Ben Riggs talks about Why WotC tried to cancel the OGL

[darjr]

Note I’m reading it now but wanted to share asap. I’ll update this op in a bit.

Why Did Wizards of the Coast Try to Cancel the OGL?

D&D historian Ben Riggs examines what happened when the game's publisher tried to change its open gaming license.

gizmodo.com

 

[darjr]

Again I haven’t read it all yet.

 

[Retreater]

Nothing new here, just a well written retrospective of this chapter of gaming history.

 

[DEFCON 1]

It makes all the sense in the world that it was really about potential money being left on the table. Especially when you consider that there's no way to accurately calculate just how much the availability of the OGL has increased the popularity of the base game (and the money made by WotC from it) versus the money they don't get because it's going to those 3rd Party producers. Because it's not like WotC could make a 1-for-1 comparison and say "That 1 Million Dollar Kickstarter would have been money that would have come to us if that Kickstarter otherwise wasn't a thing." We know that's not true in the least-- that million dollars would not in any way have made its way to WotC if the Kickstarter (and it through the OGL) didn't exist, because WotC would still have needed to produce something to warrant bringing in those million dollars.

But I'm sure there were folks at Hasbro that just didn't get that. They probably just thought indeed that every dollar spent on a 3PP was a dollar that wasn't coming to WotC that otherwise would have. And no matter how many times folks in the D&D department would tell them "D&D is only AS BIG AS IT IS currently BECAUSE the OGL has allowed everyone to grow-- a rising tide lifts all boats-- so putting an end to that will not actually benefit us!"... the money people probably just wouldn't accept it.

Now granted... it's way too simple to just point to the numbers and say "See what the sales of 2E and 4E were without an OGL versus the sales of 3E and 5E WITH an OGL? This is why the OGL has been great for us!" because correlation does not imply causation. But at the same time it was the most evidence the D&D team had to at least have SOMETHING to point to. Until of course then the implosion of January 2023 occurred and gave even more evidence to the problem of what removing the OGL would result in.

And look... quite frankly I understand the money people's argument. I don't think it's a very good argument, and was not nearly worth arguing for... but I understand why they made it. But thankfully those people were put in their place about it.

The lesson to learn from all of this is "If you want to make a lot of money... just make something people really want. Don't try to just skim off of other people's work. You're not going to make nearly enough to warrant all the hassle."

 

[mamba]

"I also contacted Meta to ask if it had plans to do such a thing, but have not heard back as of this writing." so if there is a Meta D&D 3 years from now, we have Ben to thank for it

 

[billd91]

Money's an easy motivation to understand, but I also think you can't discount the power/control angle. If their assertion that the number of affected publishers of OGL material was really small, then the royalties were kind of chicken feed... for now. And that's with D&D and its surrounding ecosystem at the biggest it has ever been.
But if they succeed in turning the D&D movie into a megabucks franchise, then the ecosystem becomes even more attractive to publishers and other companies. A heavy royalty to use the OGL would push any company, particularly the really ambitious ones, to strongly consider an individual license deal even if it means WotC can exert more control.

 

[Vaalingrade]

"The money was too good, Mal. I got stupid."

 

[cranberry]

I know the reason why!

 

[Haplo781]

"The money was too good, Mal. I got stupid."

"What're you gonna tell 'em? About why I'm gone? ... Make somethin' up. Don't tell 'em it was me."

 

[Clint_L]

Ben Riggs has a good reputation and he's done the work of reaching out to both sides. He seems to be leaning pretty heavily on a single source, which we've already seen go sideways over the course of the OGL debacle. But Ben Riggs knows what he is doing.