As there is no option to comment on any of your posts about the OGL1.2 draft I'm posting mine here.
While I think your response, as well as the new draft of the OGL, and your efforts to collect feedback are all steps in the right direction, I also believe we have a long way to go.
The Dungeons & Dragons community had been well known for decades for its near zealous brand loyalty. The numerous missteps leading up to your first letter to the community has spent nearly all of the goodwill that this community had towards this brand. While your efforts are a breath of fresh air, it's unclear if they'll be enough, which is made worse by numerous provisions Wizards of the Coast chose to include in this new draft.
If these issues are ever going to be resolved to the benefit of the community, third-party publishers, and Wizards of the Coast itself, any continued efforts to manipulate, misdirect, and/or mislead the community must cease.
I sent you my detailed feedback on this version of the OGL and the numerous issues I had with it. Admittedly, it's better, but it's nowhere near good yet.
Moving forward I hope Wizards of the Coast is truly honest and transparent in their efforts to meet the needs of their business, as well as their community, and the many third-party publishers that helped build that community.
For those at Wizards of the Coast who are relatively new there and are actively involved in trying to resolve this issue, please consider reviewing what happened to Dungeons & Dragons when the 4e version was released with the Game System License instead of an Open Game License. Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
Additionally please review what an Open License is actually supposed to be. While this first draft is clearly closer to that, it still isn't that, and it must become that.
I'm hopeful that you all will be able to make this work and save the Dungeons & Dragons brand from your company's many previous missteps. I sincerely hope I'm not wrong in that.
If you have any interest in seeing my publicly posted issues with the current draft of the OGL 1.2 I'd be happy to send them if you ask.
Agreed, I do like that the public face of this at least appears to be someone who cares and is listening.
I am hoping it is a case of the employees (who actually care about the product) finally getting heard by the C-Suite Execs (who actually care about money line go up) by having the cold hard truth of cancelled subscriptions and survey feedback reinforce their position.
This whole mess was unnecessary and entirely WotC/Hasbro making a power play. They have violated community trust and alienated some of their staunchest third party supporters. It will take years to rebuild the good will and trust they just squandered. None of us, the community, wanted this. We WANT to enjoy D&D, we want to trust WotC, we want to spend $ on good products for our hobby. We read rule books… as a hobby, and will not take disinformation or misinformation lightly. Recent steps have been in the correct direction, but we are far from out of the woods.
Its a shame there used to be a business model that went something like "1. Make a good product or provide good service. 2. Treat customers with respect."
WotC could monetize more by just integrating D&D with other products. I paid for a DnD Beyond subscription to get better character making tools. Tools that automatically adjusted for special class features. And an easier way to make homebrew items. They could have opened up the VTT they are making for free 3d assets being constructed by the community. And other things. I have spent thousands on D&D books and subscriptions and modules.. more than I would ever spend on any game. (More than I spent on 7 years of World of Warcraft)
I have since canceled my subscription with no intent to buy another WotC product or service. My gut tells me this latest news is lip service.
The double-talk like "We want an inclusive, safe play experience for everyone." as a morality clause to unilaterally and without litigation take and book burn someone's content. You aren't white knight gatekeepers of the community.
The word salad of proposed issues like "Your video content is yours".. NO DUH WotC noone expected you had any legal right under fair-use to strike that content.
The legal sleaze "You own your content." yeah.. but you can take, sell, alter, ban, copyright it too.
I am so amazed to see WotC change course completely on this. Thanks to everyone who spoke up and go people like Kyle Brink at WotC who now seem to be listening.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gideon Hawke Just a Valor Bard trying to find his way through D&D after a 20+ year "break". Enjoying being back and sharing with my RL family.
It is a nice first step, but building back trust takes time. I know that WOTC and Hasboro can, and must do what is best for their shareholders, and not just the fan and creator community. But the lesson here should be that those interests can align quite closely. You can't make money on this RPG, ant virtual tabletops, video games, or movies if you alienate your fa,s to this extent. Frankly it is just malpractice that they even tried this in the first place. There need to be some people in that C-suite packing up their desks today
They announced a 1000 lay offs today, they lost 8% of their stock price shortly before this announcement. They had no choice, investors demanded answers after Hasbro completely screwed their quarterly earnings. What we did worked, it got the word out and made the people who own the stock demanding an explanation as to why they were scuttling one of their most profitable brands immediately after a poorly performing christmas season.
As there is no option to comment on any of your posts about the OGL1.2 draft I'm posting mine here.
While I think your response, as well as the new draft of the OGL, and your efforts to collect feedback are all steps in the right direction, I also believe we have a long way to go.
The Dungeons & Dragons community had been well known for decades for its near zealous brand loyalty. The numerous missteps leading up to your first letter to the community has spent nearly all of the goodwill that this community had towards this brand. While your efforts are a breath of fresh air, it's unclear if they'll be enough, which is made worse by numerous provisions Wizards of the Coast chose to include in this new draft.
If these issues are ever going to be resolved to the benefit of the community, third-party publishers, and Wizards of the Coast itself, any continued efforts to manipulate, misdirect, and/or mislead the community must cease.
I sent you my detailed feedback on this version of the OGL and the numerous issues I had with it. Admittedly, it's better, but it's nowhere near good yet.
Moving forward I hope Wizards of the Coast is truly honest and transparent in their efforts to meet the needs of their business, as well as their community, and the many third-party publishers that helped build that community.
For those at Wizards of the Coast who are relatively new there and are actively involved in trying to resolve this issue, please consider reviewing what happened to Dungeons & Dragons when the 4e version was released with the Game System License instead of an Open Game License. Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
Additionally please review what an Open License is actually supposed to be. While this first draft is clearly closer to that, it still isn't that, and it must become that.
I'm hopeful that you all will be able to make this work and save the Dungeons & Dragons brand from your company's many previous missteps. I sincerely hope I'm not wrong in that.
If you have any interest in seeing my publicly posted issues with the current draft of the OGL 1.2 I'd be happy to send them if you ask.
Gideon Hawke
Just a Valor Bard trying to find his way through D&D after a 20+ year "break". Enjoying being back and sharing with my RL family.
Agreed, I do like that the public face of this at least appears to be someone who cares and is listening.
I am hoping it is a case of the employees (who actually care about the product) finally getting heard by the C-Suite Execs (who actually care about money line go up) by having the cold hard truth of cancelled subscriptions and survey feedback reinforce their position.
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This whole mess was unnecessary and entirely WotC/Hasbro making a power play. They have violated community trust and alienated some of their staunchest third party supporters. It will take years to rebuild the good will and trust they just squandered. None of us, the community, wanted this. We WANT to enjoy D&D, we want to trust WotC, we want to spend $ on good products for our hobby. We read rule books… as a hobby, and will not take disinformation or misinformation lightly. Recent steps have been in the correct direction, but we are far from out of the woods.
Its a shame there used to be a business model that went something like "1. Make a good product or provide good service. 2. Treat customers with respect."
WotC could monetize more by just integrating D&D with other products. I paid for a DnD Beyond subscription to get better character making tools. Tools that automatically adjusted for special class features. And an easier way to make homebrew items. They could have opened up the VTT they are making for free 3d assets being constructed by the community. And other things. I have spent thousands on D&D books and subscriptions and modules.. more than I would ever spend on any game. (More than I spent on 7 years of World of Warcraft)
I have since canceled my subscription with no intent to buy another WotC product or service. My gut tells me this latest news is lip service.
The double-talk like "We want an inclusive, safe play experience for everyone." as a morality clause to unilaterally and without litigation take and book burn someone's content. You aren't white knight gatekeepers of the community.
The word salad of proposed issues like "Your video content is yours".. NO DUH WotC noone expected you had any legal right under fair-use to strike that content.
The legal sleaze "You own your content." yeah.. but you can take, sell, alter, ban, copyright it too.
I am so amazed to see WotC change course completely on this. Thanks to everyone who spoke up and go people like Kyle Brink at WotC who now seem to be listening.
Gideon Hawke
Just a Valor Bard trying to find his way through D&D after a 20+ year "break". Enjoying being back and sharing with my RL family.
It is a nice first step, but building back trust takes time. I know that WOTC and Hasboro can, and must do what is best for their shareholders, and not just the fan and creator community. But the lesson here should be that those interests can align quite closely. You can't make money on this RPG, ant virtual tabletops, video games, or movies if you alienate your fa,s to this extent. Frankly it is just malpractice that they even tried this in the first place. There need to be some people in that C-suite packing up their desks today
They announced a 1000 lay offs today, they lost 8% of their stock price shortly before this announcement. They had no choice, investors demanded answers after Hasbro completely screwed their quarterly earnings. What we did worked, it got the word out and made the people who own the stock demanding an explanation as to why they were scuttling one of their most profitable brands immediately after a poorly performing christmas season.