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.

 

[overgeeked]

Edit, it’s back on line.

View attachment 272179

"oters"

 

[eyeheartawk]

Considering that even if they rolled back 100% and ammended the current OGL to be super duper irrevocable forever the trust is irretrievably broken. So damn the torpedoes, you know? The damage is already done.
We'll just have to make our own non corporate d&d now.

 

[Kannik]

If that email is correct, then it's indicatory of Hasbro, unfortunately, really "bro"ing it up, focusing on pumping their personal cachet and the stock price/bonus.

It reminds me a lot of the amusement park that's a stone's throw from my house, whose parent company (Cedar Fair Entertainment) last year sold the property upon which the park sits to a developer, with a 10 year lease back. When I heard that I figured "that's a bummer, but it is after the pandemic and maybe they needed to do this in order to stay solvent." Nope. Their goal, stated as such in their own press release, was to do this in order to allow the company to return to providing dividends quickly. They did not need to sell it to stay in business; they did it in order to give away money. The area loses a fixture of the community since the park was open in the 70s, while the company as a whole loses out on revenue in the future as well as the value of the land's appreciation in the future. Cutting off future benefit and killing off what the company is actually for (creating/running amusement parks that entertain people) just so they can fill their pockets and the pockets of those who are already well off. Short term maximization that kills the long term and harms those who loved the park.

My guess is that there are few if any designers within WotC who are keen on these changes, and it's this same kind of short sighted and self-serving shenanigans from Hasbro that's driving this.

 

[MockingBird]

So I paid for a year Dndbeyond sub a couple months back before all this happened. I have some encounters built (your limited to 5 I think with the free account, I needed more). If I cancel my sub will I lose all those encounters I've built for my game? I guess I'm going to wait and see what this video is about then decide. This sucks.

 

[Arcane Mark]

Linda Codega of Gizmodo confirmed D&D Shorts's leak. Linda thoroughly vets information, so that makes me feel pretty confident about the second rumor.

EDIT: I somehow skipped from page 1 of comments to page 3 and missed that Linda's response was already up here. Sorry for the repeat.

~Mark Seifter, Roll for Combat Director of Game Design

 

[Rabulias]

So I paid for a year Dndbeyond sub a couple months back before all this happened. I have some encounters built (your limited to 5 I think with the free account, I needed more). If I cancel my sub will I lose all those encounters I've built for my game? I guess I'm going to wait and see what this video is about then decide. This sucks.

I believe cancelling your account only cancels the renewal of it at the normal end of its term, so you would not lose anything until your subscription year is up.

 

[Konrad13]

All of this is just mind boggling. If it isn't a full-throated denouncement of the OGL 1.1 and vocal (and preferably written) agreement that under no circumstance would the OGL 1.0 or OGL 1.0a be unauthorized, then WotC has lost business with not just me but also my group.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't find that e-mail remotely surprising. It always sucks to hear what corporate thinks of us "little people", but it seems that it's always a variant of this attitude. It comes from seeing people as numbers on graphs and spreadsheets. That and CEOs are often sociopaths.

I've honestly come to expect it.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Also, if you absolutely want to keep playing "official" D&D just buy the books used.
I bet that probably bothers them more than not playing at all.

 

[CleverNickName]

So by not releasing a statement at 3:00 p.m. ET today, they can cast doubt on the first rumor. "Well that rumor was wrong about the announcement, maybe it's also wrong about these changes to the OGL," some might think.

But it would confirm the second (and more damning) rumor. "They said they were going to delay the roll-out, and now they're already delaying the announcement, so the rumor must be true!"

This is going to be an interesting afternoon.