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.

 

[CleverNickName]

It's a bummer that you have to email their support line to get them to delete your D&D Beyond account. That means some poor IT technician is having to read and then respond, one by one, to so many angry emails all at once.

Sorry, gentle stranger. I know you didn't ask for this, and you weren't involved in any of the decisions that ruined your work-week. But I'm gonna ask that you delete my DDB account as well.

 

[FrogReaver]

Why, that is pleasantly devoid of pr-speak!

I get message saying they are undergoing scheduled maintenance. Maybe we broke them?

 

[Parmandur]

Why, that is pleasantly devoid of pr-speak!

Of course it is, just well done PR speak.

Also a pretty good example of how people will forget and forgive a corporation over time.

 

[DorkForge]

Sorry to add fuel to the fire but I think we were most definitely heading for disaster as it became more "mainstream" to attempt to make a living off a game that was initially intended to simply be a pastime or hobby. I'm not looking for people to start throwing a snit but I feel this opinion needs to be voiced. Certainly, the initial publishers, writers, artists, etc deserve to make a profit. There is a lot of work that goes into making this product that we all know and love.

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.

Not only is this entirely irrelevant to the OGL, which has no impact on paid DMing at all, and I'm not even sure WotC could do anything about that if they wanted to (which... why would they?), as a paid DM I'd like to lay out a thought or two for you to consider:

Just because you are not the target audience for paid DMing doesn't mean that others don't derive meaningful value from it.

Hobbies becoming jobs is very much a thing, you don't want to do that, great! Not sure why that has an impact on anyone else though. Not your time, not your money, not really an impact on you whatsoever.

 

[CleverNickName]

I get message saying they are undergoing scheduled maintenance. Maybe we broke them?

Or maybe they scheduled some maintenance right in the middle of a mass-exodus, hoping to break the momentum and maybe slow it down a bit?

 

[payn]

Or maybe they scheduled some maintenance right in the middle of a mass-exodus, hoping to break the momentum and maybe slow it down a bit?

Hoping you'll give up wanting to cancel lol.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Or maybe they scheduled some maintenance right in the middle of a mass-exodus, hoping to break the momentum and maybe slow it down a bit?

That's going to just make it worse and draw even more attention to it. No ones angry is going anywhere.

 

[ilgatto]

Also a pretty good example of how people will forget and forgive a corporation over time.

I'm afraid I don't quite follow.

 

[Haplo781]

The ORC has pie!

Great to see this. Just wondering how many other publishers will jump on board. What we probably don't need is a dozen different OGL replacements.

The one I'm still waiting to hear from is Goodman Games. I'm going to really miss the OAR's...and want to know what their plans are for the Dark Tower Kickstarter.

They should totally name their version of the SRD the PIE.

 

[J.Quondam]

Or maybe they scheduled some maintenance right in the middle of a mass-exodus, hoping to break the momentum and maybe slow it down a bit?

And in this case I assume "scheduled some maintenance" really means "panicked and ripped a bunch of cables out of the server racks."