Crow Eating thread

[Ondath]

I just posted that they would not back down on digital, so I got that one very wrong.

I think? Did they back down on digital?

The VTT policy is officially abandoned!

Here's the relevant bit in the D&D Beyond announcement:

This Creative Commons license makes the content freely available for any use. We don't control that license and cannot alter or revoke it. It's open and irrevocable in a way that doesn't require you to take our word for it. And its openness means there's no need for a VTT policy. Placing the SRD under a Creative Commons license is a one-way door. There's no going back.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I just posted that they would not back down on digital, so I got that one very wrong.

I think? Did they back down on digital?

Yes they did, the VTT policy is gone!

 

[Dausuul]

Other than inventing a time machine and scrapping the whole idea before it even got rolling, let alone had a draft of it leaked, I think this was probably the best possible outcome, for pretty much everyone involved.

I mean, I guess except for the people who wanted to see WotC crash and burn.

In some ways it's even better than the time machine option. The whole 5E SRD under Creative Commons is huge.

(Of course, the time machine option means we have a time machine. That's either very good or really incredibly bad...)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I did not trust the first leak of the OGL going away, because I did not like the youtuber... I was wrong. The leak proved to be true enough.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Yes. Sad day for them. I still don't onow why some people actually want that. WotC overall handled D&D very well.

I'll say I was a little bit in the "let WotC burn down" camp (and I'm a Hasbro stockholder!).

It's not that WotC has, on the whole, mishandled D&D. It's that IP law favors the rightsholders too much and the public too little, and whenever something based around some business's copyright or trademark becomes a cultural phenomenon their is a basic conflict between a corporation wanting to control and monitize "it's IP" (while being happy to freeride on all the unpaid efforts of fans to promote it) and a public who understand, intellectually, that they legally own no part of the thing, but feel an overwhelming sense of ownership of it on a basic emotional level.

The public shaming of WotC for forgetting that they were tolerated as a steward of D&D taking a reasonable cut, not as an absolute owner entitled to maximize profits and destroy their property as they like (regardless of what the law says) is a healthy reckoning for the whole world of mega-IPs from which hopefully at least some IP holders will take the right lessons. And the SRD getting dropped in the creative commons is the most appropriate possible ending.

 

[Gradine]

(Of course, the time machine option means we have a time machine. That's either very good or really incredibly bad...)

I've played the Red Alert series; I'm inclined to go with the latter.

 

[I'm A Banana]

While I was never 100% on board the doom and gloom train, I am happily tuckin' into some crow now over the idea that WotC suits figured on the blowback and figured it would be worth it. Clearly, they didn't figure it would be as big or as vocal as it was, and clearly, it was not worth it to them. That position was weaker than I was giving it credit for; the community is much stronger than I cynically thought it would be.

 

[Arakhor]

The VTT policy is officially abandoned!

Here's the relevant bit in the D&D Beyond announcement:

Now that's how you write an apology and communicate clearly with your fan base.

 

[Remathilis]

Pass the crow.

I thought there was no way we were getting 1.0a back. I've never been happier to be wrong.

 

[see]

I did not trust the first leak of the OGL going away, because I did not like the youtuber... I was wrong. The leak proved to be true enough.

Yeah, that's pretty much my bit of crow, too.

I stand by my view that WotC/Hasbro did not have the right to take the OGL 1.0a away, but I was completely wrong about my belief that WotC/Hasbro would be too smart to even try, and thus I was completely wrong when I said that the earliest raising of the alarm (back in December) was based on leaker/YouTuber misunderstandings.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I just posted that they would not back down on digital, so I got that one very wrong.

I think? Did they back down on digital?

No, they are still going to make their VTT, this mess does not really affect it.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I just wanted to say: I was completely wrong. I did not believe WotC would ever back down.

I still don't trust them. My interest in D&D is at an all-time low. At this point I feel like Rhett Butler. I just don't care.

I'm very excited to see what Kobold, MCDM, and Pelgrane Press come up with this year.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, I didn't think there was any way that they would back down this far. I'm very surprised and delighted. On top of this, the other net result of the fiasco is that I sold a lot more Pathfinder2 books in the past few weeks than I had since its first release. And it looks like support for 3pp might continue to have a bit of a boost. PLUS, 3pp creators are all fired up to make new content! The industry overall very well may have scored a massive victory here. Time will tell if it's a blip, or a game-changer.

 

[MGibster]

I just wanted to say: I was completely wrong. I did not believe WotC would ever back down.

I didn't either. I saw the OGL fiasco as the opening salvo to change D&D from being undermonetized to something better. Now I wonder how they plan to fix the undermonetization problem.

 

[Krachek]

On an humorous way,
do anybody know how to bring back DnD books from a pile of hashes?

 

[Gladius Legis]

I didn't either. I saw the OGL fiasco as the opening salvo to change D&D from being undermonetized to something better. Now I wonder how they plan to fix the undermonetization problem.

My guess is that they will make a new, more restrictive, license entirely separate from OGL for OneDnD/5.5/6e/whatevertheycallit. Similar to what they tried with 4e.

goes back to eating my crow doused in apple vinegar

 

[Greggy C]

I was excited for some new game engines.
But back to derivative copies of 5e with tiny tweaks because that's where everyone makes their money.

And I guess this means we won't get a new edition of D&D, it will just be 5e forever.

Such a shame, I've lost all interest.

 

[Charlaquin]

I just hope people keep this in mind when someone claims that boycotts don't work. Things are not always hopeless, and we sometimes have more power than we think. I hope this brings you all hope. <3

Yup, boycotts do work, when a community bands together. That’s why, even though I didn’t think WotC would back down on this, I was very adamantly opposed to the “let’s compromise and try and get a less worse 1.2” position. We have tremendous collective bargaining power, but the nature of collective power is that we have to be united to utilize it.

 

[Charlaquin]

Eat crow if you must, but it's way more important to remember this next time scumbags try to make moves. Take heart that the worse case scenario isn't a prophecy.

Indeed. Two big takeaways here:
1.) WotC tried to get rid of the OGL, and could do so again.
2.) We managed to stop them by banding together, and could do so again.

Don’t trust corporations. Don’t underestimate the power of well-adopted boycotts.

 

[Charlaquin]

I just posted that they would not back down on digital, so I got that one very wrong.

I think? Did they back down on digital?

They backed down on everything! They’re leaving OGL 1.0a completely alone, released the full 5.1 SRD under Creative Commons, and closed the 1.2 survey. Technically they could still release 1D&D under a new license, but it would be a pretty tone-deaf move, and moreover, unless it’s truly incompatible with 5e, it should be easy to clone using the CC license.