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I think that WOTC should go with an OGL, but one that is better thought out than what was had with v3.5 and 4th Edition.  After all, the OGL encouraged publishers to create material for 3.5e, which really gave it longevity and allowed players to find settings that matched their preferences.  In short, it made 3.5e well known - which is even more valuable than pure dollars in my opinion, as it means that people paid attention to that edition despite the faults it had.  The problem with 4th Edition's OGL is that it was driven by the fear that WOTC could lose control of their brand, due to what happened with Paizo and Pathfinder.

If anything, WOTC should seek out a balance, otherwise their next edition would simply be avoided by third party publishers.  Here is what I think would be a good strategy.

1 - Core Books would either consist of what WOTC developed in-house, or be adopted from 3rd-party publishers.  These would be featured in a online store run by WOTC, which would sell both physical copies and digital ones.  People who buy a physical copy receives a free digital version that is attached to their online account.  Shoppers can also opt to seperately buy the digital versions.

2 - Third party publishers will share the front page of the store with core material.  It is important that 3rd Party publishers get a good chance for their stuff to be noticed, otherwise they won't sell copies.  Like with the core material, physical copies of their books come bundled with a digital version, or shoppers can just buy the digital ones.

3 - The online compendium has three modes of access.  The first is 'subscription' based, in which all content from WOTC's core materials would be made available for $10.  The second is for all third-party content, which is also $10.  The payout to publishers is determined how many times their books are accessed.  The third means of access is for shoppers to buy physical books or digital PDFs, which tell the compendium those materials are owned, and therefore can always be accessed, regardless of whether or not a subscription is in effect.

4 - As a condition of allowing other online stores to sell WOTC and third-party content, they must allow shoppers to associate those purchases with the WOTC online account.  This makes it so that people don't feel ripped off from buying someplace other than WOTC, and makes sure that at the very least that people can use the compendium.

5 - Fully developed digital tools would be available at the time of release, and always updated.  These are critical for sustaining continued subscriptions to the compendium, fueling the purchase of third-party content.

6 - Give promotion copies of books to physical stores, and have a program in place that allows shoppers to buy digital books and physical copies from that store, which are automatically associated with the online account.  Be sure to give the store a significant 'cut' of the profit.  This would appeal to the stores because they would be able to sell goods, while not having to deal with restocking their supplies or otherwise having to deal with the constraints that physical goods typically impose.  This is done so that the brand has a storefront presence.

Promotion copies of books are tied to a branded D&D E-book in the store.  The reader is allowed to read any book within the D&D catalogue as long as they are inside the store.  Provided there is four or five such D&D Readers, that should allow plenty of people to examine the content of D&D and to decide whether or not to buy.  WOTC could go a step further and have such D&D Readers become tools for DMs and Players, though that might be too much for WOTC to handle financially at this time.

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NOTES about the strategy

*Purchased content that is associated with the WOTC account cannot be revoked.  That would only promote bad blood.

*Piracy is not taken as a serious threat.  It is better to be able to sell goods online, than not at all.  Furthermore, pirates would at least have the side effect of drawing attention to the brand - which is good because word of mouth is more valuable than paid advertising, as it is far more genuine and lasting.

Oct 9, 2012 -- 2:54PM, mboss77 wrote:

Oct 9, 2012 -- 1:16PM, DavidArgall wrote:

Oct 8, 2012 -- 6:57AM, Xguild wrote:

Imagine a WOTC release calender that includes 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th edition adventures and books.  

   I imagine I would throw 3/4 of it away immediately.  And if it took much trouble to sort out what I actually wanted, I probably would throw away the rest as well.

What?

Yeah I didn't quite get that.  Maybe I wasn't clear.  Imagine going to Amazon.com for example, looking up D&D and having a choice of which edition books you would like to purchase with all editions having new books available to support them.  Not sure exactly what you mean by throwing away 2/3?

I realize its a bit far fetched but ultimatly what is the problem with D&D if not the fact that there are 3-4 seperate camps, divided in their opinion about what is the best edition of the game.  2/3 of the population is always screwed because their edition is no longer supported (in some cases intentionally stifled).   Worse yet we are now going to get yet ANOTHER edition which will create yet another camp of people who support it and people who are pissed because their current edition (in this case 4th) will no longer be supported.

Its a horrible cycle that serves no one, not even the people who play whatever the current edition is because they have to constantly contend with players in their own groups and gaming circles who have an opinion about which edition is best.


Really what's happened is that its become the new trend to simply abandon D&D all together as players grow tired of constantly finding their games disrupted by re-writes.  I mean that's what happen in my various groups.  After 4th edition was released it was damn near impossible to even get people to try it, they just looked at it like "why do we need another edition?  We have done this three times now".  I think in part this is why Pathfinder is so popular.  It has allowed players to continue to play a game they have grown accustomed to and have it supported.  Pathfinder should be a D&D licensed continuation of D&D 3rd edition supported and if they wanted to create a 4th edition.. go for it, but don't cancel the old edition and try to kill it.  As soon as they did that, they lost a very sizeable chunk of their audiance and clearly they didn't learn their lesson because it appears they are about to do it again.

And don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for NEXT and I really hope that they are successful in their attempt to bring these communities together, I just have very little confidence in it.   


         

  Just that.  I have no intention of playing or buying any of the early editions.  I want Amazon to let me sort out the 4e material for me.  If they gave me a mixed bag of all D&D material to wade thru, I would not waste my time doing so.  Access to all this stuff I don't want is no virtue and can be a major vice.

I see so what your saying is that the mere existance of other editions of books, will cause you not to play 4th edition and that these books should be removed from Amazon?