The company behind the world famous Dungeons & Dragons franchise, Wizards of the Coast, currently has more than 10,000 complaints in its customer support system concerning the recent licensing changes, at least according to reports. This of course comes in the context of the ongoing backlash regarding a proposed amendment to the Open Gaming License, a feature which has proven to be wildly popular among small studios and homebrew creators.The news comes from a source inside Wizards of the Coast which recently spoke to a reporter at Gizmodo, somehow remaining anonymous even despite the intensifying public scrutiny over the whole matter. The worker in question described the process for deleting a D&D Beyond account, explaining that users are expected to use a customer support system which prompts them to submit a ticket, adding that as of earlier this week, there were at least “five digits” worth of complaints. The source went on to say that moderation and management have both been a “mess,” perhaps due to the fact that Wizards of the Coast recently reduced the number of customer support staff working on D&D Beyond.According to the official description, D&D Beyond “makes playing the game easier. The official toolset gives you free access to the basic rules of D&D and guides you through character creation.” This game companion provides players with access to various books and supplements in addition to a character builder and sheets along with a series of monster and spell listings which can be sorted and filtered. D&D Beyond also features an encounter builder and a platform for adding homebrew content.Fans of the franchise have naturally been up in arms over the proposed changes to the OGL. Players discovered earlier this week that Wizards of the Coast planned to impose a 25 percent royalty on third party sales in addition to assuming greater control over homebrew content, at least according to a leak. This of course resulted in the company walking back some of its more controversial amendments.
"It was never our intent to impact the vast majority of the community," Wizards of the Coast said in a statement. "However, it’s clear from the reaction that we rolled a one." The company went on to describe how “the next OGL will contain the provisions that allow us to protect and cultivate the inclusive environment we are trying to build and specify that it covers only content for tabletop roleplaying games. That means that other expressions such as educational and charitable campaigns, live streams, cosplay, virtual tabletop uses, etc. will remain unaffected by any OGL update. Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected.”
“What it will not contain is any royalty structure," Wizards of the Coast reassured players. "It also will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds. Under any new OGL, you will own the content you create. We won’t. Any language we put down will be crystal clear and unequivocal on that point. The license back language was intended to protect us and our partners from creators who incorrectly allege that we steal their work simply because of coincidental similarities.”