WotC Doesn't (Didn't) Understand the OGL

[hossrex]

Unless you mean to extend to the idea that all companies must be run by retarded monkeys, I'm not sure what this single example is supposed to prove.

It is possible that WotC doesn't know what it is doing, yes. It is possible - it is in fact impossible to prove the negative ("WotC is not run by retarded monkeys").

That does not change the fundamental question: given the extremely limited information we have on what's actually going on inside, which is the more reasonable assumption?

*I*... *I*... think I'm going to cry.

Someone ready what I said... understood it... replied as such... and defended my statements.

Shocking that such a simple statement (i.e. "which is more likely, that a multi-million dollar company does, or doesn't know what its doing") would be met with such resistance. Shocking that so few would defend such a simple proposition.

Shocking that some people would try to find allegory in a notably failed sector of our economy, as if that one sector were the exception that proved the rule, instead of simply the exception.

We officially have people comparing $40 DnD books to $3 DVD rentals on one hand, and untenable $3,000 mortgage payments on the other.

Believe it or not, both these people are on the same side of the discussion ("DnD books are like movie rentals, you buy what you want"... "WotC is like the sub-prime mortgage market, it didn't know what it was doing, so it failed!").

At best... I'll say DnD books are somewhere between these casual DVD rentals, and poorly thought out housing purchases.

Somewhere comically between... comically to the point of "wow... look at that guy, who compared buying $40 DnD books to a $3 movie rental... and that other guy who thinks every corporation has its opposable digit lodged (and rotating) inside its derrière simply because one sector was pretty badly mismanaged".

Comically.

WotC will do what it considers best for itself. Thousands of people will complain... but they're not WotC stock holders, so they're not the people WotC really cares about.

At least not as a top priority.

(if that last remark seems callous, it simply proves you don't understand this, or any other market)

 

[Delta]

Hossrex, simple question: Have you ever sat in on an executive meeting at a multi-million dollar company? Can you just answer that?

 

[Dragon Snack]

Don't laugh too hard hossrex, people are responding to your assumptions. It's disingenuous to come back with debate club antics and point at people saying how foolish they are...

Possibility A: Wizards of the Coast is run by retarded monkeys...

Possibility B: A few very dedicated, very well meaning people here have misinterpreted a few things...

If we were talking about something you weren't passionate about (like... say... agricultural reports), which possibility would you think was more likely? Doesn't it seem like we're letting our passions guide us maybe a little too much?

So people pointed out the subprime mortgage fiasco, which has as much relevance to most of us as Ag reports do. It shows that a company *can* screw up royally, without fitting into your 'either or' scenario.

Your next assumption is that the subprime mortgage fiasco is an exception. It just happens to be the most newsworthy example currently.

 

[Oldtimer]

<snip> Comically.<snip>

Do you actually have a point with your posts beyond insulting us?

 

[Umbran]

*I*... *I*... think I'm going to cry.

Someone ready what I said... understood it... replied as such... and defended my statements.

Yes, but that was before I saw a lot of your other posts around here.

On EN World, we have some posting rules - Rule #1 is "Keep it Civil". We expect you to be respectful of your fellow posters and their ideas. You have, across several threads, spread a great deal of disdain and borderline insult. You really aren't doing anything for the acceptance of your points if you make yourself look like a jerk, you know.

Consider this an official Moderator warning - you are already starting to cheese people off with your tone and demeanor. I strongly encourage you to back off on the snarky superiority.

If you've got any questions about this, or any of our rules of behavior, please feel free to e-mail one of the mods - our addresses are in a post stickied to the top of the Meta Forum.

 

[Orcus]

I think Orcus might've misspoken there. The OGL & d20 STL were available, it was the *SRD* that was a work-in-progress, under the "gentleman's agreement".

Nope. I checked my first few products and my memory is confirmed. We were operating under draft versions of all the licenses back then. The OGL and STL were not finalized (and then of course later the stl was famously updated post-BoEF). But it is fair to say that the SRD was MORE of a work in progress. The draft licenses were pretty close. You can see them, I printed both in the back of the Crucible of Freya (back then it was unclear what needed to be included so i put both the d20 stl and the ogl in the back of crucible). So we might be saying the same thing, to some degree. There were licenses (OGL, etc) they just were drafts.

 

[hossrex]

Hossrex, simple question: Have you ever sat in on an executive meeting at a multi-million dollar company? Can you just answer that?

Of course I can. No.

That I haven't sat in on an executive meeting at a multi-million dollar company doesn't mean my supposition that WotC isn't run by people who don't know what they're doing any less valid.

 

[Delta]

Of course I can. No.

That's what I thought. When you say stuff like this:

Shocking that such a simple statement (i.e. "which is more likely, that a multi-million dollar company does, or doesn't know what its doing") would be met with such resistance. Shocking that so few would defend such a simple proposition.

Anyone who's actually sat in on such an executive meeting (such as myself or most of my friends) would find nothing shocking about such resistance. Really, really seriously -- there is nothing shocking about this resistance. Big company executives can easily be the most out of touch people in the economy.

At one point I thought Dilbert was a funny cartoon, until I started working (at a multimillion dollar computer game company) -- then I realized it was just documentary. If you ever do work at a big company, I can 100% guarantee that you'll look back on what you've written here and laugh heartily.