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.

 

[Osgood]

I've taken a wait and see approach to this whole business so far, but (assuming today's announcement doesn't cast major doubt on this) looks like I'll be canceling my DDB subscription today. I'm paid through August, so I guess they'll have time to reverse course, but the statement will be made.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Can we just give some spotlight to the irony that the last time D&D was in a huge wreck was largely because of Lorraine Williams and now it's in another massive debacle no thanks to, in large part I'm sure, to Cynthia WILLIAMS...?

 

[Composer99]

So, this might be kind of a hot take, but I don't think the email is saying much that's... new?

Like:
(1) Money talks; canceling subscriptions is going to be more effective than just being publicly angry in any event.
(2) Businesses regularly make decisions based almost entirely on bottom line impact.
(3) A certain contempt for customers feels like it goes without saying with modern "monetization" strategies (IMO).

We shouldn't give it much credence as being an actual insider email if we can't get corroboration, but is it really saying anything we don't either already know or couldn't reasonably conclude from what's gone on recently even if it had never come out?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Yeah, some independent verification of that email would be useful. As to the 3PM video -- we'll know the truth of that one soon enough.

I have my doubts about that email in multi ways... IT may be form a WotC employee (lets be honest it could be fake) lets assume it is... now you have to ask how much interaction they have and how is it colored by there own POV?

If you ask 2 people that work at the Walmart my fiancé used to work at (and my buddy and fellow gamer still does) you could end up with 2 people that say Walmart is evil. You could end up with 2 people that say Walmart is just a job. You could end up with 2 people saying Walmart is awesome and like the best to work for...
My opinion of Walmart is not positive (it is worse then I imagine it could be for WotC) but I can see this team of maybe 100 people and see that seeing the exact same amount of stuff in more or less the same way come away with VERY different thoughts.

To this day my fiancé even years later looks back and says "Why did I think it was okay for them to _____"

 

[Scribe]

I keep coming back to the view that no matter what WotC does, something has been broken - a feeling of goodwill and trust from the flagship company of D&D.

I mean, it is a basic principle: if you're nice 95% of the time but abusive 5% of the time, the abuse defines who you are (to the abused).

The point being, even if WotC "nices up" the OGL, no one is ever going to trust them again - unless they can somehow play the entire thing off as a bogus rumor, but that seems very unlikely. Unless they make it "irrevocable" - which they won't - there will always be a lingering edge of doubt, especially for smaller publishers.

Something my wife and I have told our son many times.

"They may not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel."

 

[darjr]

Note Linda Codega is rumored to have verified this.
Look for a story from them.

Edit : they did! See below.

 

[Art Waring]

If this is true their upcoming announcement should confirm it if they say they are delaying the 1.1 OGL but still releasing it anyway.

 

[Reynard]

I mean, it is a basic principle: if you're nice 95% of the time but abusive 5% of the time, the abuse defines who you are (to the abused).

No need for the parenthetical there, I don't think.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I don’t trust the email too much, but the video sounds promising

 

[Ondath]

Can we just give some spotlight to the irony that the last time D&D was in a huge wreck was largely because of Lorraine Williams and now it's in another massive debacle no thanks to, in large part I'm sure, to Cynthia WILLIAMS...?

While the ironic echo is indeed funny, I am starting to get uncomfortable with the amount of flak Williams is getting while VP of D&D Dan Rawson and CEO of Hasbro Chris Cocks are mostly unscathed. We might have a certain degree of implicit bias in pointing the finger to the female executive in the middle and not the guy directly responsible for D&D or the bigger fish who's running the whole show.