D&D Beyond Cancellations Changed WotCs Plans

Gizmodo has revealed that the partial OGL v1.1 walkback yesterday was in response to the fan campaign to cancel D&D Beyond subscriptions, with "five digits" worth of cancellations. However, the site also reveals that management at the company believed that fans were overreating and that it would all be forgotten in a few months.

In order to delete a D&D Beyond account entirely, users are funneled into a support system that asks them to submit tickets to be handled by customer service: Sources from inside Wizards of the Coast confirm that earlier this week there were “five digits” worth of complaining tickets in the system. Both moderation and internal management of the issues have been “a mess,” they said, partially due to the fact that WotC has recently downsized the D&D Beyond support team.

Yesterday's walkback removed the royalties from the license, but still 'de-authorized' the OGL v1.0a, something which may or may not be legally possible, depending on who you ask.

Cancelled D&D Beyond Subscriptions Forced Hasbro's Hand

Swift consumer action prompted Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast to to scrap licensing updates. The players aren't done yet.

gizmodo.com

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm inclined to say that there's plenty of stuff to build a D&D brand on - and to my mind none of it requires closing off the OGL.

The brands that Hasbro/WotC might choose to emulate - LotR, Harry Potter, or Marvel/DC, in particular - aren't rulesets. They're characters. They're stories. They're icons and symbols. Think the Bat-symbol in the air, the One Ring with its Elvish script shining, Spider-Man, Superman, iconic magic wands, and on and on.

Nothing about the OGL prevents WotC from leveraging those elements of D&D - almost none of which are part of any SRD (save, perhaps, for the varieties of dragon) - into a brand. At least, not IMO. Nothing about the OGL keeps beholders, Tiamat, rust monsters, Drizz't, the D&D ampersand, or the Heroes of the Lance (etc.) from appearing on t-shirts, ball caps, coffee mugs, and so on.

Yes, many D&D characters and stories are separated into different settings - but I suspect that's why the new "implied setting" that comes across in 1D&D playtest documents is "The D&D Multiverse", which ties them all together.

If the movie and TV show had come out well in advance of the 50th anniversary, WotC might well have realized all of this was unnecessary, since I believe, by this time next year, Neverwinter and the Forgotten Realms will be D&D in the minds of the broader general audience.

With a new edition/revision coming out, they're operating with a ticking clock and can't/won't wait to see that brand-building doesn't require alienating the actual players of the game.

 

[Yaarel]

Hasbro-WotC megacorp is more like Neutral Evil, switching back and forth between Law and Chaos, whichever happens to further the profit margin "in any moment".

 

[Composer99]

I tend to agree with you. But reverse it. Could you ever see Marvel/DC, Harry Potter and LoTR ever having an OGL of any type. Of course not. It is not apples to apples and I understand that. And the difference is D&D was a game before it became whatever it is now.

No, you're right, those properties don't have any open licensing (that I know of) - but as you say, that has to do with D&D's history, one which Hasbro and WotC executives have ignored, possibly to their peril.

I guess all I'm saying is that with some forethought, they could have realised that leveraging D&D into a brand is orthogonal to the existence of the OGL: with the possible exception of video games, the latter does not materially threaten the former (certainly not when you look at dollar amounts).

---

Oh, another thought, that doesn't relate to replying to anyone in specific, while there is a lot of 3pp merchandise that relates to D&D-themed stuff, I'm pretty confident that if WotC ups their merchandising game, they'd blow that stuff out of the water with official and/or licensed product.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm sure I'm going to get stuff thrown at me, but I haven't cancelled my Masters subscription yet. My whole game group (more than a dozen people) have paid for books for our games to use, and I'm not comfortable cutting everyone off at this time. I suspect there are other whales like me sticking around for the moment, even if it's uncomfortable.

Now, if WotC keeps f'in' around like this, they're definitely going to find out when I and the other whales start to cancel.

I haven't canceled yet either. I would like to see where all this lands before making that decision.

You do you. But cancelling now doesn’t end your access until your next payment was due. If you pre-paid until August, for example, you still have access until the end of August.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

The actual issue, is that D&D is not a brand at all, at least not one that is anything but generic and shallow.

Yeah, the problem essentially is that the Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Dark Sun, Eberron etc are brands with myths, lore and story that can be mined for IP spinoffs in other media. Dungeons and Dragons as a whole isn't.

The creative team know this is a problem which is why they have been pushing this multiverse approach to the game to the point where they even brought back Spelljammer and Planescape to facilitate this notion that this is all one universe.

It doesn't work. The stuff that made Forgotten Realms novels sell like hotcakes 30 years ago is stuff specific to the characters and situations of those novels rather than some generically D&D thing. I think they would have better success making each world its own individual thing rather than trying to putting Planescape lore in Greyhawk or whatever.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You do you. But cancelling now doesn’t end your access until your next payment was due. If you pre-paid until August, for example, you still have access until the end of August.

My subscription ends at the beginning of March, so it's about six weeks for my players to have access to all the player-facing content we own. We've started discussions about this situation on one of our private forums.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It doesn't work. The stuff that made Forgotten Realms novels sell like hotcakes 30 years ago is stuff specific to the characters and situations of those novels rather than some generically D&D thing. I think they would have better success making each world its own individual thing rather than trying to putting Planescape lore in Greyhawk or whatever.

Uh, Planescape and Spelljammer both launched with Greyhawk, Krynn, etc., all in the mix. They were created as bridges between the 10 zillion campaign worlds of the 1990s. (My first exposure to Spelljammer was a helm and ship as a treasure in the Greyhawk Ruins module.)

The chocolate has been in the peanut butter from day one.

And what made the Forgotten Realms novels sell like hotcakes is a book market model that we will never see again in our lifetimes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No, you're right, those properties don't have any open licensing (that I know of) - but as you say, that has to do with D&D's history, one which Hasbro and WotC executives have ignored, possibly to their peril.

I guess all I'm saying is that with some forethought, they could have realised that leveraging D&D into a brand is orthogonal to the existence of the OGL: with the possible exception of video games, the latter does not materially threaten the former (certainly not when you look at dollar amounts).

---

Oh, another thought, that doesn't relate to replying to anyone in specific, while there is a lot of 3pp merchandise that relates to D&D-themed stuff, I'm pretty confident that if WotC ups their merchandising game, they'd blow that stuff out of the water with official and/or licensed product.

How so? Is there any reason you could point to that would indicate WotC would put out superior product? A dice tray saying "Dungeons & Dragons" doesn't make it a better dice tray.

 

[mamba]

I just don't see that happening unfortunately. WotC clearly wants the 1.0a dead. If killing it was something they were willing to back off on they would have done so yesterday.

1) all we are asking for is that WotC honor the agreement they willingly entered into, that feels like ordinarily that is the bare minimum, and I am not willing to move on from that just yet

2) them not backing out of that yesterday means nothing, they try to offer as little as possible to make this go away. It is up to the community to decide what is enough, and if we keep this up, the outrage grows as more people find out and their subscriptions keep dropping, then we will see how far they are going to go back. So far we have no actual idea, all we know is how outrageously far they wanted to go.
Given that they lived very well with the OGL this long certainly implies that getting rid of it is not vital to their business (I’d argue not getting rid might be however)

3) even the new terms they offered are entirely unacceptable because they can change them at any time and if there is one thing WotC is lacking completely right now that is trust, so any new offer has to be perpetual and irrevocable

 

[Nebulous]

As a wise man once said, '...it is the doom of men that they forget.'

Never forget that WotC has revealed its true alignment. They're not primarily interested in fostering a creative community. They are a business seeking to maximize profit for shareholders. That's fine, but when they do it in a Chaotic Evil way, we should remember.

If we still remember how THAC0 works, there's no way in hell we're forgetting about this.