OGL part II: How is this actually affecting people?
Okay, itās been a really intense couple of days. I have got a lot of weird anon hate over this, and Iāve seen people get super worked up with me. Iāve also seen people spread lies and weird takes, trying to say this is not concerning, so let me add some information on why is the OGL very worrying, based on corrections people have made and to clarify against some posts Iāve been seeing circling around.
Let me preface this: I am one of the many people that could get potentially affected by the OGL, as a creator aiming to work in the TTRPG industry. I have been able to get a bit of money from giving people usage rights over some images (and I havenāt officially started freelancing), all of which came from third parties that are at bigger risk of this OGL. I have been planning to get into battlemap making, specially aimed at FoundryVTT. So, letās get to it:
To start with, Iāve seen people say this whole thing is a ādnd hate agendaā and some other takes that borderline conspiracy theories. I canāt stretch this enough: DnD is one of my two main hobbies. Itās what has inspired most of my art. Go to my sygdomthings tag if youād like, I have spent so many hours at this hobby. However, I can enjoy media and be aware of the problems from the company behind it, and itās very important to talk about these.
Iāve seen claims that you ācanāt really say anything because the leak may not be realā. There has been confirmation from big companies, like Kickstarter, that the leak itself is real. The OGL has already been sent to several big names, including Griffonās Saddlebag (a fantastic source of homebrew content), which have confirmed this is not a draft, and that they have been sent contracts to sign already (they have refused.
So, about VTTs (Virtual TableTops, like roll20, Foundry, etc)
VTTs are probably getting hit. The new OGL would give WOTC the right to retire anything-dnd from VTTs, including roll20 and FoundryVTT. WOTC and Foundry have never got to reach a license (as of now), and they are not willing to work with them, because their goal is to release their own VTT in DnDBeyond. And I canāt stretch this enough: WOTC having the only VTT with access to DnD would be very, VERY bad (and this OGL would allow them to do so!)
Itās bad for a plethora of reasons. It means they can charge anythingĀ they want for the VTT. Which will be a subscription service, according to their CEO, who has said the hobby isĀ āundermonetizedā and they want to put moreĀ ārecurrent spendingā (aka subscriptions and microtransactions)
They may put basic stuff behind paywalls. Roll20 has a subscription to have light sources and extra storage. They can put these behind a subscription, as they may put any sort of quality of life tool, and literally anything else they want. If they have the only VTT with DnD, they can do anything. Monopolies are bad for the consumer.Ā
They may also let you have temporal access to sourcebooks in exchange for a subscription, which leads to this horrible idea of you not actually owningĀ what you pay for. You stop paying? You donāt have access to it.
Think about how DnD refuses to have PDFs, and instead forces you to be on DnDBeyond to access that content online. Think about how that could be a subscription service instead. I donāt know how likely it is to happen, but if they have the monopoly, they can do that.
They can fill their VTT with micro-transactions. They can make you pay extra to have a more comfortable sheet to fill. They can shove skins in it. They can shove exclusiveĀ āminisā (3d models) youāll need to pay for if you want to use.Ā
They want to use UNREAL ENGINE 5 and itās not going to be based on 2d battlemaps you can easily make, buy or download for free.Ā Which means you may need to pay to make a custom mini of your character there, because you may be unable to import a lovely commission you got. You may need to pay for a battlemap.Ā
(This also hurts people who do minis, like Heroforge, people who do battlemaps, people who do commissions, etc!)
Also Unreal Engine 5 is a very heavy toolĀ that may not be accessible for many lower-end computers. If they have the only VTT that gives support to DnD, and itās one that consume heavy resources, anyone with a bad computer wonāt be playing DnD in a VTT. Simple as that.Ā
No word of what will happen with people who have DnD campaigns in other VTTs that may get their access to DnD revoked. I DM a +90 sessions campaign, I play a +50 sessions campaign. We could potentially lose support for it before they finish. We canāt realistically input all of 5eās content by ourselves now. Think about your campaigns, too.
Again: Monopolies are bad and donāt benefit the consumer. Speak against this.
The 25% tax cut is MASSIVE. Itās not applied over net benefits, itās applied over gross income. A company making $1,500,000 would have to pay 25% of the 750,000 bit, which is $187,500. The usual benefit margin for TTRPG companies is of 12%, which would be $180,000 in this case. Which means that a company making that income would be LOSING MONEY because WOTCās cut outweights their benefit. The higher the income, the bigger the loss is.
I know 1,5millions sounds like a lot, but these companies are paying a lot of people, and the actual benefit margin (as mentioned) is quite small. These millions mostly go towards keeping workersā¦ Fed. Making a living.Ā
Which also brings me to this: Third party companies have a lot of people working for them. A lot of them are freelancers. If you are starting in the TTRPG industry, you will probably start on a third party company or in a small TTRPG (a lot of which are also based in the OGL). This is hitting the very same small creators you love to see when you search for ādnd artā, because commissions rarely pay for a full income, and a lot of artists do TTRPG industry work on top of them.
Btw, I saw someone say theyĀ ādonāt make anything out of DMās Guildā. Plain untrue, they take 50% of every sale there!
On registering work using the OGL: (Source:Ā https://gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of-the-coast-ogl-1-1-open-gaming-license-1849950634Ā )
Anything you make, regardless of your income, has now to be registered. Which means they can just tell youĀ ānoā if they donāt agree for whatever reason. Do they think you are a dangerous ācompetitorā? You can get stopped before you start. Or when youāre mid-project, too. They donāt agree with it on a moral level? You can also get kicked.Ā
(They have mentioned they wonāt be allowing bigoted content under the OGL, which is niceĀ in theory, but given how WOTC released the Racist Monkey Race in fucking 2022, I donāt know how much to trust this actually. Also as a Roma-descended person, Iām still waiting for an actual overhaul of the Vistani in Strahd, but oh well.)
They have censored people over extremely arbitrary things, like a DMās guild module namedĀ āEat the Richā, which WOTC deemed too offensive for containing the wordĀ āanti-capitalistā. The idea behind this module is adventurers facing mega-corporations. Yāknow, standard cyberpunk setting. But WOTC, being as they are, found that to be too much.
This is bad. This is really bad. Some people say this isĀ āusual IP standard protectionā, but now if you are registered under the OGL (and youāll need to be), WOTC can just word-per-word copy whatever you make and sell it as their own. THIS IS BAD. I donāt want people to be likeĀ ābut they probably wonātā, the important thing is that they can, and this gives them free reign to take whatever competitors make. Which, again, is giving them a monopoly.Ā
And this is also VERY, very bad. They can change any terms, which means anything you make under this new OGL is subject to their whims, and 30 days notice is a very small one, given most TTRPG projects can take years to come to fulfilment. Creators are scared of this, of course, because WOTC can change the terms at any point and destroy your project. Donāt like the 25% cut? They can change it to 50% instead. The old OGL was supposedly irrevocable, as confirmed by the writer, but this new one can change at any point.
Itās still unclear if they will be able to get away with revoking the old license.Ā
This is a more confusing area and I canāt give good advice. Some say they may be exempt from this because itāsĀ ātransformativeā work, but any sort of homebrew content a podcast may release, is now also subject to this.Ā
I think the bigger podcast (CR) is probably not going to suffer from this, because theyāll get a special license with WOTC. CR is WOTCās biggest advertising tool atm, and CR benefits from DnDās widespread popularity. I doubt theyāll speak against this new OGL. I find it weird people want themĀ to speak about this. CR is very, very closely tied with WOTC at this point.Ā
I REALLY donāt know what may happen with D20. Their content being behind a paywall may make this much different, since d20 isnāt as much of an effective advertising tool as CR is.
Smaller streamers are the ones getting hit the hardest. There are many of them who are getting ready to move systems or create their own. These streams often also employ artists and creators, so jobs are getting lost here, if this goes live.
I donāt know where this misconception came from, but no, the grand majority of streamers donāt have an agreement with WOTCĀ at the moment.
WhyĀ āplaying Pathfinderā is not a bad idea in this mess?
One of the wildest points Iāve seen in the post trying to dismiss the new OGLās danger is thatĀ āpeople who tell you to try Pathfinder (or other systems) donāt actually want the best for youā. I am recommending people to try other systems because playing DnD (specially online), if the OGL goes live, may become very expensive.Ā
Pathfinder 2e is actually probably going to be safe about this, according to Paizo itself. I am not recommending you to jump into a sinking ship. Pathfinder 1e (which is not really active anymore) and Starfinder (this one is) are affected under this new OGL, but PF2 is an actual safe bet, even if itāll give them a headache to update stuff.
I used to not be as eager as PF2 as I am nowadays. In fact, I antagonized my DM a bit over it, because I was comfortable with DnD. Iāve been realizing Iām wrong myself. So, please, trust me as someone who used to favourĀ DnD very heavily.
Why you should not go silent about this?
Remember the wholeĀ āmonopoly is bad for the consumerā? You need to speak against this because WOTC will get even more of a monopoly on TTRPGs after this. Which means they can get away with over-pricing their products, offering bad content, whatever.
WOTC does not have the need to do this. The company has been massively profitable, with record sales in the last years. They somehow still think itāsĀ āunder-monetizedā.Ā
This comes from Hasbro, the parent company, which hasnāt been doing as well and wants to turn both DnD and Magic The Gathering into their cash cows.
As the consumer, you are going to get hit if WOTC has more of a monopoly than it already has. You needĀ to care. You needĀ to worry.
Also, a multi-millionaire company like WOTC does really not need people toĀ āwhite-knightā for them, specially when these moves are only for their OWN benefit.
honestly I didnāt expect people who would go as far asĀ āitās capitalism baybee just copeā. You can and should call out businesses on bad practises. You donāt make excuses for Amazon just becauseĀ āitās a business, yāknowā, right?
This move will put a lot of people out of their jobs. Most third party creators donāt have the lawyers to push against this. Artists youāve loved all these years are going to lose steady sources of income. Homebrew content you have been using are going to get heavily hurt. I donāt know how to tell people that you need to care for others.
Since the other post Iāve seen circulating about this seems to be reallyĀ aiming at my old one, I hope this serves as clarification. It has a good bunch of sources, itās more thoroughly informed, and more accurate than my first one. Please be aware that information has been coming up with every passing day, and a lot of what Iāve quoted or mentioned here are recentĀ finds.Ā
So, again: Boycott WOTC over this. Cancel your DnD Beyond subscription. Donāt buy their books. Donāt buy their products. Donāt watch the new movie. This is coming from a creator who is directly hurt by this OGL, and I am one of many. I know some of you follow Lauren Walsh, who has also expressed concerns over this OGL (and they have worked for WOTC, CR andĀ third parties). If you donāt want to take my word on this, at least take it from them.
As always, all reblogs are appreciated. English is my third language, so Iām sorry for any grammar mistake!
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