If You're "Permanently" Boycotting WotC, They're Not Going To Listen To You

[I'm A Banana]

Because this is a negotiation

I think this is missing a little something. It's not like "people upset about the potential OGL changes" are a unified entity or anything. It's not a back-and-forth with some formal agreed-upon terms.

What we're seeing is WotC doing whatever the ding dang doodle they desire, and the fallout from their doing that.

This isn't a negotiation, any more than climate change is the earth negotiating with ExxonMobil. This is consequences.

A consequence of their actions is that some people are just not going to want to engage with them anymore. There's no problem with the people who want to disengage. They aren't being bad negotiators. They're reacting to something they don't like. We owe WotC exactly bupkiss, and if someone wants to take their ball and go home, I get it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This isn't a negotiation, any more than climate change is the earth negotiating with ExxonMobil. This is consequences.

But it's working. They walked back a lot of the bad stuff from the OGL 1.1. If we want them to keep it up until all of the bad is gone, they need an incentive. Telling people to abandon WotC D&D forever disincentives that. It hurts the goal of getting rid of the rest of the bad stuff.

 

[JAMUMU]

Yes, they have lost my dollars. Yes, they have lost my group's collective dollars. Yes, they have lost the dollars of the other GM in my group, who has pivoted to PF2 faster than a dancer on ice. And in that short-term-profit-motive-moment they might not care.

But others like me will chip away with different systems, compatible books with the IP chipped off (as a veteran of the 80s, I remember hits-to-kill and death checks in off brand supplements), social media guerilla warfare, grizzled vets passing down stories of the OGL Wars of 2023. They will never be allowed to forget. RPers can be like that.

Hasbro has turned itself into nerd Nestle. We'll see how that works out for them.

 

[billd91]

I think this is missing a little something. It's not like "people upset about the potential OGL changes" are a unified entity or anything. It's not a back-and-forth with some formal agreed-upon terms.

What we're seeing is WotC doing whatever the ding dang doodle they desire, and the fallout from their doing that.

This isn't a negotiation, any more than climate change is the earth negotiating with ExxonMobil. This is consequences.

A consequence of their actions is that some people are just not going to want to engage with them anymore. There's no problem with the people who want to disengage. They aren't being bad negotiators. They're reacting to something they don't like. We owe WotC exactly bupkiss, and if someone wants to take their ball and go home, I get it.

Yeah, I'm with you on this.
Wizards could have started a negotiation, convened some kind of summit, and laid out that they wanted to change terms of the OGL while coming up with a suitable alternative for their 3pp community members.
But by unilaterally dropping the bomb, they cut off any chance for that. Now it's just them scrambling about and reacting to the community's reaction to their unilateral action.

 

[Scribe]

We owe WotC exactly bupkiss, and if someone wants to take their ball and go home, I get it.

And this is the only power we have with megacorps. They do not hear us, as individuals. We are just a statistic.

Enough people move the needle in the reporting on a power point? Then you get action.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Hasbro has turned itself into nerd Nestle. We'll see how that works out for them.

That's going a bit far, isn't it? The 1.1 OGL is indeed terrible, but the things Nestle has done are thousands of times worse than anything WotC has done/tried doing. The worst things Nestle has done are considered crimes against humanity (slavery, causing the starvation of hundreds/thousands of infants, etc).

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And this is the only power we have with megacorps. They do not hear us, as individuals. We are just a statistic.

Enough people move the needle in the reporting on a power point? Then you get action.

And so you need enough people to shift the statistic to make WotC stop doing bad things. Boycotting them perpetually doesn't accomplish that. It's just petty vengeance.

 

[Scribe]

And so you need enough people to shift the statistic to make WotC stop doing bad things. Boycotting them perpetually doesn't accomplish that. It's just petty vengeance.

Lets just say this.

I'm not going to call for anyone to be fired, but I'm certainly never going to trust the leadership of D&D, Wizards, MTG, or Hasbro every again.

So, if they want to negotiate with Scribe, of ENWorld, somethings gotta give.

Oh, and I need that Pony.

 

[JAMUMU]

I would be very cautious about comparing the vile acts of Nestle to the leaked proposed changes to the OGL. The 1.1 OGL was indeed terrible, but the things Nestle has done are thousands of times worse than anything WotC has done/tried doing. The worst things Nestle has done are considered crimes against humanity (slavery, causing the starvation of hundreds/thousands of infants, etc).

Which is why I said nerd Nestle. For many, the brand will be untouchable, as Nestle is for another, larger many.

Years ago, on a barge trip round Amsterdam, me and the wife got talking to the American female couple in front of us. One of them was a brand manager for Nestle. My wife in particular, and me in the second rank, got prickly. She asked what was the matter. My wife spat out the litany of death Nestle has left in its wake. She looked at us and sighed. "Why is it always Brits and Australians that remember that stuff?" she asked.

"Because someone has to," replied my wife. We didn't talk to them again for the rest of the tour.

 

[Dausuul]

But if you're boycotting WotC eternally because of the OGL 1.1 without giving them a chance to "make up", then you're not helping solve the problem and are potentially making it worse.

If you've been stabbed and you're bleeding, each individual blood cell is gone forever. Bandaging the wound won't convince it to come back into your veins. Knowing that, do you just sit there and bleed to death? Or do you take action to keep from losing any more blood cells?

The message Wizards needs to hear is, "You are bleeding. Today you lost me. Tomorrow you'll lose someone else. Better fix it." That is very much helping solve the problem.