I'm not. At this point, I think they'd drop literally anything and everything just so they can get the community on board with allowing them to update the OGL at all.
Now that we're on guard and have proven to actually give a crap more than they expected, they're going to slowly let go of all their updates and additions until they can get everyone on board with signing on to a new OGL, because once that's been done it will have been established as a thing to do, to update, and that means they'll be able to circle back around to getting their way eventually with OGL 3.5 or OGL 6.2 or whatever. It's a corporation after all, it can play the long game.
edit: and I'm not saying that they shouldn't be able to update the OGL, I'm saying that they already showed their hand and we know, we KNOW, they want to include bad and genuinely evil things in the updates for greedy and selfish reasons. That's been proven, there's no if's ands or but's about it. So now that we know that, we cannot in good conscience look at an update to the OGL without that in mind. Like if they'd tried updating the OGL and it hadn't had any of this evil stuff in it, no one would have cared, it wouldn't have even made Nerd News. Instead it's turned into this, purely because of WotC's choices of action - we cannot forget that going forward.
Whether their plan was to leak 1.1 then release 1.2 because it's better, but still bad; or if 1.1 was not intended to be released and they were silent for so long because they were scrambling to work on 1.2; it matters not.
This is akin to what is already done to us in other aspects of our lives that we settle for, like if gas prices are 2.98/gallon, then overnight they go up to 4.30, and we all say, "Woah, hey, dial that back a bit!" and then they lower the price to 3.40/gallon, and we say, "That's better." Yeah, it's better than what they tried to get past, but not better than what it was, we were tricked into settling.
They are forcing us into a compromise that was not warranted or needed in the first place.
This is bullshit, and I for one will not settle. Bring back OGL 1.0. Their lies continue, they absolutely CAN revoke licenses individually if content is harmful or hateful under the current OGL. Don't let them trick you into thinking that clause protects us, it protects them from people they don't want making money. It endorses cancel culture.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
-We are all just one failed saving throw away from someone else's fantasy...
I've not only boycotted Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast products including the current edition of the game, my gaming group as a collective have all agreed together to do the same.
My gaming group are boycotting Wizards and not paying for DnD Beyond going forward. The writing has been on the wall for some time, especially since Tasha's cauldron of political correctness, but the OGL issue has made our collective decision final. Too much sanitisation of rules, lack of redress of any imbalance in the game, lack of detail where needed, poor content overall. In the end, whilst we have no ill will towards D&D as a game (still a great idea), Wizards have lost another group of players. We're not interested in their false apologies or giving them our money.
We have been running other systems for a while now like Cyberpunk Red, W40 Dark Heresy and even had a look at Twilight 2k, but now the main focus has shifted away from D&D to playing Pathfinder and I'll be running some Gurps 4e.
My gaming group are boycotting Wizards and not paying for DnD Beyond going forward. The writing has been on the wall for some time, especially since Tasha's cauldron of political correctness, but the OGL issue has made our collective decision final. Too much sanitisation of rules, lack of redress of any imbalance in the game, lack of detail where needed, poor content overall. In the end, whilst we have no ill will towards D&D as a game (still a great idea), Wizards have lost another group of players. We're not interested in their false apologies or giving them our money.
We have been running other systems for a while now like Cyberpunk Red, W40 Dark Heresy and even had a look at Twilight 2k, but now the main focus has shifted away from D&D to playing Pathfinder and I'll be running some Gurps 4e.
What political correctness was in Tasha's? That's a weird reason....
My gaming group are boycotting Wizards and not paying for DnD Beyond going forward. The writing has been on the wall for some time, especially since Tasha's cauldron of political correctness, but the OGL issue has made our collective decision final. Too much sanitisation of rules, lack of redress of any imbalance in the game, lack of detail where needed, poor content overall. In the end, whilst we have no ill will towards D&D as a game (still a great idea), Wizards have lost another group of players. We're not interested in their false apologies or giving them our money.
We have been running other systems for a while now like Cyberpunk Red, W40 Dark Heresy and even had a look at Twilight 2k, but now the main focus has shifted away from D&D to playing Pathfinder and I'll be running some Gurps 4e.
What political correctness was in Tasha's? That's a weird reason....
Political Correctness wasn't a "reason" they listed. Reasons they did list:
too much sanitation of rules
lack of redress of any imbalance in the game
lack of detail where needed
poor content overall
their false apologies
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Business Law 101 and 201 and 301. They have ever legal right to do this, it's called piracy, trademark violation and trade secrets, etc.... I am not going to stop playing the game just because they are enforcing company to abide by laws of this country and those laws of the ILC.
It was never a legal issue with us. I graduated in business law so appreciate the legal side. It was always about their behaviour towards the community and the quality of the product.
Business Law 101 and 201 and 301. They have ever legal right to do this, it's called piracy, trademark violation and trade secrets, etc.... I am not going to stop playing the game just because they are enforcing company to abide by laws of this country and those laws of the ILC.
There are lawyers commenting on this pointing out that it is certainly not clear at all. From what I've heard, if judges hadn't settled on "irrevocable" as a magic word, Hasbro/WoTC wouldn't even have a potential opening to attack the original OGL. Game law is also unsettled in terms of just how much control Hasbro/WoTC has in the first place. This isn't trademark law and "trade secrets" is certainly not relevant. So, there is "Perpetual" in the license and the words spoken by Hasbro/WoTC about the original OGL which they have changed their mind about and the word "Irrevocable." This is more complex than you would like to think.
It clearly lays out that the new CEO responsible for OGL1.1 saw DNDBeyond as the biggest barrier to them selling a new VTT system that would allow them to have a ongoing subscription and microtransactions for content/cosmetics for players/DMs.
Apparently they wanted to 'kill DNDBeyond'.
What's weird is that nobody has been talking about Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms which likely gave them the idea of using 3rd party content and homebrew as expensive microtransactions in the first place?
You make a far more powerful statement by cancelling the products WOTC's new CEO actually wants people to buy - expensive tie-in products, 'digital exclusives', the new VTT and microtransactions in Idle Champions and Magic:The Gathering Arena.
Instead by cancelling DNDBeyond in protest of the OGL leaks people ended up doing exactly what this new CEO wanted - find a reason to 'kill DNDBeyond' and the traditional DND Books.
No doubt this new CEO just sees it as proof for why DND needs to become a 'digital VTT system complete with paywalls and subscriptions where people don't own the content they buy. I bet he probably used the word 'Metaverse' a dozen times when pitching the future of DND - making the same mistake Ready Player One Did in failing to understand that the point of DND is that it's not a videogame.
I'm not going to be cancelling my DNDBeyond subscription yet, and if WOTC release a good version of Planescape for 5e/OneDND later this year like they promise I will be buying it - at my local game store.
Because these teams at WOTC had nothing to do with OGL1.1/1.2 and these staff actually care about the game and it's community. Having the community rally around these staff, while making a clear line in the sand between DND and videogames is a good thing for the future of the game, but saying all of WOTC are 'liars' based solely on decisions made by a very small group of higher-ups is simply making it easier for these CEO's to get away with going ahead - because they know that they'll be able to make more money off new customers who have no idea of what DND was prior to their 'mmo-ification'.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Alberta Banana@TheRealAlberta: Good News! I finally brought Zangief back from the Dead :D :D :D Also I'M A LITCH FOR REAL! Downside may have ruined 60% of Athas in the process... sigh... I'll fix it tomorrow. LVL20 Litch, Sorcerer King of the Second Banana Age of Athas, Survivor of the Tomb of Horrors, Backwards Spellcaster, Undead Warlock Patron to Jane with a army of Simulacrum clones.
It clearly lays out that the new CEO responsible for OGL1.1 saw DNDBeyond as the biggest barrier to them selling a new VTT system that would allow them to have a ongoing subscription and microtransactions for content/cosmetics for players/DMs.
Apparently they wanted to 'kill DNDBeyond'.
What's weird is that nobody has been talking about Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms which likely gave them the idea of using 3rd party content and homebrew as expensive microtransactions in the first place?
You make a far more powerful statement by cancelling the products WOTC's new CEO actually wants people to buy - expensive tie-in products, 'digital exclusives', the new VTT and microtransactions in Idle Champions and Magic:The Gathering Arena.
Instead by cancelling DNDBeyond in protest of the OGL leaks people ended up doing exactly what this new CEO wanted - find a reason to 'kill DNDBeyond' and the traditional DND Books.
No doubt this new CEO just sees it as proof for why DND needs to become a 'digital VTT system complete with paywalls and subscriptions where people don't own the content they buy. I bet he probably used the word 'Metaverse' a dozen times when pitching the future of DND - making the same mistake Ready Player One Did in failing to understand that the point of DND is that it's not a videogame.
I'm not going to be cancelling my DNDBeyond subscription yet, and if WOTC release a good version of Planescape for 5e/OneDND later this year like they promise I will be buying it - at my local game store.
Because these teams at WOTC had nothing to do with OGL1.1/1.2 and these staff actually care about the game and it's community. Having the community rally around these staff, while making a clear line in the sand between DND and videogames is a good thing for the future of the game, but saying all of WOTC are 'liars' based solely on decisions made by a very small group of higher-ups is simply making it easier for these CEO's to get away with going ahead - because they know that they'll be able to make more money off new customers who have no idea of what DND was prior to their 'mmo-ification'.
Problem: WoTC bought DnD Beyond. The same sources have indicated that Corporate Suits are monitoring subscriptions to DnD Beyond to measure resistance to their plans. So, your suggestion doesn't hold water. It's not just about what Chris C., the guy who thinks video games and VTT are the same thing, thinks. He may be the main driver of their idea to push VTT but that doesn't mean he's telling the other suits what to do. Right now, he may be catching just a bit of heat in some of those corporate offices.
DDB thing right now is what WOTC paying to attention to gauge reaction and the players/customers use it (and whatever survey is coming up soon or so I can't find it) to get their message across 'right now'. In for future revenue purposes, players/customers not buy or limit purchases from WOTC / hasbro no matter which brand.
Kinda political, but semi-related, Conservatives are claiming victory from Bed Bath Beyond having to close many of their stores due to BBB dropping MyPillow.
DNDshorts to me is a reliable source, he is behaving as a proper journalist protecting his sources should behave. I know people are trying to discredit him by claiming "hey secret sources are unreliable so this could all just be made up", but quite literally all of journalism works this way. You protect your sources, but not revealing your sources does not mean they are unreliable or the whole thing is made up, it doesn't even indicate any impropriety, it's just how it works. DnDshorts is doing gods work here as far as I'm concerned, we are getting an inside look at what is really happening behind the scenes and I have no trouble believing every word he says. More to the point its making a difference. The community is better informed, they are taking action and forcing Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro into a corner. In the long run, this will lead to positive change if these companies have any self preservation.
That said, there is always a spin and this is also part of reporting information. You can take any information and spin it to "mean" something slightly different so I agree a certain level of skepticism is required here.
Regardless however I think the important thing to note here is that DnDBeyond is just a Wizards of the Coast-owned entity at this point, they, like other parts of the company don't have nearly as much control nor are in any position to make promises. DnD Beyond claims they have no plans on increasing subscriptions for example and I believe them, but that doesn't mean Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro has no such plans. Like if Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast decided tomorrow to increase subscription fee's in DnDBeyond... its done... DnDBeyond has no room to negotiate, they sold their company, they no longer control it, they are property.
The same is true about Wizards of the Coast. If Hasbro says jump, all they can do is ask how high.
This is why insider leaks and information is so critical, it allows us as a community to react and create our demands to pressure these companies to act right. It sucks that this is how it all works, you would hope that these two companies that produce our beloved D&D would be more on the communities side, but they are not. They want the money.. thats it. Nothing else matters to them and their is no indication whatsoever to the contrary and as such, the fight must continue.
Right now we are struggling as a community to preserve D&D, fighting for its very identity and future. We know what the company is planning and while I certainly have no objection to more digital tools, the direction they are taking D&D right now has no future. They don't understand that, but anyone who actually plays D&D does. D&D can be supported by digital products, it cannot BE a digital product. Digital Only D&D = Death of D&D. It's that simple.
Business Law 101 and 201 and 301. They have ever legal right to do this, it's called piracy, trademark violation and trade secrets, etc.... I am not going to stop playing the game just because they are enforcing company to abide by laws of this country and those laws of the ILC.
Don't know where you went to law school, but you're confusing topics, Bouffard. If you're an attorney, I recommend a Westlaw search. You'll see lots of precedent for not being able to copyright game mechanics. This is NOT about protecting their IP - and if you believe that it is, you're not doing the reading.
First off, the content we're talking about are things they specifically gave the 3pp rights to do - so there's no violation. The fact that you started with this argument shows you're ill informed. I'm not going to go after you on that, but I do recommend you do some research first. More importantly, by virtue of the language in their proposed "drafts" of the OGL, WotC was trying to appropriate the IP of the 3PP who LEGALLY created works according to the 1.0a construct. So... yeah, no.
The changes going forward are about violating that contract and over-reach. They're going after VTTs (for example) that have been on the market for years already using generic game mechanics (example - after they release their Unreal engine VTT, they plan to sue folks using animations for any kind of Magic Missle on their platform... even though, these platforms use that animation for multiple game system and have had their product on the market WAY longer than WotC has...).
Come watch us save the multiverse in "The Lost Dragons of Phandelver" - a homebrew based on Lost Mines of Phandelver, Dragon of Icespire Peak, and They Tyranny of Dragons. https://www.twitch.tv/kdinla The Gatewalker Saga - Dragons Beware
I was already pretty upset with what they did with OGL1.1 and then when 1.2 came out with what seemed like concessions but bundled with hints about how they view VTT it tipped me over the edge. I've canceled my sub, and will only renew if I see real progress and change in their plans. Making D&D into a mass market MMO will ensure I never return.
I've also dumped all my Hasbro stock because quite honestly I don't expect the company to do well if this is how they treat their users of D&D (and MTG as well).
Finally, I'm not buying any more content that puts $ in the pockets of WoTC until this situation changes. No books, not going to see the movie, etc. Full on boycott until they get their act together.
DnD Shorts was out of his depth trying to cover this story but as an amateur he did ok in surfacing the concerns overall. I think now that the journalism has been handed off to an actual trained journalist at Gizmodo (who is actively recruiting insiders to share their views), a much better view will emerge.
I certainly trust DnD Shorts 1000% more than anything that comes out of Hasbro/WoTC PR-driven releases at this stage.
I've noticed that it would be easy for anybody to spam the official feedback survey, so any results are already worthless.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The age of OGL is over. The Time of the ORC has come!
The moment that WotC declares OGL 1.0a "de-authorized", "revoked" or any such nonsense is the moment I release as much content as possible under OGL 1.0a and say, "Sue me WotC". OGL1.0a cannot be revoked. If thousands of us do it, the countersuit will be a class action suit.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
1.2 looks like a slightly smaller less smelly turd if compared to 1.1, still not going anywhere near it
You can polish a turd all you want. The end result is still a turd.
I'm not. At this point, I think they'd drop literally anything and everything just so they can get the community on board with allowing them to update the OGL at all.
Now that we're on guard and have proven to actually give a crap more than they expected, they're going to slowly let go of all their updates and additions until they can get everyone on board with signing on to a new OGL, because once that's been done it will have been established as a thing to do, to update, and that means they'll be able to circle back around to getting their way eventually with OGL 3.5 or OGL 6.2 or whatever. It's a corporation after all, it can play the long game.
edit: and I'm not saying that they shouldn't be able to update the OGL, I'm saying that they already showed their hand and we know, we KNOW, they want to include bad and genuinely evil things in the updates for greedy and selfish reasons. That's been proven, there's no if's ands or but's about it. So now that we know that, we cannot in good conscience look at an update to the OGL without that in mind. Like if they'd tried updating the OGL and it hadn't had any of this evil stuff in it, no one would have cared, it wouldn't have even made Nerd News. Instead it's turned into this, purely because of WotC's choices of action - we cannot forget that going forward.
Whether their plan was to leak 1.1 then release 1.2 because it's better, but still bad; or if 1.1 was not intended to be released and they were silent for so long because they were scrambling to work on 1.2; it matters not.
This is akin to what is already done to us in other aspects of our lives that we settle for, like if gas prices are 2.98/gallon, then overnight they go up to 4.30, and we all say, "Woah, hey, dial that back a bit!" and then they lower the price to 3.40/gallon, and we say, "That's better." Yeah, it's better than what they tried to get past, but not better than what it was, we were tricked into settling.
They are forcing us into a compromise that was not warranted or needed in the first place.
This is bullshit, and I for one will not settle. Bring back OGL 1.0. Their lies continue, they absolutely CAN revoke licenses individually if content is harmful or hateful under the current OGL. Don't let them trick you into thinking that clause protects us, it protects them from people they don't want making money. It endorses cancel culture.
-We are all just one failed saving throw away from someone else's fantasy...
I've not only boycotted Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast products including the current edition of the game, my gaming group as a collective have all agreed together to do the same.
My gaming group are boycotting Wizards and not paying for DnD Beyond going forward. The writing has been on the wall for some time, especially since Tasha's cauldron of political correctness, but the OGL issue has made our collective decision final. Too much sanitisation of rules, lack of redress of any imbalance in the game, lack of detail where needed, poor content overall. In the end, whilst we have no ill will towards D&D as a game (still a great idea), Wizards have lost another group of players. We're not interested in their false apologies or giving them our money.
We have been running other systems for a while now like Cyberpunk Red, W40 Dark Heresy and even had a look at Twilight 2k, but now the main focus has shifted away from D&D to playing Pathfinder and I'll be running some Gurps 4e.
What political correctness was in Tasha's? That's a weird reason....
Political Correctness wasn't a "reason" they listed. Reasons they did list:
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Business Law 101 and 201 and 301. They have ever legal right to do this, it's called piracy, trademark violation and trade secrets, etc.... I am not going to stop playing the game just because they are enforcing company to abide by laws of this country and those laws of the ILC.
It was never a legal issue with us. I graduated in business law so appreciate the legal side. It was always about their behaviour towards the community and the quality of the product.
There are lawyers commenting on this pointing out that it is certainly not clear at all. From what I've heard, if judges hadn't settled on "irrevocable" as a magic word, Hasbro/WoTC wouldn't even have a potential opening to attack the original OGL. Game law is also unsettled in terms of just how much control Hasbro/WoTC has in the first place. This isn't trademark law and "trade secrets" is certainly not relevant. So, there is "Perpetual" in the license and the words spoken by Hasbro/WoTC about the original OGL which they have changed their mind about and the word "Irrevocable." This is more complex than you would like to think.
So DNDShorts finally published all the 'insider leaks' he's been relying on for this entire drama > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4kGMsZSdbY&ab_channel=DnDShorts
It clearly lays out that the new CEO responsible for OGL1.1 saw DNDBeyond as the biggest barrier to them selling a new VTT system that would allow them to have a ongoing subscription and microtransactions for content/cosmetics for players/DMs.
Apparently they wanted to 'kill DNDBeyond'.
What's weird is that nobody has been talking about Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms which likely gave them the idea of using 3rd party content and homebrew as expensive microtransactions in the first place?
You make a far more powerful statement by cancelling the products WOTC's new CEO actually wants people to buy - expensive tie-in products, 'digital exclusives', the new VTT and microtransactions in Idle Champions and Magic:The Gathering Arena.
Instead by cancelling DNDBeyond in protest of the OGL leaks people ended up doing exactly what this new CEO wanted - find a reason to 'kill DNDBeyond' and the traditional DND Books.
No doubt this new CEO just sees it as proof for why DND needs to become a 'digital VTT system complete with paywalls and subscriptions where people don't own the content they buy.
I bet he probably used the word 'Metaverse' a dozen times when pitching the future of DND - making the same mistake Ready Player One Did in failing to understand that the point of DND is that it's not a videogame.
I'm not going to be cancelling my DNDBeyond subscription yet, and if WOTC release a good version of Planescape for 5e/OneDND later this year like they promise I will be buying it - at my local game store.
Because these teams at WOTC had nothing to do with OGL1.1/1.2 and these staff actually care about the game and it's community.
Having the community rally around these staff, while making a clear line in the sand between DND and videogames is a good thing for the future of the game, but saying all of WOTC are 'liars' based solely on decisions made by a very small group of higher-ups is simply making it easier for these CEO's to get away with going ahead - because they know that they'll be able to make more money off new customers who have no idea of what DND was prior to their 'mmo-ification'.
Alberta Banana @TheRealAlberta: Good News! I finally brought Zangief back from the Dead :D :D :D Also I'M A LITCH FOR REAL! Downside may have ruined 60% of Athas in the process... sigh... I'll fix it tomorrow.
LVL20 Litch, Sorcerer King of the Second Banana Age of Athas, Survivor of the Tomb of Horrors, Backwards Spellcaster, Undead Warlock Patron to Jane with a army of Simulacrum clones.
Problem: WoTC bought DnD Beyond. The same sources have indicated that Corporate Suits are monitoring subscriptions to DnD Beyond to measure resistance to their plans. So, your suggestion doesn't hold water. It's not just about what Chris C., the guy who thinks video games and VTT are the same thing, thinks. He may be the main driver of their idea to push VTT but that doesn't mean he's telling the other suits what to do. Right now, he may be catching just a bit of heat in some of those corporate offices.
DDB thing right now is what WOTC paying to attention to gauge reaction and the players/customers use it (and whatever survey is coming up soon or so I can't find it) to get their message across 'right now'. In for future revenue purposes, players/customers not buy or limit purchases from WOTC / hasbro no matter which brand.
Kinda political, but semi-related, Conservatives are claiming victory from Bed Bath Beyond having to close many of their stores due to BBB dropping MyPillow.
DNDshorts to me is a reliable source, he is behaving as a proper journalist protecting his sources should behave. I know people are trying to discredit him by claiming "hey secret sources are unreliable so this could all just be made up", but quite literally all of journalism works this way. You protect your sources, but not revealing your sources does not mean they are unreliable or the whole thing is made up, it doesn't even indicate any impropriety, it's just how it works. DnDshorts is doing gods work here as far as I'm concerned, we are getting an inside look at what is really happening behind the scenes and I have no trouble believing every word he says. More to the point its making a difference. The community is better informed, they are taking action and forcing Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro into a corner. In the long run, this will lead to positive change if these companies have any self preservation.
That said, there is always a spin and this is also part of reporting information. You can take any information and spin it to "mean" something slightly different so I agree a certain level of skepticism is required here.
Regardless however I think the important thing to note here is that DnDBeyond is just a Wizards of the Coast-owned entity at this point, they, like other parts of the company don't have nearly as much control nor are in any position to make promises. DnD Beyond claims they have no plans on increasing subscriptions for example and I believe them, but that doesn't mean Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro has no such plans. Like if Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast decided tomorrow to increase subscription fee's in DnDBeyond... its done... DnDBeyond has no room to negotiate, they sold their company, they no longer control it, they are property.
The same is true about Wizards of the Coast. If Hasbro says jump, all they can do is ask how high.
This is why insider leaks and information is so critical, it allows us as a community to react and create our demands to pressure these companies to act right. It sucks that this is how it all works, you would hope that these two companies that produce our beloved D&D would be more on the communities side, but they are not. They want the money.. thats it. Nothing else matters to them and their is no indication whatsoever to the contrary and as such, the fight must continue.
Right now we are struggling as a community to preserve D&D, fighting for its very identity and future. We know what the company is planning and while I certainly have no objection to more digital tools, the direction they are taking D&D right now has no future. They don't understand that, but anyone who actually plays D&D does. D&D can be supported by digital products, it cannot BE a digital product. Digital Only D&D = Death of D&D. It's that simple.
Don't know where you went to law school, but you're confusing topics, Bouffard. If you're an attorney, I recommend a Westlaw search. You'll see lots of precedent for not being able to copyright game mechanics. This is NOT about protecting their IP - and if you believe that it is, you're not doing the reading.
First off, the content we're talking about are things they specifically gave the 3pp rights to do - so there's no violation. The fact that you started with this argument shows you're ill informed. I'm not going to go after you on that, but I do recommend you do some research first. More importantly, by virtue of the language in their proposed "drafts" of the OGL, WotC was trying to appropriate the IP of the 3PP who LEGALLY created works according to the 1.0a construct. So... yeah, no.
The changes going forward are about violating that contract and over-reach. They're going after VTTs (for example) that have been on the market for years already using generic game mechanics (example - after they release their Unreal engine VTT, they plan to sue folks using animations for any kind of Magic Missle on their platform... even though, these platforms use that animation for multiple game system and have had their product on the market WAY longer than WotC has...).
You've sort of missed the plot.
Come watch us save the multiverse in "The Lost Dragons of Phandelver" - a homebrew based on Lost Mines of Phandelver, Dragon of Icespire Peak, and They Tyranny of Dragons.
https://www.twitch.tv/kdinla
The Gatewalker Saga - Dragons Beware
I was already pretty upset with what they did with OGL1.1 and then when 1.2 came out with what seemed like concessions but bundled with hints about how they view VTT it tipped me over the edge. I've canceled my sub, and will only renew if I see real progress and change in their plans. Making D&D into a mass market MMO will ensure I never return.
I've also dumped all my Hasbro stock because quite honestly I don't expect the company to do well if this is how they treat their users of D&D (and MTG as well).
Finally, I'm not buying any more content that puts $ in the pockets of WoTC until this situation changes. No books, not going to see the movie, etc. Full on boycott until they get their act together.
DnD Shorts was out of his depth trying to cover this story but as an amateur he did ok in surfacing the concerns overall. I think now that the journalism has been handed off to an actual trained journalist at Gizmodo (who is actively recruiting insiders to share their views), a much better view will emerge.
I certainly trust DnD Shorts 1000% more than anything that comes out of Hasbro/WoTC PR-driven releases at this stage.
Flawed in all the same ways that the official feedback survey is. I won't dissect that here but its hot garbage.
I've unsubscribed. If they show they deserve it I can always resub.
I've noticed that it would be easy for anybody to spam the official feedback survey, so any results are already worthless.
The age of OGL is over. The Time of the ORC has come!
The moment that WotC declares OGL 1.0a "de-authorized", "revoked" or any such nonsense is the moment I release as much content as possible under OGL 1.0a and say, "Sue me WotC". OGL1.0a cannot be revoked. If thousands of us do it, the countersuit will be a class action suit.