OGL 1.1 live chat with a lawyer at Roll for Crit.

[Greg Benage]

It's just a warning letter, not an actual legal document, it's early sabre rattling which almost certainly all of the major companies are engaging in, and possibly many smaller players as well, hoping to kill this before legal actions become needed.

Yeah, good, if my lawyer wrote that letter, I wouldn't be a satisfied client.

 

[Alzrius]

I'll raise you one of my friends owns a comic and gaming store. When I texted the group chat with him just a few minutes ago none of them knew about this he and 1 other knew about the earlier comment BY WotC and that was it... he was open and busy yesterday and is getting ready to open today. Not a peep from any gamer.

It's early yet. The first thing we've had that resembles genuine reporting, as opposed to unconfirmed leaks, is that Gizmodo article, and it's less than twenty-four hours old.

 

[Dreamscape]

If WotC wants people to sign on to the OGL v1.1, what are they supposed to produce under it between now and mid-2024?

Hopefully nothing, so that they will be hungry enough to sign anything by then.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I doubt that third-party companies will forget about this anytime soon, and while a lot of them are small outfits, a few of them have not-insignificant reach in terms of making themselves heard by at least a portion of the fan-base.

What I can't figure out is the timing in all of this. If 1D&D, and presumably a 1D&D SRD, isn't coming out for eighteen months, why try and revoke the OGL v1.0a next week? If WotC wants people to sign on to the OGL v1.1, what are they supposed to produce under it between now and mid-2024?

Heh... well, let's not forget another possibility here... for all we know Chris Cocks was fully aware what would happen if/when they chose not to release the 2024 book under the OGL 1.0a. And knowing they would get lambasted for ANY attempt of theirs to "hold onto their money"... maybe they figured they could create this even-more-stringent version of OGL replacement and let IT take the hit for all the people who would immediately go ballistic over anything that might've been released...

...then they could walk back this version to a more palatable version of 1.1 and thus be seen as "good folks" for taking people's concerns to heart. All the while knowing that this stepped-back version of 1.1 was what they originally were happy to go with in the first place.

And that's what I find kind of hilarious about all of this. It's nothing more than basic car sales negotiation.

You start with a price that is ridiculous and over the top. If the customer doesn't blink-- then awesome! Free money you weren't expecting to get! But if the customer DOES want to "negotiate"... then you slowly work backwards and see what the eventual price is you both agree on. And more often than not, that is STILL more than you actually would have been fine with getting from the beginning.

At the end of the day... Hasbro and WotC ARE going to make money off of people who are pulling in cash for no other reason than they've hitched their wagon to Dungeons & Dragons (as like the ONLY thing that could possibly bring in the dollars that we've been seeing for such a wide swathe of people/companies). And they are going to come out of it looking like paragons of virtue because they were "gracious" enough not to gouge everyone as badly as they COULD have done.

And this is exactly why I find all of this so amusing rather than concerning. Because nobody has any actual idea what we are eventually going to end up at.

 

[Umbran]

Which is why this will inevitably end up in court. There’s too much money on the line.

There is, and there isn't. The amount of money involved is large for a 3PP, who work with very thin margins of profit. A few thousand one way or another can matter.

For WotC, a few thousand here or there is chump change.

This, then, is more about control and limits than it is about the money.

Either WotC relents, not likely, or they C&D dozens or hundreds of game companies and distributors, and of course get sued by any number of people.

It isn't clear who has the resources to get tied up in years-long litigation over game products. A small publisher will be financially dead for lack of being able to sell things before it resolves in court.

 

[darjr]

Such a tempest in a teacup that the very announcer of OneD&D, Ginny Di is totally ignoring it.

Or not.


Link

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's early yet. The first thing we've had that resembles genuine reporting, as opposed to unconfirmed leaks, is that Gizmodo article, and it's less than twenty-four hours old.

I mean it doesn't just resemble it, it is genuine reporting (with sources and lawyers and policies and everything!), and there aren't many sources of that for TTRPGs.

But yeah I presume WotC is still going "Ummmm. Er. We were hoping this wouldn't happen..." and emails are flying back and forth.

 

[Umbran]

And they are going to come out of it looking like paragons of virtue because they were "gracious" enough not to gouge everyone as badly as they COULD have done.

No, I think the leadership will be seen either as bumbling, or greedy.

I mean, you yourself likened this to car sales. Since when are car salesmen seen as "paragons of virtue"?

And this is exactly why I find all of this so amusing rather than concerning. Because nobody has any idea what we are eventually going to end up at.

For small businesses, not knowing what we are ending up with is concerning, not amusing. Finding it funny isn't a great show of empathy.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I presume WotC is still going "Ummmm. Er. We were hoping this wouldn't happen..." and emails are flying back and forth.

I hope not, love it or hate it they HAD to at least suspect this is what would happen, old guard from 3e blowing up about Dancy and his legacy, 3e/4e cold war reblooming, and people who in general are into both the hobby and open source getting riled up. The only unknowns is the casual fan that started with 5e...

 

[Umbran]

But yeah I presume WotC is still going "Ummmm. Er. We were hoping this wouldn't happen..." and emails are flying back and forth.

As WotC learns that, in PR, hope is not a strategy.