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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8908681" data-attributes="member: 19857"><p>So a bit of history for myself - back in the 1990s I discovered that TSR was a terrible company that treated the tabletop industry as if it were their own feudal kingdom and other companies as parasites who were stealing money that they rightfully deserved and fans who produced free content and put it on the internet as copyright thieves. I pretty much stopped playing D&D for most of the mid 90s because of how horrible they were online, focusing on other systems, bringing in new players to TTRPGs via games that weren't D&D, and mostly ignoring D&D's existence other than picking up some 2e supplements used here or there and porting them over to other games (mostly for Torg) up until TSR went bankrupt.</p><p></p><p>I came back to D&D largely only because Wizards said all of the right things and made all of the right moves to convince me that they weren't T$R. That they were a company that understood the tabletop community and their place in it and wanted to be good stewards for the game. The OGL and the associated SRD actually was the final nail that convinced me that it was worth investing my time and energy back into D&D again because the company behind it wasn't a bunch of aggressive idiots who only cared about their own profits.</p><p></p><p>So you can see, given that history, why I'm not that hyped to compromise on this right? Hasbro has laid down a marker showing that they're a deceptive business partner to work with, and that they don't care about the broader TTRPG community. Arguably they're worse than TSR because TSR didn't actually engage in the kind of deceptive business practice that Hasbro is with trying to revoke the OGL - if you were in the business, you knew what TSR was. They didn't try to hide it.</p><p></p><p>So I don't need to support D&D. My entertainment dollars can go elsewhere. I've bought dozens of D&D Starter Sets every year to give as gifts to pull people into the game - I can buy other starter sets for other games. Heck Hasbro has now convinced me that it's worth my time to convince all of the kids that I've introduced to the game over the past few years that it's time to try something new! Maybe it's time for me to gift them a Starfinder beginner box. Or when the WOIN starter set comes out maybe I'll stock up on those for gifts. I can promote games that actually want a community that plays them, rather than a game that wants me to subscribe to their streaming service for a monthly fee.</p><p></p><p>I actually don't care if Hasbro tanks D&D. I don't care if legally branded "Dungeons and Dragons (TM) (TM) (TM) (all rights reserved)(pat. pending)" gets put into the Hasbro vault next to Rom Spaceknight and the Micronauts and only gets rolled out when Hasbro thinks they might be able to reboot it. It doesn't matter to me. Because I know for a fact that I don't need to play D&D to be a happy gamer - I spent a good chunk of the 90s ignoring D&D and was just fine.</p><p></p><p>If I never DM another D&D session in my life I'll be fine. Wizards has lost some free advertising from me, but I'm sure they'll be fine too. I just don't care if they're successful or not anymore. Whereas before this all started I was always kind of happy to see D&D doing well in the market, I can go back to just not caring.</p><p></p><p>My only concern now is all of the folks whose businesses depend on the fact that Wizards deceitfully presented the OGL as a non-revokable license for 20 years, built their businesses on top of that deceit, and now are being told "we were lying". That's my concern at this point.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jer, post: 8908681, member: 19857"] So a bit of history for myself - back in the 1990s I discovered that TSR was a terrible company that treated the tabletop industry as if it were their own feudal kingdom and other companies as parasites who were stealing money that they rightfully deserved and fans who produced free content and put it on the internet as copyright thieves. I pretty much stopped playing D&D for most of the mid 90s because of how horrible they were online, focusing on other systems, bringing in new players to TTRPGs via games that weren't D&D, and mostly ignoring D&D's existence other than picking up some 2e supplements used here or there and porting them over to other games (mostly for Torg) up until TSR went bankrupt. I came back to D&D largely only because Wizards said all of the right things and made all of the right moves to convince me that they weren't T$R. That they were a company that understood the tabletop community and their place in it and wanted to be good stewards for the game. The OGL and the associated SRD actually was the final nail that convinced me that it was worth investing my time and energy back into D&D again because the company behind it wasn't a bunch of aggressive idiots who only cared about their own profits. So you can see, given that history, why I'm not that hyped to compromise on this right? Hasbro has laid down a marker showing that they're a deceptive business partner to work with, and that they don't care about the broader TTRPG community. Arguably they're worse than TSR because TSR didn't actually engage in the kind of deceptive business practice that Hasbro is with trying to revoke the OGL - if you were in the business, you knew what TSR was. They didn't try to hide it. So I don't need to support D&D. My entertainment dollars can go elsewhere. I've bought dozens of D&D Starter Sets every year to give as gifts to pull people into the game - I can buy other starter sets for other games. Heck Hasbro has now convinced me that it's worth my time to convince all of the kids that I've introduced to the game over the past few years that it's time to try something new! Maybe it's time for me to gift them a Starfinder beginner box. Or when the WOIN starter set comes out maybe I'll stock up on those for gifts. I can promote games that actually want a community that plays them, rather than a game that wants me to subscribe to their streaming service for a monthly fee. I actually don't care if Hasbro tanks D&D. I don't care if legally branded "Dungeons and Dragons (TM) (TM) (TM) (all rights reserved)(pat. pending)" gets put into the Hasbro vault next to Rom Spaceknight and the Micronauts and only gets rolled out when Hasbro thinks they might be able to reboot it. It doesn't matter to me. Because I know for a fact that I don't need to play D&D to be a happy gamer - I spent a good chunk of the 90s ignoring D&D and was just fine. If I never DM another D&D session in my life I'll be fine. Wizards has lost some free advertising from me, but I'm sure they'll be fine too. I just don't care if they're successful or not anymore. Whereas before this all started I was always kind of happy to see D&D doing well in the market, I can go back to just not caring. My only concern now is all of the folks whose businesses depend on the fact that Wizards deceitfully presented the OGL as a non-revokable license for 20 years, built their businesses on top of that deceit, and now are being told "we were lying". That's my concern at this point. [/QUOTE]
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