Ryan Dancey -- Hasbro Cannot Deauthorize OGL

I reached out to the architect of the original Open Gaming License, former VP of Wizard of the Coast, Ryan Dancey, and asked his opinion about the current plan by WotC to 'deauthorize' the current OGL in favour of a new one.

He responded as follows:

Yeah my public opinion is that Hasbro does not have the power to deauthorize a version of the OGL. If that had been a power that we wanted to reserve for Hasbro, we would have enumerated it in the license. I am on record numerous places in email and blogs and interviews saying that the license could never be revoked.

Ryan also maintains the Open Gaming Foundation.

As has been noted previously, even WotC in its own OGL FAQ did not believe at the time that the licence could be revoked.

7. Can't Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn't like?

Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.

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[eyeheartawk]

The vast majority of corporations have no public shares. That you can point to exploitive megacorporations does not equate to capitalism equaling exploitation or make it a feature of corporations.

We'll win you over yet, tovarich.

 

[Reynard]

Speaking of “potation”, which I never noticed before in the license: does it honestly refer to D&D themed drinks as “derivative material”? Because that’s the only definition I’m getting.

You can buy multiple microbrews named after D&D monsters right now.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Profit is just unpaid wages.

only at high level...

 

[overgeeked]

That's not true at all. No profit = no job. No job = no wages at all. People aren't going to go through all that effort not to earn anything.

Okay. So yes, profit is unpaid wages. Profit is the difference between the cost to produce a widget and what it's sold for. So say it costs $5 to make a widget but the widget is sold for $12. That's a profit of $7. The cost of labor is included in that $5 cost to make the widget. So, generally speaking, the person who actually made the thing doesn't get the "extra" $7. The person who makes the thing was underpaid. The value of the widget is $12. The person who made it should get all the value of the widget they made...you know...cause they made it. So the profit, that "extra" $7 the boss keeps despite doing nothing, yeah...that's unpaid wages.

You should really check out things like Wikipedia and some of the projects people do on Minecraft. People will put in a whole heap of effort without the desire to "earn" anything. Look at the moment we're in right now. Dozens of creators are volunteering to step up to make RPG systems and give them away for free. Not so much with the profit motive. That's what WotC's doing by the way. They're purely profit motivated. Hence their nuking the entire RPG industry from orbit. That's basic capitalism.

 

[Reynard]

Okay. So yes, profit is unpaid wages. Profit is the difference between the cost to produce a widget and what it's sold for. So say it costs $5 to make a widget but the widget is sold for $12. That's a profit of $7. The cost of labor is included in that $5 cost to make the widget. So, generally speaking, the person who actually made the thing doesn't get the "extra" $7. The person who makes the thing was underpaid. The value of the widget is $12. The person who made it should get all the value of the widget they made...you know...cause they made it. So the profit, that "extra" $7 the boss keeps despite doing nothing, yeah...that's unpaid wages.

That person who made the widget probably couldn't have built the factory or bought the widget making machines, tho. Capitalism is really complex and it definitely needs oversight and regulation to enforce good practices, but it also creates jobs, drives innovation and provides wages necessary to enjoy completely silly hobbies like role-playing games.

 

[overgeeked]

That person who made the widget probably couldn't have built the factory or bought the widget making machines, tho. Capitalism is really complex and it definitely needs oversight and regulation to enforce good practices, but it also creates jobs, drives innovation and provides wages necessary to enjoy completely silly hobbies like role-playing games.

No. We innovated before capitalism and we will innovate after capitalism. If we survive it that is. We live on a planet that produces more food than we need globally, yet there is hunger. That's because of capitalism. And it's workers all the way down. The people who built the factory were underpaid, too. So were the workers who built the tools and machines used to build the factory. All to line the pockets of someone who does no work. Everyone's an artist until the rent is due.

 

[Siberys]

The cost of the factory and machines is covered by overhead, which would be part of the "cost to make the widget". Profit is money above and beyond that. Arguably you could say that profit is the portion of the sale that pays for the managerial side of the business, but I think you'd have a hard time convincing anyone of that, let alone someone arguing that profit is wage theft.

 

[Reynard]

No. We innovated before capitalism and we will innovate after capitalism. If we survive it that is. We live on a planet that produces more food than we need globally, yet there is hunger. That's because of capitalism. And it's workers all the way down. The people who built the factory were underpaid, too. So were the workers who built the tools and machines used to build the factory. All to line the pockets of someone who does no work. Everyone's an artist until the rent is due.

Surely you aren't suggesting there was no hunger before capitalism? Or that the last 200 years of absolutely miraculous technological, social and cultural development isn't due at least in part to the movement of capital?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

redacted to stop off trail

sorry mods

 

[rknop]

... can't we get back to something less contentious like, I don't know, edition wars?