Ryan Dancey no Longer working with Wizards on OGL/D20

[EOL]

Ryan Dancey sent the following out to the OGL Mailing list:

------------------------

Dear Friends,

As you all know, WotC is downsizing today. My personal sympathies go out to all involved. These are tough times, filled with turbulence and discontent. Hopefully the days ahead will be brighter.

On a more personal note, as a part of their general effort to cut costs, they've decided to terminate my consulting agreement, as of today.

There will be practical implications to that change.

First, I'm not going to be directly involved in the MasterTools development effort any more. That responsibility will now be taken on by Peter Kim at Wizards (Peter.Kim@wizards.com). I will continue to allow the MasterTools beta test list to be hosted on my servers, and the beta will continue under Peter's oversight.

Second, I will not be meeting regularly with R&D on further SRD approvals. The R&D team and I need to work out a system to finish that work without my direct oversight. Anthony Valterra (zulkir@wizards.com) will now become your primary contact for all issues related to the OGL and the D20 System Trademark License as they apply to Wizards' product and policies. This change is related primarily to personal issues between WotC and myself, and does not reflect WotC's continued commitment to the idea of Open Gaming, or to the release of the SRD in a complete format. Unfortunately, due to this change, I will not be attending the WotC hosted OGL meeting at GAMA on Monday. For obvious reasons, from this point forward, I do not speak on behalf of Wizards in any official capacity related to their Open Gaming efforts.

I will continue to operate the Open Gaming Foundation, and the OGL mailing lists. OrganizedPlay's license to operate the Living City campaign also continues without change.

While I am sorry to see my official relationship with Wizards of the Coast end, it is my hope that you will all see a smooth transition and a minimum of disruption.

Sincerely,

Ryan S. Dancey
CEO, OrganizedPlay
(for information about Open Gaming, please visit www.opengamingfoundation.org)

--------------------

I for one am sad to see the person who started the OGL movement released by wizards, and while this is by no means the biggest layoff it is an important one.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Wow. This, more than the other announced lay-offs, worries me most.

Thanks for posting, EOL.

 

[EOL]

Re: Re: Ryan Dancey no Longer working with Wizards on OGL/D20

Wow. This, more than the other announced lay-offs, worries me most.

Thanks for posting, EOL.

Yeah, I agree. I got the impression that Ryan was the main Open Gaming Evangelist, even though it says in his letter that this in no way represents a decrease in WoTC's support, I can't help feeling a little nervous.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Erg! this is starting to look very no good. Hurn!

I hope we don't see a repeat of the TSR debacle.

Man lay offs are bad enough, but some of the folks they layed off....

 

[Horacio]

Mierda! Mierda! Mierda!

What kind of is happening ?!??!?!?!

 

[herald]

The gaming world is watching horror. This is truely sad.

 

[Wolfspider]

*please forgive me for this moment of mindless vitriol*

I have a theory. (And, no, it's not bunnies.) Some big man at Hasbro took a second look at how many people were employed at WotC in developing this Dungeons and Dragons board game and compared it to the numbers involved in developing other Hasbro board games, like Clue and Monopoly.

"This is ridiculous! They've had more than a year to release this D&D board game, and they're still employing Research and Development staff? Nonsense!"

The big man makes slashes through several names on his list.

"The game has been made. It doesn't need any more development. For goodness sake, how many times have the rules to Monopoly changed over the years? Hmmm? Or the ones to Clue? Bah. It's finished."

The exec cocks his head to one side and thinks for a moment.

"Although we might want to do a Star Wars themed version of the D&D board game some day. Yeah, that's an idea...."

He makes a few notes and leaves his office, whistling.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

You see, here is how it works.

I follow a game product line. During the course of that process I naturally come accross one or two guys whose style I like. Then that person or persons get fired.

Gaaaa.

Well, maybe they'll hire Colin McComb back as a freelancer.

 

[Gez]

My opinion is that Hasbro fired Dancey to get rid of the OGL. In one month or two, an announcement will be made that the d20 STL is discontinued and that nothing more will be added to the SRD.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Gez mate!

My opinion is that Hasbro fired Dancey to get rid of the OGL. In one month or two, an announcement will be made that the d20 STL is discontinued and that nothing more will be added to the SRD.

Not exactly music to my ears so lets hope your way wrong!