WotC Talks OGL... Again! Draft Coming Jan 20th With Feedback Survey; v1 De-Auth Still On

Following last week's partial walk-back on the upcoming Open Game Licence terms, WotC has posted another update about the way forward.

The new update begins with another apology and a promise to be more transparent. To that end, WotC proposes to release the draft of the new OGL this week, with a two-week survey feedback period following it.

WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

Wizards of the Coast has finally made a statement regarding the OGL. The statement says that the leaked version was a draft designed to solicit feedback and that they are walking back some problematic elements, but don't address others--most notably that the current OGL v1.0a is still being...

www.enworld.org

They also list a number of points of clarity --

• Videos, accessories, VTT content, DMs Guild will not be affected by the new license, none of which is related to the OGL
• The royalties and ownership rights clauses are, as previously noted, going away

OGL v1 Still Being 'De-Authorized'
However, OGL v1.0a still looks like it's being de-authorized. As with the previous announcement, that specific term is carefully avoided, and like that announcement it states that previously published OGL v1 content will continue to be valid; however it notably doesn't mention that the OGL v1 can be used for content going forward, which is a de-authorization.

The phrase used is "Nothing will impact any content you have published under OGL 1.0a. That will always be licensed under OGL 1.0a." -- as noted, this does not make any mention of future content. If you can't publish future content under OGL 1.0a, then it has been de-authorized. The architect of the OGL, Ryan Dancey, along with WotC itself at the time, clearly indicated that the license could not be revoked or de-authorized.

While the royalty and ownership clauses were, indeed, important to OGL content creators and publishers such as myself and many others, it is also very important not to let that overshadow the main goal: the OGL v1.0a.

Per Ryan Dancey in response this announcement: "They must not. They can only stop the bleeding by making a clear and simple statement that they cannot and will not deauthorize or revoke v1.0a".

Ryan Dancey -- Hasbro Cannot Deauthorize OGL

I reached out to the architect of the original Open Gaming License, former VP of Wizard of the Coast, Ryan Dancey, and asked his opinion about the current plan by WotC to 'deauthorize' the current OGL in favour of a new one. He responded as follows: Yeah my public opinion is that Hasbro does...

www.enworld.org

Amend At-Will
Also not mentioned is the leaked draft's ability to be amended at-will by WotC. An agreement which can be unilaterally changed in any way by one party is not an agreement, it's a blank cheque. They could simply add the royalties or ownership clauses back in at any time, or add even more onerous clauses.

All-in-all this is mainly just a rephrasing of last week's announcement addressing some of the tonal criticisms widely made about it. However, it will be interesting to see the new draft later this week. I would encourage people to take the feedback survey and clearly indicate that the OGL v1.0a must be left intact.

 

[Charlaquin]

They gave us something in 2000, two years after Google was founded, before anyone shopped on Amazon, a few years after Marvel was bankrupt and when Phantom Menace was making people question if Star Wars was still good. At a time when TSR had gone under and TTRPPGs were a tiny industry. Before DriveThruRPG was a thing, when 3PP only meant physical books and everyone wasn't carrying a portable computer in their pocket capable of holding a game store's worth of books.
It was a very different time.
It seems naïve to expect those rules to apply forever regardless of how the world changes.

You know, WotC is pretty familiar with promises made years ago in a different time that they wish they could renege on but don’t have the legal grounds to do so. I recommend reading up on the M:tG Reserved List, if you aren’t already familiar. Point is, that’s how promises work. They said it was irrevocable and if they changed the license in a way we didn’t like we could keep using an older version. Sure, they may not want to continue honoring their word, but that’s just tough luck. It was worded specifically to prevent them from going back on that promise in the future, based on open software licensing language of the time. Just because open software licensing language has evolved since then doesn’t mean their original intent no longer matters.

Regardless, it's going to change. Whining about how unfair it is doesn't help and isn't productive.
The OGL 1.0a is going to go away. That's the reality. The community can with scream that it's unfair or find a way to get something good out of the survey and make the new OGL more passable. Find the opportunity.

If it goes away, so do a lot of paying customers, and they likely won’t be able to stop anyone from still using 1.0a anyway.

Yes. A million other games. Each played by like 30 people worldwide, all with different schedules and free days to you.

First off, no, there are significantly large communities for non-D&D games now, and there will continue to be in the future. Especially since a lot of people are about to leave D&D behind if WotC goes through with this decision.

 

[Matt Thomason]

That's what I said.

No major nongaming company can make a good RPG without infringement of an existing. They would have to buy one.

Not necessarily. They could hire a good RPG designer to make a new one for them. Using one of the non-d20 alternatives that is open is also an option (especially with people jumping on the ORC bandwagon and bringing systems with them).

 

[ValamirCleaver]

OSR is too as popular as ppl claim. It's themes are old and mechanic dated. It mostly reliant on the DMs being all grizzled veterans.

The OSR spaces I frequent have received a deluge of newcomers the past 2 weeks asking how they can start playing OD&D, B/X & AD&D due to Wizbro's recent leaks. (They are directed to Swords & Wizardry, Old-School Essentials & OSRIC respectively.)

 

[Charlaquin]

That's not what I'm asking.
WotC wants to take away the OGL. The community doesn't want them to take away the OGL.

WotC is going to win that fight. So the community needs to surrender the OGL. To let WotC pull the license. But, having acknowledged that, they can ask for something else in exchange for the OGL that they didn't have before.

Such as…?

 

[Composer99]

@FormerLurker There is nothing to negotiate.

WotC has lied, betrayed the trust of people who have provided an enormous amount of add-on value to D&D over the past two decades (and would have continued to provide), and has shown they are willing to obliterate an entire industry for the sake of chump change.

They have to back down on their OGL shenanigans, period. End of story. Shouting with all-caps at us is not going to change that (in addition to being in very poor form).

Edit to add: If they want to negotiate new licences with 3pps that end their use of OGL 1.0(a), that's between WotC and those 3pps - well and good.

 

[Matt Thomason]

Such as…?

Ponies, obviously.
Or, as I've mentioned before, if WotC want to buy me out of my own individual OGL contract with them, I'm willing to hear dollar offers.

 

[overgeeked]

Monte Cook has it right:

Damn. That’s perfect.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Landlord, listen, I'm breaking my lease six months early and I'm not going to pay you a fee as stipulated in our lease agreement, it just doesn't work for me anymore.

 

[reelo]

OSR is too as popular as ppl claim. It's themes are old and mechanic dated. It mostly reliant on the DMs being all grizzled veterans.

That is absolutely not true. That might have been the case up until 5 years ago or so, but today, "the OSR" has become such a vast field, there's both DMs AND players that weren't even born when WotC bought TSR, and yet they still enjoy "old and dated mechanics".

OSR is like vinyl: some people never abandoned vinyl for CDs, minidisc, mp3, and streaming, while more and more younger people keep discovering the joys of physical albums and hifi-setups.

 

[Charlaquin]

At this point, I honestly have to wonder what would piss off the fanbase less; making a legit 6e that isn't compatible with the last decade of material (assuming we get into the wayback machine and take back them saying it would be) or their current path.

The former, because anyone who wanted a game that was compatible with the last decade of material could still just make that game under the OGL.