Can WotC be forgiven?

[Scars Unseen]

In a sense, maybe. I could see the day when I might buy D&D products again. But it won't be soon, and it likely won't be while it's under current leadership. The fact that they (according to a leak) were going to put out an official announcement today and then cancelled that announcement, likely in response to a lot of people cancelling DDB subscriptions, tells me they hadn't planned on giving an inch.

Well I can be stubborn too.

 

[J.Quondam]

I think not, certainly not any time soon.
...Which is a little strange considering WotC still hasn't actually come out and told everyone-- upfront and in their own voice-- what exactly they need to be forgiven for.

 

[Mecheon]

WotC isn't a monolith

If and when the current management team gets the boot for managing to mess up this badly, I can see folks being more generous to 'em, especially if whoever comes in next actually works on fan relation stuff. But its entirely based on whoever comes in next actually being concerned about that and not just endless profit

 

[Tazawa]

The problem for Wizards is that D&D Beyond isn’t worth $146M without the revocation of the OGL and the creation of an walled garden.

They are kind of screwed either way. Create a walled garden that no one is willing to join with their current strategy or go try to go back to the previous status quo with the realization that they vastly overpaid for an online character sheet.

 

[Seule]

WotC maybe. Hasbro no. Having a megacrporation own your hobby is never a good idea.

 

[Greg Benage]

The problem for Wizards is that D&D Beyond isn’t worth $146M without the revocation of the OGL and the creation of an walled garden.

Eh. They could build it the old fashioned way, like Amazon or Apple, and just do it better than everyone else. They're not exactly up against a Walmart or Android, either.

 

[Parmandur]

I didn't like or trust them before, there is nothing to forgive. They are not making optimal moves for their own benefit, but that's a WotC problem, not mine.

 

[Dausuul]

Guilt and forgiveness is not a useful way of looking at the situation. I want to help establish, in the minds of future stewards of the game, that the community makes or breaks D&D.

Right now, that means making an example of current leadership at Wizards.

If Wizards backs off... well, it'll depend on if the lesson seems to have sunk in. And whether, by that point, my group has found another game we want to play more. If they don't back off, of course, that's that.

One day, Wizards might re-commit to open gaming (as they did with 5E's release), and then I'd probably come back. But that won't be for a while, I expect.

 

[Charlaquin]

If they release the 3.5, 5e and the upcoming 1dnd SRDs under the ORC then I'd say we're good.

Yeah, I was gonna say. Now that ORC has been announced, I feel like just making the OGL 1.0 irrevocable would be too little, too late. Adding the various SRDs to ORC would bring me back though.

 

[Pedantic]

Yeah, I was gonna say. Now that ORC has been announced, I feel like just making the OGL 1.0 irrevocable would be too little, too late. Adding the various SRDs to ORC would bring me back though.

Yeah, I would have been persuaded by an update of the OGL that went the other direction...but that ship has now sailed with their silence. Now they need to get on board this boat and quickly.

.....if it takes them another 6 months to a year to catch up, then I'm expecting an apology gift. A 4e SRD would do nicely.