Why I'm not boycotting the movie, video games, comic books or novels over the OGL scandal, just D&DB & hardcovers.

[GMforPowergamers]

I just have to wonder...

How would WotC respond to a major news network reporting on picket lines outside theaters?

I know kevin smith tried to get more people to the protest, and even got himself into it and got interviewed as a protester....

 

[Blue]

1. WotC has already lost, they've walked back almost everything,

They have walked back the minority, and haven't walked back their ability to add it all back. Until they walk back deauthorizing the OGL 1.0a (as opposed to already published products using it will be okay), and until they remove their ability to update the OGL without a version change so they can add terms in (like putting royalty or anything else back), they haven't really given anything useful.

3. Most of the damage this will do has already been done, most 3pp aren't coming back for the foreseeable future.

There are a number of Kickstarters that have postponed or are in limbo. There's a lot that right now can do with a clarification.

 

[wicked cool]

Little early to say they lost

Agree with posters if the movie is good and you don’t see it then you are just hurting your chances of a studio taking a chance on a pathfinder etc movie

I’m watching this spread to anything related to d&d including wizkids which is basically the company’s you say wotc is hurting. People are actually saying they aren’t buying d&d related miniatures and destroying them instead of even reselling them

I feel like I’m back in the book burning/tea dumping era. Or in a Monty python witch skit or in airplane when they are trying to calm down a passenger
What’s next a forum post with those who pledge never to play d&d again. Please I’d love to see it
It feels similar to the complaints about games workshop and their controls over the market.

 

[ThorinTeague]

Oh, the game is more important for me too. But I don't matter in the grand scheme of things. The brand is more monetizable, the brand has more copyright protections, the brand can be translated in to other medias. As a company, in this capitalist world WotC is right in knowing the brand is the most valuable thing in D&D. That doesn't mean that it was a smart move to defecate all over the game, the community and their own reputation...

The game is very important to me too but I can't look at it without my stomach turning anymore (this is 3rd time going through this horseshit for me).

 

[mamba]

Agree with posters if the movie is good and you don’t see it then you are just hurting your chances of a studio taking a chance on a pathfinder etc movie

well, I disagree. If you watch the movie you tell Hasbro that none of this matters and they were right to do it.

The likelihood of it spawning a PF movie is so small as to be nonexistent, that is just an excuse to watch the movie.

If you want a PF movie, buy PF stuff. Interest in PF might get you there, interest in its biggest competitor won’t

 

[Charlaquin]

1. WotC has already lost, they've walked back almost everything, and a lot of what's left that folks hate will be dust from the D&D Beyond boycott and hardcover boycott. The last, biggest part the OGL 1.0a revocation is already on shaky ground because of internal opposition, bad PR, and the current TTRPG boycott, and WotC has no legal case to revoke the OGL not even counting the perpetual vs irrevokible issue, they will lose any court case Paizo and others bring against them, which will come, and in the extremely unlikely scenario that WotC wins, Paizo will likely get an injunction against revoking OGL 1.0a until the case is resolved, which could take years to resolve, destroying WotC schedule and making One D&D ompossible to release next year. This is a no win scenerio for them and the smallest loses are letting go of the new OGL altogether.

I think you significantly over-estimate the effect the current backlash has had and will have. And the only thing WotC has really walked back was the royalty structure, and ostensibly the license-back, though I think we should wait to see the actual language before we count that unhatched chicken. They doubled down on the one actually important thing, the revocation of the OGL 1.0.

2. I don't blame WotC for this, I blame CEO Chris Cocks, WotC President Cynthia Williams, and D&D Vice President Rawson, those are my targets, not WotC. I've learned its more effective to go after corporate leadership then a corporation.

We don’t know who specifically is responsible, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. The only way to affect change is to withhold our money from the company.

3. Most of the damage this will do has already been done, most 3pp aren't coming back for the foreseeable future.

If most of the damage has already been done and they still haven’t reversed course on revoking the OGL 1.0, what makes you think they’re ever going to? The battle hasn’t been won, so we need to keep doing damage or we will lose.

4. The Forgotten Realms has been severly under supportered in 5e, especially mid to late 5e, FR needs this movie and it's novels. Frankly FR setting is more important to me then D&D, so that is my priorities. Not that things will get worse for D&D see point 1.

Going to see the movie doesn’t specifically support the Forgotten Realms. If you’re serious about wanting to support FR and not D&D, you should find ways to support Ed Greenwood directly.

 

[Charlaquin]

As far as the movie, I plan to see it. I plan to see it because I want good D&D movies. This one shows promise. I understand people's feelings towards it all but I've been waiting a long time for a good D&D movie.

I mean… There are ways of seeing it that don’t support WotC…

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm gonna watch it because I want to watch it. I'm not even the metric corpos use to see if a movie does well. I endured all the other D&D movies, and now that it's at least pretty, I'm not supposed to do it?

By all means, watch it. Just don’t pay money to do so. Or at the very least, don’t pay to do so during the first week.

 

[Charlaquin]

At the risk of whataboutism, if I refused to deal with every company that I felt was somehow dishonest or abusive, I'd have scant choices in my life. Disney, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Walmart, Blizzard. They are all scummy and corrupt. And Hasbro was long before this. And yet, still watch Andor, Rings of Power, own a Google Pixel and a Microsoft Windows laptop and play WoW. Even Paizo was doing mea culpas over a year ago about how they were treating employees. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

You aren’t wrong, but this should be a reason to take a stand on the issues that matter to you, not an excuse not to because you can’t realistically do so on every issue. I’d have much more sympathy for someone saying “well, I already boycott Disney movies, I need some form of entertainment in my life” than “well Disney is worse and I don’t boycott them either, so ”

 

[Charlaquin]

That would be pretty wild, but sorry I just can't see it happening.

And with that attitude, it won’t.

The key to successful political action is organization. This absolutely could happen, if we take steps now to start organizing.