Wizards was apparently planning to have an announcement earlier today, but ended up reevaluating after some announcements from concerned publishers like Kobold Press. Some sources are reporting that a new document is in the works - allegedly referred to as OGL 2.0 - though who knows what form that document might take or how long it will take to formulate.
Silence is bad - but you only get one chance at a first response, and in PR world, the massive damage of silence can still be eclipsed by the wrong response. A new document addressing the major legitimate concerns with the alleged draft combined with a cursory exploration for the draft is far stronger than simply providing an explanation and a “wait and see, will have a document to show you soon.”
That said, oh boy does the silence not help, even if an earlier response might have been worse. It now being a week where the only official commentary came from Beyond’s Twitter (not even D&D’s main Twitter) certainly contributes to the hole they are in.
But at this point, "disavowing the worst parts" isn't enough.
As Yurei points out, the catoblepas is out of the bag: Hasbro/WOTC have shown their true colors. We know what they're capable of, and we know how they view the fans and businesses that helped make 5E as huge as it is.
I also fear Yurei is correct in regards to the run-of-the-mill D&D group/player/DM. They'll either be unaware of this issue or won't care.
My biggest hope is that the gamechanger here vs 2008 is that HUGE amount of Millennials and Gen Zers who are players and are very connected online, thus increasing the chances of them finding out about the issue and siding with the gaming community.
Rescinding the whole thing and reaffirming 1.0a is going to be a pointless gesture though. ORC, Black Flag etc will still get made anyway (as you mention, any trust those 3PP have for WotC's goodwill is gone), and the companies doing so will happily use 1.0a to fund its development at WotC's expense. So the might as well revoke 1.0a to make it less of a subsidy for them.
But at this point, "disavowing the worst parts" isn't enough.
As Yurei points out, the catoblepas is out of the bag: Hasbro/WOTC have shown their true colors. We know what they're capable of, and we know how they view the fans and businesses that helped make 5E as huge as it is.
I also fear Yurei is correct in regards to the run-of-the-mill D&D group/player/DM. They'll either be unaware of this issue or won't care.
My biggest hope is that the gamechanger here vs 2008 is that HUGE amount of Millennials and Gen Zers who are players and are very connected online, thus increasing the chances of them finding out about the issue and siding with the gaming community.
Rescinding the whole thing and reaffirming 1.0a is going to be a pointless gesture though. ORC, Black Flag etc will still get made anyway (as you mention, any trust those 3PP have for WotC's goodwill is gone), and the companies doing so will happily use 1.0a to fund its development at WotC's expense. So the might as well revoke 1.0a to make it less of a subsidy for them.
Unfortunately: I sort of have to agree. WOTC pulled the pin on a grenade and didn't realize it. They inadvertently let everyone know that the ecosystem that grew up around them was reliant on a single point of failure; and teh smart decision is scatter before the grenade goes off... which of course; leaves WOTC holding teh bomb; and there's no un-pulling the pin.
A mistake they made is not realising that only a certain 20-30% of their consumers need to stop paying because 5E has a massive DM shortage from what polls have shown. If players have no DMs, their money spent is worthless.
We DMs have the power to fix this. Vote with your wallets, give them nothing, and never forget what they tried to do.
Guys, the problem is that this very clearly illustrates that they evidently don't know how this business works.
Without an OGL, gamers all fall into smaller clusters, huddled around whatever ruleset they are using. The OGL allowed everyone to have a common tongue, if you will, a game that everyone tried and many played, a common experience and language. It sponsored a community that had been centered around WotC and they enjoyed the benefits as well as granted boons. The OGL took a fractured industry and gave it a glue of sorts, hammering it into a more unified whole.
What WotC has done is cast themselves out because some manager just didn't understand what the OGL provided them.
Wizards/Hasbro is counting on the fact that the average consumer knows nothing about the OGL, has never bought a third-party D&D book in their life, never looks up D&D on Reddit or these forums or YouTube or anything else, and just plays casual funtimes beer-and-pretzels games on the weekends whenever the mood hits.
If they are counting on people not buying 3rd party content and not listening to Youtube video, then the new OGL would be a moo point.
The drive to 'One' DnD is one they're committed to. They aim to get there, the current backlash not withstanding. This may have just slowed them down. And the OneDnD evidently includes either assimilating or weakening the competition within the DnD community. I wouldn't be surprised if strategically placed NDAs are a part of that, and they may even be looking forward to some lawsuits, going on in the background while they market the hell out of movies, TV shows, owlbear plushies, and shiny-awesome-pretty VTT.
A mistake they made is not realising that only a certain 20-30% of their consumers need to stop paying because 5E has a massive DM shortage from what polls have shown. If players have no DMs, their money spent is worthless.
We DMs have the power to fix this. Vote with your wallets, give them nothing, and never forget what they tried to do.
Hate to break it to you but ... TTRPGs have ALWAYS had a massive DM/GM shortage problem, those articles that came out about it were click bait titles. DMs have always been in short supply because most players don't wanna sit down and read the books to learn the game and then run it for people, they wanna PLAY. and it shows because most of the time DM's are the ones buying the books as well and just letting players share them (occasionally you have a player buy a phb, but most of the time its the DM). I been playing TTRPGs for 20 years, and there has always been issues finding DM's which is why im my groups basically "Forever DM".
It might be better in this industry than others. Since they openly admit that the vast majority of money comes from DMs, who by the nature of the type of person it takes to do that are far more likely to be tuned into the details and news of the hobby, it is possible that there is a higher capacity of paying customers who are tuned in enough to care.
But yes, in general, your point stands with any consumer industry.
A mistake they made is not realising that only a certain 20-30% of their consumers need to stop paying because 5E has a massive DM shortage from what polls have shown. If players have no DMs, their money spent is worthless.
We DMs have the power to fix this. Vote with your wallets, give them nothing, and never forget what they tried to do.
Hate to break it to you but ... TTRPGs have ALWAYS had a massive DM/GM shortage problem, those articles that came out about it were click bait titles. DMs have always been in short supply because most players don't wanna sit down and read the books to learn the game and then run it for people, they wanna PLAY. and it shows because most of the time DM's are the ones buying the books as well and just letting players share them (occasionally you have a player buy a phb, but most of the time its the DM). I been playing TTRPGs for 20 years, and there has always been issues finding DM's which is why im my groups basically "Forever DM".
Honestly, I didn't read the articles you speak of. In both my experience and actual polls with more than a thousand votes, from places other than media articles, I've noticed that 5e has the biggest DM shortage. Sure, DMs will always be the lesser number, but other systems on average are around 10-30% higher amount of DMs.
Don't know if it's bad luck or just the culture of D&D but it seems to be the system with the biggest issue.
In my D&D group, we have two main DMs. In my other system groups, everyone has tried DMing and there's multiple main DMs. Perhaps it's just luck on my end, but I've heard the same from others.
Wizards was apparently planning to have an announcement earlier today, but ended up reevaluating after some announcements from concerned publishers like Kobold Press. Some sources are reporting that a new document is in the works - allegedly referred to as OGL 2.0 - though who knows what form that document might take or how long it will take to formulate.
Silence is bad - but you only get one chance at a first response, and in PR world, the massive damage of silence can still be eclipsed by the wrong response. A new document addressing the major legitimate concerns with the alleged draft combined with a cursory exploration for the draft is far stronger than simply providing an explanation and a “wait and see, will have a document to show you soon.”
That said, oh boy does the silence not help, even if an earlier response might have been worse. It now being a week where the only official commentary came from Beyond’s Twitter (not even D&D’s main Twitter) certainly contributes to the hole they are in.
Rescinding the whole thing and reaffirming 1.0a is going to be a pointless gesture though. ORC, Black Flag etc will still get made anyway (as you mention, any trust those 3PP have for WotC's goodwill is gone), and the companies doing so will happily use 1.0a to fund its development at WotC's expense. So the might as well revoke 1.0a to make it less of a subsidy for them.
Unfortunately: I sort of have to agree. WOTC pulled the pin on a grenade and didn't realize it. They inadvertently let everyone know that the ecosystem that grew up around them was reliant on a single point of failure; and teh smart decision is scatter before the grenade goes off... which of course; leaves WOTC holding teh bomb; and there's no un-pulling the pin.
A mistake they made is not realising that only a certain 20-30% of their consumers need to stop paying because 5E has a massive DM shortage from what polls have shown. If players have no DMs, their money spent is worthless.
We DMs have the power to fix this. Vote with your wallets, give them nothing, and never forget what they tried to do.
Guys, the problem is that this very clearly illustrates that they evidently don't know how this business works.
Without an OGL, gamers all fall into smaller clusters, huddled around whatever ruleset they are using. The OGL allowed everyone to have a common tongue, if you will, a game that everyone tried and many played, a common experience and language. It sponsored a community that had been centered around WotC and they enjoyed the benefits as well as granted boons. The OGL took a fractured industry and gave it a glue of sorts, hammering it into a more unified whole.
What WotC has done is cast themselves out because some manager just didn't understand what the OGL provided them.
I guess it's time DMs update their 'languages known' section of their character sheet to include 'fluent ORCish'
If they are counting on people not buying 3rd party content and not listening to Youtube video, then the new OGL would be a moo point.
Friends: The One with the Moo Point - YouTube
The drive to 'One' DnD is one they're committed to. They aim to get there, the current backlash not withstanding. This may have just slowed them down. And the OneDnD evidently includes either assimilating or weakening the competition within the DnD community. I wouldn't be surprised if strategically placed NDAs are a part of that, and they may even be looking forward to some lawsuits, going on in the background while they market the hell out of movies, TV shows, owlbear plushies, and shiny-awesome-pretty VTT.
Hate to break it to you but ... TTRPGs have ALWAYS had a massive DM/GM shortage problem, those articles that came out about it were click bait titles. DMs have always been in short supply because most players don't wanna sit down and read the books to learn the game and then run it for people, they wanna PLAY. and it shows because most of the time DM's are the ones buying the books as well and just letting players share them (occasionally you have a player buy a phb, but most of the time its the DM). I been playing TTRPGs for 20 years, and there has always been issues finding DM's which is why im my groups basically "Forever DM".
It might be better in this industry than others. Since they openly admit that the vast majority of money comes from DMs, who by the nature of the type of person it takes to do that are far more likely to be tuned into the details and news of the hobby, it is possible that there is a higher capacity of paying customers who are tuned in enough to care.
But yes, in general, your point stands with any consumer industry.
Or they're busy looking for a new job to escape the fire.
Honestly, I didn't read the articles you speak of. In both my experience and actual polls with more than a thousand votes, from places other than media articles, I've noticed that 5e has the biggest DM shortage. Sure, DMs will always be the lesser number, but other systems on average are around 10-30% higher amount of DMs.
Don't know if it's bad luck or just the culture of D&D but it seems to be the system with the biggest issue.
In my D&D group, we have two main DMs.
In my other system groups, everyone has tried DMing and there's multiple main DMs. Perhaps it's just luck on my end, but I've heard the same from others.