The WotC OGL Release on DDB today was edited in real time!

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

When you're making an official statement like this, it is customary to have said statement finalized before posting it.

Crisis communications are communications conducted in times of crisis.

It's hardly surprising that they'd say "great, post it" and then 30 seconds later, someone would run into the conference room and say "wait, rewrite this part!"

 

[Haplo781]

Writing can always be improved, whether for a college essay or a corporate statement.
They didn't try to make a stealth change to the statement to slip in a new clause or comment. They just punched up the language.
It's not a big deal.

This is really just another example of how you just cannot win when you're the Enemy of the Week on social media. Nothing WotC can do for the next few days will do anything but add fuel to the fire. There's NO way to win when you engage with people on social media.
They could be offering free kittens and sexual favours and they'd get hate about not offering the choice of puppies.

WotC should have just remained silent, let people get distracted by the next source of outrage, and then quietly release the updated OGL they're working on.

It's an official press release on behalf of a multi-billion dollar corporation.

If it isn't 100% finished, you don't publish it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's an official press release on behalf of a multi-billion dollar corporation.

If it isn't 100% finished, you don't publish it.

All of this is very typical. You just don't hear about it the rest of the time.

 

[The Stray]

Writing can always be improved, whether for a college essay or a corporate statement.
They didn't try to make a stealth change to the statement to slip in a new clause or comment. They just punched up the language.
It's not a big deal.

This is really just another example of how you just cannot win when you're the Enemy of the Week on social media. Nothing WotC can do for the next few days will do anything but add fuel to the fire. There's NO way to win when you engage with people on social media.
They could be offering free kittens and sexual favours and they'd get hate about not offering the choice of puppies.

WotC should have just remained silent, let people get distracted by the next source of outrage, and then quietly release the updated OGL they're working on.

I'd be more concerned about the poor sex workers they coerced into that offer. We all know how terribly WotC treats its workforce.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

And yet they failed to edit it to "rolled a natural 1" (or something else a D&D player would actually say). That's the real crime here.

Every player I’ve ever known says “rolled a 1”, or “got a 1”.

 

[Steel_Wind]

This isn't a legal document. This is literally a blog post.

It was literally a blog post -- which could have a legal evidentiary effect, depending on. So yeah, not just a blog.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It was literally a blog post -- which could have a legal evidentiary effect, depending on. So yeah, not just a blog.

You are expecting more thoughtful behavior than WotC has been exercising for the past few weeks.

 

[Steel_Wind]

You are expecting more thoughtful behavior than WotC has been exercising for the past few weeks.

You got me there. ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[Maxperson]

That was one of the craziest most amusing screw ups blunders that I have looked at seen in a long time ages.

 

[darjr]

Real-time. That was the work of someone who had it under watch via RSS alerts. The user created the tracked changes. See the post here.

My guess is that PR went with the post it thought was fine, it was approved by a more junior lawyer at WotC's in-house counsel, and then a more senior lawyer looked at it and made more changes to what had been approved for posting shortly after the fact.

Looking at the changes, there would have been quite an uncomfortable discussion between junior and senior counsel after this. I've been on the receiving -- as well as the initiating end of those moments. NOT FUN, lemme tell ya. Taking out the reference to the NDA screams "senior counsel" to me.

It's just a guess, but that's my take on what likely explains it best.

I'm attaching a screen shot of that reddit post.