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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Enrahim2" data-source="post: 8899043" data-attributes="member: 7039850">There was a middle way. They could have gone the 4ed route of again abandoning the OGL. Maybe make a new GSL, maybe rely on DmGuild licensing only. With the curent market position and without the other factors dooming D&D4ed I think this might had a fair chance to work. Creators would have flocked to it, even some accepting the risk of the royalties. Wizards could have suggested their OGL-1.1 terms (possibly without the grant full use clause), and people would have happily taken it. Wizards would still be a company with a track record of fair business dealings, and hence a potential reliable partner. Getting access to the updated "true oneD&D" would be enough carrot, as the current huge pool of causal gamers would likely have followed without thinking.Instead they went the path of trying to intimidate big publishers with terms they couldn't possibly accept. They invent their own legal understanding of a previous contract, that is directly contradicting their previous public statement. They absolutely and totally showed that they in no way is a trustworthy business partner, and are willing to offer contracts in bad faith.There is no middle ground anymore. Wizards has lost all credibility as someone you can do business with, besides maybe trough tight contracts negotiated between two sides with strong lawyers - and at least a sense of trust and assumption of good faith is needed to find any "middle ground". The best wizards can hope for now is to ease pain and anger, so that those they have burned, and who's investments has been ruined won't carry the grudge enough to actively remind people about what wizards has done. What wizards can buy now is a time reduction before people can start to "forgive" and forget. Making a new license, fully divorced from OGL, and using the power invested in them to release an OGL1.0a compatible OGL1.0b with updated open source required language would be a good start.If they somehow also manage to find a way to unambiguously remove their control over all OGLs, that might actually be enough to actually restore a sliver of trust. Unfortunately given the wording of OGL1.0a, I don't think that is possible.</blockquote>

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