NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8903480" data-attributes="member: 6801845">The video states at the 2 minute mark that the propose version of the OGL is "... an attempt to deauthorize third party publishers ability to write [product] for D&D" is counterfactual. Is it theoretically possible that they will try to shut down all 3PP support at some point?  Hypothetically.  But if they were trying to do that now they would have simply said "We will no longer support the OGL 1.0a."  Period.  There is no indication they are taking the TSR approach of suing everyone who produces content.All of these things seem to start with the assumption that WOTC will immediately stop every single 3PP in existence from publishing product for D&D.  That is not what they've said and it doesn't make sense from a business perspective.  Not jumping on the hyperbole train is not automatically dismissing all concerns.  I empathize with people facing uncertainty.  I've worked for that company that was slowly going bankrupt, another company that was bought out and had to downscale.  I may not have liked or agreed with the decisions management made, but I didn't make them out to be the second coming of the Nazi regime either.Everyone who works for a living faces risks to their livelihood.  Start up a company to make widgets?  Widgets could fall out of fashion or a competitor could make them cheaper and flood the market.  Work for a larger company?  Elon Musk could buy you out and and start cutting staff like a blindfolded drunk with a chainsaw.WOTC would gain nothing from shutting down every supporting 3PP.  First, from WOTC's perspective the money most 3PPs make is chicken feed.  If you make a few hundred, thousands or even a million in a year you simply aren't going to register on their radar.  Writing modules has never gotten anyone rich, they aren't even attempting to do the book-a-month club because it's not profitable for them.  If another company wants to fill in some niche products for their niche market, it makes business sense for them to let others take the risk.Yet every one of these things I read or watch (I don't watch many) start from the assumption that WOTC is going to shut everyone else down, that anything they say is a lie.  Proof that everything they say is a lie?  We just told you it was a lie!  I don't think of WOTC as a friend, ally or charitable steward.  They're a corporation and their business is to make money.  People had a reason to turn the dial of concern up from a "1".  But it was turned up to an "11" and it's stuck there with a lot of help from some of the larger companies who have everything to gain from creating new TTRPGs to people looking for eyeballs.  It's impossible to know what the real impact of the OGL 2.0 would be because the rhetoric feels so over the top.  But saying that I think the rhetoric is over the top, that WOTC is not attempting to "deauthorize third party publishers ability to write [product] for D&D" based on what they've said and released, is not the same as saying that there are no concerns.  It's trying to understand a balance that isn't reflected in virtually everything being published.</blockquote>

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