D&D 5E So, 5e OGL

[BryonD]

Well, just to split hairs, I do think there were "lost sales", but they've gained far more by expanding the game network by giving so much away for free.

Like I said, I didn't buy the core book because the SRD is free. I consider that a lost sale, even if the fact that I've decided to run a Pathfinder game because it's free means that people from my table have bought 10 books because of the fact that I'm running the game now. Pathfinder is still up 9 sales because of that decision, because they've gained 10 sales by sacrificing one. It's a purely semantic distinction about what a "lost sale" constitutes, but it's important to recognize that they've maximized sales by sacrificing some sales of base rules to gain player base which will more than make up for that loss.

Ok, you presented it as ambiguous and debatable where the line between value added and value lost could be found.
We have resolved this that it is clearly a strongly net positive. Hurray.

 

[seebs]

I would argue that if net sales are up rather than down from a thing, actual "lost sales" are negative. Counting only a specific sale that doesn't happen is pretty meaningless. I mean, by that standard, we should talk about all the "lost sales" that result from drunk driving, which clearly results in some people not buying D&D products who would have otherwise.

See also the guy who made a machine that does nothing but constantly copy some music into a bit bucket, with a little display showing how many millions of dollars of "lost sales" it has cost the record companies.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'm curious about the SRD5 PDF containing this line: "Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only."
The OGL doesn't allow you to put added restrictions on OGC and "All of the rest of the SRD5 is Open Game Content as described in Section 1(d) of the License."

Not that I plan on selling copies of the SRD5. But it is amusing the ways in which mistakes can be made with the OGL.

 

[Mark CMG]

I'm curious about the SRD5 PDF containing this line: "Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only."
The OGL doesn't allow you to put added restrictions on OGC and "All of the rest of the SRD5 is Open Game Content as described in Section 1(d) of the License."

Not that I plan on selling copies of the SRD5. But it is amusing the ways in which mistakes can be made with the OGL.

Not a mistake. While the OGC in any document or work released under the OGL is available for use to others using the OGL properly, the document itself is still protected by copyright. It's the same as anything someone gives away for free not being free to distribute without their permission. In this case, no one is being prevented from copying every bit of OGC from the SRD, as allowed by the OGL, they are just being prevented from re-distributing the document itself, as protected by copyright.

 

[jmucchiello]

Fair enough.