Sly Flourish is ANGRY

[Velderan]

• They may well have been concerned about the Hadozee mistake could happen again, but worse. While it's true that you can't put the label "D&D" on OGL 1.0a licensed material, many people would not care. For them it's used to play D&D, it's labeled "5E", it's sold next to and as a supplement to D&D, it is D&D. The brand can be harmed by other companies because they are associated with D&D.

You're not wrong, but that's the price for being the market leader like WotC is with D&D. People will confuse similar products for yours because they know your name. Growing up in the 80s, parents would say their kids were playing Nintendo even if they had a Sega or Atari game syste. Any person I've ever met from Texas refers to any form of soda that isn't a Dr. Pepper as a coke (lower case c). Dr. Pepper is always referred to by it's name for some reason. lol

With or without the OGL, people who aren't familiar with the specific product will confuse it with the more well-known brand. It happens all the time.

 

[Arilyn]

Yes, "internet outrage" can get ridiculous or click baity. This isn't one of those times. We should be outraged. Sly is very angry but he explained things accurately and calmly.

Corporations are very powerful but we do have the ultimate power over them. Losing profit and taking a PR hit is never a good thing. Keep up the pressure.

 

[Minigiant]

If you think Vince is better then the 5 worst people at wotc (taking only there negative traits and none of there good) you are not paying attention.


Edit: and I men as a boss, as a person, as a content creator, and in general... not just one thing. This man has destroyed lives (multi) in ways WotC seems to have not even come close...

He is a monster that abuses people and laws all the time

I'm not saying he's not a terrible person. I was saying that he attempted to give the customer what he thought they actually wanted. He quickly became outdated and wrong. But the point was the guy at the top wanted the customer to receive a good product (at the detriment of everyone else)

 

[SteveC]

It never stops amazing me when people ask the question "why are these people upset? Why are going nuclear on this?" When you have people who have built a job, a business, a career out of the OGL and this just got dropped on them. It's sort of a Dread Pirate Roberts "good job, probably have to kill you in the morning" thing. We're only a few days out from discussion of how this had to be a lie and been made up.

I am not in the industry, but I have friends who are, but again the question comes up "why do you care? What's upsetting you about this?" I hope questions like this come from a good place but as someone who has been in this since the 1970s, what's going on is just crushing it. It's destroying all of the good will that has taken almost 10 years to build.

I am an unabashed fan of 4E, but I also realize that what happened during that time was incredibly bad for the hobby. And I thought that everyone had learned from that. I suppose this is what happens when you put people who aren't gamers and don't understand gaming culture in charge of what happens to D&D.

So when the question "why do you care?" comes up, I just have to point to all of the games we either aren't going to see or might see in a much reduced way. Is that enough? And people are genuinely upset that the whole life they've built over 20 years is in jeopardy.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm not saying he's not a terrible person. I was saying that he attempted to give the customer what he thought they actually wanted. He quickly became outdated and wrong.

no he gave the customers what he wanted, and only what he wanted, and lied and cheated and had laws changed to make it so he could abuse his 'not' employees and bought anyone close to competition, so no one had a choice... then he also committed crimes, paid people money to not talk about the crimes, then committed those volant crimes again...

But the point was the guy at the top wanted the customer to receive a good product (at the detriment of everyone else)

No he didn't he just wanted to stay on top, and when the public wanted asked for an got other options he shut them down or turned them into his so he could change it back to his way.

Edit: I like 4e, but the equivalent would be if WotC bought Piazo and made all pathfinder books into 4e ones... then went and did some crimes, and didn't pay there employees by using underhand accounting and legal techniques... but then when Green Ronin put out better monster books and setting books, they bought them too so your only option was WotC style settings and Monster manuals... then they abused more people, gave them money (that came from under handed if not illegal places) and got them to sign NDAs so they couldn't sue or press crimiinal charges... was finally pushed out, and some how got themselves back IN CHARGE... no Vince is a monster who should be in jail