se, but the current game system and most of its monsters. Even if WotC today cancelled the D&D line, it would be able to survive in one form. Yes, it wouldn't have the name recognition of D&D, but it would still be out there. Yes, WotC or somebody later could try and revoke the OGL, but anybody can try anything in court, that doesn't mean they have a real leg to stand on other than bluster and intimidation (see the SCO/Linux controversy for example).

Given the dark days that RPG's have been through, and the ups and downs, everything that has happened, I have very little regard for naysayers who think the End is Nigh and that the industry will collapse because of "X". Without the OGL, the gaming industry would have been smaller, D&D 3e would have had less fan support and adoption, and we'd be even more of a niche than we already are. The OGL was a daring step for a big company (although this was before the Hasbro buyout), and by doing something they certainly didn't have to do, they opened up a lot of doors for a lot of people.

In the long run, it has helped bring D&D out of a possible death spiral it fell into in the late 90's, built some goodwill between WotC and fans, and made D&D even more preeminent in the market by making a large chunk of RPG's in production based on it's rule set.

 

[Ranger REG]

A lot of people here are gut-reacting, and a few have definitely consumed the Kool-Aid.

Rasyr is not far off, and he's right, his last point will be the nail in the coffin.

If 4.0 is not OGC, OGC will die. There will be "grognards" who play it until they die, but the profitability factor will be severely diminished. Unless someone pulls a rabbit out of a hat, that will be the death knell. Just the number of people spending their precious dollars on 4.0 will cause much implosion unless the market has smoothed out before then.

It was a good idea, and definitely grew the base of roleplayers, but it is indeed doomed.

I disagree. OGL will continue to exist as long as companies are willing to take the SRD and start improving it on their own making yet D&D clones to compete with the real D&D (like Dell IBM-compatible PC going up against IBM PC; not many of us owned a PC that is actually made directly by IBM).

Spycraft have left the d20 brand and the Player's Handbook requirement label for their 2.0e. By making it a single standalone core rulebook, it will be more cost efficient for fans of Spycraft.

World of Warcraft and EverQuest are still thriving under the OGL mainly because they both have more popular well-known brands attached to them than D&D.

Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed lines are enjoying the kind of success similar to the early days of TSR without the corporate expectation.

IOW, many who owed their publishing success through the d20 brand (and the Trademark License) are deviating from it.

 

[Graf]

Thanks for sharing your ideas!

First - one of the stated purposes of the OGL was to reduce the overall number of systems on the market. This has not happened.

I could not disagree with you more. In the heyday of 2nd edition DnD, non DnD games were legion and played heavily. I was a roleplaying gamer who liked the Forgotten Realms but most of the time we played a swath of other games, mostly White Wolf, Shadowrun/Earthdawn, etc.

Now I'm a DnD player.
When I want to run Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green game I break out my DnD (ok ok we have to call it D20) rulebooks for that game.
Recently a player and I were chatting about a Cyberpunk game.... and we were ready to run it with D20 Future and Modern.
When I think about a Rifts game? It's all DnD.
D20 has become the GURPS of roleplaying.

The DnD/D20 system is pervasive and used everywhere.
This is a good thing, and it makes the OGL a rampant success.

(That isn't to say that there aren't other good systems out there. But most of the games you have mentioned aren't important in the industry or to the vast majority of gamers. That isn't a value judgement, just a statement about how the industry has changed as a result of the OGL).

 

[amethal]

Turjan has a good point. One of the main benefits of the OGL was restoring good faith in the makers of D&D after the horrible "T$R" era, when lawyers who were asleep when the "Fair Use" provisions of copyright were discussed in Law School alienated their fan base. Much like the message-board story you gave, I recall reading in Knights of the Dinner Table tales they have shared from the production of Shadis, where every time they ever even mentioned AD&D in an article or a product review, they'd get a Cease & Desist to stop mentioning the existence of the game and using the name in articles. Of course, on advice of counsel they ignored those letters, knowing they'd never stand up in court (saying you can't publish a product review because it violates their trademarks to mention their products in a review context? That's a new one).

Now, when the OGL premiered, I heard so many conspiracy theories.

I wasn't there when all this happened - had to google Rob Repp to find out who he was.

Its little snippets of information like this - getting threatened with legal action if you reviewed a product, when even my very basic knowledge of copyright law tells me you are free to review products - which bring home to me just how over the top TSR were and how much bad feeling they created.

I know what my response would have been had someone threatened me with legal action if I dared to briefly explain THAC0 to someone on a messageboard. I'd have played Call of Cthulhu or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay instead.

Sounds like TSR's reputation could have even jeopardised the OGL, if there were all these conspiracy theories at the start.

I think the OGL is a great success.

When I get bored or frustrated with D&D, and vow never to buy another D&D book, something like True20 or Iron Heroes rekindles my interest in the genre and has me back being interested in all d20 Fantasy, including D&D.

 

[wedgeski]

I urge you to take a couple of steps back and to attempt to look at the larger, overall picture and then form your own opinions regarding this. And please note that while I think that the OGL is (or will be, to be more exact) a failure in the long term, that I do think it it has worked pretty well in the past and that it currently is working somewhat well (though not optimally) in the present.

I really think you're overstating the impact of non-d20 systems on the market, which makes many of your points somewhat moot. In any case, the free licensing of the d20 rules *has been* a success; it has built the RPG industry back into something approaching its heyday. That's the bottom line. I sincerely doubt the industry would be as vibrant as it is now (and in that I include independents being able to produce and actually make money off non-d20 systems) if 3rd Edition had been released under the same kind of non-inclusive licensing as its predecessors.

 

[Rasyr]

Funny. Will you be here all week?

And Twice on Thursday...

 

[JoeGKushner]

If for nothing else, Mutants & Masterminds has made the OGL a success for me and my friends who enjoy super hero genre games, but are a little tired of old reliable Champions and have retired the BBB (formerly the Big Blue Book, now the Big Black Book.)

 

[Psion]

I disagree. OGL will continue to exist as long as companies are willing to take the SRD and start improving it on their own making yet D&D clones to compete with the real D&D (like Dell IBM-compatible PC going up against IBM PC; not many of us owned a PC that is actually made directly by IBM).

Spycraft have left the d20 brand and the Player's Handbook requirement label for their 2.0e. By making it a single standalone core rulebook, it will be more cost efficient for fans of Spycraft.

I don't even think Spycraft pulled anything from 3.5. It's been its own beast for a while, and it's getting to be even more its own beast, now that (for example) NPCs aren't even required to have classes or levels.

World of Warcraft and EverQuest are still thriving under the OGL mainly because they both have more popular well-known brands attached to them than D&D.

Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed lines are enjoying the kind of success similar to the early days of TSR without the corporate expectation.

IOW, many who owed their publishing success through the d20 brand (and the Trademark License) are deviating from it.

I'd add Mutants & Masterminds and True20 to that.

"D20 Fantasy support" has been a major segment of the market -- and to be frank, the one I derive the most joy out of -- but it is the most dependant upon supporting D&D and the d20 logo. Should 4.0 not be released under the OGL/SRD, that it the market the would most visibly atrophy. Others will live on.

And considering some troubling philosophical musings that I have been hearing about the shape of the future, I am not so sure I would follow 4e the way I have 3e. Good chance I would cast my lot with AE and/or WoW.

 

[The_Universe]

It is an unquestionable success in both the long and short term. If the furthest you get from D20 (but still within the OGL) is Mutants and Masterminds and True20, you've still essentially just got GREAT D&D variants out there.

I suspect that those who see failure on the horizon see it because they *want* to see it. Nothing inspires vitriol like the success of someone/something else.