OGL-Gate & Mainstream Media: The Guardian Weighs In

With The Guardian picking up the story this morning, here's a list of media outlets covering the Open Gaming Licence controversy.

The initial story came from Gizmodo/iO9, which recieved a leaked copy of the OGL v1.1., and YouTube channel RollForCombat.

• The Guardian: ‘People are leaving the game’: Dungeons & Dragons fans revolt against new restrictions
• Vice: Dungeons and Dragons Is Jeopardizing Its Greatest Strength: Its Ubiquity
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators
• Comic Book Resources: How New Changes to D&D's Open Gaming License Will Impact Other TTRPGs
• Forbes: What’s Happening With The Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License?
• Ars Technica: RPG fans irate as D&D tries to shut its “open” game license
• NME: D&D content creators outraged over licensing changes, demand the game remain “open”
• Polygon: D&D’s stricter licensing rules might impact some beloved RPGs
• Law Insider: Wizards of the Coast Open Game License
• Financial Times (behind paywall): Dungeons & Dragons & fear & loathing: When Wizards go rogue

 

[Yaarel]

The reason why Hasbro-WotC is silent is they have zero intention to end the Anti-OGL. The Anti-OGL went into effect today, January 13. Possibly some companies have signed it, such as Kickstarter.

The plan of Hasbro-WotC is to start litigating.

We will see if the protests give pause.

But Hasbro-WotC is dead serious about the Anti-OGL.

 

[Yaarel]

Forbes and Financial Times picking up the story is a bigger issue for Hasbro/WotC and indicates just how wide this has gone, its outside nerd media and spilled into Guardian mainstream. WotC need to comment soon

Also these are business newssources − now investors in Hasbro-WotC are paying attention to the protest against it.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The news has been picked up by a business newsmagazine in Italy:

Il business legato a D&D è a una svolta - BusinessWeekly

Nato come un hobby da nerd, Dungeons and Dragons negli ultimi anni si è evoluto sino a diventare mainstream. Ora il business ad esso legato è in pericolo. Tutto ha inizio nei primi anni duemila. Il creatore originale del gioco di ruolo più famoso al mondo, Gary Gygax, ha perso il controllo della...

businessweekly.it

Wow this is getting huge

It's spiralling out of control and the longer it takes to put this fire out, that bigger the blaze gets and the more higher up folks get burned.

 

[Yaarel]

As of today, January 13, the Anti-OGL went into effect. In the opinion of Hasbro-WotC,

the OGL 1.0a no longer exists.

The legal battles have begun.

Part of the reason for the silence of Hasbro-WotC is waiting for the Anti-OGL to come online.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

As of today, January 13, the Anti-OGL went into effect. In the opinion of Hasbro-WotC,

the OGL 1.0a no longer exists.

The legal battles have begun.

Part of the reason for the silence of Hasbro-WotC is waiting for the Anti-OGL to come online.

Except 1.1 was never actually released, OGL 1.1 is dead, they now have an OGL 2.0, but the stopped from releasing at like the last minute because of the backlash which has only gotten worse.

I do agree with you WotC was very committed to this idea because they know if they don't get rid of OGL 1.0a and they put One D&D on a seperate more punishing OGL (in name only) then One D&D will be dead on arrival, and the new OGL is key to what they THINK will monetize D&D, so these foolish exective got themselves caught in a bind as I think this was key to most of their monetization plans. Instead this is spiralling out if control and they basically burned decades of community building and reputation building to the ground.

Still at some point they have to admit failure, but by then folks will likely be losing their jobs.

 

[Yaarel]

Except 1.1 was never actually released, OGL 1.1 is dead, they now have an OGL 2.0, but the stopped from releasing at like the last minute because of the backlash which has only gotten worse.

I do agree with you WotC was very committed to this idea because they know if they don't get rid of OGL 1.0a and they put One D&D on a seperate more punishing OGL (in name only) then One D&D will be dead on arrival, and the new OGL is key to what they THINK will monetize D&D, so these foolish exective got themselves caught in a bind as I think this was key to most of their monetization plans. Instead this is spiralling out if control and they basically burned decades of community building and reputation building to the ground.

Still at some point they have to admit failure, but by then folks will likely be losing their jobs.

Hasbro-WotC released the Anti-OGL, with NDAs for people to sign. Apparently some did sign it.

The Anti-OGL is now in effect!


The mainly irrelevant adjustments (that were indefensible anyway), to a future version of it, havent actually happened yet.

 

[Sidhanei]

Hasbro-WotC released the Anti-OGL, with NDAs for people to sign. Apparently some did sign it.

I'm curious as I was under the impression no one had. Who signed and source?

 

[DMZ2112]

Well, at least D&D is making it into the mainstream media these days. Only took them 50 years...

60 Minutes, 1985.

Never forget.

We were stronger than that, we are stronger than this, we are stronger than attacks on D&D in general, whether they come from within or without.

 

[The Stray]

Interesting that they don't mention that Baron De Rapp is a YouTuber...he's not just some random DM.

 

[The Stray]

Setting the OGL controversy aside, it is often adorable when mainstream media outlets cover our hobby and misunderstand half of what they are talking about. Never change, guys. Never change.

 

[see]

Setting the OGL controversy aside, it is often adorable when mainstream media outlets cover our hobby and misunderstand half of what they are talking about. Never change, guys. Never change.

Advice -- don't assume that level of misunderstanding applies only to "our hobby".

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Hasbro-WotC released the Anti-OGL, with NDAs for people to sign. Apparently some did sign it.

The Anti-OGL is now in effect!


The mainly irrelevant adjustments (that were indefensible anyway), to a future version of it, havent actually happened yet.

They showed a possible draft version of the anti-ogl to people and got them to sign NDAs for feed back, that is not the same as an official release or it going into effect, it's not in effect, OGL 1.0a is still very much alive.

OGL 1.1 and OGL 2.0 are dead, WotC basically admitted that and now they are scrambling to fine something of this they can salvage so have something they can go to the board with other then scandals and decades of community building burnt to the ground in less than a month. It won't work, anti-ogl and maybe any kind of new OGL now is just to toxic to salvage and the longer they keep trying the more damage they do to the brand, Hasbro and their own job security.

 

[J.Quondam]

Here's a couple more articles that have gone up in the last few hours:

CNBC: Hasbro delays new Dungeons & Dragons licensing rules following fan backlash​

TechCrunch: ‘We rolled a 1’: D&D publisher addresses backlash over controversial license​

And one other: Ars Technica has published a follow-up since WotC's about-face:

Ars Technica: Amid widespread backlash, D&D maker scales back “open” license changes​

.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Here's a couple more articles that have gone up in the last few hours:

CNBC: Hasbro delays new Dungeons & Dragons licensing rules following fan backlash
TechCrunch: ‘We rolled a 1’: D&D publisher addresses backlash over controversial license

The spiralling down towards the bottom of the 9 Hells continues.

 

[J.Quondam]

(deleted: moved info to my post just above )

 

[DarkCrisis]

Guardian: "The fans are revolting"
Hasbro: "Yes, they are."

 

[Composer99]

The Mary Sue has today an article about the OGL controversy, and not-entirely-coincidentally, an article about alternative games that folks can try. (The list includes Pathfinder, and mentions their recent decision to back a new open licence.)

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Well the New York Times hasn't covered the matter yet, so we still don't know if it's news fit to print.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Looks like Hasbro stock is not doing so well today....

View attachment 272430

(Ignore all the portuguese, I'm to lazy to open google in english)

Unless someone else mentioned it this thread already, you heard it here first, my prediction is Chris Cocks is gone by May Whether Cynthia Williams precedes him or soon after him, I don't know.

Too bad - Chris Cocks iirc had actually played MtG and DnD and even Avalon Hill games, so he was "one of us" from a nerd perspective

 

[Abstruse]

And MSN shoehorned in a bit about the OGL into a larger article about upcoming fantasy film and television, directly linking the controversy to Honor Among Thieves (likely the last thing that Wizards wants) with a screenshot from the trailer.

Hasbro, the overarching company behind mega-popular tabletop fantasy Dungeons and Dragons, is cracking down on third-party creators, and people aren’t pleased. In the past, outside creators have largely been free to make a profit from their entirely original DnD content, but Hasbro aims to change that. This decision led to instant backlash and the rise of a popular petition aiming to sue Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast in an effort to maintain creator rights. The petition has already collected nearly 1,000 signatures, and more are flooding in by the minute.