Wizards Of The Coast Believed That D&D Licence Changes Were Causing Fans To Overreact: The management at Wizards of the Coast reportedly thought that the thousands of D&D fans who opposed the planned license modifications were “overreacting” and weren’t persuaded by their arguments. This comes as D&D subscriptions are being canceled in protest and WotC appears to back away from its contentious Open Game License (OGL) plans.
Gizmodo, who spoke to numerous former and present WotC employees, is to thank you for this development. The report offers some insight into the corporate decision-making process and contends that a reaction to the controversy was only made when the number of canceled subscriptions threatened WotC’s financial health.
Gizmodo’s sources claim that WotC management informed staff that fans were “overreacting” and that they believed the situation would pass “in a few months.” Only once there was a “provable impact” on the company’s earnings did this attitude alter.
This runs counter to the recent official statement from WotC, which claimed that the leaked planned OGL amendments were only drafted to gauge public opinion and were not intended to be made official. However, if the unnamed employees are to be believed, management didn’t give the general public’s viewpoint much consideration.
A new OGL is still in the works, but WotC seems to be indicating that it won’t include some of the contentious provisions that fans objected to, such as turning over 25% of sales on third-party items and requiring preexisting D&D-inspired games to obtain company clearance. However, since that hasn’t been confirmed, many people in the community continue to worry about what the new OGL may entail.
But if WotC wants to regain player confidence, these elements ought to be completely removed. As previously mentioned, an open letter urging the cancellation of the leaked OGL gathered 26,000 signatories in a matter of days. Additionally, unnamed employees claim to have received at least 10,000 formal complaints totaling “five figures,” or more.
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