A creator-focused culture
The OGL 1.1 would have also introduced monetary restrictions on licensed content creators, introducing a 25% royalty fee on all revenues in excess of $750,000. While WOTC said in its December 21 statement, and in the OGL 1.1, that this would affect only “20 or so” creators, many more mid-size companies and large crowdfunding projects were concerned about being forced into the royalty tier.
The new royalties also showed an important misunderstanding of the D&D fanbase. The tabletop roleplaying game space is a creator-focused community, where players create their own stories and rules. Many casual fans dream of sharing or selling their own products and games, or even becoming a full-time designer or write. Any potential restrictions on what kind of content creators might make—or how much money they might make by publishing it—was bound to be incredibly unpopular.
The fact is that many people who write for Dungeons & Dragons got their start in third party publishing, or are freelancers who supplement WOTC contracts with work for third party creators. Many creators and fans see their relationship with D&D as a peer-to-peer relationship, rather than a strict producer-consumer relationship. The new OGL 1.1 disrupted an equitable ecosystem, and creators were were unwilling to lose status.
