D&D Beyond Twitter Account says OGL will be addressed soon

[Burt Baccara]

I mean...they are Wizards/Hasbro, right?

They are, and yet it is odd that DDB would comment rather than the Wizards or D&D Twitter accounts. Wonder if something happened that affects DDB directly.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I do not envy DDB right now if they are the ones that have to answer these questions on behalf of Wizards/Hasbro.

They aren't the ones.

Beyond is just the medium. The idea that some poor $60k/pa (at most) Beyond minion (or minions) is composing a message on behalf of WotC is, uhhh, very unrealistic, put it like that.

Any message WotC puts out will be approved or even directly written by someone in the executive tier (they may even put a name on it, we'll see), and will have been run by legal, marketing/PR, and a bunch of other executives, definitely including Dan Rawson, probably including Cynthia Williams, and quite likely including Chris Cocks. Worrying about Beyond is like worrying about a fax machine. It's just the medium.

 

[bedir than]

DnD Beyond has basically taken over the comms and marcomms roles from people at Wizards -- web, social, video, etc are all being run by DnD Beyond people, with I think a single exception

 

[Alzrius]

You cannot trust the Bronies!

True story - we were sitting in the audience at Emerald City Comicon waiting for the next panel when a girl and her mother got into a heated argument behind us. The girl, who couldn't have been more than 8, was arguing that they had to get up earlier tomorrow to get to the My Little Pony booth for some limited edition item before the Bronies cleaned it out. That kid had some strong opinions about Bronies, let me tell you. It was adorable.

Yeah, well, I really wanted that Twilight Sparkle plushy, so that eight-year-old girl can just learn to live with the disappointment.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What do people think the best case, realistic case, and worst case are? Don't have to answer all three lol.

Personally:

Best case: Grovelling apology, "We hear you", and total reconsideration of approach to OGL 1.1, probably saying OGL 1.0a will remain in use, we'll come back with a licence for 1D&D material, but this was a big mistake and we're very sorry.

I think that's incredibly unlikely, but that's the best case I can see actually happening. Companies have done this sort of thing. Very rarely though.

(Also if it really is perceived internally as a massive screw-up, I would be unsurprised if Dan Rawson ends up mysteriously in another job in a year or so. Not Williams or Cocks though, they'd be too senior even though the buck arguably stops with them.)

Realistic case: Faux-apology, "We hear you" (except they obviously don't), some vague half-lies about how this was an "unfortunate leak" (yeah unfortunate for you!) and just a plain ol' Big Misunderstanding, even though we know from 3PPs that it wasn't. OGL 1.1 goes ahead except they make it clear it's just poison pill opt-in, they're not actually attempting to deauthorize 1.0a or ther other SRDs (even though their language strongly indicated they were lol).

That's pretty likely I think, and it'll be enough to pacify people who are normally WotC fans, but temporarily upset by this "beyond the pale" behaviour. People will pretend that "misunderstanding" explanation isn't absolute horse-poop, and we'll probably have incipient brush-fire flame wars (calmed by Umbran's merciless gaze) for years to come.

Worst case: Still a faux-apology, but this time one of those super-fake ones where they just apologise for "how you feel" and maybe for their failure to keep it secret, or that they "trusted the wrong people". No changes to the OGL 1.1, rather some "clarifications" which are actually 100% spin, and probably the dreaded claim that they "had to do this" to "fight the bigots" (without actually naming any or giving any examples at all, of something that hasn't actually been a major issue under the OGL), though even worst-case I don't think they'll lean TOO hard on that because it's a point of vulnerability. I think they still might clarify that it's opt-in, if only to prevent legal action, but won't clarify the status of other SRDs and may go ahead and remove them from the internet and so on (possibly even attempting to quietly DMCA people who keep them up).

I don't think it's likely to be that bad, but I think it's a lot more likely than the best case.

Re: signing it, hard to say if someone will, because that can play either way. But if they make Crawford or Perkins sign it (mere underlings of these more illustrious figures), I'll be pretty angry, because that's just not taking responsibility, and not having the buck stop with you.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You cannot trust the Bronies!

True story - we were sitting in the audience at Emerald City Comicon waiting for the next panel when a girl and her mother got into a heated argument behind us. The girl, who couldn't have been more than 8, was arguing that they had to get up earlier tomorrow to get to the My Little Pony booth for some limited edition item before the Bronies cleaned it out. That kid had some strong opinions about Bronies, let me tell you. It was adorable.

My youngest went through a pony phase and was politely perplexed at all the adults interested in them. Luckily, she never got to the point where she wanted anything rare/valuable, because she would not have been OK with competing with a 40 year old man.

 

[Mallus]

Well I hope the mountain-sized amount of terrible publicity they just got does some good.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What do people think the best case, realistic case, and worst case are? Don't have to answer all three lol.

"There's been a lot of misconceptions about our plans. Our fans and third party partners are extremely important to us and we're deeply disappointed in the misleading depictions about what's happening with our not-yet-released OGL. There is no final OGL at this time -- we would release it if there were -- and we urge everyone to be skeptical of anyone claiming otherwise. We are sorry about the pain and confusion caused by these misconceptions spread by third parties and content creators have caused and look forward to sharing our exciting and inclusive vision of the future of D&D and the new OGL with you soon."

In other words, deny, deny, deny, blame the critics, claim it'll all be fine and don't believe anyone saying otherwise.

I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Learned this from Nerd Immersion where he mentions this and takes about the D&D Paramount+ tv show and Kobold Press' glove slap to WotC.

His ratio of face-palming screencaps to otherwise, even before the OGL thing, was pretty high. He also claims that finding a posting on Amazon is him "reporting leaks."

He's kind of full of himself for a random dude streaming from a closet.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

His ratio of face-palming screencaps to otherwise, even before the OGL thing, was pretty high. He also claims that finding a posting on Amazon is him "reporting leaks."

He's kind of full of himself for a random dude streaming from a closet.

Dude that was pretty nasty