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Publishing Business & Licensing
What's Past is Prologue: Understanding the OGL Licensing Controversy in Light of the 3e/4e Transition
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<blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 8888131" data-attributes="member: 7035894"><p>The OP is a truly excellent read. Thoughtful, balanced, informative. Well done!</p><p></p><p>I concur that corporations normally act rationally, from within their context - this doesn't mean that they don't make mistakes or act immorally, just that they have a plan that, at least initially, made sense to them. And since this whole situation around the OGL 1.1 didn't make much sense to me, I had trouble believing it. I think my problem is partially that I was thinking gamers matter to D&D a lot more than Hasbro thinks they matter to D&D.</p><p></p><p>It's counterintuitive to think that gamers might not be that important to the success of a game, but consider Marvel (I guarantee you that Hasbro is considering Marvel). The publication of actual comic books is small potatoes - tiny potatoes - in the Marvel portfolio, so much so that the entertainment division was split off from the publishing division ages ago. They still make comics, and some of their plot lines on TV and films use aspects of those plot lines and themes, but in terms of income, actual physical comic books barely exist from Disney/Marvel's point of view. Marvel has moved way, way past needing comic book readers to be successful.</p><p></p><p>That's what Hasbro wants from the D&D brand - an entertainment behemoth, not a book seller. So from their perspective, it might be worth alienating the gaming community to lock down an IP that they are hoping to turn into something much bigger than a game. I think this will prove to be a mistake (or at least their clumsy handling of the situation), but time will tell.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Clint_L, post: 8888131, member: 7035894"] The OP is a truly excellent read. Thoughtful, balanced, informative. Well done! I concur that corporations normally act rationally, from within their context - this doesn't mean that they don't make mistakes or act immorally, just that they have a plan that, at least initially, made sense to them. And since this whole situation around the OGL 1.1 didn't make much sense to me, I had trouble believing it. I think my problem is partially that I was thinking gamers matter to D&D a lot more than Hasbro thinks they matter to D&D. It's counterintuitive to think that gamers might not be that important to the success of a game, but consider Marvel (I guarantee you that Hasbro is considering Marvel). The publication of actual comic books is small potatoes - tiny potatoes - in the Marvel portfolio, so much so that the entertainment division was split off from the publishing division ages ago. They still make comics, and some of their plot lines on TV and films use aspects of those plot lines and themes, but in terms of income, actual physical comic books barely exist from Disney/Marvel's point of view. Marvel has moved way, way past needing comic book readers to be successful. That's what Hasbro wants from the D&D brand - an entertainment behemoth, not a book seller. So from their perspective, it might be worth alienating the gaming community to lock down an IP that they are hoping to turn into something much bigger than a game. I think this will prove to be a mistake (or at least their clumsy handling of the situation), but time will tell. [/QUOTE]
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What's Past is Prologue: Understanding the OGL Licensing Controversy in Light of the 3e/4e Transition
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