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equal.iron3762's avatar

It's not just the OGL, it's any platform you rely on. As you point out, with the example of your business depending on Steam.

Even today, app developers relying on the Twitter API found themselves frozen out: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/twitter-says-third-party-apps-broke-long-standing-api-rules-wont-name-rules/ -- with little recourse. And now they have a broken business model. (Interestingly enough, this is another case of a company coming "under new management"...)

And don't rely on Google either. For things like Gmail and Drive accounts, or even having an Android phone: https://www.engadget.com/terraria-google-stadia-indie-what-happened-190001711.html -- and you'll never get a response from Google's infamous stone-wall support, unless you're the Terraria developer with 30 million users...

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SimulatedKnave's avatar

The "hinted at leak" has been actually leaked. As in the text thereof. It has been fairly reliably claimed it was sent out to at least some people for their signature. It is extremely clear that WOTC consider people making things with D&D to be something they 100% deserve a significant share of at all times, and honestly basically own outright. Even Gygax at his most mercenary wasn't quite that greedy.

Equally, a lot of the claims they made in their public statement are nonsensical - they do not make sense when compared with the actual text of what was leaked.

Given the aforementioned, their trustworthiness on anything is nonexistent. I'd argue it might actually be negative.

The OGL was DEFINITELY a major reason 3e and its ancillary hanger-on products got so big. Note that 4e didn't have one (and had a correspondingly struggling/limited 3rd party market). 5e did again. While correlation is not causation, it sure as hell helps. And this also means WotC management has watched this happen TWICE and still not observed it.

It genuinely may be one of the stupidest things I have seen anyone do, and I defend drunk violent people for a living.

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