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The main issue is that WotC has almost certainly been piggybacking off the efforts of independent creators popularizing DnD and making it, lack of a better term, 'hip' and accessible for audiences who otherwise wouldn't consider tabletop role playing games at all. All this while there was minimal (to my knowledge) marketing by WotC itself.
Many of these creators probably wouldn't have bothered making DnD content if they had to agree to the 25% 'tax' up front (yes, it only kicks in after a certain amount of revenue, but you still have to do the accounting). They'd either have gone with a different game that didn't require that, or just not produced it at all.
I, personally, find it unreasonable to just unilaterally switch up the agreement, which was explicit in this case, on the people who have put in the actual effort to popularize your game, and who have accumulated a LOT more goodwill (whatever that's worth) than the company has.
It's not even clear what everyone is getting in exchange for paying this money forward. Will it be used to increase the quality of the product? Will they put some of that back into marketing? Or is it literally just establishing an additional revenue stream in the face of a tightening economy?
You sell people the books, they play the game with their friends, using their imagination to 'render' the world and characters, they add homebrew rules, they make up their stories using the basic materials you provided, they make content related to their game and publish it for other interested parties, and none of this really inflicts any additional costs on WotC.
This transaction really should not require WotC to do anything other than put out new materials semi-periodically.
Note I have no issues with WotC enforcing copyright on their books or characters, or restricting creators from using the brand name in their content, I'm just amazed at the lengths they're going to throw out the previous license in a clear money grab and burn through so much goodwill when there are ample competitors around who will gladly snatch their marketshare.
Absolutely, just because I think WOTC should be able to do x, doesn't mean I think they are right to do so. I don't think they should be able to retrospectively change contracts/licenses. That's a separate issue for which I will not defend them. My only point is that it isn't in and of itself bad for a company to be able to enforce standards on who gets to use or license their stuff, given it will have impacts on them. If a Trad Right Winger wants to create a game company and decide that they don't want to license it to someone who campaigns for abortion to be legal that should entirely be their decision.
Like I said I left WOTC behind a long time ago so I am not specifically defending them.
Right, not accusing you of taking their side. My point is mostly that they really shouldn't be able to accept all the lovely benefits that came with having an extremely open license, then turn around YEARS after implementing said license and try to impose heavy restrictions because they're suddenly worried about possible costs of said license might hit them as well, to the detriment of the very people who produced those benefits.
To me it strikes me less as them really needing to 'enforce standards' and more about them needing some excuse, any excuse to start charging money to those who have struck it rich off DnD content.
It might have been somewhat more acceptable if they had clearly articulated how this money was going to benefit the product or the players or anything. But that would mean they might be called on that later.
In short, they're seeking to heavily bind their creators hands even after those hands have made the product more popular, whilst leaving their own hands free to collect money, change the terms of the agreement further, change the product itself in the future, and, apparently, to tell creators to screw off if they cross some arbitrary lines.
It's asymetrical in the extreme.
You're right, but I have the suspicion that an abortion campaigner will self-select against buying from a Trad right-winger anyway so that's likely a moot point.
Oh yeah the standards change is just the side show. The important point from their point of view is the monetization change. I suspect the standards change is just so they can cut loose anyone they think is a PR problem once they have a financial link to them through the monetization program where they don't have the plausible deniability they had before.
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