Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 2495392" data-attributes="member: 14159">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.</blockquote>

Verification