OGL-Gate & Mainstream Media: The Guardian Weighs In

With The Guardian picking up the story this morning, here's a list of media outlets covering the Open Gaming Licence controversy.

The initial story came from Gizmodo/iO9, which recieved a leaked copy of the OGL v1.1., and YouTube channel RollForCombat.

• The Guardian: ‘People are leaving the game’: Dungeons & Dragons fans revolt against new restrictions
• Vice: Dungeons and Dragons Is Jeopardizing Its Greatest Strength: Its Ubiquity
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators
• Comic Book Resources: How New Changes to D&D's Open Gaming License Will Impact Other TTRPGs
• Forbes: What’s Happening With The Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License?
• Ars Technica: RPG fans irate as D&D tries to shut its “open” game license
• NME: D&D content creators outraged over licensing changes, demand the game remain “open”
• Polygon: D&D’s stricter licensing rules might impact some beloved RPGs
• Law Insider: Wizards of the Coast Open Game License
• Financial Times (behind paywall): Dungeons & Dragons & fear & loathing: When Wizards go rogue

 

[Morrus]

Maybe it’s a perspective thing, but my impression was always that the guardian was a more “serious and respectable” news organization

Yes. Thus my use of the words "unfortunately" and "sadly". Respectable and popular are not always the same thing.

 

[dracomilan]

The news has been picked up by a business newsmagazine in Italy:

Il business legato a D&D è a una svolta - BusinessWeekly

Nato come un hobby da nerd, Dungeons and Dragons negli ultimi anni si è evoluto sino a diventare mainstream. Ora il business ad esso legato è in pericolo. Tutto ha inizio nei primi anni duemila. Il creatore originale del gioco di ruolo più famoso al mondo, Gary Gygax, ha perso il controllo della...

businessweekly.it

Wow this is getting huge

 

[Dausuul]

That's a weird, badly-researched, and unhelpful article that addresses almost none of the genuine issues. And talking up defunct piracy sites as a demonstration of how innovative D&D fans are to pursue their hobby is ... certainly an interesting journalistic line to take.

The Guardian article is pretty misleading, yes. Almost as misleading as saying for twenty years that your license was irrevocable and then trying to revoke it... or putting out a license that lets you take away a licensee's work at will and calling it "open." My heart bleeds for Wizards.

The Forbes and Ars Technica articles, however, are quite good. They gloss over the thorny legal details, but both get to the heart of the problem (the attempt to de-authorize the original OGL) and portray it fairly accurately.

 

[Burt Baccara]

Add Financial Times with, Dungeons & Dragons & fear & loathing: When Wizards go rogue.

Edit: sorry, the link goes to a paywall, you can find it on news.google.com search for "Dungeons & Dragons"

 

[MarkB]

Add Financial Times with, Dungeons & Dragons & fear & loathing: When Wizards go rogue.

I haven't read it yet, but props to them for that headline.

 

[FormerLurker]

Looks like Hasbro stock is not doing so well today....

View attachment 272430

(Ignore all the portuguese, I'm to lazy to open google in english)

Hasbro stock was at 63.59 when the OGL news broke on iO9. Then it rose the next two days, dropped close to where it was on the 10th and has been mostly rising since.
Hasbro stock has never been particularly tied to D&D.

 

[Burt Baccara]

The New Republic too: Dungeons & Dragons Fans Prepare to Face Their Greatest Adversary: Corporate Greed

 

[Tonguez]

Forbes and Financial Times picking up the story is a bigger issue for Hasbro/WotC and indicates just how wide this has gone, its outside nerd media and spilled into Guardian mainstream. WotC need to comment soon

 

[billd91]

The New Republic too: Dungeons & Dragons Fans Prepare to Face Their Greatest Adversary: Corporate Greed

Oh, that New Republic article is quite good.

 

[see]

Ooof.

When your mistake makes the Financial Times, you're going to have to start explaining things to large shareholders.