It is time to forgive WOTC and get back onboard.

[EthanSental]

After the last couple posts about VTTs, I was kinda worried about all the FG books I purchased and if I will have access forever. I looked on the FG forums and Doug addressed this directly…partial quote below from his forum post.

“We are committed to our fans above all others. Our license with D&D is still live and active. It renews annually and has been renewed already for 2023. Should we ever lose our license, customers will continue to have access to anything they have purchased. This includes being able to reinstall content. This is the same for every single publisher on our platform. If something is ever unable to be sold due to license issues, we would still be able to provide access to customers for anything they've ever purchased.”

Good to know the dollars I spent on 5e and other books will be available even if they lose the dnd and other licenses.

 

[mamba]

Yea, that's a good analysis. I don't really have an issue with it. Except the elephant in the room.

Who where they afraid of?

[...]

It doesn't add up.

I generally agree that they had no reason to fear for their VTT, but unless you have a better explanation of why WotC pulled this stunt, then I still believe it was about the VTT, everything WotC did points to it imo

 

[Maxperson]

True, but they'd be years behind. And that's only after the wotc VTT proves a success which might take years as well. And even then for them It'd be a much smaller market and a big gamble. I can't see wotc being this afraid of them right now.

I don't think it will take WotC years to start seeing big money. The thing is, once one of those big companies enters the market, it's too late. They have a strong legal position and the money to fight WotC in court. If you're anything less than 100% certain that it won't happen, then it makes sense to act in advance.

Companies also do things for the long haul. They frequently pay big $$$ for other companies that won't pay back what they spent and start being profitable for several years. Saying that it would take 3-4 years before some other company can be really competitive isn't a deterrent. It's an investment.

 

[darjr]

@Maxperson @mamba I see your points folks. Just doesn't sit with me. I suppose we'll find out or we won't.

 

[Maxperson]

@Maxperson @mamba I see your points folks. Just doesn't sit with me. I suppose we'll find out or we won't.

I actually don't think we will. Releasing SRD 5.1 into CC and keeping OGL 1.0a active allows the others VTTs to continue. That means that they are not going down the road that they were any longer. They have to reassess and figure out a new path.

 

[Justice and Rule]

This post/topic was good in a way as it allowed the people still upset with the OGL fiasco to keep venting as it shows it’s still needed.

Come on guys, we can do better and enjoy this fantastic hobby, focus on the positive and less on the negative. The positive by WoTC over the last 25 years far outweigh this 3 week span.

In all honesty, I don't think many of us really need to vent as much as we are very annoyed by what seems like rewriting of something we just experienced. I'm fairly sure most of the people in this thread would not really be talking about this matter if it weren't for people trying to recolor the entire series of events and essentially sweep it under the rug as a positive thing for the hobby rather than something that required a community uprising to turn around.

The best thing for Wizards would be for people to stop asking us to get on board and to just let people sit with their feelings for a while. You can't force people to trust again, you just have to let it happen through continued action. Trying to get over something when we are mere days out rather than months (Or heck, why not a year?) very much misjudges the tenor of the conversation and how badly this entire thing was botched.

I actually don't think we will. Releasing SRD 5.1 into CC and keeping OGL 1.0a active allows the others VTTs to continue. That means that they are not going down the road that they were any longer. They have to reassess and figure out a new path.

I mean, it stands for the moment, at least. It didn't help that they went about their VTT policy in the most absolutely stupid terms possible.

 

[mamba]

I actually don't think we will. Releasing SRD 5.1 into CC and keeping OGL 1.0a active allows the others VTTs to continue. That means that they are not going down the road that they were any longer. They have to reassess and figure out a new path.

It sounded like you considered this a preemptive move to prevent someone like EA entering the VTT market. That we would still be able to see

 

[Maxperson]

It sounded like you considered this a preemptive move to prevent someone like EA entering the VTT market. That we would still be able to see

Sure, but even if someone doesn't, that doesn't mean that it still wasn't a preemptive move.

What I'm saying is that WotC is going to move forward at this point either accepting that they won't monopolize VTT, or we will see some other method attempted by them to control VTT.

 

[Scribe]

In all honesty, I don't think many of us really need to vent as much as we are very annoyed by what seems like rewriting of something we just experienced.

Yeah, the rate at which we went from 'this literally happened' to revisionist history has been something else.

 

[ECMO3]

their take on public domain stuff like fighters, wizards, lizardmen, dwarves, dragons, trolls.... much of this too would not be copyright protected,

"Their take" on that would all be their IP if it were not for the OGL, their whole push for a more restrictive OGL was to make it harder to use this stuff.

You are right about the mechanics, but that is a very small part of the SRD.