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.

 

[Scribe]

Always disable the chat when you're doing crisis communications, folks.

Yeah I mean to leave it on right now?!

 

[overgeeked]

It keeps getting better the longer it plays.

 

[Zaukrie]

They may be out there, but they’re fewer and farther between. Fortunately for me (or not, depending on perspective), I’m pretty inured to this whole debacle, after going through these types of antics already with Games Workshop. I don’t engage with GW anymore, and won’t with WOTC…

That's my direct and indirect experience. Most companies are driven by C level people interested in short term money. That said, that's how they are incentivized to act. By large amounts. In fairness, if companies don't make more money every year, they don't last real long......

 

[GMforPowergamers]

D&D cannot possibly survive on casual fans.

D&D or the TTRPG as we know it today? Because I promise you if D&D lost half of it's players tomorrow in a thanos snap, the brand would go on.

If the movie does good it could go on to be movies, it already is novels... and

A game where you need multiple hardcover tomes to hold the rules?

that also isn't true... we LIKE to have all these rules but they could put out a D&D for casual play that is 200pgs phb/dmg/mm if they wanted to.
heck look at any starter set (normally from level 1-3) and imagine just adding 7 more levels... the first 10 levels of the game work better then the last 10 anyway.

Without the community, D&D withers. At which point, heads will roll at Hasbro, the world will move on, and after a few years someone will come up with the bright idea of trying to engage the community... and the cycle will start over.

I agree that without the community D&D would die eventually... but I don't think the OGL is the deathblow to the whole community.

 

[Dausuul]

I hear you, and think this has definitely been true for most of the last 50 years, but that WotC might be banking on it not being true in the future, at least based on what Lisa Codega wrote. WotC is (or will be) focusing on VTT, and "ease of play" modalities, so it might be that the D&D of the future will be one in which the "messy wires" will be more hidden, and people will just be able to plug in an play. Meaning, less reliance on rulebooks and even rules.

I think you're very likely right that WotC is banking on this. I also think they are going to discover that it ain't that easy.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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

You’re falling for corporate apologism.

Companies can and should be held accountable to the societies and communities they operate within.

 

[Yaarel]

Speaking of which, I am beginning to wonder if One D&D will support print media at all at this point.

The answer is no.

The OGL 1.1 tries to "de-authorize" the 3e SRDs, including Modern.

It only allows the 5.1 SRD, but in a way that can terminate at any moment.

Tellingly:

It FORBIDS access to ALL FUTURE content after 5.1.

The purpose of the OGL 1.1 and the goal of Hasbro-WotC is to destroy EVERYTHING beyond DnDBeyond.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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 dramatic.

No, that's a standard sniff-out-the-leaker move.

If you have direct knowledge of what's going on inside WotC (not you, YouTubers), I urge you to read this post of mine about how to leak more safely.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Always disable the chat when you're doing crisis communications, folks.

I mean considering some things said in chats it might just be best to always have it off as default

 

[Zaukrie]

Well, I was hoping for more information today. That's disappointing