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.

 

[Mercurius]

It is true I will never trust Hasbro-WotC (barring extraordinary repentance).

But.

Making an OGL that is "super duper irrevocable" means, I will continue to play Dungeons & Dragons.

Without that OGL, I will no longer support D&D, and perhaps actively discourage others from it.

I will try find an appealing RPG that
• has a strong OGL (allowing both content modification and selling of Open Content and protection of Product Identity),
• and hopefully already has Open Content that I happen to like for my playstyle.

And there's another option, that still protests WotC while playing D&D (in the case that they back-pedal and make a better OGL, but we're all still left with a sour taste): Buy only third party material, but nothing from WotC. There's enough out there that you literally never need to buy anything from WotC again, and still have plenty of quality material to buy.

 

[Scribe]

Here:

Exactly, I needed to be greeted with memes of disaster, and instead its a delay...

#disappointing

 

[ersatzphil]

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

@Parmandur is someone I specifically enjoy interacting with on this forum, but man - as they themselves once said, that dude has an autocorrect that likes to party.

 

[overgeeked]

Exactly, I needed to be greeted with memes of disaster, and instead its a delay...

#disappointing

"The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last."

 

[masdog]

Exactly, I needed to be greeted with memes of disaster, and instead its a delay...

Delay is a form of disaster...

At least it is in this case.

 

[OB1]

Viewing someone's business crater, having to lay off employees, people possibly losing their houses and having their credit ruined as being "set free" is the privilege of someone not having to go through this kind of crisis themselves.

Yes, flowers bloom after a wildfire. That doesn't make the wildfire not horribly destructive.

As someone who has gone through this kind of crisis several times in my life, I empathize with those going through it now. My comments were only meant to reflect on the fate of the industry itself, not the individuals. I apologize if my comments came off as uncaring about the individuals dealing with this @Whizbang Dustyboots

 

[Yaarel]

CEOs (and similar) tend to rate high on psychological tests for psychopathy.

Seriously.

 

[Mercurius]

The benefit to living in a world where all that matters is short term gains is that in the meanwhile, those who made the stockholders lose money, even for a few months, may still pay a price. The release of One D&D, when the profits may negate any lose of subs now, is quite a few quarters away...

Maybe this is just my unrealistic idealism talking, but I find that -- or hope that -- focusing on short term gains ends up hurting in the long-run. Of course the capitalist system is endlessly exploitable, and corporations seem to always find a way to shift around short-term gains and keep making tons of money (perhaps because we, the consumers, are suckers). But I'd like to think that companies that actual emphasize quality, and taking care of their customers, end up doing well.

 

[rgard]

Delay is a form of disaster...

At least it is in this case.

We're assuming the rumor was correct about an intended communication today. Well played to whomever if it was a fake.

 

[masdog]

We're assuming the rumor was correct about an intended communication today. Well played to whomever if it was a fake.

Even if the rumor wasn't correct, the longer the delay, the greater the uncertainty...and the bigger the disaster becomes.