Just a reminder that the current CEO of Hasbro was the former CEO of WOTC so I would say there's really not much of a difference at this point.
Correct there is no difference. Honestly I'm not sure why people keep pretending like WotC is somehow distinct from Hasbro. It's been owned by Hasbro for decades and is not independent.
For the current situation, I would place the blame:
First: Gizmodo, for their bad journalism on the subject, using misleading quotes from the attorney they consulted (the clear language they reference indicates the attorney said more than they choose to report), and for discussing a draft without also providing the key conceptual clues that would verify whether the information was of any actual use—or at the very least noting that they do not have that information and that means their own reporting falls short. After all, a draft is just a draft - unless you also know what stage of draft it might be (such as an initial draft, a hypothetical aggressive draft attorneys often drop, a final draft, etc.)
If they are going to play at being journalists, not just gamers reporting on games, they should display better journalistic ethics.
Second: Wizards, for not having a better handle on document security and for now having four business days without any tangible response, feeding the conspiracy theories and making it harder for a response to be accepted once received. Wizards could move to number one if this does turn out to be a real and final draft - but we don’t have enough information to actually put them in that position yet.
Third: The social media influencers who are peddling insufficient and incomplete information as if it were gospel truth.
Fourth: The players who are jumping to conclusions based on bad data and do not realise they’re engaging in pointless speculation based on a single and useless-without-context data point.
Placing the blame on Gizmodo more than Wizards is pretty bizarre. WotC has had since mid December to address these rumors truthfully. You can't blame Gizmodo for getting facts wrong when WotC is responsible for their own messaging and has been clear as mud to the community about these changes.
Fact is the level of speculation we have seen wouldn't exist if WotC had been transparent from the start. As is, they have been radio silent on this since the first attempt they made to address this on Dec 21st.
For the current situation, I would place the blame:
First: Gizmodo, for their bad journalism on the subject, using misleading quotes from the attorney they consulted (the clear language they reference indicates the attorney said more than they choose to report), and for discussing a draft without also providing the key conceptual clues that would verify whether the information was of any actual use—or at the very least noting that they do not have that information and that means their own reporting falls short. After all, a draft is just a draft - unless you also know what stage of draft it might be (such as an initial draft, a hypothetical aggressive draft attorneys often drop, a final draft, etc.)
If they are going to play at being journalists, not just gamers reporting on games, they should display better journalistic ethics.
Second: Wizards, for not having a better handle on document security and for now having four business days without any tangible response, feeding the conspiracy theories and making it harder for a response to be accepted once received. Wizards could move to number one if this does turn out to be a real and final draft - but we don’t have enough information to actually put them in that position yet.
Third: The social media influencers who are peddling insufficient and incomplete information as if it were gospel truth.
Fourth: The players who are jumping to conclusions based on bad data and do not realise they’re engaging in pointless speculation based on a single and useless-without-context data point.
Placing the blame on Gizmodo more than Wizards is pretty bizarre. WotC has had since mid December to address these rumors truthfully. You can't blame Gizmodo for getting facts wrong when WotC is responsible for their own messaging and has been clear as mud to the community about these changes.
Fact is the level of speculation we have seen wouldn't exist if WotC had been transparent from the start. As is, they have been radio silent on this since the first attempt they made to address this on Dec 21st.
You Gotta understand Caerwyn doesn't think that anything Wizards does can be in any way bad.
First, to those saying Kickstarter confirmed anything about the draft, I suggest you actually look at what was said. They confirmed they have been in talks with Wizards and that there have been drafts circulated, but they were silent about the validity of the current document and whether that was the version presently being worked off, a past version, or a version that they never saw. It is also telling that many third parties are referencing the leaked document, not talking about the documents they obtained directly - and none of the super large publishers have come out and said that the leak conforms with the current draft.
That, of course, does not stop the game of telephone where one person read the Kickstarter response wrong, and “they have seen a draft” it has grown to a full blooded “they confirmed they saw this draft.”
Second, to DnDDetective - Presently yes, I put journalists, who should have a moral obligation to reporting accurate information above Wizards. A slow PR response is bad - and growing worse by the day - but I find general corporate incompetence (and it is clearly verging on incompetence at this point, on the fifth business day since the article dropped) less offensive than failings in basic principles of reporting.
I will admit to some bias on this point - I grew up in a household with a journalist parent, so my indoctrination into the importance of journalistic ethics is fairly deeply engrained. I can accept some folks would see a breach of journalistic ability as less blameworthy than corporate PR incompetence promulgating a PR nightmare.
Third, to Ashla_Mason, if you bothered to read, you’d note that I specifically mentioned that Wizards would be the most culpable if the draft is their final version - then they would actually deserve vitriol for their terms (which I have noted on other threads are extremely problematic and legally questionable). What you “gotta understand” is that “let us look at actual data and not take an incomplete data point as gospel” is very different than “Wizards can do nothing wrong.” They clearly can. They clearly have before (particularly with Magic). They clearly might with this whole situation, but they have not crossed the evidentiary threshold where it would be appropriate to judge them for anything other than their poor PR work.
At this point, it doesn't matter. A pot is a pot is a pot. The fact that his happened and the fact that we are still awaiting a response means that a return to the OGL 1.0a isn't what they are planning given they could just say so. Instead, they are still clinging to trying to do something even if they are trying to word it in a less severe way given the backlash.
WotC / Hasbro is about to start destroying wealth ala Elon Musk / Kanye West of late. If they are going to throw the baby out with the bath water, hopefully Hasbro's shareholders do the same with Cynthia Williams and Chris Cocks.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Info, Inflow, Overload. Knowledge Black Hole Imminent!
You know, I take exception of your attack on the journalist. Especially when they are all basically saying the exact same thing. (where there is smoke, there is fire)
You claim to have close ties to journalism too? There seems to be smoke here too.
At this point, it doesn't matter. A pot is a pot is a pot. The fact that his happened and the fact that we are still awaiting a response means that a return to the OGL 1.0a isn't what they are planning given they could just say so. Instead, they are still clinging to trying to do something even if they are trying to word it in a less severe way given the backlash.
WotC / Hasbro is about to start destroying wealth ala Elon Musk / Kanye West of late. If they are going to throw the baby out with the bath water, hopefully Hasbro's shareholders do the same with Cynthia Williams and Chris Cocks.
100% spot on. They're going full-on Musk and it doesn't even make $$ sense. Teos Abadia had a decent breakdown of 5e kickstarters that made over 1M. If Wizards took 20% from all those it ends up being less than 3M, which is nothing compared to WotC's 1.3B in revenue ... it's just stupid insane.
My issue Caer is that you keep insisting that this isn't the final draft or that we don't have the *real* story and that the blame rests on seemingly everyone else and the OGL just *had* to change (to a model that was much worse for everyone who isn't a hasbro employee) while not presenting any real evidence to support these allegations.
Like I haven't heard anyone anywhere state that this has been good for 3rd party sources or how happy they are about the updates outside of these forums by people such as yourself hence why I stand by my statement that you don't seem to think they can do any wrong.
I'm not against them updating the OGL. The fact is that they have been subsidizing the competition. Owlcat and Paizo used it to safely make video games worth millions, and I doubt WotC saw a red penny from that, nor any benefit to their own products. If it remains in its current form, there may be even more. And when OneD&D inevitably breaks the base again, they'll create yet another major competitor when someone decides to retroclone 5.0 using OGL 1.0a. Not to mention future technologies we can't predict like VR, blockchain games, mobile, new VTTs etc.
What I am against are the excessive provisions found in the leaked draft. The royalty is way too steep, the ownership everywhere clause is too draconian, and static PDFs/paper only means we can never homebrew on a forum or wiki ever again. Not to mention "we can change all the rules however we want with only 30 days notice and no consent." All of that is way too much and deserves every ounce of backlash it's been getting.
The Whole QGL issue is just a fight between companies. The 1.0A OGL is no longer a benefit to DnD, and is only giving rise to parasitic competition that will eventually kill it. And based on the document that was finally released it was clearly written/altered to cause all this drama. So till I see a REAL 1.1 OGL I will honestly believe this was all an act to harm and blackmail WotC.
Sometimes a problem is too big to wait for official responses.
Waiting to see if there is news around changes to a book. Reasonable.
waiting to see if something the equivalent of a house fire for the community, is actually a house fire is not reasonable. The potential harm is too great. As has been said if a fraction of what has been said is true, people’s livelihoods will be at stake. Not vehemently expressing how much this needs to be MADE false, regardless of whether it was true or not, will just make the worst outcome so much more likely.
Some things are too important to “wait and see”. And wizards has NOT earned the good will to take that risk
And based on the document that was finally released it was clearly written/altered to cause all this drama. So till I see a REAL 1.1 OGL I will honestly believe this was all an act to harm and blackmail WotC.
This is conspiratorial at best and decidedly not helpful to the conversation. While true that there is no solid evidence of what kind of draft the document might be, there also is no reason to believe it was fabricated or edited to cause panic. It is extraordinarily unlikely this is to blackmail Wizards. Right now, there is no substantive reason to believe it is fake; just like there is no substantive reason to believe it represents the current state of negotiations. Both positions are equally unhelpful, and both should be called out for their putting sensationalism above fact.
And based on the document that was finally released it was clearly written/altered to cause all this drama. So till I see a REAL 1.1 OGL I will honestly believe this was all an act to harm and blackmail WotC.
This is conspiratorial at best and decidedly not helpful to the conversation. While true that there is no solid evidence of what kind of draft the document might be, there also is no reason to believe it was fabricated or edited to cause panic. It is extraordinarily unlikely this is to blackmail Wizards. Right now, there is no substantive reason to believe it is fake; just like their is no substantive reason to believe it represents the current state of negotiations. Both positions are equally unhelpful, and both should be called out for their putting sensationalism above fact.
We're working with the evidence that we have as opposed to the blind faith we do not.
Simply put This has been in the wild for a week and the silence from wizards on the topic is deafening.
I get what Caerwyn is trying to say, especially where "journalistic integrity" is concerned, but I feel like Caerwyn is arguing strictly from a semantic point of view and not a realistic one.
Caerwyn: Yes, you are technically correct when you say we have no "smoking gun" kind of evidence to support the claim that the leaked draft is real or final, however short of an admission from WotC at this point I am not sure what would suffice.
That said, I also don't think it matters. At this point, arguing the truth-value of the draft vs final is irrelevant because the entire community has already reacted on the basis of the assumption that it either is a true, final version, or even if it's not, there is enough circumstantial evidence to support the idea that doing nothing while we wait for word from WotC is worse than preparing for the possibility it is true.
Yes, you are technically correct (to some people the best kind of correct) but it really doesn't matter anymore. It just seems now like Grandpa Simpson yelling at the clouds because your assertions about journalistic integrity or the status of the leaked document won't stop anything that is happening now.
The displacer beast is out of the bag of holding. The Spelljammer has left the spaceport. The Djinni is out of the Iron Flask.
So... I mean... what's the point now of continuing to argue the point?
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
I'm guessing definitely some Hasbro executive who really didn't understand at all what they were deciding made a sweeping decision and then insisted it had to be that way; I can't imagine anyone at Wizards being so detached from D&D and the gaming community at large that they thought this would go over well.
The fact that it got leaked, and then they bum rushed a bunch of mid-to-high level creators and gave them a teeny tiny window to sign it or be noncompliant makes me think that they were 1. entirely aware that it isn't actually legally binding UNLESS they can get someone to sign it, thus forcing them to use the -new- OGL and it's draconian rules, and 2. doing it entirely because they want to make more money, because they think that they're going to be able to just steal the money from these lower level creators and everything's going to continue going same as before.
Anyone with half a brain and 2 hours of tabletop experience would tell you that's not how this is gonna shake out lol.
Yeah, at this point if it was a fake OGL that had been leaked; you really think Wizards wouldn't have come out and said that by now? The only reasonable takeaway at this point is to think that it IS real, because if the document was simply fake they would have said so by now and stopped this avalanche of negative press and sentiment that it's generating in their community.
Like, if the NFL 'leaked' a document that said all football games were now going to be performed in full drag and ballgown costuming instead of their usual football gear, and the entire NFL sports fanbase started an uproar about these changes, and the document -wasn't- actually real, don't you think the NFL would go out there and announce to their fans "Guys, hey, it's okay, it was a fake! Some intern was having a lark, none of these changes are happening, sorry about that!" - ? Like, OF COURSE they would! They'd do it the second they knew for sure the document was a fake, which, given that they ARE the entity that knows whether or not these changes are real... kinda not hard to know. For them.
So IDK how anyone thinks that this document isn't real; if it was fake, they'd have said so ages ago to get ahead of this bad press. But they didn't say anything, because it's not fake, it's real, and they're internally scrambling trying to figure out WHAT to say to try and mitigate some of this damage; problem is, you can't fix a gaping hole in someone's chest with a few friendly words.
I'm guessing definitely some Hasbro executive who really didn't understand at all what they were deciding made a sweeping decision and then insisted it had to be that way; I can't imagine anyone at Wizards being so detached from D&D and the gaming community at large that they thought this would go over well.
The fact that it got leaked, and then they bum rushed a bunch of mid-to-high level creators and gave them a teeny tiny window to sign it or be noncompliant makes me think that they were 1. entirely aware that it isn't actually legally binding UNLESS they can get someone to sign it, thus forcing them to use the -new- OGL and it's draconian rules, and 2. doing it entirely because they want to make more money, because they think that they're going to be able to just steal the money from these lower level creators and everything's going to continue going same as before.
Anyone with half a brain and 2 hours of tabletop experience would tell you that's not how this is gonna shake out lol.
I'm assuming that one or more suits who don't play TTRPGs just saw data about money on the table, and when told by underlings about the community reaction likely said something along the lines of "Do you think I give a F&^# what a bunch of nerds think? Get the F&^# out my office and bring me my F*&$ing coffee, Janice."
I imagine these people are the traditional "jocks" who bullied us in school, and only care about their next Mercedes or vacation to Aruba.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
I'm guessing definitely some Hasbro executive who really didn't understand at all what they were deciding made a sweeping decision and then insisted it had to be that way; I can't imagine anyone at Wizards being so detached from D&D and the gaming community at large that they thought this would go over well.
The fact that it got leaked, and then they bum rushed a bunch of mid-to-high level creators and gave them a teeny tiny window to sign it or be noncompliant makes me think that they were 1. entirely aware that it isn't actually legally binding UNLESS they can get someone to sign it, thus forcing them to use the -new- OGL and it's draconian rules, and 2. doing it entirely because they want to make more money, because they think that they're going to be able to just steal the money from these lower level creators and everything's going to continue going same as before.
Anyone with half a brain and 2 hours of tabletop experience would tell you that's not how this is gonna shake out lol.
I'm assuming that one or more suits who don't play TTRPGs just saw data about money on the table, and when told by underlings about the community reaction likely said something along the lines of "Do you think I give a F&^# what a bunch of nerds think? Get the F&^# out my office and bring me my F*&$ing coffee, Janice."
I imagine these people are the traditional "jocks" who bullied us in school, and only care about their next Mercedes or vacation to Aruba.
I can just about guarantee that none of the Execs at WotC have played any of their games in the past 8 years.
If wizards is going to stop me from making homebrew, they can eat my pants
Not only are they not making the slightest attempt to stop you from homebrewing, they could not stop you from homebrewing if they wanted to, which they don’t.
If 1.1 is accurate, they are asking for information about sales of things you homebrew, and even then only after a certain threshold.
You can homebrew. You can give that homebrew away for free to everyone in the world. If you start profiting, that’s when they become interested.
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Correct there is no difference. Honestly I'm not sure why people keep pretending like WotC is somehow distinct from Hasbro. It's been owned by Hasbro for decades and is not independent.
Placing the blame on Gizmodo more than Wizards is pretty bizarre. WotC has had since mid December to address these rumors truthfully. You can't blame Gizmodo for getting facts wrong when WotC is responsible for their own messaging and has been clear as mud to the community about these changes.
Fact is the level of speculation we have seen wouldn't exist if WotC had been transparent from the start. As is, they have been radio silent on this since the first attempt they made to address this on Dec 21st.
You Gotta understand Caerwyn doesn't think that anything Wizards does can be in any way bad.
First, to those saying Kickstarter confirmed anything about the draft, I suggest you actually look at what was said. They confirmed they have been in talks with Wizards and that there have been drafts circulated, but they were silent about the validity of the current document and whether that was the version presently being worked off, a past version, or a version that they never saw. It is also telling that many third parties are referencing the leaked document, not talking about the documents they obtained directly - and none of the super large publishers have come out and said that the leak conforms with the current draft.
That, of course, does not stop the game of telephone where one person read the Kickstarter response wrong, and “they have seen a draft” it has grown to a full blooded “they confirmed they saw this draft.”
Second, to DnDDetective - Presently yes, I put journalists, who should have a moral obligation to reporting accurate information above Wizards. A slow PR response is bad - and growing worse by the day - but I find general corporate incompetence (and it is clearly verging on incompetence at this point, on the fifth business day since the article dropped) less offensive than failings in basic principles of reporting.
I will admit to some bias on this point - I grew up in a household with a journalist parent, so my indoctrination into the importance of journalistic ethics is fairly deeply engrained. I can accept some folks would see a breach of journalistic ability as less blameworthy than corporate PR incompetence promulgating a PR nightmare.
Third, to Ashla_Mason, if you bothered to read, you’d note that I specifically mentioned that Wizards would be the most culpable if the draft is their final version - then they would actually deserve vitriol for their terms (which I have noted on other threads are extremely problematic and legally questionable). What you “gotta understand” is that “let us look at actual data and not take an incomplete data point as gospel” is very different than “Wizards can do nothing wrong.” They clearly can. They clearly have before (particularly with Magic). They clearly might with this whole situation, but they have not crossed the evidentiary threshold where it would be appropriate to judge them for anything other than their poor PR work.
At this point, it doesn't matter. A pot is a pot is a pot. The fact that his happened and the fact that we are still awaiting a response means that a return to the OGL 1.0a isn't what they are planning given they could just say so. Instead, they are still clinging to trying to do something even if they are trying to word it in a less severe way given the backlash.
WotC / Hasbro is about to start destroying wealth ala Elon Musk / Kanye West of late. If they are going to throw the baby out with the bath water, hopefully Hasbro's shareholders do the same with Cynthia Williams and Chris Cocks.
Info, Inflow, Overload. Knowledge Black Hole Imminent!
You know, I take exception of your attack on the journalist. Especially when they are all basically saying the exact same thing. (where there is smoke, there is fire)
You claim to have close ties to journalism too? There seems to be smoke here too.
Info, Inflow, Overload. Knowledge Black Hole Imminent!
100% spot on. They're going full-on Musk and it doesn't even make $$ sense. Teos Abadia had a decent breakdown of 5e kickstarters that made over 1M. If Wizards took 20% from all those it ends up being less than 3M, which is nothing compared to WotC's 1.3B in revenue ... it's just stupid insane.
For reference, it's a good read and some solid ideas as well: A Vision for the D&D OGL - Part 3: WotC (alphastream.org)
My issue Caer is that you keep insisting that this isn't the final draft or that we don't have the *real* story and that the blame rests on seemingly everyone else and the OGL just *had* to change (to a model that was much worse for everyone who isn't a hasbro employee) while not presenting any real evidence to support these allegations.
Like I haven't heard anyone anywhere state that this has been good for 3rd party sources or how happy they are about the updates outside of these forums by people such as yourself hence why I stand by my statement that you don't seem to think they can do any wrong.
I'm not against them updating the OGL. The fact is that they have been subsidizing the competition. Owlcat and Paizo used it to safely make video games worth millions, and I doubt WotC saw a red penny from that, nor any benefit to their own products. If it remains in its current form, there may be even more. And when OneD&D inevitably breaks the base again, they'll create yet another major competitor when someone decides to retroclone 5.0 using OGL 1.0a. Not to mention future technologies we can't predict like VR, blockchain games, mobile, new VTTs etc.
What I am against are the excessive provisions found in the leaked draft. The royalty is way too steep, the ownership everywhere clause is too draconian, and static PDFs/paper only means we can never homebrew on a forum or wiki ever again. Not to mention "we can change all the rules however we want with only 30 days notice and no consent." All of that is way too much and deserves every ounce of backlash it's been getting.
The Whole QGL issue is just a fight between companies. The 1.0A OGL is no longer a benefit to DnD, and is only giving rise to parasitic competition that will eventually kill it. And based on the document that was finally released it was clearly written/altered to cause all this drama. So till I see a REAL 1.1 OGL I will honestly believe this was all an act to harm and blackmail WotC.
Hasbro owns WOTC right? Seems kind of pointless to try and distinguish the two as separate to assign blame.
Sometimes a problem is too big to wait for official responses.
Waiting to see if there is news around changes to a book. Reasonable.
waiting to see if something the equivalent of a house fire for the community, is actually a house fire is not reasonable. The potential harm is too great. As has been said if a fraction of what has been said is true, people’s livelihoods will be at stake. Not vehemently expressing how much this needs to be MADE false, regardless of whether it was true or not, will just make the worst outcome so much more likely.
Some things are too important to “wait and see”. And wizards has NOT earned the good will to take that risk
This is conspiratorial at best and decidedly not helpful to the conversation. While true that there is no solid evidence of what kind of draft the document might be, there also is no reason to believe it was fabricated or edited to cause panic. It is extraordinarily unlikely this is to blackmail Wizards. Right now, there is no substantive reason to believe it is fake; just like there is no substantive reason to believe it represents the current state of negotiations. Both positions are equally unhelpful, and both should be called out for their putting sensationalism above fact.
We're working with the evidence that we have as opposed to the blind faith we do not.
Simply put This has been in the wild for a week and the silence from wizards on the topic is deafening.
I get what Caerwyn is trying to say, especially where "journalistic integrity" is concerned, but I feel like Caerwyn is arguing strictly from a semantic point of view and not a realistic one.
Caerwyn: Yes, you are technically correct when you say we have no "smoking gun" kind of evidence to support the claim that the leaked draft is real or final, however short of an admission from WotC at this point I am not sure what would suffice.
That said, I also don't think it matters. At this point, arguing the truth-value of the draft vs final is irrelevant because the entire community has already reacted on the basis of the assumption that it either is a true, final version, or even if it's not, there is enough circumstantial evidence to support the idea that doing nothing while we wait for word from WotC is worse than preparing for the possibility it is true.
Yes, you are technically correct (to some people the best kind of correct) but it really doesn't matter anymore. It just seems now like Grandpa Simpson yelling at the clouds because your assertions about journalistic integrity or the status of the leaked document won't stop anything that is happening now.
The displacer beast is out of the bag of holding. The Spelljammer has left the spaceport. The Djinni is out of the Iron Flask.
So... I mean... what's the point now of continuing to argue the point?
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
I'm guessing definitely some Hasbro executive who really didn't understand at all what they were deciding made a sweeping decision and then insisted it had to be that way; I can't imagine anyone at Wizards being so detached from D&D and the gaming community at large that they thought this would go over well.
The fact that it got leaked, and then they bum rushed a bunch of mid-to-high level creators and gave them a teeny tiny window to sign it or be noncompliant makes me think that they were 1. entirely aware that it isn't actually legally binding UNLESS they can get someone to sign it, thus forcing them to use the -new- OGL and it's draconian rules, and 2. doing it entirely because they want to make more money, because they think that they're going to be able to just steal the money from these lower level creators and everything's going to continue going same as before.
Anyone with half a brain and 2 hours of tabletop experience would tell you that's not how this is gonna shake out lol.
Yeah, at this point if it was a fake OGL that had been leaked; you really think Wizards wouldn't have come out and said that by now? The only reasonable takeaway at this point is to think that it IS real, because if the document was simply fake they would have said so by now and stopped this avalanche of negative press and sentiment that it's generating in their community.
Like, if the NFL 'leaked' a document that said all football games were now going to be performed in full drag and ballgown costuming instead of their usual football gear, and the entire NFL sports fanbase started an uproar about these changes, and the document -wasn't- actually real, don't you think the NFL would go out there and announce to their fans "Guys, hey, it's okay, it was a fake! Some intern was having a lark, none of these changes are happening, sorry about that!" - ? Like, OF COURSE they would! They'd do it the second they knew for sure the document was a fake, which, given that they ARE the entity that knows whether or not these changes are real... kinda not hard to know. For them.
So IDK how anyone thinks that this document isn't real; if it was fake, they'd have said so ages ago to get ahead of this bad press. But they didn't say anything, because it's not fake, it's real, and they're internally scrambling trying to figure out WHAT to say to try and mitigate some of this damage; problem is, you can't fix a gaping hole in someone's chest with a few friendly words.
I'm assuming that one or more suits who don't play TTRPGs just saw data about money on the table, and when told by underlings about the community reaction likely said something along the lines of "Do you think I give a F&^# what a bunch of nerds think? Get the F&^# out my office and bring me my F*&$ing coffee, Janice."
I imagine these people are the traditional "jocks" who bullied us in school, and only care about their next Mercedes or vacation to Aruba.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
I can just about guarantee that none of the Execs at WotC have played any of their games in the past 8 years.
Not only are they not making the slightest attempt to stop you from homebrewing, they could not stop you from homebrewing if they wanted to, which they don’t.
If 1.1 is accurate, they are asking for information about sales of things you homebrew, and even then only after a certain threshold.
You can homebrew. You can give that homebrew away for free to everyone in the world. If you start profiting, that’s when they become interested.