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But without the 3E OGL, we never would have seen AE, and its take on a number of core issues. (No pun intended.) The GSL isn't important to me per se; the problem is that a stifling GSL will inhibit the ability to effect positive change.

Carthain: I think the 3rd party material may have had an influence, but to be sure, it's hard to say how much. Third party development can't readily challenge many of the root assumptions. Doing so can quickly create a fundamentally different system. Look at all the flak 4E gets for being "not D&D any more."

But I still think that the extensive 3rd party publications helped...if only in negative ways. Even a flawed product (an overpowered PrC, for example) helps us analyze the system more fully, and come to a greater understanding of it. That helps us find the underlying flaws.

It could be that factor is less about 3rd party publishers, and more about boards like this.

Braro: interesting point on the negative impact of the SRD...hard to say how valid it is. D&D has always been the biggest fish in the RPG pond, and there has been no shortage of other systems, albeit most commonly targeted at different genres. That may well be one of their problems in gaining a wider acceptance: the swords and sorcery, heroic fantasy genre has very wide appeal. The SRD certainly created a window of opportunity for people wanting to ride the wave, but one must ask: if it didn't exist, how many of those developers would have worked on the alternative systems?