Rumours: WotC Announcement Today; Insider Email Reveals Plans

There's a couple of rumours going round today. I cannot verify either, but I'm reporting them as most of the recent OGL rumours have proven true.

First -- it is rumoured that today at 3pm ET Wizards of the Coast will make some kind of video statement about the current Open Game License situation. This rumour came from the folks at Roll For Combat who were the first to break the draft OGL scoop.

[[UPDATE -- This didn't happen!]]

Second -- an email has been circulating from an anonymous WotC insider. Again, I must reiterate I cannot myself verify this, so read this with that in mind, but the email says:

Hi,

I'm an employee at WotC currently working on D&Dbeyond (DDB) and with D&D business leaders on the health of the product line. If you want I can provide proof of this.

I'm sending this message because I fear for the health of a community I love, and I know what the leaders at WOTC are looking at:

-They are briefly delaying rollout of OGL changes due to the backlash.
-Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line.
-Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have.
-They are still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push this through.

I have decided to reach out because at my time in WotC I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money, the DDB team was first told to prepare to support the new OGL changes and online portal when they got back from the holidays, and leadership doesn't take any responsibility for the pain and stress they cause others. Leadership's first communication to the rank and file on the OGL was 30 minutes on 1/11/23, This was the first time they even tried to communicate their intentions about the OGL to employees, and even in this meeting they blamed the community for over-reacting.

I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations.

Hope your day goes well,

P.S. I will be copying and pasting this message to other community leaders.

If both rumours are true, I guess at 3pm ET today we'll find that out.

 

[Steampunkette]

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I think it depends on how you look at it. In the real world, there are few cases of obvious, outright "intentional evil." They happen, but usually on a small scale. Most of what we consider to be "evil" (or should I say "bad") is people who think what they're doing is "good", but ignore or don't care about the consequences. Or perhaps it is "good" for them and who they identify with, and "bad" for those outside it.

Meaning, in the real world, most "dark lords" are not actually Sauron, but Gandalf if he had taken the Ring and gone down an ever-more-slippery-slope ("I will change the world for good, even if it takes free-will from people...I know what's best for them, after all").

Agreed with caveats, though any course of action that ignores large scale harm that the proposers knows or could have reasonably foreseen definitely pings my evildar.

 

[overgeeked]

Burning the entire 3pp industry to line their wallets is the best they could do?

They couldn’t compete so they torched everyone else’s business. Because that’s not evil.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I see. That makes some sense, though I had kind of assumed they would make a statement before it went into effect.

The whole point of the (leaked) OGL was that it was (apparently, allegedly?) sent to certain 3PPs in order to sign them up before it was unveiled generally. And done so with NDAs (non-disclosures).

In other words- you decide if you're going to sign off on this, under the veil of confidentiality, before it's officially announced. Which ... sorta makes sense (from Hasbro's point of view).

Honestly, some things still don't add up to me- I know that companies have to be very careful regarding the NDA, but it does seem odd that we didn't hear a peep or a mumble from any of the 3PPs that would have received this. I do know that it seems that several fairly large-ish ones are on the record as affirmatively saying that (1) they didn't receive it, and (2) they are making their decisions based on the leak.

Just all around weird.

 

[Drake2000]

Wot¢: But why are the leopards eating my face?!!

 

[HomegrownHydra]

I bet the announcement is coming tomorrow as per the original rumor.

And what part of that says there would be an announcement tomorrow?

IIRC, the original leaked 1.1(a) OGL stated that it would be effective etc. on January 13, 2023- tomorrow (Friday). I think that's why they were planning the announcement then.

The original Gizmodo article said the plan was to publicly announce the OGL 1.1 last week:

"io9's source indicated that the final version of the document was originally intended for release on January 4, which would have given companies and creators seven business days to agree and comply."

 

[bedir than]

They couldn’t compete

They made over a hundred million dollars on D&D last year. Does the entirety of the rest of the RPG market equal that?
No one is competing with Wizards

 

[EthanSental]

They couldn’t compete so they torched everyone else’s business. Because that’s not evil.

Not sure if I agree with any part of this statement…

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Where I simply draw the line however is people thinking they can run a game and charge for this. Seeing this as acceptable behavior very well could have had a influence on the higher ups that if the consumer can do this, why can't we? Is DMing a lot of leg work? Of course it is. I've DMd for YEARS. I'm not discounting this. But this is my HOBBY which I ENJOY. I LOVE doing the prep and leg-work. Sometimes too much. Doesn't mean I should start charging lonely shut ins for this service.

Interesting. The Romans believed it was similarly uncouth to charge money for legal representation. The downside was that the people who couldn't find a wealthy patron willing to represent them for the social status went unrepresented.

The downside if we all followed your principles is that many who currently pay their DMs would not get to play, or would not get to play in the time, manner, and frequency they would like to.

 

[darjr]

From WotC discord

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

From WotC discord

View attachment 272212

This will also be the template for their OGL response: "We apologize for any confusion third parties may have caused."

 

[Lidgar]

 

[Zaukrie]

Bad look by WotC.....they literally could have posted that update immediately yesterday......but didn't. I used to do communications, it isn't THIS hard...

 

[Haplo781]

Bad look by WotC.....they literally could have posted that update immediately yesterday......but didn't. I used to do communications, it isn't THIS hard...

It is if your bosses keep changing their minds about what to communicate...

 

[Riley]

From WotC discord

 

[CleverNickName]

"Eh, tell them whatever. It's just internet noise."
(looks out the window, sees the crowd)
"Um...on second thought, let's schedule an announcement for this week."
(checks subscription data, sees 10K cancellations)
"You know what? We should have an internal meeting before we go public..."
(a brick flies through the window)
"Gaah! Reschedule that announcement! Shareholder meeting, shareholder meeting!!"

 

[Matt Thomason]

The whole point of the (leaked) OGL was that it was (apparently, allegedly?) sent to certain 3PPs in order to sign them up before it was unveiled generally. And done so with NDAs (non-disclosures).

In other words- you decide if you're going to sign off on this, under the veil of confidentiality, before it's officially announced. Which ... sorta makes sense (from Hasbro's point of view).

Honestly, some things still don't add up to me- I know that companies have to be very careful regarding the NDA, but it does seem odd that we didn't hear a peep or a mumble from any of the 3PPs that would have received this. I do know that it seems that several fairly large-ish ones are on the record as affirmatively saying that (1) they didn't receive it, and (2) they are making their decisions based on the leak.

Just all around weird.

I'm thinking they didn't actually care much about informing any 3PPs, big or small, and only sent this to their more intermediary partners such as Kickstarter (to get them on board policing the crowdfunding projects for them) and those they have existing contracts with (outside of the OGL) such as the VTTs that have direct licensing deals with them (to reassure them they'll be blocking other VTTs to make their license fee worth something). Possibly DTRPG for similar reasons to Kickstarter and because they have the DM's Guild stuff and to talk about how it'll push more stuff onto that rather than smaller 3PPs doing their own thing. Likely nobody who the new OGL would actually hurt directly.

 

[Charlaquin]

The original Gizmodo article said the plan was to publicly announce the OGL 1.1 last week:

"io9's source indicated that the final version of the document was originally intended for release on January 4, which would have given companies and creators seven business days to agree and comply."

Yeah, that was what I thought I remembered. Thanks for finding that info!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

So ... not sure if we're winning, but we are at least advancing.

Right now I wish I had a D&D Beyond subscription to cancel to send a message.

 

[jgbrowning]

So ... not sure if we're winning, but we are at least advancing.

Right now I wish I had a D&D Beyond subscription to cancel to send a message.

I hope we're advancing, but I'm more cautious. I worry that the delays are simply time for refinements of the message of "we're not going to change anything" to try and minimize the damage they intend to do. I would really like to be wrong. Really, really, would like it.

joe b.