Can WotC be forgiven?

[Benjamin Olson]

The problem is that this naked exercise of money grubbing power has both tarnished and confirmed everyone's worst suspicions about the people in charge of WotC. So here are some scenarios:

Would I forgive a WotC that is someday spun off (or sold to some other conglomerate) and run by a different management team? In a heartbeat. I like the core IPs, I have a nostalgic fondness for the Wizards of the Coast name having been a Magic Card kid, and they'll probably hire some people whose work I like.

Would I forgive a WotC that not only drops this whole OGL thing, but fires everyone behind it? Not completely, because fundamentally I am now suspect of the parent company (and I'm a stockholder!). But that would firmly get me to an "I'll buy the new core books" point. And hey, if OneD&D (defying all indications so far) wins me over maybe I will one day forgive and forget and start regularly buying their products again.

Would I forgive a WotC that just says "oops we're sorry" and rolls back OGL 1.1? No. I don't trust them. I might buy the new PHB when it comes out out of curiosity, but I don't want to actually be invested in their game. They'll find some new way to be creepy soon enough.

Will I forgive a WotC that just says "oops, we regret that people are mad at us" and waters down the OGL 1.1 to something a bit more reasonable? Not at all. That's just a toxic relationship to be in.

 

[mamba]

I think a lot less people were mad about the 4E GSL, because it wasn't stopping the OGL and thus a whole industry. Those who were mad, were very mad, but still.

this, and there were just a lot fewer people to get mad at them in the first place

 

[Shardstone]

WotC is another greedy corp, and thus, is the enemy. I do not support the enemy. Sorry, but that's what happens when you call me an obstacle to YOUR money.

 

[Matt Thomason]

Well, first I need them to do something requiring forgiveness. Until they make an official statement, they haven't done that yet.

Admittedly I'm pretty miffed right now that they haven't yet made an official statement, after it's gotten so many of us worried, but really it's down to what they say when they finally do.

For me personally it hinges on whether they attempt to unilaterally de-authorize the 1.0a OGL. They do that, and they are going to have to do a heck of a lot for me to ever forgive them.

I do not care what license they put any future SRDs under. I care about 20 years of existing material that is currently licensed under OGL 1.0a, and whether it continues to be so. If they want to require the sacrifice of firstborn in the terms of OGL 1.1, and only allow the next SRD under that license, that's fine by me as long as they do not try to retroactively update all 1.0a licenses to it, because I can simply just never agree to 1.1 and lose nothing other than access to future SRDs. What they do with future versions of their game is their business. But what they do with existing versions is everyone's business, because until recently we believed we had perpetual, irrevocable rights to that particular playground due to their "opening" of it in 2000, and it does not simply affect our rights to use their SRDs, but perhaps more importantly a huge wealth of other material output by 3PPs over the intervening years under OGL 1.0a that in many cases contains no copyrighted WotC content whatsoever, but could potentially be closed off unless the original publishers update it to a new license such as ORC.

 

[Dausuul]

One thing that might bring me back would be if someone made a 1D&D clone (paying careful attention to copyright law) and released it under the ORC, and Wizards announced that they didn't have a problem with it and encouraged people to use it.

 

[Scribe]

its interesting, if the goal was to get the companies to stop making D&D products, it might work after all

Yeah, because all that free advertising, 3PP, Indy, Patreon, Kickstarter, all that attention that funneled into D&D?

Yeah that was a terrible thing for Wizards.

lol

 

[Micah Sweet]

The problem is that this naked exercise of money grubbing power has both tarnished and confirmed everyone's worst suspicions about the people in charge of WotC. So here are some scenarios:

Would I forgive a WotC that is someday spun off (or sold to some other conglomerate) and run by a different management team? In a heartbeat. I like the core IPs, I have a nostalgic fondness for the Wizards of the Coast name having been a Magic Card kid, and they'll probably hire some people whose work I like.

Would I forgive a WotC that not only drops this whole OGL thing, but fires everyone behind it? Not completely, because fundamentally I am now suspect of the parent company (and I'm a stockholder!). But that would firmly get me to an "I'll buy the new core books" point. And hey, if OneD&D (defying all indications so far) wins me over maybe I will one day forgive and forget and start regularly buying their products again.

Would I forgive a WotC that just says "oops we're sorry" and rolls back OGL 1.1? No. I don't trust them. I might buy the new PHB when it comes out out of curiosity, but I don't want to actually be invested in their game. They'll find some new way to be creepy soon enough.

Will I forgive a WotC that just says "oops, we regret that people are mad at us" and waters down the OGL 1.1 to something a bit more reasonable? Not at all. That's just a toxic relationship to be in.

That last one appears to be what they're actually doing.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

That last one appears to be what they're actually doing.

That's what my money would be on, though the odds are high that some fine day the first scenario will ultimately come to pass as well, because that's (in this case thankfully) just the nature of corporate America.

 

[FormerLurker]

They haven't released anything yet, so it's very possible for them to salvage the situation by simply coming out and saying "This was an early draft, but it didn't meet our standards, for many of the reasons raised by the community."
And then wave off their silence by claiming they didn't want to say anything until they had a better OGL to show the community, but this was taking longer than expected.

But also, realistically, it's the second week of January and their offices were likely closed for the holidays, and have probably only been re-open for a week. They're probably still in catch-up mode and didn't want to rush a statement. Just because this has been the biggest news and primary conversation for us doesn't mean it's the priority for anyone at WotC who still have jobs to do, including Dominaria Remastered tomorrow, Keys from the Golden Vault for D&D in a few weeks, and a lot of other business.

 

[Corinnguard]

I'll settle for 3.5 and 5e.

I'll settle for 3.5e, 5e and A5e.