Friday, January 13, 2023

My Response to WotC's Announcement on the OGL 2.0


I love Dungeons and Dragons. I love playing it, running it, and introducing it to people. I am grateful for the people it has introduced me to, of the barriers it shatters, and of the memories it has made for me.

But I'm tired of Wizards of the Coast. I'm tired of Hasbro.

I'm sure most of you know Wizards of the Coast responded. Finally.

You can read it here.

Things that piss me off because it show their contempt for us:

"However, it’s clear from the reaction that we rolled a 1".

Other choice passages:

"First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hateful and discriminatory products."

Like the Hadozee in Spelljammer?

"And third, we wanted to ensure that the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community—not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose."

And yet when it was launched for 3E you included White Wolf, Atlas Games, Green Ronin, Necromancer Game, and Mongoose Games. The OGL has always been for the industry. How can it hurt DnD to be used in a video game? How? Yeah, I'm sure it really sucks that it was used in one of the most beloved CRPGs ever made.

"Driving these goals were two simple principles: (1) Our job is to be good stewards of the game, and (2) the OGL exists for the benefit of the fans. Nothing about those principles has wavered for a second. "

You are "stewards"? That is why you wanted to steal people's work? DnD was united even those that didn't like you used DnD's "language" to keep playing and ou don't know what a "principle" looks like?

"In addition to language allowing us to address discriminatory and hateful conduct and clarifying what types of products the OGL covers, our drafts included royalty language designed to apply to large corporations attempting to use OGL content. It was never our intent to impact the vast majority of the community."

Sure. "Corporations". If someone had a $1 million Kickstarter your proposed cut was $50k. Is that even worth your accountant's time? "Large corporations"? Is there anyone anywhere involved with the OGL and RPG industry bigger than Hasbro? No.

"Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected. "

We can't ever trust you again unless you add "irrevocable" to the OGL 1.0a. Otherwise it's all a hard pass. Buh-bye.

"What it will not contain is any royalty structure. It also will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds"

The fuck it didn't. You guys are the poster child for "greed is good". We weren't afraid, we were pissed off because we SEE you.

"As we continue to invest in the game that we love and move forward with partnerships in film, television, and digital games, that risk is simply too great to ignore."

The "game" doesn't matter to you. You see it as a "lifestyle brand" now. You want to sell lunch boxes, underwear, toothbrushes...the game is barely on your radar. The only "risk" is you. 

"Second, you’re going to hear people say that they won, and we lost because making your voices heard forced us to change our plans. Those people will only be half right. They won—and so did we."

Wow. You don't have any idea how hollow you sound do you? This isn't a cartoon or comic or film you make to sell toys this is a game that helps us make friends, meet our soulmates, make lasting memories with, helps us fight our mental illness', and helps us deal with any number of physical, mental, or emotional challenges we face on a daily basis. No one won here. We didn't. And you sure as Hell fucking didn't. But we stood up to you. We beat you but it's hollow because you showed us how much you despise everyone of us. You despise your customers, fans, and even your staff. You put this on people that are new to your company and are having deal with your greed and fallout you created.

"Our plan was always to solicit the input of our community before any update to the OGL; the drafts you’ve seen were attempting to do just that. We want to always delight fans and create experiences together that everyone loves. We realize we did not do that this time and we are sorry for that. Our goal was to get exactly the type of feedback on which provisions worked and which did not–which we ultimately got from you. Any change this major could only have been done well if we were willing to take that feedback, no matter how it was provided–so we are."

You are fucking liars. You were planning on dumping this yesterday and having the holiday weekend to dodge any heat. You are so fucking clueless that you had no idea that your customers have some backbone. You didn't leak this. You didn't even know how to respond so you had to cancel the original announcement and you are still hiding behind the holiday weekend. This isn't going away. We aren't going away. You created competitors that understand this industry better than you. You empowered the last publisher to challenge one of your mistakes, again over the OGL, and then gave a slew of others to join in taking your down again. The damage is done. We are moving on and good riddance to you. We will never trust you again.

3 comments:

August said...

Yeah... and it's a damn shame. They have a lovely playground.

I just can never trust it isn't built on quicksand. :(

Ruprecht said...

I enjoyed the part where they said the released OGL was a draft. A number of 3pp that were asked to sign that draft (with a very short deadline) would probably disagree.

Such an obvious and provable lie, yet they said it anyway.

Doctor Futurity said...

I mentioned this elsewhere, but WotC went in the space of about a week from the shepherds of the community to its capricious overlord just like that.

Monster Monday: Obstrevoi for Shadowdark

  You can download a PDF here.