Rumours: WotC Announcement Today; Insider Email Reveals Plans

There's a couple of rumours going round today. I cannot verify either, but I'm reporting them as most of the recent OGL rumours have proven true.

First -- it is rumoured that today at 3pm ET Wizards of the Coast will make some kind of video statement about the current Open Game License situation. This rumour came from the folks at Roll For Combat who were the first to break the draft OGL scoop.

[[UPDATE -- This didn't happen!]]

Second -- an email has been circulating from an anonymous WotC insider. Again, I must reiterate I cannot myself verify this, so read this with that in mind, but the email says:

Hi,

I'm an employee at WotC currently working on D&Dbeyond (DDB) and with D&D business leaders on the health of the product line. If you want I can provide proof of this.

I'm sending this message because I fear for the health of a community I love, and I know what the leaders at WOTC are looking at:

-They are briefly delaying rollout of OGL changes due to the backlash.
-Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line.
-Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have.
-They are still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push this through.

I have decided to reach out because at my time in WotC I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money, the DDB team was first told to prepare to support the new OGL changes and online portal when they got back from the holidays, and leadership doesn't take any responsibility for the pain and stress they cause others. Leadership's first communication to the rank and file on the OGL was 30 minutes on 1/11/23, This was the first time they even tried to communicate their intentions about the OGL to employees, and even in this meeting they blamed the community for over-reacting.

I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations.

Hope your day goes well,

P.S. I will be copying and pasting this message to other community leaders.

If both rumours are true, I guess at 3pm ET today we'll find that out.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Wotc is only looking at their bottom line for this quarter, that is how business is done. If they can change an agreement, and pick up a few million, they will do it. Corporations are not your friend, it's a mistake to ever think so.

Sure. They're not your friend, but they should be very very careful not to be your enemy. They benefit the most when they can be seen as your ally. Too bad they don't understand the importance of that.

 

[ilgatto]

Edit, it’s back on line.

View attachment 272179

"oters"?

Edit: Okay. I should have checked (@overgeeked).

 

[eyeheartawk]

With blackjack and hookers?

Even then.

 

[dragoner]

Sure. They're not your friend, but they should be very very careful not to be your enemy. They benefit the most when they can be seen as your ally. Too bad they don't understand the importance of that.

It is not how the system works, you probably know it too. The only thing that counts is the bottom line.

 

[overgeeked]

This is my thought as well as a person who has worked in various versions of retail, customer service, corporate America and various combinations of.

I also consider that shareholders, being shareholders, will percieve any mass cancellations of D&D Beyond and the various posts about never supporting Wizards again, as being a risk, and, being risk-adverse, will decide to end D&D. If we see mass cancellations, and shareholders only read numbers, they may decide that it's not worth the hassle, take what they can and run. It's like the Great Depression is my fear - nothing causes a bank run like hearing rumors the bank run has already started.

As we're repeatedly told, you can have an endless amount of fun and play with the books you already have. The existence of D&D as an in-print game is completely irrelevant to my engaging with the hobby. I literally don't care about Habro or their shareholders. Let people make a bank run. If it takes nuking D&D as a game to prevent WotC from nuking most of the rest of the RPG industry, so be it. The only thing I need from WotC at this point is for the OGL to not burn.

 

[Zaukrie]

I don't love companies, but we all know that's how things get made, right? Because they can make money off of them? That doesn't excuse bad behavior, but things don't get made if they don't make money.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

While the ironic echo is indeed funny, I am starting to get uncomfortable with the amount of flak Williams is getting while VP of D&D Dan Rawson and CEO of Hasbro Chris Cocks are mostly unscathed. We might have a certain degree of implicit bias in pointing the finger to the female executive in the middle and not the guy directly responsible for D&D or the bigger fish who's running the whole show.

Yes good point. Cocks/Williams/Rawson…a three-headed ubue.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't love companies, but we all know that's how things get made, right? Because they can make money off of them? That doesn't excuse bad behavior, but things don't get made if they don't make money.

That's clearly not really true of RPGs.

Countless extremely good RPGs have been made for very little money, or given away for free.

This is indeed the problem WotC is facing. What they're really selling isn't D&D. It's a bunch of production values and convenience. That's where most of their money is coming from.

 

[Zaukrie]

That's clearly not really true of RPGs.

Countless extremely good RPGs have been made for very little money, or given away for free.

This is indeed the problem WotC is facing. What they're really selling isn't D&D. It's a bunch of production values and convenience. That's where most of their money is coming from.

This thread is well beyond discussing RPGs......well beyond.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It is not how the system works, you probably know it too. The only thing that counts is the bottom line.

The system exists that way, but it doesn't "work". That's how busts happen. Busts show how that it doesn't really work properly. Also - time will out. This kind of business practices will collapse, eventually (and probably soon).