Significance of 3rd Party Publishers: Overrated?

[Mallus]

I thought Arcana Unearthed/Evolved was great.

I thought Mutants and Masterminds was the best d20 game produced (better than 3/3.5e).

That's about it in terms of my 3rd-party exposure. Oh wait, I played in a Dragonstar game (without owning any of the books). While I found the ability to throw a grenade at an elf was a wonderful edition to d20, I can't say Dragonstar impressed me as a product line. Our campaign was a lot of fun, though.

 

[pawsplay]

The gold rush is long over, though, and while I wouldn't say 3rd party publishers are insignificant I definitely think their overall effect on the hobby as a whole is rather small compared to this point after the release of Third Edition, in some part because the GSL pretty much neuters 3rd parties trying to make material for the current edition.

Well, if the GSL was intended to fuel interest in Castles & Crusades and provoke dozens of small-press mashups of various editions... I'm not sure the 3pp publishers are neutered as much as that certain ones have been paralyzed with the 4e situation being so different. A lot of people are still developing games they like.