Let me start by saying that I admit to probably overstating the OGL's contribution to the survival of the industry at large. Its effects are undeniable, both good and bad. The industry probably would have survived without it, but who can tell what state it would be in now. I am of the opinion that it was a good thing, in the long term, even if it didn't do anyone but WotC any favors at the time.

Imagine if anhueser-Busch and MillerCoors (who together make up like 75% of the beer industry) were at serious risk of going out of business because there was a cider craze. But then they found a mechanism to consolidate consumers under their brands and put a bunch of small breweries out of business, should we thank them for saving the beer industry? No. People would still want beer. There would still be beer. If someone came up with a delicious beer, people would buy it.

That's a pretty good example because that's exactly what's happening to the craft beer industry right now, except there's no outside influence putting pressure on the industry; it's just ABInbev and Miller-Coors buying craft breweries left and right.

And you're not wrong. Budweiser drinkers will hail Inbev as the savior of the industry, but everyone else will be, at best, indifferent.

In contrast, picture the beer industry in a slow downward spiral for years prior to a cider boom. The big companies are big, and there are a bunch of indy brewers. Then suddenly there's a cider boom and a sizeable portion of your customer base just up and leaves. Most of those will come back eventually, but they will trickle in over the span of years. In the short term, your revenue was just slashed significantly, and your stream of newer, younger customers has dried up almost entirely. Your company immediately takes a nose dive.

So to save yourself, you publish your core recipe that everyone knows and loves, allowing people to brew it for themselves. You scale back your revenue projections and downsize appropriately, and weather the storm by selling equipment and merch to people brewing your beer. You also occasionally experiment with a new recipe, but it usually doesn't last for long.

In the meantime, a bunch of indy brewers fold. Some of them were going to do that anyway, and some broke because you started publishing your recipe and everyone flocked to you. The other big players in the industry have their own solutions to the problem, with mixed results.

Ten years later, the cider craze has died down. It's still a big deal that will forever deprive you of some customers, but by and large you've weathered the storm, as have a few other big players. There are also some new players that exist entirely by producing your beer slightly differently, or with some slightly different flavors.

There is also an explosion of new recipes, new breweries, new flavors, and new breweries. Part of that is due to the cider boom making beer and similar beverages more popular in the public eye. There's also a revolution in product distribution via the internet, and accompanying forums, blogs, and ancillary products. As a result, there is much more beer available from a larger number of brewers than there was before the cider boom.

I think the recent explosion of indie games, facilitated by kickstarter and websales/PDFs shows that d&d/big name companies/'the industry' is not the be-all and end-all of RPGs.

I totally agree with you on this point. Electronic distribution alone revolutionized the industry. Now that people can also have access to what amounts to venture capital via Kickstarter, suddenly there are a lot more people with product ideas that have the distribution and funding to be successful where they would never have dreamt of that 15 years ago. These are good things, and I am glad to be a gamer while all of this is occurring.