Hasbro won't back off from deauthorizing the OGL, and nor should they.

[Aspirinsmurf]

I am so glad to be wrong on this.

Oh ye of little faith!

I hope this result means that you can continue your creative business and enrich our world with the fruits of your endeavors.

That said, I'd personally like to see the legacy SRDs released under the CC too.

 

[wingsandsword]

I am so glad to be wrong on this.

I'm glad all of us who thought they wouldn't back down (you aren't the only one) was wrong.

I didn't think they would either.

I can only imagine there were some very intense conversations at the boardroom level in Hasbro, because their stock was going into a dive and this was the apparent cause. . .and the rapid turnabout and the CC release of the 5.1 SRD was the emergency damage control measures they figured would stop the hemorrhaging and repair at least a little of the lost community goodwill (by putting the 5e rules under a license they have no control over, and throwing a few snippets of "protected" creatures like mind flayers and beholders in there and mentioning Strahd too).

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm glad all of us who thought they wouldn't back down (you aren't the only one) was wrong.

I didn't think they would either.

I can only imagine there were some very intense conversations at the boardroom level in Hasbro, because their stock was going into a dive and this was the apparent cause. . .and the rapid turnabout and the CC release of the 5.1 SRD was the emergency damage control measures they figured would stop the hemorrhaging and repair at least a little of the lost community goodwill (by putting the 5e rules under a license they have no control over, and throwing a few snippets of "protected" creatures like mind flayers and beholders in there and mentioning Strahd too).

FWIW, my op is still sound. Hasbro has no financial incentive to reverse course. Only they know for sure why they did what they did (and I suspect we will never know), but it wasn't based on financials. Either way, I don't care for the reason, I'm just glad they did.

 

[Bix and Box]

FWIW, my op is still sound. Hasbro has no financial incentive to reverse course. Only they know for sure why they did what they did (and I suspect we will never know), but it wasn't based on financials.

Why do you think Hasbro (or WotC) aren't motivated by financials? They're corporations. It's all that motivates them.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Why do you think Hasbro (or WotC) aren't motivated by financials? They're corporations. It's all that motivates them.

I spelled that out in the OP. The numbers just aren't there. There is no statistical correlation between Hasbro's stock movement and the OGL.

 

[Bix and Box]

The numbers just aren't there. There is no statistical correlation between Hasbro's stock movement and the OGL.

Stock price plunged 8% on Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, they capitulated.

Before that, Paizo announced crazy record sales. WotC was watching unprecedented cancellations of subscriptions, with no end in sight. And the fan backlash endangered the earning potential of Hasbro's movie.

No, it was all about the money. They're business people! There's no mystery here. They're the most predictable creatures there are.

They were motivated by money to cancel the OGL. And they were motivated by money to panic and reverse course.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Stock price plunged 8% on Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, they capitulated.

Before that, Paizo announced crazy record sales. WotC was watching unprecedented cancellations of subscriptions, with no end in sight. And the fan backlash endangered the earning potential of Hasbro's movie.

No, it was all about the money. They're business people! There's no mystery here. They're the most predictable creatures there are.

They were motivated by money to cancel the OGL. And they were motivated by money to panic and reverse course.

No, this is not true. Or at least, that's not the reason. We can tell by looking at Hasbro's stock over the past year. There are a lot of other things that have had a direct impact (earnings reports, layoffs, etc) that are much more highly correlated. Looking at each of the OGL announcements from Hasbro since this started, and there is no pattern of impact to the stock. Sometimes it dropped. Sometimes it went up. Completely unrelated.

We can also tell this by looking at how much revenue D&D is compared to the entire company.

 

[Vaalingrade]

FWIW, my op is still sound. Hasbro has no financial incentive to reverse course.

It's okay to just abandon a hypothesis that's proven incorrect.

 

[Bix and Box]

It's okay to just abandon a hypothesis that's proven incorrect.

 

[Parmandur]

FWIW, my op is still sound. Hasbro has no financial incentive to reverse course. Only they know for sure why they did what they did (and I suspect we will never know), but it wasn't based on financials. Either way, I don't care for the reason, I'm just glad they did.

Clearly, there was a fierce internal battle of office politics here, and somebody lost HARD. We do not, and may never know, who did what or why internally (I'd buy the full blow by blow historical exposé in a heartbeat!).

But my operatio al hypothesisnis thst within WotC, there people who fall onto the Pro-Open Gaming [OG], anti-OG, and OG-Neutral positions. The pPro-OG people know that open gaming is ultimately good for Hasbro for the reasons Ryan Dancey advanced 20 years ago, the Anti-OG crowd thinks it is bad for Hasbro because of the reasons lined out in the OGL 1.2 Survey announcement, and the OG-Neutral camp (who probavly has the most power, i.e. I bet Cynthia Williams is here) are probably open to persuasion depending on data and arguement.

The initial hamfisted power grab probsvly came from. The Anti-OGL faction after convincing the OG-Neutral crowd that there was a legitimately business case and nobody would care, while the 1.2 proposal was probavly a compromise intended by the Pro-OGL faction to go over like a lead balloon and convince the OG-Neutral decision makers to change course permanently.

Now, given what we have been hearing...I wouldn't be surprised if Pro-OG WotC employees maybe even took some mass action, like all the designers demanding the CC and OGL protection or they would quit en masses and seek employment from. Kobold Press and Paizo or something.

Still, ultimately I'm sure the final motivation was financial...but this time with more long term thinking.