Thread by @johnny0neal

WotC's move to end #OpenDnD has created an uproar among fans, and a lot of people are blaming the corporate suits at Hasbro. Here are some thoughts from a former corporate suit, and how I'd try to use business arguments to convince other execs not to "de-authorize" the OGL. 1/🧵

And to be clear, I never worked at Hasbro. But I did work for three of their key competitors: Mattel, Spin Master, and Moose Toys. In fact, my last big career choice was whether to become the President of @bwisegames or pursue a VP-level position at Hasbro. 2/🧵

I'd start by pointing out what's obvious to fans: that making D&D "open source" took it from around 50% market share in the year 2000 to 85% in 2022. In a highly fragmented market, the #OGL incentivized potential competitors to play *with* D&D rather than against Wizards. 3/🧵

The #OGL created an entire product & promotional ecosystem, one in which D&D became the common language of the entire #TTRPG hobby. As the hobby grew, indie RPGs thrived, but even those RPGs tended to capture their audience from people who first started with D&D. 4/🧵

The #OGL incentivized 3PPs (third party publishers) to create great support content for D&D. Those publishers also served as a training ground for writers and designers. "It's not like having competitors," I'd tell my fellow suits. "It's like having a minor league." 5/🧵

Hasbro attacking the #OGL is like if MLB tried to put Minor League Baseball out of business ...*and* Farm Leagues *and* Little League. Because at its heart, the OGL is about the dream in the heart of every DM: the idea that maybe someday you could make it to the big leagues. 6/🧵

Under the new closed license, a creator working on #DnD content can no longer dream of becoming the next @MatthewMercer or @MattColville. There's no more pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So instead, anyone with that kind of creativity will be doing their *own* thing. 7/🧵

Sadly, most new D&D competitors will fail. In the short-term, OGL 1.1 will drive sales of new sourcebooks by crushing the new edition's biggest competitor: D&D 5e. We'll see a dozen new fantasy RPG systems from 3PPs, and most will crash and burn in a fragmented market. 8/🧵

But I don't know of a hobby filled with more creative people than #TTRPGs. People who will create out of love for gaming. New systems (maybe even an existing system just waiting to break through) will come to the fore, and the OGL 1.1 will create D&D's next real competitor. 9/🧵

Do I expect #OGL 1.1 to kill the D&D brand? No, and I'd personally hate to see that happen. But I do think it's lousy strategy. It's also bad ethics, a move that will destroy the livelihoods of people who used to be D&D's biggest boosters. And bad ethics is bad business. 10/🧵

So that's what I'd say to a room of Hasbro execs ready to sacrifice the dream of D&D for short-term dollars. But I didn't take that job at Hasbro, so instead I'll do my own thing: being one of those plucky optimists who will now be playing against D&D rather than with it. 11/11