Jesus wept dude.
I said This is the crux of the issue for me.
It was about the OGL a week or two ago. But now it's not.
Not really.
And I'm asserting that the manner in which you've characterized this issue is not an accurate description of what's happening. Quite the contrary, I don't think the concerns that you've raised are at all correct in their premises.
Dwelling on hurt feelings doesn't fix things in the future, and doesn't ensure those small publishers everyone SAYS they're so concerned about have healthy careers and successful books in the future.
Again, pointing towards people's being upset at a blatant miscarriage of justice – particularly when it looks like they might actually get away with it, let alone do anything to demonstrate remorse – and calling it "hurt feelings" does not reflect the reality of what's happening. Expressing outrage is the only way most people have to contribute to a pushback (beyond a few very specific things such as cancelling a DDB sub if they have one), and while it lends itself to hyperbole (which shouldn't be taken literally in terms of the specifics articulated), it comes from a very real sense that an entity with that much power shouldn't be able to abuse it so flagrantly and get away with it. To whatever extent that can convince WotC to back off
does help those smaller publishers.
If people actually cared about 3PP and not their own hurt feelings, they'd be focused on making the new license as solid and airtight and beneficial to 3PP as possible.
This overlooks that a simpler way to help publishers would be to simply return to the previous state of affairs, and that there's no compelling reason for WotC not to do exactly that beyond simple greed. There is no need to cede the central issue regarding the OGL v1.0a being revoked/de-authorized, especially since WotC's assertion that they can do that is far from solid.
As I said in my post that you apparently didn't read, if people actually cared about the health of the small publishers, they'd put their bruised egos and victim complexes aside and forgive D&D. Because a successful D&D means successful 3rd Party publishers.
Your premise, here, does not stand up to scrutiny. Even leaving aside the counterintuitive nature of forgiving someone who's wronged you for their own gain, especially when they've demonstrated remorse only after receiving pushback (which makes their motives suspect), and who continues to ignore the most obvious path toward making amends (i.e. backing off on revoking/de-authorizing the OGL v1.0a), the fact of the matter is that preservation of the old license is far and away healthier for small publishers than trying to fix the inherently-problematic new license WotC is pushing for.
People do not need to forgive D&D in order to secure the health of the smaller publishers; they need a license that actually allows them to publish without anxiety that WotC might suddenly terminate their business. That's easy for WotC to do, and they have yet to do it. Ergo, the best thing for those other publishers is
not forgive WotC until that forgiveness is earned.
Any idea that D&D must be uplifted, regardless of the misdeeds of its corporate owners, in order for third-parties to thrive is misplaced.
