These leaks are unverified and unconfirmed. We don't even know if the leaks are true, guys; You shouldn't compare someone to "Darth Vader" until you're actually sure they've done something bad.
Exactly, thank you.
Oh, by all means: let WotC clarify the situation! Remove all doubt and uncertainty from the equation. They could do so at any time for the past two weeks or so... And they haven't. Which means their silence is deliberate. If this WAS "all just a misunderstanding": this would be the sort of PR nightmare that leads to very public firings, and much apologizing.
But somehow I shan't hold my breath for that. I'll air on the side of people who have skin in the game and are reacting accordingly.
This has not been a PR disaster for “two weeks” - there was some initial concern, a Wizards response, and things mostly quieted down. Then there was an article on Thursday which caused a new stir. They’ve had less than two business days to formulate a response that would require the coordination of Wizards leadership, legal, and PR departments - and very likely could require leadership, legal, and PR at Hasbro to weigh in also. All of that - particularly the coordination - is slow, and that’s without adding in the weekend to further mean folks are out of the office and less likely to be reachable, slowing things down further.
Let’s call a spade a spade - the outcry about Wizards not responding to the Thursday article says less about Wizards’ intentions and more about how many folks don’t understand how either major PR announcements or weekends work.
To add on to what Caerwyn said, just because a company didn't immediately respond to rumors doesn't mean those rumors are automatically true. It might just mean that they've already given out enough classified business plans and can't afford to explain more, it might mean that they haven't had enough time to formulate a response, or it might mean that they don't realize how many people are panicking over this and could easily respond to explain that it's not true but aren't.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
Alright; fine: they have a lot of corporate inertia... but: we've already seen other companies that this "altering of the deal" effects already make their own responses. Consider how quickly WOTC has proven capable of responding to to far more minor controversies in the recent past. WOTC and Hasbro are entirely capable of moving quickly when they want to... and they should want to considering what's happening right now. This COULD be explained purely by ignorance; but that's a lot of ignorance assumed.
Companies rely on stable conditions to be able to work on long-term projects; which most TTRPG books are. By bringing a document that has stood mostly unchanged for 22-23 years at this point, a fifth of a century, into question; WOTC has functionally dropped a hand grenade into the proverbial barrel of fish. There are companies and people right now wondering if they will be able to function at all in a year's time, that is not a lot of time for a creative business to alter trajectory. "Serious" doesn't begin to cover it. Many have already decided that the risk simply isn't worth it, and are moving to divorce themselves from WOTC entirely. Hence: the title of this particular post.
You know, you're right. There isn't anything official yet, but given the magnitude and completely silence (failure to rebuke this incredibly harsh reaction) from WotC / Hasbro. Lets not pretend we are blind as a bats. Normally, where there is smoke. There is fire. Lets not forget that WotC did announce there was a new version of the OGL was coming in 2023 back in December 2022. (December 21st, I believe)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Info, Inflow, Overload. Knowledge Black Hole Imminent!
Griffon's Saddlebag has said the following on Twitter:
"If @Wizards_DnD says that what we've seen of 1.1 is a "draft", that's a lie. That document was sent around with contracts attached.
We aren't your enemies, Wizards. We lift you up for free. You've already got the golden goose!
Just don't mess with 1.0a. That's it!"
If GS is saying that the doc Gizmodo wrote the article about is exactly the same as the one they saw... they just outed themselves as the source of the leak
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Griffon's Saddlebag has said the following on Twitter:
"If @Wizards_DnD says that what we've seen of 1.1 is a "draft", that's a lie. That document was sent around with contracts attached.
We aren't your enemies, Wizards. We lift you up for free. You've already got the golden goose!
Just don't mess with 1.0a. That's it!"
If GS is saying that the doc Gizmodo wrote the article about is exactly the same as the one they saw... they just outed themselves as the source of the leak
Do you think they are lying or do you think they broke the NDA?
Griffon's Saddlebag has said the following on Twitter:
"If @Wizards_DnD says that what we've seen of 1.1 is a "draft", that's a lie. That document was sent around with contracts attached.
We aren't your enemies, Wizards. We lift you up for free. You've already got the golden goose!
Just don't mess with 1.0a. That's it!"
If GS is saying that the doc Gizmodo wrote the article about is exactly the same as the one they saw... they just outed themselves as the source of the leak
Do you think they are lying or do you think they broke the NDA?
No idea, and it might not be either. Hence the "if"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
For sure I am going to double down on supporting Pathfinder. Even more if it turns out that they need to engage in a legal battle to maintain the right to use the old license, that would mean I would literally buy every scrap of published material just to fuel their legal fees against this.
If they are negotiating deals with the new 1.1 then they have no plans of changing it for years.
And if the "draft" is not true they could have cleared that up by just releasing the real one, the one they plan on following. The real one is obviously finalized and "official" enough to be making deals with so why not let it loose on the public.
And sorry to break any ones heart but executives work the week ends and so can their assistants. And if not they can be called in in a heart beat. Obviously they did not think this was a big deal and obviously they must not have anyone watching the net over the weekend for PR reasons.
If they are negotiating deals with the new 1.1 then they have no plans of changing it for years.
And if the "draft" is not true they could have cleared that up by just releasing the real one, the one they plan on following. The real one is obviously finalized and "official" enough to be making deals with so why not let it loose on the public.
And sorry to break any ones heart but executives work the week ends and so can their assistants. And if not they can be called in in a heart beat. Obviously they did not think this was a big deal and obviously they must not have anyone watching the net over the weekend for PR reasons.
They care not.
It wouldn't be official until it there is an agreement. If they are still in talks then there wouldn't be a final OGL yet.
Griffon's Saddlebag has said the following on Twitter:
"If @Wizards_DnD says that what we've seen of 1.1 is a "draft", that's a lie. That document was sent around with contracts attached.
We aren't your enemies, Wizards. We lift you up for free. You've already got the golden goose!
Just don't mess with 1.0a. That's it!"
If GS is saying that the doc Gizmodo wrote the article about is exactly the same as the one they saw... they just outed themselves as the source of the leak
Do you think they are lying or do you think they broke the NDA?
No idea, and it might not be either. Hence the "if"
Edit: If they received the draft as part of negotiations, I would be inclined to believe that they would have also been under the same NDA as everyone else. So that leads me to believe either they are lying OR they have broke the NDA. If they have broken the NDA, they should go all the way and prove it.
If they are negotiating deals with the new 1.1 then they have no plans of changing it for years.
And if the "draft" is not true they could have cleared that up by just releasing the real one, the one they plan on following. The real one is obviously finalized and "official" enough to be making deals with so why not let it loose on the public.
And sorry to break any ones heart but executives work the week ends and so can their assistants. And if not they can be called in in a heart beat. Obviously they did not think this was a big deal and obviously they must not have anyone watching the net over the weekend for PR reasons.
They care not.
It wouldn't be official until it there is an agreement. If they are still in talks then there wouldn't be a final OGL yet.
They came to an agreement with Kickstarter supposedly. I would guess its under the new 1.1. And if they are sending out letters to a select few then they are planning on standing on what they have sent out.
If they are negotiating deals with the new 1.1 then they have no plans of changing it for years.
And if the "draft" is not true they could have cleared that up by just releasing the real one, the one they plan on following. The real one is obviously finalized and "official" enough to be making deals with so why not let it loose on the public.
And sorry to break any ones heart but executives work the week ends and so can their assistants. And if not they can be called in in a heart beat. Obviously they did not think this was a big deal and obviously they must not have anyone watching the net over the weekend for PR reasons.
They care not.
It wouldn't be official until it there is an agreement. If they are still in talks then there wouldn't be a final OGL yet.
They came to an agreement with Kickstarter supposedly. I would guess its under the new 1.1. And if they are sending out letters to a select few then they are planning on standing on what they have sent out.
lets see if it matches the leaked data.
I imagine that we will see it next week. Just a guess on my part though.
You seem to misunderstand what happens if the content creators get pushed out. They stop making content for DnD. They stop adding to the wealth of content one can buy.
DnD thinks it has a DM problem, OK! Not sure if that is because DM's buy more product and thus add to the bottom line but everyone has bills to pay so I won't blame them for that but they say there are too many players at the buffet, not enough chefs.
What is it you think that the Chefs, the DM's do. They make up the world. Doing that on your own is a lot of work so many DM's rely on content, modules, other products, fantasy literature, map makers, dwarven forge type terrain, etc, as a shortcut to reducing the time needed to do so.
Who is doing that work cause I got to tell you, it is not WOTC.
Case in point, the Eberron setting. Within the content that one purchased there was actually advice stating one should go get the original Eberron book for more lore on the world setting. Forget where but I remember laughing out loud when I read it.
Right now, that void is being filled by these third party content providers. There reference material is what DM's are relying on for that shortcut. Instead of making the adventure from whole cloth they take bits and pieces from source material they have purchased and cobble something more quickly that might be better than they could on their own.
This drives interest in the game.
Now, if WOTC is going to try and solve the lightness of their own content which has been illustrated in things such as the backlash to the Spelljammer ship combat rules, etc. by hiring dozens of new writers and creators to pump out the same quality work as those 3rd party companies, fine but somehow these giant megacompanies have shown they don't really excel in that department.
Not an expert in marketing but looks to me like a mistake!
Edit: If they received the draft as part of negotiations, I would be inclined to believe that they would have also been under the same NDA as everyone else. So that leads me to believe either they are lying OR they have broke the NDA. If they have broken the NDA, they should go all the way and prove it.
They came to an agreement with Kickstarter supposedly. I would guess its under the new 1.1. And if they are sending out letters to a select few then they are planning on standing on what they have sent out.
lets see if it matches the leaked data.
Neither of these takes of the Griffons Saddlebag or Kickstarter statements are wholly accurate, but rather reflecting of a lot of Twitter interpretation of those two tweets.
To have access to this 1.1 OGL proposal you had to participate in an NDA. Griffons Saddlebag was the loudest in my feeds in proclaiming they would never sign an NDA. If you know the 3rd Party Press world well enough, you know there are a number of folks through whom GS may have gotten some wind or corroboration that what Cordega received reflected what they were shown. To my knowledge no one who's speaking with any "authority" on the 1.1 document has actually seen the document as part of actual negotiations with WotC. (more on "but the legal analysis" in a sec). This isn't GS offering anything more to the discussion based on direct knowledge or experience but "yeah, this is what I'm hearing too and it sucks!"
The Kickstarter Games Chief's tweet did not confirm the royalty rates Codega asserted. KS did say they had negotiations with WotC, and talked them down and were still actively discussing a number of things (more ammo to the OGL being a work in progress than set in stone case). And they didn't do this to help out or support Codega, they did this defensively to address specifically Codega's use of the word "kickbacks" in their(Cordega's) Twitter thread hyping their article in re Kickstarter's benefit in this arrangement. It was sloppy word choice they(Cordega) l believe used because to them the word play sounded cool, not realizing what kickbacks actually implied ... Cordega later half apologizes admitting the word choice could be interpreted unkindly ... it definitely wasn't a kind word choice in its composition. Kickbacks implies a degree of criminality that just isn't warranted and any company will clap back at the allegation. Cordega called them party to an unethical scheme, whether Cordega intended to or not. KS statement tells us "not at all, in fact we're trying to make some progress on this in way that will benefit our community."
As for the "legal analysis". Cordega's assertion is "I had attorneys look at this", the ones providing interpretation in her article I guarantee you are not Gizmodo's attorneys at all. I'm sure Gizmodo's attorneys looked at it to make sure what if any legal trouble Gizmodo could get into reporting on "leaked" info and its probably their guidance why Gizmodo is simply not disseminating the 1.1 document for all to see. Counsel for Gizmodo cares about the operation of Gizmodo, not helping a reporter understand what something means (if you know Gizmodo's history going back to Gawker and what Peter Thiel did to them via Hulk Hogan, you can understand their caution, though that caution is very normative in media these days anyway because the whole journalism sector saw what happened). Providing public comment on a confidential document between consenting business parties under an NDA, as I understand it, is a between grey to no go zone on a legal professional ethics front (at least there are other people out there in TTRPG space with legal training, who frankly sound more lawyerly - I've worked with attorneys in capacities ranging from criminal justice to wealth management to business and nonprofit development (domestic and international) - and the ones saying "everyone take a breath and wait and see what's real" are the ones who sound like the "better lawyers" than the ones going full on Giuliani in front of four seasons landscaping telling us all the sky is on fire. There's a type of lawyer on Twitter and elsewhere in social media who tries to reach status by writing "lawsplainers" of varying quality; and there are also some very accomplished lawyers who are generous with their knowledge and experience helping inform public perspective on legal matters that have the public's attention. I honestly can't tell you what caliber is producing these interpretations ... but I've never regretted following a "let's take a breath and see what's actually going on" advisement.
One last thing that's sorta funny. This weekend this box has been making its rounds to various D&D influencers. Has a cool personalized DM's screen, a giant plush d10 throw pillow sort of thing. Some folks think these boxes are making the round because WotC thinks winning the "community war" is about simply corralling the people who celebrate D&D and help WotC celebrate D&D through its official channels and OGL independent product producers be damned. That's a compelling story, it sets up struggle between good and evil with clearly cast villains and betrayers and I guess everyone who works 3rd party is the hero or something. Of course, the box is also going to its critics. Cordega got one. Maybe it was in fact planned to be sent out before the latest story and was more in appreciation of their past work "clearing the air of the misunderstanding" and running with WotC "no, we're all good with the OGL, wait till you see it" story from a few years back. Maybe WotC thinks they can play Cordega, or maylbe Cordega got played. The corroboration I've seen seem to be more recycling the "facts" of Cordega's piece with no one having the stones to say "Yes, I've seen the OGL directly sent me by WotC." We just don't live in a reality where anyone with any degree of professional accomplishment is that bold. We're just not going to see Matt Mercer land a longboat in Providence and lead the charge into Hasbro HQ wielding a home-brewed +5 Vorpal Holy Avenger like the best credit card commercials ever made (remember the ones with the Viking Hoards?) while Colville covers his flank with the minigun from Predator (though that scene belongs in the best fanfic ever written). News dropped on a Thursday, biz side of WotC probably took note of it on a Friday. Folks here and elsewhere got worked up over the weekend, but in WotC's view this is a take up on Monday thing. I imagine we'll hear something later on this week, maybe definitive maybe not. Do I have concerns for people whose livelihoods may be on the line? Yes, but I don't need to douse myself with gasoline waiting for whichever keystroke will light me up to hold that feeling. It's ok to be concerned about what's going on and admitting to not really knowing what's going on and give time for the truth to come out. Sometimes that's the best form of caring.
Edit: If they received the draft as part of negotiations, I would be inclined to believe that they would have also been under the same NDA as everyone else. So that leads me to believe either they are lying OR they have broke the NDA. If they have broken the NDA, they should go all the way and prove it.
Neither of these takes of the Griffons Saddlebag or Kickstarter statements are wholly accurate, but rather reflecting of a lot of Twitter interpretation of those two tweets.
To have access to this 1.1 OGL proposal you had to participate in an NDA. Griffons Saddlebag was the loudest in my feeds in proclaiming they would never sign an NDA. If you know the 3rd Party Press world well enough, you know there are a number of folks through whom GS may have gotten some wind or corroboration that what Cordega received reflected what they were shown. To my knowledge no one who's speaking with any "authority" on the 1.1 document has actually seen the document as part of actual negotiations with WotC. (more on "but the legal analysis" in a sec). This isn't GS offering anything more to the discussion based on direct knowledge or experience but "yeah, this is what I'm hearing too and it sucks!"
Yeah, I am not really up on their drama. You are correct that I read that tweet incorrectly. They don't seem to have been directly involved in any talks, so I am not sure how to take their tweet.
This has not been a PR disaster for “two weeks” - there was some initial concern, a Wizards response, and things mostly quieted down. Then there was an article on Thursday which caused a new stir. They’ve had less than two business days to formulate a response that would require the coordination of Wizards leadership, legal, and PR departments - and very likely could require leadership, legal, and PR at Hasbro to weigh in also. All of that - particularly the coordination - is slow, and that’s without adding in the weekend to further mean folks are out of the office and less likely to be reachable, slowing things down further.
Let’s call a spade a spade - the outcry about Wizards not responding to the Thursday article says less about Wizards’ intentions and more about how many folks don’t understand how either major PR announcements or weekends work.
To add on to what Caerwyn said, just because a company didn't immediately respond to rumors doesn't mean those rumors are automatically true. It might just mean that they've already given out enough classified business plans and can't afford to explain more, it might mean that they haven't had enough time to formulate a response, or it might mean that they don't realize how many people are panicking over this and could easily respond to explain that it's not true but aren't.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Griffon's Saddlebag has said the following on Twitter:
"If @Wizards_DnD says that what we've seen of 1.1 is a "draft", that's a lie. That document was sent around with contracts attached.
We aren't your enemies, Wizards. We lift you up for free. You've already got the golden goose!
Just don't mess with 1.0a. That's it!"
Well... If Twitter says so...
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Messed the post up
Vis-a-vis "oh but WOTC needs time to respond!"
Alright; fine: they have a lot of corporate inertia... but: we've already seen other companies that this "altering of the deal" effects already make their own responses. Consider how quickly WOTC has proven capable of responding to to far more minor controversies in the recent past. WOTC and Hasbro are entirely capable of moving quickly when they want to... and they should want to considering what's happening right now. This COULD be explained purely by ignorance; but that's a lot of ignorance assumed.
Companies rely on stable conditions to be able to work on long-term projects; which most TTRPG books are. By bringing a document that has stood mostly unchanged for 22-23 years at this point, a fifth of a century, into question; WOTC has functionally dropped a hand grenade into the proverbial barrel of fish. There are companies and people right now wondering if they will be able to function at all in a year's time, that is not a lot of time for a creative business to alter trajectory. "Serious" doesn't begin to cover it. Many have already decided that the risk simply isn't worth it, and are moving to divorce themselves from WOTC entirely. Hence: the title of this particular post.
You know, you're right. There isn't anything official yet, but given the magnitude and completely silence (failure to rebuke this incredibly harsh reaction) from WotC / Hasbro. Lets not pretend we are blind as a bats. Normally, where there is smoke. There is fire. Lets not forget that WotC did announce there was a new version of the OGL was coming in 2023 back in December 2022. (December 21st, I believe)
Info, Inflow, Overload. Knowledge Black Hole Imminent!
If GS is saying that the doc Gizmodo wrote the article about is exactly the same as the one they saw... they just outed themselves as the source of the leak
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Do you think they are lying or do you think they broke the NDA?
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
The damage isn't fatal yet. Casual fans of the hobby might not realize something is even going on. What comes next is up to Hasbro.
No idea, and it might not be either. Hence the "if"
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
For sure I am going to double down on supporting Pathfinder.
Even more if it turns out that they need to engage in a legal battle to maintain the right to use the old license, that would mean I would literally buy every scrap of published material just to fuel their legal fees against this.
If they are negotiating deals with the new 1.1 then they have no plans of changing it for years.
And if the "draft" is not true they could have cleared that up by just releasing the real one, the one they plan on following. The real one is obviously finalized and "official" enough to be making deals with so why not let it loose on the public.
And sorry to break any ones heart but executives work the week ends and so can their assistants. And if not they can be called in in a heart beat. Obviously they did not think this was a big deal and obviously they must not have anyone watching the net over the weekend for PR reasons.
They care not.
It wouldn't be official until it there is an agreement. If they are still in talks then there wouldn't be a final OGL yet.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
They did in fact send out a Tweet griffons_saddle Tweet
Edit: If they received the draft as part of negotiations, I would be inclined to believe that they would have also been under the same NDA as everyone else. So that leads me to believe either they are lying OR they have broke the NDA. If they have broken the NDA, they should go all the way and prove it.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
They came to an agreement with Kickstarter supposedly. I would guess its under the new 1.1. And if they are sending out letters to a select few then they are planning on standing on what they have sent out.
lets see if it matches the leaked data.
I imagine that we will see it next week. Just a guess on my part though.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
"Unfairly maligned 4e"
Really! OK!
You seem to misunderstand what happens if the content creators get pushed out. They stop making content for DnD. They stop adding to the wealth of content one can buy.
DnD thinks it has a DM problem, OK! Not sure if that is because DM's buy more product and thus add to the bottom line but everyone has bills to pay so I won't blame them for that but they say there are too many players at the buffet, not enough chefs.
What is it you think that the Chefs, the DM's do. They make up the world. Doing that on your own is a lot of work so many DM's rely on content, modules, other products, fantasy literature, map makers, dwarven forge type terrain, etc, as a shortcut to reducing the time needed to do so.
Who is doing that work cause I got to tell you, it is not WOTC.
Case in point, the Eberron setting. Within the content that one purchased there was actually advice stating one should go get the original Eberron book for more lore on the world setting. Forget where but I remember laughing out loud when I read it.
Right now, that void is being filled by these third party content providers. There reference material is what DM's are relying on for that shortcut. Instead of making the adventure from whole cloth they take bits and pieces from source material they have purchased and cobble something more quickly that might be better than they could on their own.
This drives interest in the game.
Now, if WOTC is going to try and solve the lightness of their own content which has been illustrated in things such as the backlash to the Spelljammer ship combat rules, etc. by hiring dozens of new writers and creators to pump out the same quality work as those 3rd party companies, fine but somehow these giant megacompanies have shown they don't really excel in that department.
Not an expert in marketing but looks to me like a mistake!
Neither of these takes of the Griffons Saddlebag or Kickstarter statements are wholly accurate, but rather reflecting of a lot of Twitter interpretation of those two tweets.
To have access to this 1.1 OGL proposal you had to participate in an NDA. Griffons Saddlebag was the loudest in my feeds in proclaiming they would never sign an NDA. If you know the 3rd Party Press world well enough, you know there are a number of folks through whom GS may have gotten some wind or corroboration that what Cordega received reflected what they were shown. To my knowledge no one who's speaking with any "authority" on the 1.1 document has actually seen the document as part of actual negotiations with WotC. (more on "but the legal analysis" in a sec). This isn't GS offering anything more to the discussion based on direct knowledge or experience but "yeah, this is what I'm hearing too and it sucks!"
The Kickstarter Games Chief's tweet did not confirm the royalty rates Codega asserted. KS did say they had negotiations with WotC, and talked them down and were still actively discussing a number of things (more ammo to the OGL being a work in progress than set in stone case). And they didn't do this to help out or support Codega, they did this defensively to address specifically Codega's use of the word "kickbacks" in their(Cordega's) Twitter thread hyping their article in re Kickstarter's benefit in this arrangement. It was sloppy word choice they(Cordega) l believe used because to them the word play sounded cool, not realizing what kickbacks actually implied ... Cordega later half apologizes admitting the word choice could be interpreted unkindly ... it definitely wasn't a kind word choice in its composition. Kickbacks implies a degree of criminality that just isn't warranted and any company will clap back at the allegation. Cordega called them party to an unethical scheme, whether Cordega intended to or not. KS statement tells us "not at all, in fact we're trying to make some progress on this in way that will benefit our community."
As for the "legal analysis". Cordega's assertion is "I had attorneys look at this", the ones providing interpretation in her article I guarantee you are not Gizmodo's attorneys at all. I'm sure Gizmodo's attorneys looked at it to make sure what if any legal trouble Gizmodo could get into reporting on "leaked" info and its probably their guidance why Gizmodo is simply not disseminating the 1.1 document for all to see. Counsel for Gizmodo cares about the operation of Gizmodo, not helping a reporter understand what something means (if you know Gizmodo's history going back to Gawker and what Peter Thiel did to them via Hulk Hogan, you can understand their caution, though that caution is very normative in media these days anyway because the whole journalism sector saw what happened). Providing public comment on a confidential document between consenting business parties under an NDA, as I understand it, is a between grey to no go zone on a legal professional ethics front (at least there are other people out there in TTRPG space with legal training, who frankly sound more lawyerly - I've worked with attorneys in capacities ranging from criminal justice to wealth management to business and nonprofit development (domestic and international) - and the ones saying "everyone take a breath and wait and see what's real" are the ones who sound like the "better lawyers" than the ones going full on Giuliani in front of four seasons landscaping telling us all the sky is on fire. There's a type of lawyer on Twitter and elsewhere in social media who tries to reach status by writing "lawsplainers" of varying quality; and there are also some very accomplished lawyers who are generous with their knowledge and experience helping inform public perspective on legal matters that have the public's attention. I honestly can't tell you what caliber is producing these interpretations ... but I've never regretted following a "let's take a breath and see what's actually going on" advisement.
One last thing that's sorta funny. This weekend this box has been making its rounds to various D&D influencers. Has a cool personalized DM's screen, a giant plush d10 throw pillow sort of thing. Some folks think these boxes are making the round because WotC thinks winning the "community war" is about simply corralling the people who celebrate D&D and help WotC celebrate D&D through its official channels and OGL independent product producers be damned. That's a compelling story, it sets up struggle between good and evil with clearly cast villains and betrayers and I guess everyone who works 3rd party is the hero or something. Of course, the box is also going to its critics. Cordega got one. Maybe it was in fact planned to be sent out before the latest story and was more in appreciation of their past work "clearing the air of the misunderstanding" and running with WotC "no, we're all good with the OGL, wait till you see it" story from a few years back. Maybe WotC thinks they can play Cordega, or maylbe Cordega got played. The corroboration I've seen seem to be more recycling the "facts" of Cordega's piece with no one having the stones to say "Yes, I've seen the OGL directly sent me by WotC." We just don't live in a reality where anyone with any degree of professional accomplishment is that bold. We're just not going to see Matt Mercer land a longboat in Providence and lead the charge into Hasbro HQ wielding a home-brewed +5 Vorpal Holy Avenger like the best credit card commercials ever made (remember the ones with the Viking Hoards?) while Colville covers his flank with the minigun from Predator (though that scene belongs in the best fanfic ever written). News dropped on a Thursday, biz side of WotC probably took note of it on a Friday. Folks here and elsewhere got worked up over the weekend, but in WotC's view this is a take up on Monday thing. I imagine we'll hear something later on this week, maybe definitive maybe not. Do I have concerns for people whose livelihoods may be on the line? Yes, but I don't need to douse myself with gasoline waiting for whichever keystroke will light me up to hold that feeling. It's ok to be concerned about what's going on and admitting to not really knowing what's going on and give time for the truth to come out. Sometimes that's the best form of caring.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Yeah, I am not really up on their drama. You are correct that I read that tweet incorrectly. They don't seem to have been directly involved in any talks, so I am not sure how to take their tweet.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master