I fully support the WotC efforts to support Open Source gaming. This will
eventually serve to unify the fringe RPG companies (who usually end up
folding after a couple of products anyway) into a single organization that
can and will survive.
The traditional tabletop roleplaying game is at a serious disadvantage when
considering all of the alternatives. Getting a group of people together in
and of itself is a challenge with the serious amount of time we all seem to
be lacking these days. The market itself is reacting to this challenge by
killing off the smaller publishing companies through lack of business (less
interest).
Without a unifying force such as OGF, I seriously don't think the
traditional tabletop roleplaying game will survive another decade. The
unifying force solves the following problems for tabletop roleplaying:
1 - Saves money: The money that people would spend on producing
completely original and ultimately failed gaming systems would instead be
used to enhance EXISTING systems (with a higher level of proliferation) by
widening the choice users have to make when purchasing products for the
successful gaming system.
2 - Encourages personal involvement in developing resources: people are
more likely to produce products they feel they can have published rather
than sitting on an idea and not submitting it to one megalithic gaming
corporation who has little time to even review such works.
3 - Broadens Interest: By having a multitude of products available from
different publishers, users will have more choice and will more probably
find a new and different game that offers a variety of products rather than
plopping their butts in front of their computer/TV instead.
WotC has made a wise business decision, the best since the release of
Magic: The addiction.
Think of a roleplaying system like this: your operating system. (since most
of us are geeks here, I'm assuming you know what that means). Windows is
the predominant OS NOT because it's the cheapest or the best, but because
there is more software for it than any other OS and the hardware platforms
it runs on is inexpensive.
RPG Source materials are "programs" to OpenSource gaming systems. Since no
one can or will create a system that can even closely compete with the
"D20" market space, they are very safe from competing with themselves,
HOWEVER.. with opensource gaming Materials... if you're making "D20"
products, you will most likely be making a product which in some way
subsidizes WotC through the requirement of other "D20" products produced by
them. These subsidizing products would be nearly impossible for WotC to
produce themselves due to limited creative resources (there's only so many
writers in their staff), and cost effectiveness. Microsoft doesn't write
most successful games for instance, yet the enormous amount of game
programs available makes owning Windows a much more attractive
proposition... so you're new to computers.. are you going to buy BeOS and
run it on your Macintosh? Not if you want to play games ;-)
And Also... keep this in mind.. in the event someone produces an OpenSource
game that actually competes with them, WotC themselves can produce products
for it and grab part of their market ;-).
I am quite thankful to see TSR's tyranny come to an end.
Mike D.
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