Penny Arcade has harsh words for WotC

[darjr]

It is also a decent summary of the top level bits of this chaos.

It also is scathing in so many ways. A Sample below.

The practical, predictable result of this chaos is that open systems are coming out of the woodwork, from supergroup collabs like Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, and Paizo, to RPG powerhouse MCDM. I'm shocked, startled, and mystified that there hasn't been an announcement from Critical Role slash Darrington Press, who has the most to lose, and whose legendary exploits the new OGL seems custom made to curtail.

However go read it in it's entirety. It is light on words really but so very heavy otherwise. That last paragraph is especially harsh.

Ogle - Penny Arcade

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

www.penny-arcade.com

Oh and go see the comic.
Ogle - Penny Arcade

 

[niklinna]

I clicked "random comic" and got this: Teef - Penny Arcade

 

[darjr]

Didn't know there was such a thing.

 

[Steel_Wind]

" I can't really make heads or tails of your apology, but let me say this: you have entered treacherous waters entirely of your own volition. Literally just turn around, and walk back out."

The old adage that "free advice is worth what you pay for it"?

Yeah, well, it's an adage, not a law of physics. Sometimes, the best advice IS for free.

 

[Haplo781]

It is also a decent summary of the top level bits of this chaos.

It also is scathing in so many ways. A Sample below.

The practical, predictable result of this chaos is that open systems are coming out of the woodwork, from supergroup collabs like Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, and Paizo, to RPG powerhouse MCDM. I'm shocked, startled, and mystified that there hasn't been an announcement from Critical Role slash Darrington Press, who has the most to lose, and whose legendary exploits the new OGL seems custom made to curtail.

However go read it in it's entirety. It is light on words really but so very heavy otherwise. That last paragraph is especially harsh.

Ogle - Penny Arcade

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

www.penny-arcade.com

Oh and go see the comic.
Ogle - Penny Arcade

Seems very likely that CR has a pre-existing contract with WotC that they can't easily extricate themselves from.

 

[darjr]

" I can't really make heads or tails of your apology, but let me say this: you have entered treacherous waters entirely of your own volition. Literally just turn around, and walk back out."

The old adage that "free advice is worth what you pay for it"?

Yeah, well, it's an adage, not a law of physics. Sometimes, the best advice IS for free.

Oh that advice wasn't free.

 

[overgeeked]

Didn't know there was such a thing.

Dar! You did it!

 

[darjr]

Dar! You did it!

What? What did I do?

 

[overgeeked]

What? What did I do?

You dint use dint!

Sorry. Weird day. Please take this as the light-hearted ribbing it’s meant to be.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The main reason why this OGL controversy may well, despite its seeming obscurity, bury D&D, is the large number of people with some sort of platform or following who are affected. Virtually every D&D YouTuber or whatever other type of creator on social media has a tie-in campaign setting, adventure, or whatever, many launched through kickstarters, some pretty high profile. Those who don't have written something for an anthology of short adventures, been sponsored by 3rd party products, and/or dreamed of launching a D&D compatible product when they got a few more followers and/or get their writing game together. In short everyone with even a modicum of clout is affected or at least had their dreams crushed little. In the coming days we'll see more and more internet personalities and such who rarely had a non-enthusiastic word for D&D up until now put on their frowny faces and make very serious statements. People whom WotC themselves have tapped as brand ambassadors are turning on them.

And amongst these is Penny Arcade, whose Acquisitions Incorporated is arguably the longest ongoing D&D promotional arrangement, who had a first party published book, and who characters appear in the damned Neverwinter MMO and various other official media have now turned on them. Now it may well be that they have other beef with WotC. They seem a bit unhappy about the whole having never really gotten paid for most of their promoting thing. They had just "ended the campaign" (whatever that means for a campaign with no real story throughline played through two editions) so whether they were slated to have further dealings with WotC was unclear. But still, whatever other drama there may be if even Acq. Inc., who has had such close ties with WotC, is ready to bash WotC this hard, things are bleak indeed on the "D&D influencer" front.

Even if you never paid a whit of attention to any "D&D influencer" my money is on you playing with someone who does, or someone who talks with someone who does. Even if you never watch D&D youtube videos or liveplays they are pillars of D&D as a larger community and cultural phenomenon. And a lot of the people who make them are going to be in a darker, angrier, less D&D brand-positive headspace in the coming weeks, months, and probably years.

While throwing the major 3rd party publishers under the bus might have proven a Machiavellian masterstroke, had it been accomplished on its own, doing it in a way that also alienates most people with a platform, and converts so many of WotC's most effective brand boosters into their most effective critics is about as utter a failure as someone could possibly manage.