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

[Alzrius]

I see a lot of "your wrong" and no "this is what the problem is" others than vague claims.

What exactly is the issue?

Before anything else, I want to congratulate you on actually asking me what my position is. That's been pretty rare in this thread, and I'm hoping it will lead to a point where we can accurately talk about the issue in question, without snark or belittling comments which invite responses along similar lines.

My issue is that I think WotC will, in accordance with statements that they've made (less than two years ago now) about wanting to monetize the game more via a recurrent spending environment, attempt to present their VTT as being the optimal way to play D&D. To that end, I think they'll play up aspects of the game which the VTT is not only capable of supporting, but which it will (for lack of a better term) highlight with various bells and whistles. Spell animations are an obvious example here, since the OGL v1.2 tried to explicitly disallow them.

Presuming that they're successful in bringing more of their customer base around to using the VTT in this way, my concern is that this will lead to a slow constriction among said base with regard to the boundless nature of imaginative play. Spell animations for existing spells will, for instance, focus attention on those spells, making things like custom spell research by PC spellcasters less frequent; I suspect that custom magic items will be the same, custom monsters, etc.

Now, I don't think that WotC necessarily wants to narrow the range of the game. It's just what what they do want is more money, and digital bells and whistles that make the VTT "sexier" (again, for lack of a better term) do that, which can distract from more imaginative options being in play. If the VTT allows for an interactive dungeon environment, for instance, then it (unintentionally or not) discourages ways of play that aren't supported by that interactivity. Even if DMs can manually make up for that, doing so is still presented as the less impressive mode of engagement.

Now, you might say that won't happen. That's your opinion and I respect that; but I don't think what I've outlined here is in any sense outrageous or beyond the pale, and I do think it leads down a path that moves away from what makes TTRPGs different from other kinds of games.

 

[Clint_L]

Which is what I meant. There's no extra game material available only online that you have to pay for.

There's Deborah Anne Woll's adventure, off the top of my head. Which is fine. It's not long enough to justify a full book and the print magazine isn't a thing anymore.

It's a fun one session adventure, BTW. I recommend!

 

[Parmandur]

But what if there was content that was only available through a paid subscription? What's the issue with that? When I subscribed to Dragon magazine, I got official content that wasn't available elsewhere.

I should get extra stuff for my paid subscription. It's why I have a paid subscription! I get the encounter builder, maps, can freely share all my purchases with my players, etc.

I do thinknitnwould be cool if they had regular, guaranteed content drops for subscribers...but it would also be cool if that were collected and printed at a latter date, Annual style.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Spell animations are an obvious example here, since the OGL v1.2 tried to explicitly disallow them.

Yeah this is a genuinely interesting point. Anything the OGL 1.2 tried to ban, that's probably something WotC wants to leverage.

I do thinknitnwould be cool if they had regular, guaranteed content drops for subscribers...but it would also be cool if that were collected and printed at a latter date, Annual style.

As someone who does currently subscribe to Beyond at the DM level (i.e. sharing etc.), I would be strongly against this.

I feel like "content drops" are where subscriptions start to get really crummy and bad-feeling, and start seeming like a nasty manipulation, instead of honestly paying for a straightforward service. I have no problems with paying for a service, even paying a lot. I am, however, disgusted by attempts to create FOMO, and subscriber-exclusive content drops are PURELY an attempt to create FOMO and try and coerce people into subscribing. I'd literally rather they charged me money and made them available to non-subscribers as well for the same price.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I think this is overstating it, but that's essentially the gist of it. If the VTT is their money-maker, then it strikes me as axiomatic that the rules will be developed so as to dovetail with that. It won't happen all at once (particularly since the VTT doesn't exist yet), but slowly over time.

I disagree. I think it's entirely rational to expect WotC to do what makes them the most money, and that they'll see no issue in making the rulebooks into an on-ramp for the VTT if that becomes their bread-and-butter the way they're hoping it will. To that extent, it won't be anything blatant, but we will see a dedicated push to get people onto the VTT, and part of that push will be what's in the rulebooks (we've seen previous editions dip their toes into similar areas, e.g. how much more important miniatures became in 3.X and 4E).

As Paramandur noted, the VTT is largely going to be a map, with digital miniatures. Since we already saw battlemap and miniatures integrated into the game, there is no change needed to the rules to make those two items digital instead of physical.

The rules of the game will not be written to "onboard" people to the VTT, because that isn't something that they can even do with the rules. And if it was, you would be able to give examples, instead of vague prophecies.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Sony is already talking about eliminating DVD production for games and movies. It’s not an irrational fear. You’d think that as long as companies can make money with a format they would (for instance, vinyl records) but companies make decisions that don’t always follow with what we may consider to be logical.

We used to buy a lot of DVD's. Then our DVD player broke, and you know what we couldn't find anywhere? A DVD player. Blu-Ray players were easy to find, but not DVD players. My game consoles that used to play DVDs? They all moved to Blu-Ray.

So, yeah, the fact that we haven't had a DVD player in our house for over a decade, because we couldn't find any to purchase might give a clue as to why Sony is discontinuing DVD production. Kind of like why they discontinued VHS production, because you can't find a VHS player anymore, especially not one that actually connects to your TV.

And yet, AND YET, I have made an amazing discovery. Truly revolutionary. Unlike VHS, DVD, or BLU-Ray.... Dungeons and Dragons does not need special hardware to play. Lo! The game is playable with mere paper and pencils!! And until I see a rulebook that says "Go to your character menu on the VTT and click on "Learn Spell" to get your new ability at level 4" I don't think I need to worry about them writing the rules so that the VTT is the only possible way to play the game.

 

[Chaosmancer]

For the sake of discussion, is it fair to say that we’re obviously not talking about previously released versions? Like, no one is contesting that, I think.

You also aren't talking about the version being released in a month or two either.

Just "some future version" of the game. At some point in the future.

 

[Chaosmancer]

But what if there was content that was only available through a paid subscription? What's the issue with that? When I subscribed to Dragon magazine, I got official content that wasn't available elsewhere.

I should get extra stuff for my paid subscription. It's why I have a paid subscription! I get the encounter builder, maps, can freely share all my purchases with my players, etc.

And also, I guarantee that anything fancy and cool in the subscription? Someone will make a Youtube video, or a reddit thread, or post here on EnWorld with screenshots of it. Because that's how this community WORKS. We post the exact text of things CONSTANTLY.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

We used to buy a lot of DVD's. Then our DVD player broke, and you know what we couldn't find anywhere? A DVD player.

Are there actually BD players that don't also play DVDs? I expect they need different lasers but the cost per unit is pretty low and the added value is significant.

 

[Alzrius]

As Paramandur noted, the VTT is largely going to be a map, with digital miniatures.

I think that's a fairly simplistic take on things, putting what WotC has shown as being on par with digital tokens and a simple blank grid. From what I've seen, it's going to be a lot more grandiose than that, with regard to the graphical presentation and interactivity of what's there. Again, spell animations.

Since we already saw battlemap and miniatures integrated into the game, there is no change needed to the rules to make those two items digital instead of physical.

I think that "changing the rules" is an overstatement, as mentioned above. It's more about certain things being de-emphasized and downplayed while other things are played up and presented in a more front-and-center manner.

The rules of the game will not be written to "onboard" people to the VTT, because that isn't something that they can even do with the rules.

Again, I disagree. If there's little-to-no mention made of custom spell creation, custom magic item creation, etc., then it's going to reinforce the idea that the existing spells are the ones to focus on, to the point that some people might not even realize that it's possible for their characters to make those things. Which plays into the VTT animating those spells, drawing attention further away from alternative possibilities.

And if it was, you would be able to give examples, instead of vague prophecies.

Notice how you're backsliding with regard to your language here, e.g. "prophecies." Remember, you bemoaned the tenor of the discussion before; don't be the guy who then turns around and drags it back down to where it was.