"I could not disagree more. D20 exists to A) support a major publisher's product line B)give said publisher access to a great (theoretically) wealth of new derivative designs without having to spend resources getting them. WotC is NOT the great crusader for open gaming. They are a corporation that NEEDS to make money. We can see that in the D20 v3.0 L."
So then why did Fudge and Fuzion fail? Because no one really cares that much about doing anything with that content. Without the valuable content (ie D&D) none of this would be happening. If Chivalry and Sorcery were released under the d100 system, you would not see what you are seeing now with d20. This whole "evil corporation" argument gets tiresome. Its easy to paste the corporate tag on WotC and rally sympathy from decidedly non-corporate gamers. But that isnt the way it is. I've met Ryan. I've talked with him about 3E and the d20 movement. He LOVES this. This wouldnt have happened without his passion for gaming. To call the d20 movement an evil corporate scheme is insulting to Ryan. In addition to being tiresome, the "evil corporation" argument is overly simplistic. The TRUE FACTS deomnstrate that all you are doing is relying on time-worn tags to criticize something. If your argument were true that this is an evil coroprate moneymaking scheme then evil faceless suits would have concocted open gaming. THEY DIDNT. Ryan pushed this. In fact, the suits resisted a bit. Are there valid business reasons for what Ryan did? Yes. Of course. Having a passion doesnt mean checking your brain at the door. "Since D20 is, in all fairness, a marketing tool to make money, period." Is there a suit somewhere that believes that? Probably. Ryan Dancey didnt feel that way. Anthony Valterra doesnt seem to feel that way. Keith Strohm and co. didnt seem to feel that way last time I talked to any of them. In fact I stood at GenCon with Ryan and Keith and we were looking at the (then) new Forgotten Realms book. I said to them that I thought that was the most well put together book I had ever seen. Though I'm not a big FR guy, the book is unbelievable. I said "looks like we d20 types are pushing you all to raise the product bar." Keith and Ryan smiled and agreed. I think it is true. Competition makes for healthy products--better products. Your premise that beacuse someone makes money that the system is faulty and greed-based only is faulty. You are looking at this as a zero sum game: either one side or the other wins. Either it is a corporate scheme or it is pure open gaming. Guess what. It can be both. Is WotC making money? Yes. Am I? Yes. Are others who are involved? Yes. Ask yourself this: is the gamer better off? I dont think anyone can say anything other than YES. I dont deny your ability to hold your own opinion. But your opinion is directly contradicted by the facts as I know them to be by having met and spoken with the major players about this very topic. That being said, I dont expect to change your mind. :) Clark ===== http://www.necromancergames.com "3rd Edition Rules, 1st Edition Feel" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! http://greetings.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
