Why We Should Work With WotC

[MonsterEnvy]

I mean, this is the really the reason we need to defend OGL 1.0a. At this point, it might be one of the best ways to actually keep D&D going into the future (if recent revelations about their business plans are accurate).

OGL 1.0a won't do anything.

Pretty sure D&D will do fine without it.

 

[AnotherGuy]

No to the OP.
Why would I need to work with a company that has re-released Tyranny of Dragons not ONCE but TWICE with effectively no improvements, but just new covers which signals that it is nothing but a cash-grab on their part. Let us not even talk about the recent Spelljammer books and other material under their watch.

They do not produce content for me anymore. I am more than happy with the material created by 3pp.
This OGL business just allowed for a bigger audience to now dislike them.

 

[Haplo781]

You're an essential worker!

If you beat sales projections you get a certificate of achievement

 

[Justice and Rule]

Exactly or the "You're not a prisoner, you're a valued member of the community who isn't allowed to leave the community without written permission from the lord. Which will not be given."-style (Japan had a particularly wild version of that in I think the 1500s).

You're an essential worker!

"Here in Ben Ton Vil, we're all part of King Wal-tun's family. You help his kingdom prosper, and he helps you with the infinite mercy of allowing your existance to continue! Together, we can reach our goals in a constructive and mutually-beneficial manner."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

First, there is no one above them, except Chris Cocks is above Cynthia Williams. After that, it's just the board. And no, if it was that or the company goes under, the board would do it. And I think that kind of corporate culture is terrible, because it means no one is ever responsible for anything. The consequences for failure at that level should include the public being made aware of what you did. These people shouldn't be trusted to have executive level jobs in the future. If there are no consequences, there's no limit to this kind of psychopathic behavior.

Doesn't matter what you or I think about general professional practices, they are what they are. Your objection to them in this particular case will never impact anything. Sorry, but that's just the plain truth.

As I sarcastically told another poster, I literally accounted for no one being above Chris Cocks in the post you quoted, if you'd bother to read the whole section you posted rather than just skimming it for something to immediately reply to.

Now, sometimes companies do give the job of being the face of the apology to a more junior person in a leadership role, like they did to Mr Brinks, but if this gets to the point where the board steps in and is directly issuing orders to change course and make apologies for the entire debacle, it will be a statement from as high up as they can without forcing any one person to debase themselves, and the text will read as a statement from the company as a whole, not from any one individual. It may have a personal preamble about how much the writer loves dnd or whatever, but the actual apology will be an apology from the company, and it will be to the public, not to individual publishers, one by one, with custom drafter letters for each one. That just isn't a thing.

 

[Minigiant]

That's fair. Do we know how profitable it has been for WotC? 2%, 10%, 15.2826%?

Adventures were always the lowest selling books for WOTC D&D. They always rank lower than core and options books.

We'd need internals to see exact numbers.

 

[Justice and Rule]

OGL 1.0a won't do anything.

Pretty sure D&D will do fine without it.

I dunno, how did that work out last time?

(Not commenting on 4Es rules, but definitely the business strategy.)

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I dunno, how did that work out last time?

(Not commenting on 4Es rules, but definitely the business strategy.)

They will have their new OGL, and 4e still did fine without the OGL.

Wizards also has bunch of other new things coming out as well. Like the movie and games, that 4e did not have. Too many people are blinded by their outrage.

 

[Justice and Rule]

I think Wizards has actually been benefiting from the OGL 1.0a way more than any third party producers have. Locking people into the D&D ecosystem is a massive win for Hasbro.

I can't remember where I read it, but GW did away with its Specialist Games almost a decade ago only to bring them back. I had read that they wanted to stop people from drifting off to the smaller games, but then brought it back because they found out they basically acted as release valves for people overwhelmed with their games: if you were tired of buying big armies, the skirmish games gave much more manageable projects that kept you in the GW ecosystem. You can see them integrate that strategy with how their "Squad-size" games have become the new entryway into a lot of the hobby.

 

[Justice and Rule]

They will have their new OGL, and 4e still did fine without the OGL.

Uh, I mean, that's one way of looking at it.

Wizards also has bunch of other new things coming out as well. Like the movie and games, that 4e did not have. Too many people are blinded by their outrage.

And you're too blinded by your devotion. Movies and games don't mean anything when you are killing the RPG line by turning into a microtransaction factory for a VTT. Trying to homogenize the DnD experience with video games down to big subscriptions and microtransactions is a great way to kill off an audience who signed up for a RPG and not a MMO.