The thing that quite frankly is the dumbest thing about this whole debacle (and this has been mentioned a number of times before in other threads)... is that WotC didn't even need to worry about or bother with the OGL in the first place. If their 3DVTT works well if/when it comes out, people will sign up to use it and spend all kinds of cash on the bells and whistles within it even if there are other 3rd party books and RPGs out there based on various editions of D&D or not.
People spent their money on D&D Insider because it was a really good series of programs to go along with 4E. People spend their money on D&D Beyond because it's a really great program to go along with 5E. People spend their money on the DMs Guild because there are really good products there to buy to go along with 5E. And people will spend money on the 3DVTT if it turns out it is also a really great program to go along with 2024E. WotC is going to get their money. That was always going to be true.
The idea that they thought they had to corner the market on D&D and D&D-adjacent material to make sure that was going to be the case was silly-- and if I had to guess, most likely it was all the employees who were not actually familiar with the D&D / 3rd Party ecology. It's too bad those within the company who know the ecology were not able to really drive the fact home that just being Wizards of the Coast-- producers of Dungeons & Dragons, the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game-- would be more than enough to bring in the cash they all want to see.
And what's even more ridiculous is that (if we assume for the sake of argument the 3DVTT actually ends up working well)... in 18 months WotC will be in the exact same position of celebration of the 50th Anniversary and this whole thing will be in almost everyone's rear window. Games will be made, games will be played, and the 2024E books and 3DVTT will release to great fanfare-- with the only difference being a LOT of jokes at Wizard's expense made during the celebration. But of course... since jokes don't affect the bottom line... they will be easy jokes for folks at WotC to take.
By this time next year, we'll all be looking back on all of this (both gamers and employees within WotC) and thinking what a massive waste of time this all was in January 2023.
People spent their money on D&D Insider because it was a really good series of programs to go along with 4E. People spend their money on D&D Beyond because it's a really great program to go along with 5E. People spend their money on the DMs Guild because there are really good products there to buy to go along with 5E. And people will spend money on the 3DVTT if it turns out it is also a really great program to go along with 2024E. WotC is going to get their money. That was always going to be true.
The idea that they thought they had to corner the market on D&D and D&D-adjacent material to make sure that was going to be the case was silly-- and if I had to guess, most likely it was all the employees who were not actually familiar with the D&D / 3rd Party ecology. It's too bad those within the company who know the ecology were not able to really drive the fact home that just being Wizards of the Coast-- producers of Dungeons & Dragons, the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game-- would be more than enough to bring in the cash they all want to see.
And what's even more ridiculous is that (if we assume for the sake of argument the 3DVTT actually ends up working well)... in 18 months WotC will be in the exact same position of celebration of the 50th Anniversary and this whole thing will be in almost everyone's rear window. Games will be made, games will be played, and the 2024E books and 3DVTT will release to great fanfare-- with the only difference being a LOT of jokes at Wizard's expense made during the celebration. But of course... since jokes don't affect the bottom line... they will be easy jokes for folks at WotC to take.
By this time next year, we'll all be looking back on all of this (both gamers and employees within WotC) and thinking what a massive waste of time this all was in January 2023.
