WotC Layoffs - Rob Heinsoo, Logan Bonner, and Chris Sims

Hairfoot · Dec 9, 2009

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
Soulless profiteers that keep giving me products I like.

That's great for you. Just realise that if the largest segment of the market wants to play F.A.T.A.L combined with Monopoly, then that's what D&D will become, regardless of history or vision.

What you like won't matter a fig.

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
No one ever said, "Hey! I want steady employment and good wages. Let's cash in and become a RPG developer!"

That's precisely what they said. The RPG industry is composed of people who hoped to quit their day jobs and make a living out of publishing games, even though it won't make them rich.

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
Profitable business is not the problem. It's the requirement.

Profitable business is the requirement. Ruthless penny-pinching and debasement of the industry is not.

Mustrum_Ridcully · Dec 9, 2009

Hairfoot said:
That's great for you. Just realise that if the largest segment of the market wants to play F.A.T.A.L combined with Monopoly, then that's what D&D will become, regardless of history or vision.

What you like won't matter a fig.

Yup. If everyone goes crazy, everyone goes crazy. No matter how sane I remain.

Doesn't mean it's likely.

That's precisely what they said. The RPG industry is composed of people who hoped to quit their day jobs and make a living out of publishing games, even though it won't make them rich.

No, that is not precisely what they said. It is more like "I rather do something I love than something I like, even if it means my job security is worse and I don't earn as much money."

Doesn't make layoffs or unemployment more enjoyable, of course.

Profitable business is the requirement. Ruthless penny-pinching and debasement of the industry is not.

Hyperbole is certainly a requirement to fuel online discussions, it seems.

AllisterH · Dec 9, 2009

You do realize that unlike a small business, Hasbro is not playing with their own money but OTHER people's money, right?

ProfessorCirno · Dec 9, 2009

Ah, I see we're at the stage where all of capitalism is evil. It's like I'm really back on a college campus!

Bugleyman · Dec 9, 2009

...and I see we're at the stage where anything done in the name of capitalism is good, and responsibility to shareholders somehow absolves corporations of all other accountability.

Jack99 · Dec 9, 2009

ProfessorCirno said:
Ah, I see we're at the stage where all of capitalism is evil. It's like I'm really back on a college campus!

You guys surely are behind. That's highschool over here. Once you go to college, its all about the money..

I am with MR - If WotC (evil) ways allow them to profit enough to stay afloat longer, it means there is a good chance that they will keep providing me with my entertainment of choice, just as they have now for a decade. Which means I can live with how they treat their employees. Doesn't mean I do not feel sorry for the great guys who have been fired, merely that I won't lose any sleep over it.

Mark · Dec 9, 2009

Bugleyman said:
...and I see we're at the stage where anything done in the name of capitalism is good, and responsibility to shareholders somehow absolves corporations of all other accountability.

Not everyone thinks that way though I find it ashame that some who do think that way cannot spend the holidays babysitting the kids of a few siblings/cousins who fell to layoffs and need to search for work. That might shift them away from the "It's just business" mantra that helps keep it impersonal for them.