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

[Ruin Explorer]

"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."

Do you do this for a living? That's nearly perfect.

 

[Matt Thomason]

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

Best Case:
"Oops, We really screwed up, didn't we. Just forget you saw any of that, and the new OGL 1.0b will be the same as 1.0a but with the word 'irrevokable' included"

Realistic Case:
"Obviously we cannot revoke 1.0a without your agreement, it was never our intent for that to be read into our comments. By agreeing to 1.1 you do relinquish your 1.0a rights, but you can still continue using 1.0a and our older SRDs if you do nothing with 1.1 or any new content released solely under that license."

Worst Case:
"It's really not as bad as you're thinking. We're not as evil as people are saying. However, this is the 1.1 license and the text stands, 1.0a has gone away, permission to use it has been rescinded retroactively, and it is no longer usable moving forwards in any shape or form."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dude that was pretty nasty

He is posting from a closet and he has crowed about how WotC should send him press releases directly if they don't want him "reporting on leaks" (a subscriber sent him a link to the Dragonlance Amazon posting).

I'm sure he is kind to his mother and to children and animals.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you do this for a living? That's nearly perfect.

I am the recipient of a lot of this kind of nonsense.

 

[Lidgar]

Is it implied the DDB folks will speak broadly to the OGL or more specifically to the VTT space? Seems weird they are now on point to explain what's going on.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is it implied the DDB folks will speak broadly to the OGL or more specifically to the VTT space? Seems weird they are now on point to explain what's going on.

They have replaced most or all of the previous communications D&D team.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

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.

I do not see how this case is better then your "Realistic case"

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.

I think that the best case would be a complete climb down. reversion to status quo ante but I would consider it extremely unlikely.

I think the realistic case and probably the best we could get would be the proposed licence defined by a new SRD 5.2. In that you can use the new SRD if you: Opt In, renounce rights under the OGL, and are limited to static formats (i.e. paper, pdf, websites, no apps etc) but nothing about royalties, no sub licencing.
This would preserve the current OGL ecosystem and allow WoTC to drift the base game away from the 5.1 base so that in 10 or 15 years time you are in effectively in the same place as they were trying to create now but in a boil the from slowly kind of way. And they must be under real investor pressure to act because I am surprised they tried the nuclear option the first go.

The worst is to stick with the current proposed licence. Clarify the opt in nature, make no comment on the status of current OGL material used with the OGL 1.0 except to glower ominously. Make it clear that they do not care about OGC content not from SRD 5.1.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I am the recipient of a lot of this kind of nonsense.

Do you play a lot of online videogames lol? That's a great place to receive non-apologies.

 

[Lidgar]

They have replaced most or all of the previous communications D&D team.

Huh. Was not aware of that. That's kind of telling.

 

[Reynard]

He is posting from a closet and he has crowed about how WotC should send him press releases directly if they don't want him "reporting on leaks" (a subscriber sent him a link to the Dragonlance Amazon posting).

I shut his channel off and told YT not to recommend it any more after the initial OGL announcement. Not because I disagreed with his take (broadly) but because it was clear that he had no damn idea what he was talking about, and kept talking anyway. I don't have time for that BS.