Why Open Gaming Is Important

[Art Waring]

Open gaming matters to the people that produce open game content. Most people who play the game don't really care who produces their game as long as they have a game they can enjoy. Don't twist my words into something I did not say.

You are conflating your own opinions with "most people."

Just because you don't have the opinion that this affects people doesn't mean that it doesn't.

The #OpenDnD petition currently has over 26,000 signatures as of today, including industry luminaries like Owen K.C. Stephens.

That's over ten thousand signatures per day, two consecutive days in a row.

People have noticed, and lots of people, not just the 3pp's are not happy with the state of affairs.

 

[Reynard]

You are conflating your own opinions with "most people."

Just because you don't have the opinion that this affects people doesn't mean that it doesn't.

The #OpenDnD petition currently has over 26,000 signatures as of today, including industry luminaries like Owen K.C. Stephens.

That's over ten thousand signatures per day, two consecutive days in a row.

People have noticed, and lost of people, not just the 3pp's are not happy with the state of affairs.

How many copies of the 5E PHB do you think WotC has sold?

 

[Art Waring]

How many copies of the 5E PHB do you think WotC has sold?

I'm not talking about total units sold, I'm talking about the general response to the 1.1 OGL, across the entire internet, most people are both aware and not happy about it.

Look at youtube, look at twitter, look at facebook, look at discord servers, look at forums, look at the news articles being released.

Don't worry, you can keep defending wotc all you like, I'm not going to argue with you.

 

[Reynard]

I'm not talking about total units sold, I'm talking about the general response to the 1.1 OGL, across the entire internet, most people are both aware and not happy about it.

Look at youtube, look at twitter, look at facebook, look at discord servers, look at forums, look at the news articles being released.

The worst thing modern media algorithms have done is give us the false sense that out opinions are widely held and supported, causing us to double down when we should be looking at things critically.

Don't worry, you can keep defending wotc all you like, I'm not going to argue with you.

Are you serious? What in the world would make you think I was defending WotC in this circumstance?

 

[Oofta]

How many copies of the 5E PHB do you think WotC has sold?

Based on sales estimates Amazon alone likely sold 22k in just the month of December.

 

[Velderan]

It's been mentioned in other threads, but WotC has also benefitted from the OGL due to it leading to the creation of 3pp to develop talent that they've gone on to hire. Dan Dillon came over from Kobold Press, F. Wesley Schneider worked at Paizo. I'm sure there's other examples, but the existence of these other companies has definitely had benefits to WotC.

 

[Art Waring]

The worst thing modern media algorithms have done is give us the false sense that out opinions are widely held and supported, causing us to double down when we should be looking at things critically.

Are you serious? What in the world would make you think I was defending WotC in this circumstance?

Apologies if I misunderstood, its been a rough week over here.

 

[Oofta]

How exactly is that not one in the same?

How are they at all the same? If the draft copy of the new OGL is released most people who play the game will be unaffected. People who depend on the OGL will be dramatically affected, assuming it's a legally enforceable change which is open to debate.

I get it. You don't like the potential change. But most people? Most people don't know or care where the products we use every day come from. Even if people do learn about the change to the OGL, I believe most people will just continue to play the game because they enjoy it. Many will be surprised that there ever was an OGL. I am not making any judgement call on whether the OGL was a good idea or not, I just think the reality is that most people will not care if it goes away.

 

[Arilyn]

Getting away from D&D, PbtA is an example of a system that has given us a multitude of games. It doesn't use the OGL to be open but the idea of open gaming in rpgs grew from the OGL, I believe. So even if the OGL is killed and we no longer have an open D&D environment, open gaming is still with us. Without D&D, it will be much smaller and I am certainly not downplaying the potential loss of livelihood of 3pp but open gaming will not die. And I hope that in the future, WotC/Hasbro learns that their walled garden may be very pretty and tame, but ultimately dull, and people quit paying to walk through the gate.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm not 100% sure that it is. D&D and the RPG industry thrived for years without an Open Gaming paradigm throughout the 80s and 90s. It was different than it had been in the last few years, but it was a successful model nonetheless.