Can Blockchain Solve the Dungeons and Dragons OGL?
Wizards of the Coast, the company in charge of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), made negative headlines earlier in January when information about upcoming changes to their Open Game License (OGL) was leaked to the public.
The community response was vehement to put it lightly, with players from around the world urging everyone to drop their DnD Beyond accounts until the updated OGL terms were removed.
Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast’s parent company, had decided on the changes as a way to further monetize the popular RPG game that has influenced the video game industry beyond measure. With the rise of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the question must be asked: could a blockchain have been a better solution for Hasbro and the DnD community?
The DnD OGL
The OGL, first introduced with the 3rd edition of DnD in 2000, was made as an open-source system that allowed anyone to take the content and descriptions of everything developed by the game (including monster statistics, spell charts, items and treasure, etc.) and placed it under open-source terms that allowed players to commercially profit off of third party products directly influenced by the game.
This allowed players to develop businesses such as Role20 and Pathfinder that appealed to gamers, adding new content that syncs perfectly with the game without legal risks similar to how video games have large modding communities that add additional content to games.
Problems with leaked changes
The problems created by the new OGL strike deep at the heart of what makes DnD popular. The game, which was first created in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, allows players to craft their own narratives and characters based off of random dice rolls that tell the story.
As games become more unique through the limitless potential of open-ended storytelling, many games begin to take on a life of their own which leads them down a path where rules need to be altered. This is called homebrew and, because of the OGL, players are able to sell these homebrews as campaigns to other players who want to explore new worlds, plots, and characters.
However, it became clear to Hasbro that these third party sales were not benefiting the company enough and decided that things would need to be changed so that they could take part in the profits being generated. Essentially, they are removing the open part of the open game license.
How blockchain would solve the problem
Before going any further, one thing needs to be made clear - gamers hate web3. Now that that’s understood, there are many ways that a blockchain could provide a better form of monetization for Hasbro without angering the entire DnD community (besides the implementation of blockchain itself).
Profits for Hasbro
The simplest benefit to Hasbro is how they can benefit from the profits raised by gas fees. DnD is a game that can involve increasingly complex economies based on the experience and commitment of the players and dungeon master (DM). Sending gas fees to pay validators run by Hasbro in this scenario would allow them a way to monetize actions within the game without reducing the creative potential of the players.
Obviously, this would cause issues if the gas fees were too high, so it would be imperative for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast to adopt gas prices that are low enough for players to overlook, or even allow them to afford such fees with in-game cryptocurrencies that can be earned through quests and dungeon crawling.
With approximately 13 million players worldwide, the smallest fraction of a penny for gas would result in huge profits for Hasbro without harming the players; but what incentives does this create for the players?
Immutable records of each game
A blockchain is capable of doing a lot more than just hosting cryptocurrency transactions. It’s a permanent storage solution for information on the internet which can be used by DnD players to house records of their campaigns, character sheets, homebrews, in-game economies, and much more.
DnD is traditionally played with pencil and paper which can eventually break down. So, by transcribing that information onto a blockchain, players are cementing their game universe online forever.
Creating an online environment
While many campaigns are hosted online over Zoom calls, the inclusion of web3 creates a platform for DnD players to let their characters mingle with other characters from entirely separate campaigns.
This could open up avenues for standardized worlds for all players or more exclusive communities that are token-gated to shield private campaigns that don’t necessarily want outside influences in their games.
Moreover, decentralization would still be at the core of a DnD blockchain, preventing the Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro from interfering with campaigns.
Open source development
The mechanics of DnD are more closely aligned with web3 than many might realize. Both are open-source platforms that allow people to develop their ideas. The sandbox for creativity is wide-open; and in-game cryptocurrencies offer creators from both sides incentives to continue producing quality content and tools for players.
This allows homebrew content to flourish because there are no limitations on what can be developed using the DnD game through the original OGL with a blockchain involved.
Businesses like Pathfinder and Roll20 would also benefit alongside Hasbro with their own line of web3 products and services related to DnD that could be sold on-chain.
Optional
One of the core principles in every DnD campaign is choice. In every situation, the player must decide what their character has to do and the right decision may not be obvious nor will there always be a “best decision.”
Decision making is a constant part of the game and utilizing this hypothetical blockchain for DnD should be no different. If players wish to play without it then there is no penalty. If players want to experience a more web3-version of the game then they can. It’s not a change that has to be forced onto players against their will like the new OGL is.
A twist in the GameFi debate
All of this leads back to the original issue - gamers hate web3. To most, anything involving cryptocurrencies and a blockchain causes more problems than it fixes; but at the same time, it appears that centralization is the villain here with Hasbro overstepping its reach on what makes DnD so special.
DnD is a decentralized game that operates based on the unique communities involved in each campaign. Every aspect of the game is modular which has allowed player creativity to flourish; but Hasbro’s desire to begin monetizing the game threatens its ability to stay open-ended by “putting a wall around the garden” as some may say.
A blockchain, on the other hand, prevents this wall from surrounding a sandbox that has influenced a global video game industry worth approximately $200 billion by appeasing the corporation in charge of DnD while also allowing the player base to continue exploring their creativity.
Currently, Gamefi is trending in the wrong direction, with games like Dookey Dash using microtransactions to give players extra chances at earning the high score for the most valuable NFT or Axie Infinity, which has been hacked multiple times, harming players that see it as a profit generator over a video game.
Instead, games like DnD can integrate blockchain technologies without compromising the integrity of the game unlike the leaked OGL, which will cause a detrimental ripple effect across the entire DnD community, leading to positive innovations that will inevitably find their way to the video game industry.
