>Darren wrote:
>
>Personally i couldn't care less about the gaming community as a whole, or
even
>the D&D community. On the other hand the Open Gaming community has my
attention.
>But then, I'm not here to make money, only games.
How can you not care about the gaming community as a whole? The more of the
gaming community that accepts the OGL, the more successful it will be. To
only concern yourself with the Open Gaming Community and not care about the
rest of the gaming community you are defeating the purpose of the Open
Gaming Community. It's all well and good to keep improving on a system and
adding to it but if no one plays it, it's not a game, it's a thought
exercise.
The goal of the Open Gaming Community should be to increase its size. The
only way to do this is spread the word, distribute OGC and to appeal to the
gaming community as a whole for new membership. Sure there will be people
who's first experience with gaming will be with OGC, but (in most cases)
they become a member of the Gaming Community before they become members of
the Open Gaming Community. In an ideal world, the Open Gaming Community
would grown until it is indistinguishable from the gaming community as a
whole. This can only happen through tolerance and understanding.
>Well, 1-5 benefit the businesses the most, and the gamers sort of by
>association. But there is no real benefit for the Open Gaming community.
Without the game companies that produce RPGs, there would be no Gaming
Industry, just a bunch of wierd people playing "let's pretend." I don't
mean belittle gamers by this statement. As a long time gamer myself, that is
the furthest thing from my mind. But the fact that there is a Gaming
Industry adds a level of legitimacy to our hobby when viewed by the
non-gamers.
I have to disagree with your statement. The Open Gaming Community is a
subset of the Gaming Community. Anything that benefits the Gaming
Community, benefits the Open Gaming Community.
><Shrug> I expect anyone drawing on the resources of the community to
contribute
>to it in one form or another. If they don't, they are not part of the
community,
>just taking advantage of it.
Several years back while I was was in a local gaming club, I was given the
task of organizing small, local gaming convention. Everyone in the club
wanted to go to the convention but few of them wanted to put out the effort
to make the convention happen. They wanted to get all the benefits of the
con without contributing anything to organize it. According to your
definition, these people would not have been members of our local gaming
community, or at the very best they would be considered leeches..
Your view of who constitutes a member of a community is too narrow. Not
every member of a community takes the role of a contributor. Simply by
being there and lending support a person can be a member of a community
without giving anything tangible to it. I don't think that it's right to
expect every member of a community to make a major contribution to the
community, but they should be encouraged to. By the same token, I can't
condone branding or harassing non-contributors. So long as they support the
community (in whatever method they want that support to take) they are a
part of the community and deserver the same respect as any other member. To
do any less is harmful to the community.
>The absolute biggest benefit in Open Gaming is the ideas. I share my ideas
and
>return others share their ideas. In that way, the core material grows,
expands,
>and becomes better.
I disagree here. The sharing of ideas goes on every day in the gaming
community, even outside of the blanket of Open Gaming. I see the greatest
benefit of Open Gaming to be the legal freedom to act upon these ideas to
change and evolve the OGC.
>If people do not give back to the community, then the
>exchange doesn't happen, the core doesn't grow, expand or become better. It
just
>sort of stagnates, then is relegated to the back shelf of your library as
>something new catches your eye.
But the core CAN grow and flourish with EVERY member of the community taking
a contributor role. Only if the community as a whole stops contributing
does it stagnate. Knowing gamers as I do, I think that there will always be
enough people out there who want to contribute that this will never happen,
so long as they are not driven away from Open Gaming by those who would
brand them with derogitory labels for not contributing.
Chris
www.idrankwhat.org
www.coincidental.net
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
