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.

 

[Haplo781]

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.

Game System License 2.0

 

[mangamuscle]

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.

No need, now it is the Oligarch Game Licence.

 

[jgbrowning]

OGL 1.1 is already dead! hahaha

I wonder if changing from 1.1 to 2.0 may change all sorts of search/push algorithms and the change is being done in that way with something like that in mind?

joe "suspicious" b.

 

[rgard]

And what part of that says there would be an announcement tomorrow?

Sorry, I'm not searching through 100+ pages for mentions of Friday or 1/13.

 

[Mercurius]

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

I think it depends on how you look at it. In the real world, there are few cases of obvious, outright "intentional evil." They happen, but usually on a small scale. Most of what we consider to be "evil" (or should I say "bad") is people who think what they're doing is "good", but ignore or don't care about the consequences. Or perhaps it is "good" for them and who they identify with, and "bad" for those outside it.

Meaning, in the real world, most "dark lords" are not actually Sauron, but Gandalf if he had taken the Ring and gone down an ever-more-slippery-slope ("I will change the world for good, even if it takes free-will from people...I know what's best for them, after all").

 

[mhd]

"ChatGPT please rewrite this license so that everyone likes us again"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sorry, I'm not searching through 100+ pages for mentions of Friday or 1/13.

Do it! Digging into search results for my leaker advice post turned up a hilarious thread from 2009 predicting that the iPhone would destroy D&D.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

And what part of that says there would be an announcement tomorrow?

IIRC, the original leaked 1.1(a) OGL stated that it would be effective etc. on January 13, 2023- tomorrow (Friday). I think that's why they were planning the announcement then.

 

[Kinematics]

Wild PR Surge, roll OGLd20 for effect.

Not a d100? I wanna see the "gets turned into a potted plant" result!

 

[overgeeked]

So the other obvious thing here is this one was possibly an intentional leak. Info passed around to out the leaker. Give different times to different people and see which one hits the net.