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.

 

[Reynard]

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.

The question was whether there would be 1D&D dead tree books.

 

[Zaukrie]

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

Legal would like that!

 

[bedir than]

The question was whether there would be 1D&D dead tree books.

Yes, because even if they shift to a digital primary mode, the physical books can then become collectibles, at $100 each

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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

We didn't go that far, but we had a lot of talks about what to do, as I was already hitting the wall as a DM running 3E games, as it felt like an arms race between my optimization players, the rest of my players and me, and two-thirds of us didn't enjoy it (the other third were genuinely surprised about that, I think, and hadn't been doing anything with malice).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I will never understand why people find it shocking that corporations aren't warm and cuddly. Despite commercials that says [insert company here] cares about you, they don't. They care about what money they can get from you and relatively short term profits.

That's not to say that all corporations are evil, although I would call companies are literally willing to sacrifice lives to make more profit evil. In no way does WOTC rise to that level. But virtually every large corporations doesn't have your best interest at heart beyond keeping a revenue stream going. After a company grows past a certain point the people in charge are almost always going to be the people who have a passion for making money above a passion for whatever they produce.

Yet I give money to heartless corporations every day. I think the D&D development team really cares for and love the game. At some point above them? It's just a product that has to contribute to the bottom line. Am I happy with the decisions WOTC is making? No. But saying that WOTC is a evil as some of the corporations that are literally killing people by direct action or charging exorbitant prices for things they need to survive? I think people need to take a step back and put things into perspective. If you want to cancel your DDB subscription, cool. But they are not Evil Inc.

I would agree that very few corporations are actively evil, they are pernicious at worst because evil, in my book implies intentionality.

 

[Reynard]

Yes, because even if they shift to a digital primary mode, the physical books can then become collectibles, at $100 each

Oh, I don't think WotC is going to stop printing mone--- er, books. I was just pointing out they weren't answer the question that was posed in the post they quoted.

 

[Charlaquin]

The thing is, when I hear about the 4e schism today, and what I remember of it at the time, is about the game systems. What we’re discussing now is about licensing and the broader RPG publishing community. There is, from my perspective, a very different character to this debacle than there was to that one.

 

[Haplo781]

Welp, now I am sure we won't learn anything more until tomorrow and it will probably be "we hear you, but we're going forward on this."

You don't have to postpone for that.

 

[Kinematics]

According to io9 sources, the new OGL, now known as OGL 2.0, was supposed to go live on Thursday afternoon, along with a detailed FAQ explaining changes and addressing fan concerns.

Hey! They changed 1.1 to 2.0! Fixed one of the things that was bugging the heck out of me. Thanks.

Now they just need to remove "Open" from the name.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

You’re falling for corporate apologism.

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

They are but what we are looking at is the culmination of a long propaganda campaign since the nineteen eighties promoting short term shareholder value as the only purpose of corporations. Unfortunately further discussion of this is against forum rules.