Alex, can you change your settings? Your message showed up as a text
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>From: "Alexander P. Macris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Hi.
>This is my first real posting on this forum, so I�ll introduce > myself. My
>name is Alex Macris, I run an online game start-up. And I > AM a lawyer, or
>will be just as soon
>as I get my bar exam results (fingers crossed!).
Congrats, but didn't anyone ever tell you not to announce you're a lawyer on
the net? Then people automaticaly assume you know what you're talking
about... :)
>WOTC needs the system to be stable so that it can sell products built
>around the system. This should be at the core of their revenue model: Give
>away the razor
>(D20) sell the blades (supplements/modules). Everyone with experience in
>the game industry knows that supplements drive revenues, and so an open
>source model
>makes sense for WOTC. If everyone plays D20, demand for supplements that
>use D20 goes up.
Wrong. WotC doesn't get much money from supplements--they get a lot of
money from the core books. Comparing WotC and D&D with "normal" game
companies is a lot like comparing Microsoft and "normal" software compaines.
D20 is intended to let people write those supplements that aren't profitable
for WotC, and thus drive sales of the core books.
>It also makes sense for us, game designers and gamers. We would benefit
>from a universal standard for rpgs, we benefit from interoperability. The
>benefits are all the
>greater if the system is commodified; universally available, widely
>understood. Ideally, it should be given out for free.
Stop, think "where does the money come from?"
Ryan Dancy believes that the money in an RPG doesn't come from fancy rules
or neato adventures--but rather from the network of players. D&D has a
*HUGE* network of folk who play it, and the new simplified ruleset is
intended to get everyone who doesn't buy D&D anyomre but still plays it to
be buying product again. The whole open game movement is intended to expand
the D&D / "d20" network by small companies develop for it, and increase the
value of the highest point in the network.
Go to http://www.rpgplanet.com/dnd3e and read the essays by Ryan Dancy on
the matter... and the interview.
>But why on earth is WOTC to try to sell the system?! Why, in fact, is the
>first D20 product from WOTC the D&D3E rules? Why is WOTC trying to extract
>profits
>from the sale of the very system which it claims is to be an open source
>universal standard for gaming?
Because they need profits, and the PHB is their *MOST* profitable book.
Always has been. (side note--This doesn't violate the NDA, correct? God, I
hope not...)
Remember that NO ONE ever made money by giving their major revenue source
away--they make money by giving away the parts that support their main
revenue source. For Cell Phone Providers, that's the phones themselves.
For WotC and D&D, that's supplements, adaptations, and adventures.
>The fact that D&D3E is a product makes me think that the actual D20SRD, to
>be released under the OGL, is going to be a much smaller product than I
>previously
>imagined--one that does not include the spell lists, magic items, monstrous
>bestiaries, and other familiar data from D&D.
Ryan has said that the monsters and spells are going to be in the D20SRD,
and his quoted reason was simple: There's no record of what's original and
what was adapted from something in the public domain.
>No, the only true advantage to a game designer is if he can fully > exploit
>the concepts of D&D in his own work. He needs to be able to > use vorpal
>blades, green
>slimes, and Tenser�s Floating Disc.
And not get sued--which is the major benefit of the OGL. You *COULD* try
and copy D&D rule for rule--but WotC would probably sue you. They're not
worried about someone reprinting the D20SRD because, quite simply, it's
impossible for anyone else to produce the same level of product that the PH
is.
>WOTC�s real strength lies in its branded product lines and enormous font of
>world source material, not in the concepts of �rolling 3d6 to generate
>attributes� or
>�earning xp to get levels.�
Wrong. WotC's real strength--or rather, *D&D*'s real strength--is in the
sheer number of people who play it.
>This strategy would have been better for us, and better for WOTC. But that
>didn�t happen. So where does that leave us, the Open Gaming community?
Able to write games that are compatible, and based on, the rules of D&D.
Look at the new Star Wars game they're making--ANYONE can do that kind of
thing now (well, SOON), and WotC *WANTS* it done.
DM
P.S. The value of the D20 trademark is that it's a "bridge" between D&D
network and your game. It means "this work is a heck of a lot like D&D,"
and appears on every 3e advertisment and product I've seen since early
summer. If you don't care, you could take the D20SRD and write up a game
using all the rules you want, and you'd only be bound by the OGL.
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