WotC D&D Historian Ben Riggs says the OGL fiasco was Chris Cocks idea.

[I'm A Banana]

When you think about it, Chris Cocks was just a product of his time. In that era, every CEO was basically an idiot who refused to listen to the experienced experts around them. We can't judge him based on the standards of our time. He was just doing what everyone else was doing.

 

[Alzrius]

A minor nitpick here, but when Riggs says...

Do you know whose idea it was to try to cancel the OGL?

It was Chris Cocks, who was at the time the CEO of Wizards, and is now the CEO of Hasbro.

...he's in error. The OGL debacle began in January of 2023, but Chris Cocks became CEO of Hasbro in February of 2022.

Now, maybe Riggs meant that Cocks came up with, and began to put into motion, the plan to end the OGL back when he was still President and Chief Operating Officer of WotC, but if so he could have worded that better.

 

[Distracted DM]

I agree. What matters is what is done now, not what happened in the past.

Given the course of events over the past year and a half, I don't think it's much more relevant than things that happened three decades ago.

That's an interesting take- I guess apology tours do wonders if folks aren't interested in what happened a year or three ago, let alone a decade+ from the same people.

 

[Parmandur]

A minor nitpick here, but when Riggs says...



...he's in error. The OGL debacle began in January of 2023, but Chris Cocks became CEO of Hasbro in February of 2022.

Now, maybe Riggs meant that Cocks came up with, and began to put into motion, the plan to end the OGL back when he was still President and Chief Operating Officer of WotC, but if so he could have worded that better.

A valid nickpick:

However, one of the things Kyle Brink said in his apology appearances was that the OGL changes were already in process and ongoing when he started at WotC...in February 2021. So, there was some deeper background to this initiative...and frankly I don't think Riggs will give us a holistic view at this time, it will probably by like 20 years before we get the real skinny, if ever.

 

[mamba]

...he's in error. The OGL debacle began in January of 2023, but Chris Cocks became CEO of Hasbro in February of 2022.

the decision for this was made long before Jan 2023, that is just when they had to retreat from it

Now, maybe Riggs meant that Cocks came up with, and began to put into motion, the plan to end the OGL back when he was still President and Chief Operating Officer of WotC, but if so he could have worded that better.

that is precisely what Riggs is saying...

 

[DarkCrisis]

I can't believe some rich CEO made a huge mess and got to keep his money, power, and job. I am just shocked. Shocked.

 

[Oofta]

That's an interesting take- I guess apology tours do wonders if folks aren't interested in what happened a year or three ago, let alone a decade+ from the same people.

I judge people on what they are doing now, and in the recent past not on what they did over a year ago. Meanwhile, Cocks is just one cog in the giant HASBRO wheel, even if he is an important one. I don't give a fig about the apology tour, I care that they backed off of a stupid proposed change and are opening up DDB to 3PP.

I don't trust them any less today than I did two years ago because I never trusted them in the first place.

 

[Oofta]

I can't believe some rich CEO made a huge mess and got to keep his money, power, and job. I am just shocked. Shocked.

Almost as shocked as I am that anyone thinks a different CEO would make a difference. Or that we should ever trust corporations to do anything other than worry about their bottom line.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Almost as shocked as I am that anyone thinks a different CEO would make a difference. Or that we should ever trust corporations to do anything other than worry about their bottom line.

 

[Scribe]

Almost as shocked as I am that anyone thinks a different CEO would make a difference.

You dont think different CEO's make a difference to the direction of a company?