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

[mamba]

With the business decision I can punish him by not buying the things he produces. However with the other thing; I don’t work for The Hague.

sure, your recourse in either case is rather limited

 

[jerryrice4949]

Riggs is sticking with his "Golden Age of RPGs is over" thesis even after the people who make and sell games have put out the opposite position

I don’t know if the Golden Age is over but I think there will be a decline. Not necessarily for the reasons he states but I think RPGs have probably peaked for the time being. The record popularity/sales were due to a lot of factors that weren’t going to last forever.

I will also note my two local hobby shops have noticed a decline in TTRPG sales in general over the past 12 months and not just 5E items. They told me it crosses games and even accessories such as miniatures and dice.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Man.. I really liked Ben's book.. And I was really looking forward to a potential sequel. He kind of teased it at the end.

But everything I've read from the guy outside of the book as been a bit of a turn off.. Even if he's not wrong (In the case of the Gygax Sexism receipts), he's kind of just... Annoying.. Why does his con panel schedule read like one of those dumb tabloid magazines that just run sensational headlines:

"Guess what celebrity is secretly gay, and which politician is secretly a lizard person! We have the inside scoop!"

Disappointing.

Yeah feels like he is leaning into sensationalism.

 

[TiQuinn]

I'm still surprised no one was willing to buy the torches. Where's the angry mob to storm the castle when you need one?

I don't care for how corporations work on a regular basis, but demanding someone be fired for pushing a dumb idea? When they listened to feedback and backed off and then some? Considering how many CEOs would have just doubled down? Really?

You are oddly defensive for someone who claims to care so little (but also claims to be so untrusting).

 

[KYRON45]

sure, your recourse in either case is rather limited

I wish you luck in whatever it is that will make you happy regarding this matter.

 

[TiQuinn]

Sure sounds like Ben Riggs is totally cool being both a “D&D Historian” and TMZ at the same time.

 

[DEFCON 1]

At the end of the day... I suspect everyone at WotC / Hasbro is going to find that they're going to end up making more money via opening up D&D Beyond to 3rd party publishers to sell their wares than they would have changing up the OGL. And it's not lost on me that we have now seen many 3PPs voluntarily get into bed with WotC and DDB despite WotC having tried to cut their legs out from under them a year previous.

You might say it's evidence of that old chestnut "Money talks and bullcrap walks."

 

[Oofta]

The reason he backed off was because of said "angry mob."
And remember, this is someone who laid off 1100 people while taking home millions in pay. I think it's reasonable for people to look askance at the ethics of the situation, even if it's the norm for our hyper corpo society.

But he did back off and then some, that's the point. A lot of CEOs would not have.

As far as layoffs, companies lay off people and often for stupid reasons like division A needs to cut back on their workforce so therefore divisions B and C need to share in the pain for ... reasons. I look askance at the ethics of every corporation, Cocks isn't responsible for the innate nature of big business.

 

[Oofta]

You are oddly defensive for someone who claims to care so little (but also claims to be so untrusting).

So ... just stop posting because you don't agree?

 

[TiQuinn]

So ... just stop posting because you don't agree?

You could do the same because I remember you doing the same argument in other threads?