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

darjr

I crit!
Ben posted his GenCon panel schedule and as a hook dropped this bit of info. I bet he has receipts.

As to his panels there is one that is a who’s who of RPG historians and I’d kill to go to it.


Do you know whose idea it was to try to cancel the OGL?

It was Chris Cocks, who was at the time the CEO of Wizards, and is now the CEO of Hasbro.

If you think that's interesting, you should come hear me speak at Gen Con! I'm doing some history events, and doing the Gen Con Writer's Symposium.

Take a look!

History:

Friday, 6 PM: 50 Years of D&D

This is the Seal Team Six D&D historians. For the first time ever, myself, Mike Witwer, Dave Ewalt, and the Thucydides of D&D history himself, Jon Peterson take to the stage together. I myself do not know what mysteries we will explore, and what secrets we will unfurl! Come and harken!

Saturday, 10 AM: The Secret History of D&D

A sort of D&D history 101 for those who don't know. I cover everything from Gygax and Arneson to the success of 5E in 50 minutes!

Saturday, 11 AM: The Battle for the Soul of D&D

Secrets revealed! Dirt exposed! Tea spilled!

The past few years have seen some shocking and appalling behavior from the company that is the steward of D&D. I've been talking to every former employee I can find to discover what the hell has been going on these past few years at Wizards of the Coast.

Saturday, noon: The Golden Age of TTRPGs is Dead

A contrarian and data-driven look at the future of TTRPGs.

After the OGL crisis, a number of companies decided to break away from D&D and the OGL and make their own games, and the internet cooed in excitement.

My take is that this move is/has splintered the TTRPG community, and will lead to stagnation or decline.

Saturday, 5 PM: 50 Years of D&D Comics

I'm moderating a panel on D&D comic books featuring luminaries such as Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, and Jim Zub, along with editor James Lowder.

Writing Symposium

If you want to be a writer, you need to check out the Gen Con Writer's Symposium. It is like an entire college course on writing packed into a long weekend. My events are below!

Thursday, 10 AM:
Here's How That Went: Writers Postmortem Their Own Processes

Thursday, 4 PM
Industry Survival Guide: Layoffs, Dry Spells, and Flops

Friday, 2 PM
Writing Geeky Non-Fiction

Sunday, 11 AM
Relationships Between Writers and Editors


Link
 

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It's not surprising Chris at least knew about it. But without proof or insider info it's hard to say who's idea it was. I guess it's kind of interesting from a "Dumb ideas gone as badly as could have been expected" but beyond that I don't see how it really matters any more.
 




Ben posted his GenCon panel schedule and as a hook dropped this bit of info. I bet he has receipts.

As to his panels there is one that is a who’s who of RPG historians and I’d kill to go to it.


Do you know whose idea it was to try to cancel the OGL?

It was Chris Cocks, who was at the time the CEO of Wizards, and is now the CEO of Hasbro.

If you think that's interesting, you should come hear me speak at Gen Con! I'm doing some history events, and doing the Gen Con Writer's Symposium.

Take a look!

History:

Friday, 6 PM: 50 Years of D&D

This is the Seal Team Six D&D historians. For the first time ever, myself, Mike Witwer, Dave Ewalt, and the Thucydides of D&D history himself, Jon Peterson take to the stage together. I myself do not know what mysteries we will explore, and what secrets we will unfurl! Come and harken!

Saturday, 10 AM: The Secret History of D&D

A sort of D&D history 101 for those who don't know. I cover everything from Gygax and Arneson to the success of 5E in 50 minutes!

Saturday, 11 AM: The Battle for the Soul of D&D

Secrets revealed! Dirt exposed! Tea spilled!

The past few years have seen some shocking and appalling behavior from the company that is the steward of D&D. I've been talking to every former employee I can find to discover what the hell has been going on these past few years at Wizards of the Coast.

Saturday, noon: The Golden Age of TTRPGs is Dead

A contrarian and data-driven look at the future of TTRPGs.

After the OGL crisis, a number of companies decided to break away from D&D and the OGL and make their own games, and the internet cooed in excitement.

My take is that this move is/has splintered the TTRPG community, and will lead to stagnation or decline.

Saturday, 5 PM: 50 Years of D&D Comics

I'm moderating a panel on D&D comic books featuring luminaries such as Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, and Jim Zub, along with editor James Lowder.

Writing Symposium

If you want to be a writer, you need to check out the Gen Con Writer's Symposium. It is like an entire college course on writing packed into a long weekend. My events are below!

Thursday, 10 AM:
Here's How That Went: Writers Postmortem Their Own Processes

Thursday, 4 PM
Industry Survival Guide: Layoffs, Dry Spells, and Flops

Friday, 2 PM
Writing Geeky Non-Fiction

Sunday, 11 AM
Relationships Between Writers and Editors


Link
As @Morrus said, we already had a long discussion on this in May: Cocks & the OGL
 

We had a big long thread about this back in May.

Interesting, I entirely missed that thread.

Re: Cocks, I think the major supporting evidence for this, beyond that Riggs would be unlikely to say it if it were definitely or potentially provably untrue (which this would be) because he has a reputation to not destroy, is that it took SO LONG for WotC to throw the brakes on the what was very obviously a completely doomed train, and that indeed, there were multiple attempts to merely slow the train slightly and see if that'd be okay, rather than throw the brakes completely.

There's no way that happens without someone pretty senior being involved. I'd personally assumed it was Dan Rawson given the timing, but Cocks makes a lot of sense.

This kind of thing just qualifies for “don’t let em forget” kind of thing. IMHO
Yuuuuuuuuuup.

It's like, if this had been some middle-management disaster and the people were gone, it would be more of a "move on" deal, but when the still-CEO had the idea, ooof.
 


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