Not retreating, or back-tracking. They’re going to fall back, and punt. I get the feeling that they weren’t happy with the way that the buzzsaw started whirring, ever so close to their fingers; but I think they still want to go with their original plan. They just want people to stop freaking out about it for the moment. Or at least not throwing down lawsuits.
Also, pay attention to this: “When we initially conceived of revising the OGL, it was with three major goals in mind. First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hateful and discriminatory products…” ‘Hateful’ and ‘discriminatory’ as defined by whom, Wizards of the Coast? Because that’s a question that is of interest to an entirely different set of lawsuit enthusiasts than the ones interested in the OGL issue now. Ones with pockets that are just as deep.
I think they ultimately need to give up on changing the license on already released materials. If that were possible, software companies would have figured that out years ago. And companies like Google, and non-profits like EFF, have a vested interest in not seeing a precedent set that allows Open Software Licenses to be changed after the fact. At best they’ll be able to apply their new OGL to new material.
As for the latter–yes, that’s dumb. Just by saying they can revoke the OGL for objectionable material, they’re going to see lots of people shouting that they are morally obligated to do it in all sorts of situations that are far beyond what they’re envisioning (for example, I can see people demanding it for any game that still uses race as the term for different peoples–something that they themselves are only planning to change now). If they have anything close to the fortitude of other corporations, I expect them to fold at the first Tweetstorm. It’s better not to set themselves up for that.
I wonder where this pious attitude was when Book of Vile Darkness and the Sex themed book came out. (Rollseyes)
They didn’t deny anything, blame some intern for an unsanctioned proposal, or even say it was one option considered out of many.
So, yeah.
It’s real, they’re committed, and they’re likely just waiting for the outrage machine to lose traction.
Which is amazing, because there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit to deny. “No, we weren’t going to spring this on our partners with almost no advanced notice before it went into effect. How evil do you think we are?”