WotC Hasbro CEO Chris Cox talks about D&D on NPRs Here & Now. Topics include Layoffs and OGL.

[Parmandur]

I'll have to disagree with you there. I don't recall them doing anything on the level of trying to revoke the OGL. If nothing else, I honestly never expected them to do something so punitive to so many people, particularly when it had so little gain for them; and to the extent that that's "trust," then most other people seemed to trust them that much as well, considering how people reacted.

The OGL was originally a pretty cynical move to further wmbed their own market dominance: and it worked, that's why people got mad!

And regular layoffs at the holidays were their norm for years.

 

[Alzrius]

The OGL was originally a pretty cynical move to further wmbed their own market dominance: and it worked, that's why people got mad!

No, I don't believe that a win-win scenario is cynical at all. And neither did most other people in the industry, since there were very few people decrying the benefits that the OGL gave. (That's leaving aside the fact that I personally believe Ryan Dancey and Peter Adkison about how part of the reason for making the OGL in the first place was to make sure that D&D belonged – at least in some sense – to the community, in a way that couldn't be withdrawn.)

And regular layoffs at the holidays were their norm for years.

Which I don't believe are anywhere near as egregious as trying to revoke the OGL.

 

[mamba]

Seriously. What exactly are people expecting?

it’s simple really, I want to see that they embrace the CC SRD, and that it was not the community twisting their arm until they did so, with WotC hoping the issue now goes away if they only ignore it long enough.


That means releasing a full new version for 2024 and ideally releasing the 3.x SRDs as well.

Once that is done I am reasonably comfortable that they will not mess with it again anytime soon, without that they basically are by next year

Until they do one or the other (ie less than that), I am withholding judgement

 

[Parmandur]

No, I don't believe that a win-win scenario is cynical at all. And neither did most other people in the industry, since there were very few people decrying the benefits that the OGL gave. (That's leaving aside the fact that I personally believe Ryan Dancey and Peter Adkison about how part of the reason for making the OGL in the first place was to make sure that D&D belonged – at least in some sense – to the community, in a way that couldn't be withdrawn.)

Which I don't believe are anywhere near as egregious as trying to revoke the OGL.

Really, I find the layoffs way more egregious than the OGL stuff by a country mile, particularly with the CC resolution basically taking any future action off the table much more effectively than the OGL ever could. If nothing had happened with the OGL last year at all, but the same layoffs had occurred I would feel about the same as I do now.

 

[Parmandur]

it’s simple really, I want to see that they embrace the CC SRD, and that it was not the community twisting their arm until they did so, with WotC hoping the issue now goes away if they only ignore it long enough.


That means releasing a full new version for 2024 and ideally releasing the 3.x SRDs as well.

Once that is done I am reasonably comfortable that they will not mess with it again anytime soon, without that they basically are by next year

Yeah, particularly updating any new reule revisions and organization in CC is pretty vital to WotC future here.

 

[Alzrius]

Really, I find the layoffs way more egregious than the OGL stuff by a country mile, particularly with the CC resolution basically taking any future action off the table much more effectively than the OGL ever could.

I strongly disagree.

 

[Hussar]

Uhh… tons? Custom card design is a huge thing among Magic players. Mark Rosewater blogs and podcasts about Magic’s design philosophy and techniques all the time to encourage fans to apply to their own designs.

Sorry. Let me rephrase. How many homebrew magic cards are allowed in play?

 

[Hussar]

There is no doubt that the OGL was a major shift in philosophy of the whole industry and many games beyond D&D have really benefitted from the ideas of making engines accessible to designers.

But given that there is the obvious corollary: trying to retract the OGL was one of the biggest missteps in hobby history.

Really? What negative impact has it had on the hobby?

It resulted in a far stronger open license. At the end of the day, I’d argue that this was probably the healthiest thing for the hobby since the ogl was created.

 

[Reynard]

Really? What negative impact has it had on the hobby?

It resulted in a far stronger open license. At the end of the day, I’d argue that this was probably the healthiest thing for the hobby since the ogl was created.

You seem to be confusing the action and the attempt at apology.

 

[Hussar]

And as far as releasing 2024 as CC, well, ok. But continuously asking for this as a condition for trust when they haven’t actually released 2024 yet seems a bit hard for them to actually do.

There’s no point in supporting the Ogl anymore. Everyone abandoned it. It was proven to be without value since everyone dropped it like a dirty shirt at the first challenge. At least with CC, that won’t happen again.

Like it or not, the OGL is dead. Nothing is going to bring it back.