I think they got what they wanted

[Mercurius]

I don’t think it is. It’s not even a good short-term plan. Alienate the community. Ask outrageous prices. And produce a tiny trickle of at best mediocre content. I don’t see the up side here.

What is the "community," though? For all we know, the only people who are outraged are old-timers - or, at least, outrage may be heavily skewed towards older players, especially those for whom the arrival of the OGL is still a first-hand memory - so we're talking about Millenials and older. The demographic is getting younger and younger, and presumably the median age is somewhere in the early 20s now.

Furthermore, as much as there's been outrage here and in other "diehard spaces," it may be that the bulk of D&D players don't care, or aren't even aware of what's going on. We're talking about tens of millions.

WotC gave us a 50 million figure a couple years ago, which had gone up from 40 million the year before. If we assume it has continued to grow, maybe it is 55-60+ million now, presumably half or more of whom are active players (and buyers). I can't remember when exactly, but I think about 20 years ago they estimated that about 20 million people have ever played D&D, and a few million actively so - so we're talking about almost 3x as many since then, and many more times who actively play...most of whom have started over the last half decade or so.

That's WotC's primary audience - those folks, mostly younger, mostly new, and...future players; players they hope to get from the movie and tv show, and just continued exposure.

For better or worse, the "community" is now so much larger than "us" (long-term, diehard players) - and really, it seems that WotC cares less and less about that aging demographic.

So maybe they don't care about alienating the 38-year old Millenial who started when 3E came out? They probably care even less about the 50-year old Gen Xer who started in the boom of the early 80s, and not at all about the 65-year old greybeard Boomer who rolled dice with Gary.

 

[mamba]

They can't really "stop" D&D compatible content, as much as they want too. It's a Gray area but for close to 50 years other companies have made "D&D compatible content". Things can be made "not using D&D words" easy enough. Plus there is the huge danger of if WotC goes to court....they might loose: The court might rule against everything WotC wants.

well, I will ignore the court case in my reply, but I’d much rather no one created anything for 5e any more than trying to make a living in the ruins of the OGL. Move on to Pathfinder, Shadow of the Demon Lord or literally anything else. Not sure how feasible that is from an earnings perspective, but right now clinging to 5e does not feel like such a great choice either in that regard

Move on and rebuild, no point living under the thumb of WotC

 

[innerdude]

To the OP:

Yep.

I think I mentioned it in a different thread; the point of deauthorizing OGL 1.0a was never about collecting the pittance of royalties that it would generate.

It was always about creating the walled garden. And it seems pretty clear that deauthorization of OGL 1.0a is the centerpiece of that strategy.

They're betting on the likelihood---and it's an entirely rational bet, in my mind---that even if they lose some marketshare short term, they'll more than make up for it by remaining the de facto, default ecosystem for roleplaying. They're betting that they will continue to control enough market share to capture the bulk of the industry revenue stream.

 

[overgeeked]

Move on and rebuild, no point living under the thumb of WotC

The initial wave seems to be splitting for Pathfinder 2E. I hope that works out for people. The system is far too crunchy for my tastes.

 

[Matt Thomason]

well, I will ignore the court case in my reply, but I’d much rather no one created anything for 5e any more than trying to make a living in the ruins of the OGL. Move on to Pathfinder, Shadow of the Demon Lord or literally anything else. Not sure how feasible that is from an earnings perspective, but right now clinging to 5e does not feel like such a great choice either in that regard

Move on and rebuild, no point living under the thumb of WotC

For me I figure it's a case of keeping existing projects ticking over, but then trying to put more and more effort into alternatives moving forwards. The existing revenue stream needs to be maintained, anything currently being worked on that's dependent on the OGL needs to be finished, and then new projects can be introduced to start the move away. My particular circumstances mean there'll always be legacy OGL content I need to support, unless it literally becomes illegal to do so, but I'll be making every effort to diversify away.

 

[Yaarel]

Seems like mixed bag.

Hasbro-WotC hates the negative press and considers boycotts against DnDBeyond to be lethal.

But in other ways, they seem to be defacto excluding the gaming community from OneD&D − an ironic benefit when Hasbro-WotC evolves OneD&D into a videogame with "AI" monsters, that relies on branding recognizability rather than on the roleplay imagination experience.

 

[mamba]

The initial wave seems to be splitting for Pathfinder 2E. I hope that works out for people. The system is far too crunchy for my tastes.

well, it is the next biggest one out there. To me it is far too early to decide what to move to. Will see what gets published under ORC and will go from there. Maybe Black Flag is more your speed, I will certainly keep an eye on that one.

The immediate next one I am curious about will be Shadow of the Weird Wizard and whether Schwalb goes with the ORC license

 

[Greg Benage]

I agree with others that it still matters what happens with the license. Maybe most of the big 3PPs still go off and make their own games, but some won't. And even beyond that, if there's a usable license publishers can build a business on, others will rise to fill that space. If there's not a usable license, then yeah, we're probably left with WotC and DMs Guild.

 

[mamba]

But in other ways, they seem to be defacto excluding the gaming community from OneD&D − an ironic benefit when Hasbro-WotC evolves OneD&D into a videogame with "AI" monsters, that relies on branding recognizability rather than on the roleplay imagination experience.

they can keep that, I have much better computer games to play. This is not what I want TTRPGs for, not sure who actually would

 

[overgeeked]

well, it is the next biggest one out there. To me it is far too early to decide what to move to. Will see what gets published under ORC and will go from there. Maybe Black Flag is more your speed, I will certainly keep an eye on that one.

Early signs point to Project Black Flag being a 5E clone.

As long as enough content is released under the ORC people will be able to cobble things together and make their own systems. To me that’s the sign it’s a successful open license.

My speed is ultra-light games. Here’s to hoping there’s a wave of popularity for those as well.

The immediate next one I am curious about will be Shadow of the Weird Wizard and whether Schwalb goes with the ORC license.

Yeah. Lots of games to watch. Almost like it’s the dawn of another RPG renaissance.