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Message: <blockquote data-quote="catsclaw" data-source="post: 4136110" data-attributes="member: 59911">Simply put, you're wrong.The reason the OGL is a good idea for WotC is because it makes them money.  It makes the whole industry money.  It expands the size of the industry, and draws in more customers, which encourages sales of every product.  And frankly, anything that drives sales of every product is going to disproportionately benefit Wizards of the Coast.Look at it this way--say you have a group of gamers who are looking for a new game.  One of them picks up Paizo's Rise of the Runelords, flips through it, and decides to run it.  Now that drives sales of Paizo's products--at least 6 Pathfinder issues, maybe some Golarion products, maybe some minis, maybe a Harrow deck.  And for Wizard of the Coast?  Probably everybody picks up a Player's Handbook.  The guy playing the Wizard wants more options, so he buys Complete Mage and the Spell Compendium.  There's a woman who wants to play a Scout, so she buys Complete Adventurer.  And someone else wants to play a kobold, so they pick up Races of the Dragon.  Without Paizo, those sales don't happen.  That drives down the profitability of Wizards.  That means less products get produced, which means less products for you to choose from, even if you never personally buy a third-party product.Want a more subtle example?  Take a look at <a href="http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=378" target="_blank">Mike Mearls' design experience</a>.  How many projects are third-party d20?  By my count, all of them, save one, since 2001.  Without the OGL those projects don't exist, it's less profitable to be a freelancer, and a lot of great designers never even get their break in the industry.  That's bad for the industry, bad for WotC, and bad for you as a gamer.</blockquote>

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