D&D Beyond Cancellations Changed WotCs Plans

Gizmodo has revealed that the partial OGL v1.1 walkback yesterday was in response to the fan campaign to cancel D&D Beyond subscriptions, with "five digits" worth of cancellations. However, the site also reveals that management at the company believed that fans were overreating and that it would all be forgotten in a few months.

In order to delete a D&D Beyond account entirely, users are funneled into a support system that asks them to submit tickets to be handled by customer service: Sources from inside Wizards of the Coast confirm that earlier this week there were “five digits” worth of complaining tickets in the system. Both moderation and internal management of the issues have been “a mess,” they said, partially due to the fact that WotC has recently downsized the D&D Beyond support team.

Yesterday's walkback removed the royalties from the license, but still 'de-authorized' the OGL v1.0a, something which may or may not be legally possible, depending on who you ask.

Cancelled D&D Beyond Subscriptions Forced Hasbro's Hand

Swift consumer action prompted Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast to to scrap licensing updates. The players aren't done yet.

gizmodo.com

 

[Scribe]

yeah if you cut out what I said was a win you can gett a cheap laugh... the win is in making the brand more recognizable and more bankable.

It's OK, I'm not concerned with what WizBro calls a win.

I'm just waiting for confirmation that my speculation is correct at this point and being entertained by WizBros consistent unforced errors.

 

[Justice and Rule]

It's OK, I'm not concerned with what WizBro calls a win.

I'm just waiting for confirmation that my speculation is correct at this point and being entertained by WizBros consistent unforced errors.

 

[Dire Bare]

So how many people are cancelling their DDB subscription vs. completely deleting their account (whether or not they actually have a subscription)?

The number we were given was for deletions, a much more nuclear step than cancelling a subscription. I imagine subscription cancellations are much higher than account deletion requests, but we don't have numbers for that.

Personally, I own a lot of digital books on D&D Beyond and won't be deleting my account at all. But I did cancel my Hero-tier subscription, and I won't be purchasing new digital titles until WotC corrects their course.

 

[ScYork]

Hey, be fair.

They're Lawful Evil.

No, I'd say it's been pretty chaotic this past week them (WOTC) being evil and all! I think that's a pretty fair observation.

 

[darjr]

The number we were given was for deletions, a much more nuclear step than cancelling a subscription. I imagine subscription cancellations are much higher than account deletion requests, but we don't have numbers for that.

Personally, I own a lot of digital books on D&D Beyond and won't be deleting my account at all. But I did cancel my Hero-tier subscription, and I won't be purchasing new digital titles until WotC corrects their course.

wait, 5 figure deletions?!

OK but I've seen people confuse the two. I had to warn people on Facebook about it.

 

[stonemage]

Can someone explain the "5 digits complaining" thing? To me it sounds like it was only 5 tickets for cancelations but I know I'm not understanding it correctly.

5 digits as in 10,000 and up

 

[pogre]

They should rename this thread "what does 5 digits mean".

Just teasing, I know people are trying to be helpful.

I don't use DDB - I use the books only, but it makes sense that this caught Hasbro's attention. The great thing about those cancellations is there could be no question in their minds why it was happening.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

Uh, Planescape and Spelljammer both launched with Greyhawk, Krynn, etc., all in the mix. They were created as bridges between the 10 zillion campaign worlds of the 1990s. (My first exposure to Spelljammer was a helm and ship as a treasure in the Greyhawk Ruins module.)

The chocolate has been in the peanut butter from day one.

And what made the Forgotten Realms novels sell like hotcakes is a book market model that we will never see again in our lifetimes.

My point was more that the choice to revive Planescape and Spelljammer is happening at this point rather than any of the previous 25 years that WOTC has ownership of the brand is because they are trying to tie all of the bits of lore and story together to create a narrative focus that really just hasn't been attempted since 2nd edition. It is still pretty tenuous. Dungeons and Dragons isn't the same sort of IP as a Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter. I think Multiversing it up probably waters down the individual D&D works that at least are a bit more thematically and genre coherent like Ravenloft, Ebberon, etc. Obviously, they are following Marvel's lead here, I just don't think what they have is nearly that strong to make their multiverses resonate with the general public. Or I find it highly unlikely at this point anyway.

 

[Lichbeard]

My entire group just canceled. Three of them have been paying since for years.

We are done with WOTC. For now we are still playing 5E but we are done putting money in WOTC wallet. With the money saved we are buying new ttrpg to try out.

 

[wellis]

Also, frankly, if you already have the core books, you don't need to support WotC because so many 3PPs have much more detailed 5e campaign settings (if you aren't just doing homebrew).

The funny thing is, WotC likes to think D&D is a brand, but I recall many people noticing how the core 5e setting stuff wasn't done that well.