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Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

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Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#101

Post by Macha »

djur wrote: post #27
lincolnq wrote: post #7

Can someone explain more about what happened here?

D&D 5th Edition (and some earlier editions) was released in a way that allowed third parties to create their own compatible content by referencing a document called the "SRD", licensed under the so-called Open Game License. This document contained the basic rules and content necessary to play D&D. If you wanted to include a zombie in your published adventure you could use the stat block from the SRD. The license also…

> The OGL was written before VTTs (virtual tabletops) were really a thing, so it doesn't explicitly authorize them. Instead, VTT developers arrange their own deal with Wizards directly.

To expand on this about this, nothing around the existing v1.0a actually had field of use restrictions that would prevent its use in a VTT, and the accompanying contemporaneous FAQ indicated that using it for software was permissible. While VTTs as they exist today didn't exist when they wrote the license, character builders and video game adaptations did, so it's not like some VTTs are some totally unforeseen and therefore not plausibly covered.

So most VTTs are relying on the OGL where they just implement D&D and basic classes etc., the ones with deals are the ones that use additional non-OGL content which is why you can e.g. buy Curse of Strahd for roll20 or fantasy grounds despite Strahd not being OGL.

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#102

Post by piyh »

jofer wrote: post #83
boomboomsubban wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>WoTC releases the 30th aniversary edition for MTG, which is 60 random cards for 1000 $ which are officially marked as non-tournament legal. The MTG community is furious and for once people from all corners of the community come together to boycott this product. The rage is great and enduring. Yet somehow the product completely sold out in under an hour. I really don't understand the outrage on that decision, would y…

It's honestly not so much that set. It's the sheer amount of new supplemental sets that they're throwing out, many of which are cards that you basically _have_ to but to remain competitive. Formats like legacy and vintage are no longer things you can buy into and play a similar deck for a long period of time. Instead, they're things where you have to buy new cards once every two to four weeks to remain competitive. T…

Having the creator of the game say "..keep focused on this idea that this is a game first. As if you treat it as a collectible first then you are not doing your game players any favors" during the same event before they announced $300 for 60 proxies threw gas on it.

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#103

Post by LegitShady »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #6

The community WOTC built over decades shouldn't have to give feedback that 85%+ identify with in order to achieve results that are desirable. If community sentiment is so lopsided then what was the rationale to make the decision in the first place and how was the communities' desire not implicitly understood? There is no doubt in my mind that WOTC (let's be real, Hasbro) has enough self-awareness to have realized the…

agreed. a substantial amount of the playerbase and 3rd party creators are looking for non-DnD games moving forward, and Hasbro finally realized they handed the opportunity to take all those players and creators to their competition.

I think people should still switch. Hasbro has shown who they are. Is there a DnD transformers crossover yet, like in MtG?

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#104

Post by chongli »

Macha wrote: post #92
chongli wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d say the real problem is that WoTC is a lifestyle business that should not be owned by Hasbro.

WoTC (and really, Magic The Gathering specifically) is actually the profitable bit of Hasbro. They were hoping to get similar levels out of Dungeons and Dragons.

This is the company that once sold an ancient Roman weapon of war (plumbata) as children’s toy. At least one child died when hit by the dart.

The company should be shut down and its valuable brands spun off!

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#105

Post by cleak »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #6

The community WOTC built over decades shouldn't have to give feedback that 85%+ identify with in order to achieve results that are desirable. If community sentiment is so lopsided then what was the rationale to make the decision in the first place and how was the communities' desire not implicitly understood? There is no doubt in my mind that WOTC (let's be real, Hasbro) has enough self-awareness to have realized the…

I’d bet they anticipated the backlash, but thought it could be managed - some short term anger followed by long term profits. It so far hasn’t worked out that way, but these are still recent events; they may just wait to roll out changes more quietly.

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#106

Post by trynewideas »

deadbunny wrote: post #88
crayboff wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they did a huge thing that can't be backed out of, they released SRD 5.1 under creative commons. Yeah they did some not great stuff, but let's celebrate the successes when we get them!

Isn't SRD 5.1 essentially just 5e? Unless they start releasing all the 5.5e/One stuff under the same license I can see them just not releasing that under a permissive license. Of course I could be wrong.

SRD 5.1 doesn't include character creation rules or feats, so it's not even enough from just the PHB/DMG to play. But it's most of what you need, and the what's left can be easily replaced.

The CC grant from the draft OGL 1.2 announcement was much less - it didn't include classes, spells, or creatures. Opening the entire SRD under CC BY makes cloning 5E trivial.

I genuinely think this is WotC giving up on 5.5/One being open. They're going to double down on the Dungeon Master's Guild and its IP-friendly, Hasbro-owned license as the way to create and distribute fan content.

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#107

Post by gedy »

chongli wrote: post #104
Macha wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WoTC (and really, Magic The Gathering specifically) is actually the profitable bit of Hasbro. They were hoping to get similar levels out of Dungeons and Dragons.

This is the company that once sold an ancient Roman weapon of war (plumbata) as children’s toy. At least one child died when hit by the dart. The company should be shut down and its valuable brands spun off!

Unrelated to DnD, but I still have a 2002 email from Alan Hassenfeld the former CEO of Hasbro (HASsenfeld BROthers) in reply to my sending my protest of them moving factories to China. (I know, kind of quaint/futile in hindsight)

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#108

Post by trynewideas »

hellcow wrote: post #85
freshhawk wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be that they are out of touch but there is another very sensible reason for all this. They view D&D as extremely under-monetized (pretty reasonable, they don't make much off each player on average) and they have a huge influx of new fans and interest. So why does everyone assume they care about the existing fans, who don't give them money, so much? Maybe they just decided they don't care, they'll get new fan…

That was certainly their gamble... and it clearly didn't work. The problem for WotC is that Dungeon Masters (DMs) are the decision-makers for the playerbase. DMs are higher information consumers than players. They are the ones looking up obscure 3rd party homebrew fixes for issues inherent in 5e's design. They are the ones memorizing hundreds of pages of rules _for fun_. And if your DM says, "I'm going to switch us o…

There's still a lot to see about what D&D One actually is in terms of product and not system. But these moves really make me suspect that they're going to try to make it a walled garden of player-driven transactional rewards, and to minimize the DM role as much as possible.

If their theoretical, non-existent One VTT does all the mechanical work for the DM and dresses up lots of cheap player customization options that players actually want, the DM's power to decide the system is diminished. If anyone can DM without memorizing hundreds of rules and looking up obscure 3rd-party homebrew fixes, Hasbro bets the DM can yell all they want, the players will go to One.

I don't know or think it'll succeed - there's zero track record from anyone involved in this specific kind of venture - but I think this is Hasbro giving up on the tabletop community and going all in on VTTs and casuals who don't know (or know but don't like or care) about any existing community. If Hasbro already aren't making money off DMs, and they couldn't bend the existing DMs creating content into their new system, then they'll take their cultural cachet and do something on their own that doesn't require that kind of DM.

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#109

Post by godelski »

vaylian wrote: post #48

A bit more context: * Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) has been tasked by Hasbro (which owns WoTC) to drastically increase profits over a few years. * WoTC has been aggressively increasing prices on Magic the Gathering (MTG) and drastically increased the diversity of products. This overwhelmed even people who follow and produce MTG news. Wallet fatique is rampant and people are disgruntled. * WoTC releases the 30th aniver…

> The real problem is the managers at WoTC that don't really care about the games. They only care about money. I expect more bad things in the future.

The same seems to be true with Games Workshop and I've never understood this. The products from both companies have huge markups (painted cards and pieces of plastic) and I'd assume that they could actually have a far larger market and profit by concentrating on scale rather than treating their products as luxury items. There's a clear reason that a lot of people are printing miniatures (pirating) from both franchises. I wouldn't be surprised if open sourced alternatives to these games soon spike in popularity as more people get fed up.

I think a lot of people have had the following conversation (in either direction)

Alice: Do you play Warhammer 40k?

Bob: No, I play MTG. I'd love to play 40k but I can only afford one addiction.

This just doesn't seem like it makes for a sustainable business practice. Even if we might consider that the total cost of entertainment isn't that extreme (there is low diversity for these games compared to a videogame or sports habit), people have a hard time justifying those prices for playing cards and plastic models because they intuitively understand that there is a huge markup.

Re: Wizards of the Coast Releases SRD Under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-4.0)

#110

Post by godelski »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #78
armitron wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WoTC says it sold out, there's no actual proof of that (in fact, some insiders are saying that it was taken off the market due to the bad publicity)

They have never claimed that it sold out, just that the sale concluded. Stores are actually on the list to get allocation for M30 product to sell.

The gp is saying that the set sold out within an hour and that is what the parent is responding to.
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