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Message: <blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 9574817" data-attributes="member: 5948">No. It’s (somewhat aggressively…) pointing out that Mearls’ account is inconsistent with the publicly known historical facts.Theres multiple possible reasons for that, of course, but the fact remains.It was NOT all about video games etc or else the ‘this licence only covers pdfs and written material’ clause would have been enough.It was NOT an attempt to prevent big corporations functionally taking over d&d using the license, or the $750k royalty threshold would have been higher.The documents distributed with the draft agreement specifically stated that the ogl ‘had been used in unforeseen ways’ and was never intended to enable competitors to WotC’s D&D, and that the new license intended to wind that back. This was squarely aimed at Paizo, among others who published variant core books.The royalties, approvals, financial disclosure rules, surrender of rights etc etc - these were so absolutely monstrously heinous that it was very clear they were intended to kill any 3pp above the level of ‘spare time hobbyist’ dead, unless that 3pp was willing to sign away its independence by begging WotC for a bespoke deal in exchange for who-knows-what. They were utterly inconsistent with someone who needed to run a company and put food on the table doing this stuff, and whoever designed and drafted that appalling agreement knew that full well.Meares is glossing over or spinning a LOT of stuff here. He’s not the first to do so of course, there was that celebrated PR tour through the influencer YouTube channels that the recently departed PR guy did too. But I think it behooves all of us to remember what irredeemably vicious and callous crud WotC REALLY tried to pull, rather than what they and their people would prefer we remember. And I find it rather mindblowing that he’s claiming WotC believed they’d been ‘stabbed in the face’ by whatever 3pp leaked the draft, as if the entire OGL 1.0a wasn’t a declaration of WotCs intention to feed that 3pp face first into a woodchipper. WotC can in absolutely no light claim to be the victim of that unedifying piece of history.</blockquote>

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