Why We Should Work With WotC

[Jer]

The thing is, I've been a gamer for a really long time, and D&D has been my game of choice for almost all of that time. And while I've gradually become disenchanted with it all in recent years, there's still a lot of love there. I really don't want to have to stop buying D&D products and stop playing the game over this, but the moment WotC formally announce the de-authorization of OGL 1.0a that's what I'll feel I have to do

I said elsewhere that I've done this dance before. When I learned what a terrible company TSR was in the 90s I basically stopped buying D&D and started playing other games more heavily. The Wizards purchase and the OGL is what basically brought me back to D&D.

So I can leave it again and be fine. Especially these days where there's so many alternatives to play with.

Feel bad for the kids who started playing D&D because I introduced it to them though. My own kid has been reading about this stuff and is thinking about Pathfinder for their campaign, but they've invested a lot of effort into their D&D stuff and really do like using D&D Beyond. (Any suggestions for Pathfinder 2e encounter building tools to forward to them are appreciated btw. I found one -maxiride.github.io - on a reference from asking on Mastodon, but if folks know of others I'd appreciate the reference. The more alternatives available, the easier it might be for them to justify jumping off).

(So stupid - Wizards basically has a lock-in with the younger gamers with Beyond. They want to use that tool - you don't need to force them to use it by making other tools unattractive. The cache of using the "official" version of anything is still a thing. Or it was until the last few weeks at least.)

 

[The Stray]

The announcement of a thing is not the thing itself. The intention has not been made reality.

Psychological abuse is still abuse.

Psychic damage is just as lethal as any other type of damage.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There could be a class action suit against WotC the moment they deauthorize.

There should be a class action suit. That's the best way to get around WotC's fear mongering, to my mind.

 

[mamba]

The problem is no one here that I have seen has said "Let me go mortgage my house, get a 1/4 of a mil and then risk losing it to beat WotC" nor do I except any sane person would or should....

do a Kickstarter, no need to mortgage your house and hope people jump in before you go broke. Get 5M or do not even start

 

[Staffan]

(Any suggestions for Pathfinder 2e encounter building tools to forward to them are appreciated btw. I found one -maxiride.github.io - on a reference from asking on Mastodon, but if folks know of others I'd appreciate the reference. The more alternatives available, the easier it might be for them to justify jumping off).

(So stupid - Wizards basically has a lock-in with the younger gamers with Beyond. They want to use that tool - you don't need to force them to use it by making other tools unattractive. The cache of using the "official" version of anything is still a thing. Or it was until the last few weeks at least.)

I haven't looked at it in any detail, but Demiplane has the license for the Pathfinder Nexus, which is essentially planning to be D&D Beyond for Pathfinder (and it's run by . It's still in early access though, so I don't think they have encounter tools yet. The chief developer is Adam Bradford, who used to run D&D Beyond as well.

 

[Lanefan]

That's some heavily loaded language there.

Sal's Pizza, down on the corner, has a storefront, kitchen, seating, and all that. They sell pizza, and folks buy pizza. Normal relationship. They don't, however, advertise that every other person who wants to start a restaurant can come and use their space and utilities, free of charge, to do pop-up restaurant business.

A better analogy would be that Sal's has a very successful pizza recipe and has for a long time allowed any other pizza maker free access to that recipe as long as they credit Sal's for inventing it. Other pizza places use that recipe, rightfully credit Sal's for it, and as a result Sal's itself does a booming trade.

Suddenly one day Sal's revokes that permission. But they still have the booming trade due to the free advertising they were getting all those years, meanwhile the other pizza places are left hanging - sure they can make other types of pizza, but in no small part due to that open-use policy on the recipe, Sal's pizza is what everyone wants.

Outcome: everyone loses. Because it's now the only place in town to get Sal's pizza, Sal's gets swamped by the demand and can't cope: a loss for both Sal's and a whole lot of customers. Meanwhile the other pizza places are left selling less-popular pizzas, so they lose too.

So yes, pulling the open permission to use the recipe is a dumb move on Sal's part, and it only makes sense to tell them so in no uncertain terms.

 

[Haplo781]

That’s… debatable.

Something something ethical consumption something something something capitalism

 

[mamba]

Something something ethical consumption something something something capitalism

man, this statement shows up twice a day and you still cannot remember it

 

[Clint_L]

A better analogy would be that Sal's has a very successful pizza recipe and has for a long time allowed any other pizza maker free access to that recipe as long as they credit Sal's for inventing it. Other pizza places use that recipe, rightfully credit Sal's for it, and as a result Sal's itself does a booming trade.

Suddenly one day Sal's revokes that permission. But they still have the booming trade due to the free advertising they were getting all those years, meanwhile the other pizza places are left hanging - sure they can make other types of pizza, but in no small part due to that open-use policy on the recipe, Sal's pizza is what everyone wants.

Outcome: everyone loses. Because it's now the only place in town to get Sal's pizza, Sal's gets swamped by the demand and can't cope: a loss for both Sal's and a whole lot of customers. Meanwhile the other pizza places are left selling less-popular pizzas, so they lose too.

So yes, pulling the open permission to use the recipe is a dumb move on Sal's part, and it only makes sense to tell them so in no uncertain terms.

Except now Sal sees an opportunity to move beyond just selling pizza and become a lifestyle brand/entertainment mogul, especially with the Sal's Pizza movie coming out soon, so they don't care about the collateral damage to the pizza business...

 

[Voadam]

Or maybe even Sal wants his family recipe he uses in his restaurant out there in case he dies off and no kids continue the business so he gives it away for others to use in their restaurants. Once Sal is no longer running his restaurant his successors say Sal never actually gave away the recipe, he just gave permission to use it, which is now no longer authorized as they own the recipe and don't want others using it except under their terms.