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.

 

[Charlaquin]

Right, but the comment that sparked my response was suggesting that even if Hasbro changed course and made the current OGL irrevocable, people would still boycott D&D. My position is that Hasbro can still recover by fixing things, not that Hasbro can just wait things out without fixing them.

Ah, I see. In that case I agree. Although, I do think they would have to add the word “irrevocable” to the OGL to fix things at this point.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

To me, it seems like this is significantly more intense to me.

joe b.

I mean, I think it's a much wider blast zone, but the community hasn't hit the peak anger of the GSL deal, because it's not set in stone. If it does get set in stone, it'll peak way higher.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

0eoppe

Is it sad that my brain instantly knew that was a typo of people lol?

 

[Composer99]

I shouldn't go so far as to say that emotions are really more intense now than they were in 2008; say rather that due to the differences between the GSL and "OGL" 1.1 the stakes for 3pp are higher now.

 

[rgard]

Does this mean I have time to write a supplement for 3.5 that uses the original OGL?

 

[timbannock]

To me, it seems like this is significantly more intense to me.

joe b.

It certainly is among publishers/content creators.

For many hobby players, I can't really see how this would really be on their radar. 95% of the players aren't going to be immediately affected by this, and probably don't even WANT to read a license or contract, never mind hear talk about clauses changing and possible legal precedent, etc. ;-P

 

[Reynard]

I mean, I think it's a much wider blast zone, but the community hasn't hit the peak anger of the GSL deal, because it's not set in stone. If it does get set in stone, it'll peak way higher.

4E actually ended game groups and friendships. I doubt this will have the same negative impact.

 

[Charlaquin]

Makes me wonder if certain people were fed the twitch time so that they could weed out the leaker?

I get that that does sound overly dramatical

Nah, sounds pretty reasonable to me.

 

[Parmandur]

To me, it seems like this is significantly more intense to me.

joe b.

I was fairly dispassionate at the time, myself, being optimistic about 4E and not invest2d in the OGL, amd don't care that strongly now. From a detached perspective, theb2008 uproar was stronger...but it's early days yet.

 

[Dausuul]

There's no real evidence of that kind of advance planning in place in any of this.

Agreed.

I feel like a lot of people have this mental image of big corporations as paragons of careful planning and attention to detail, where every seeming mistake actually serves a long-term agenda. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As a rule, the bigger a company gets, the clumsier and sloppier it becomes. Information must filter through more and more layers to get where it needs to go, and decision makers are ever more insulated from the consequences of their choices. A small business owner can't be totally delusional about their customer base and stay in business long, but the CEO of Hasbro absolutely can.

If this reaction had been anticipated, Hasbro would have been ready with a response when the bomb dropped or shortly thereafter. I don't think the people in charge had the slightest idea this would provoke controversy at all. I think they believed their customers would care not a fig what happened to 3PPs, and the 3PPs would meekly sign on for GSL 2.0 because what else could they do? I mean, the new license came with a contract ready to sign -- Hasbro clearly saw it as a done deal.

Shortsighted, hubristic, utterly ignorant of WotC's own history? Yes, yes, and yes. But also entirely believable, and indeed likely. For the most part, our world is run not by evil masterminds but by self-centered, vicious incompetents.