Leadership Failures Around D&D OGL - Part 3

What is Dungeons and Dragons anyways?

What type of product is this TTRPG game?

Reading through Wizards' proposed changes to the OGL, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the game is.

The Proposed OGL Changes Imply Wizards is Worried about IP

In theory, this makes sense - when you create something you want to protect your ideas.

But how Wizards wants to grow revenue from "IP" shows they don't understand what type of IP they have.

They want to capitalize on stories, saying that stories are their IP because people are using D&D to tell that story.

That is why they want to be able to know the revenue of creators, want to (supposedly) be able to interject against certain stories, and be able to claim ideas as theirs.

If D&D's primary business was telling stories, that would make sense.

This is the Problem - D&D's Primary IP is not stories, its IP is a "Platform" on which others tell Stories

To better understand this, let's look at another example - Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - Tools to help OTHERS with business needs.

If someone writes a book on Word, Microsoft does not claim the book is now their property.

If someone creates an Excel formula that changes investing, Microsoft does not claim the formula belongs to them.

When a business uses PowerPoint to sell a business idea, Microsoft does not claim the business idea is now theirs.

No, instead Microsoft IMPROVES its software ideas to help others accomplish business pursuits.

The more people need tools for their business, the more they choose Microsoft - They have the best tool suite.

Dungeons and Dragons IS (or at least was) the Microsoft Suite for storytellers

The "game" of Dungeons and Dragons is not a story itself, but the PLATFORM that people use to help create stories.

It is a creativity tool that helps people think about how to tell stories, and make them more believable, more intriguing, and overall more enjoyable!

Arguably, this is more powerful than owning the stories!

But this is not how Wizards is treating the game.

Instead of focusing on helping creators tell better stories, they are looking to capitalize on the stories instead.

If we look at the Microsoft example - If Microsoft started to claim any book written in Word belonged to them, any equation created in Excel belonged to them, and any Business Proposal created in PowerPoint belonged to them, people would instead use Google's suite of similar products.

This is what we're seeing happen to D&D.

Instead of creators risking their IP being taken by Wizards, they will simply go to a competitor.

Now, Wizards DOES have IP around certain stories (ie The Forgotten Realms books and games), but it is a minimal part of their business and is not addressed by the OGL.