On Mon, 29 Jan 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> One that has not is this: everyone can write, true. Everyone can
> publish, true. But DOES everyone publish? No. Does everyone that
> publishes threaten the interests of WotC or the OGL? No.
>
> There's a difference between someone being able to "read and write" and
> someone who can put together a cogent, well-designed game.
Well, it is true that not *everyone* publishes, but an awful
lot of people do. I have an index of 343 free role-playing games that
are available on the web (at "www.ps.uci.edu/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/").
Many of these are based on existing systems. As far as amateur
designers go (which includes most small-press companies), we have
already been in an era of "open gaming" for many years now.
The difference that D20 and the Wizards-of-the-Coast OGL may
make is the possibility that commercial game companies will be more
"open". Thus far, commercial use of the OGF has been mostly limited
to unofficial D&D modules. These existed before the OGF, but it
has undoubtably encouraged them.
- John Kim
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