Any word on the GSL?

[roguerouge]

Hi!

The golden question has always been if WOTC made money off the OGL.

You'll see a lot of speculation on this, but no official word.

My suspicion is that it didn't. I base that on 4e being GSL and much more closed in comparison to OGL. If OGL had been some sort of cash cow, it would not have been scrapped.

This is false reasoning. Corporations do things for many reasons: out of fear of competition, out of a greater fear of losing than of turning a bigger profit, out of a desire for control, out of blind adherence for tradition, out of a blind desire for change for its own sake, as part of an exec's ploy to control a company by beating office rivals, as reaction to a new management fad, out of sheer incompetence, as a loss leader... many reasons.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Another vote for a GSL update.

As far as reasoning goes, it is all speculation.

As far as fact goes, (and as of my posting right now) Scott's last entry on his blog was this, here: Scott Rouse's Blog - Wizards Community

So as many of you know I had hoped that the revised GSL would be done before I went on Christmas Holiday. My last day of work was scheduled to be on the 19th and it was my hope that we could publish the revision by tomorrow.

On Tuesday of this week I handed off my final revision recommendation of the SRD, GSL, and Statement of Rejection. There were a couple outstanding yes/no decisions/questions to be answered. Specifically: 1)What, if any PHB 2 classes do we include? 2) Do we add the pantheon? 3) Do we add the cosmology? I had included my thoughts (yes on all as well as a few added monsters) in the revised SRD I handed off.

Another solution that I asked for final language on revolves around the imagery clause and specifically derivative artwork.

The outstanding issues represented a day or two of work. The additions to the SRD would likely be another day or two so the 19th was super tight but doable, but then mother nature kicked us in the groin. On Friday night of last week we got a dusting of snow with a few inches falling in some areas. This was followed by clear skies and temperatures in the teens. For many parts of the country weather like this is no big deal but in the Pacific Northwest weather like this is all the news will talk about. The cold and snow set off a weather pattern that is likely to get worse before it gets better. Localized ice meant a few key people were out. Yesterday many areas north and south of Seattle Metro and the WotC office area got up to a foot of snow and today everywhere including at the WotC offices got up to another foot of snow and the metro area including our office shut down. I did venture out to the office area even though we were closed. I would have worked from home if it weren't for a commitment I had made through work to volunteer at the local Salvation Army to distribute toys to families but pretty much everyone stayed home and tomorrow is likely to be another snow day.

So what does this mean? Although great progress was made this week between the snow, personal schedules, and the WotC offices being closed between December 25th and January 4th the revision will likely have to wait until the new year.

Sorry to those of you who were hoping it would happen this week (especially the publishers), we'll get back at it as soon as we get back in the new year.

In the meantime, I hope your holidays are joyous and involve playing at least a little D&D.

Emphasis by me. Since it was just a day or two of more work, I'd hope that he's just polishing it off and will, instead of an update, be issuing a press release that it has been finalized.

 

[Mark]

Well, another month come and gone. We have a pretty good idea from SR's posts and blog (and email) what he might like to see happen with the GSL but we also have a pretty good idea from the time that has passed that WotC doesn't feel it is either necessary or a priority. If we do not get anything more than promises this week, I'm going to have to write it off as not ever going to happen in any actually satisfying manner. Honestly, when a company dicks around this much, you cannot really trust being in business with them, particularly with a license structured as the GSL is, and likely will continue to be, because you simply cannot take them at their word as to what they will do in the future. The OGL had provisions against that but even the revised GSL purportedly never will, so the point is probably moot.

 

[phloog]

With respect to making money 'off' the OGL/d20 way of working. This is an incredibly complex system, and I would wager that WOTC has neither the time nor the mathematical / financial horsepower to ever truly establish whether or not the OGL was in total a good/bad thing.

You could model with with one set of assumptions and show that it helped, and another set of assumptions and it looks like a loser. It comes down to how you quantify things like word of mouth, good will, number of people drawn in from product X, number of people drawn AWAY from competitive products, etc.

And IF they were somehow able to decisively state one way or another whether or not it helped, that calculation would likely be invalid in the world that exists now...in part DUE TO their delays/inaction.

The financial calculation to arrive at a go/no-go decision for an open license has changed precisely because it would no longer be the first. OGL D&D exists NOW...so everything is different. Even if they could say it was a positive then doesn't mean it would be a positive now...it could be a negative, it could be an even bigger good guy.

They've stalled, and stammered and delayed, and now we have Pathfinder and other options coming out. 4E is successful to some degree, I'm sure, but I don't know that they'll be able to justify ever 'opening it' anymore than it is now.

I'm no longer so much waiting for WOTC to get off the pot or 'make bears' as I am getting impatient at 3pps who seem to be in stasis awaiting the new GSL....I didn't like 4e the couple of times I tried it, and so as soon as possible I'd like to know which companies' web sites I can stop checking for new 3.x stuff.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Sorry nothing to report.

Honestly, I haven't touched it since I last posted before Christmas. I have had other important priorities to focus on for the past couple of weeks.

I am getting back to it on Thursday after some time sensitive work is behind me.

 

[Drkfathr1]

Sorry nothing to report.

Honestly, I haven't touched it since I last posted before Christmas. I have had other important priorities to focus on for the past couple of weeks.

I am getting back to it on Thursday after some time sensitive work is behind me.

Guess that's all the answer we need.

 

[phloog]

Guess that's all the answer we need.

Perhaps reading more into it than I should, but it appears, then, that the GSL is not 'time sensitive'...I would think that something that has been expected by many partners and customers and has been announced as days away for months, would be time sensitive, even if originally it was not a priority. Even something trivial in my business becomes a priority if you've promised it and it's long overdue.

I don't know that a good GSL would bring enough talent into the fold to draw me into 4e, but it would be wonderful if the GSL revisions were considered a priority at some point.

But, as Drkfathr said, that may be a complete answer.

 

[kenmarable]

Sorry nothing to report.

Honestly, I haven't touched it since I last posted before Christmas. I have had other important priorities to focus on for the past couple of weeks.

I am getting back to it on Thursday after some time sensitive work is behind me.

Thanks for the update!

I know I'm no Clark Peterson or Joseph Goodman by any stretch of the imagination, but I've finally been catching the 4e bug and would love to publish some material for it, but, sorry, the current GSL doesn't interest me enough. Plus I am interested in seeing if the PHB2, MM2, and such will be added at some point (indicating a nice trend of updating the SRD) or if it'll stay with just the original core books.

So, if you are getting back to it Thursday, and there were 2 "day or twos" left before...

 

[Voadam]

Honestly, I haven't touched it since I last posted before Christmas.

I believe you.

 

[Najo]

Sorry nothing to report.

Honestly, I haven't touched it since I last posted before Christmas. I have had other important priorities to focus on for the past couple of weeks.

I am getting back to it on Thursday after some time sensitive work is behind me.

Scott,

Thank you for the update and we look forward to seeing your work when it is done. I sure alot of things within Wotc takes your time everyday, just do your best to keep all of the fans and potential D&D partners in loop when you can!

Keep up the good work and thanks again,

Nate