At Least 4 Months For Conversion Documents

Those waiting for official conversion documents from earlier editions of D&D to 5th edition are going to have to wait a bit longer. WotC's Mike Mearls says that "the person who needs to do the final approvals on them is serving on a jury that will take another 4 or so months. Sorry!" So it looks like we're talking July/August at the earliest. Thanks to Adrian for the scoop.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Don't put words in my mouth. I was addressing your hypothetical only. It was your hypothetical which suggested that the company might tell players they were low priority, or else keep silent and let them figure it out for themselves. Its not quite cricket to suggest a hypothetical and then start arguing with someone as if the suggestions were theirs.

My position was that current communication seems sub-optimal, and that full disclosure of an actual production schedule and reasons for potential delays is the optimal way of doing things. I have no opinion on the release schedule itself, or at least not one relevant to the discussion at hand.

"Lying" wasn't in either scenario of the hypothetical though, at least not in how I was interpreting it when I created it. One was announcing their focus on non-tabletop components of the brand, while the other was simply focusing on said components while not calling attention to it. In neither scenario did I envision falsehood - not announcing you won't be investing many resources to your tabletop division doesn't really constitute "lying to them and telling them they are high priority" in my view, hence the confusion.

My apologies if my hyperbole left a nasty flavor on your tastebuds, however.

You are conflating.

The resentment in question would not be caused by the slow release, but by the many excuses made for said slow release, or, more likely, the feeling that lies are being told as to the reason for the slow release. People are generally fairly forgiving of problems of schedule but less forgiving of a lack of clarity as to the real reasons for the problems. (Thus my postulating above that Wizards is not actually an exception to how other companies are treated). To borrow a phrase, the cover-up is always worse than the crime. If there are problems, tell people about it as it happens, and, generally speaking, they will appreciate the candor.

Right, I noticed those threads were crossing while I was writing my response, but I think they're related because I think the issue at hand is the size of the D&D team - if the team was larger (i.e. intended to put out more products), than they'd be able to mitigate delays due to unexpected jury duty pulls and other obstacles. Unfortunately, the team is clearly small enough that things like that are an issue for them.

I agree with your point that cover-ups are worse than the crime, and that clear communication generally leads to people being fairly forgiving of problems in general. I'm still of the opinion however that if the problem is "we only have a small team with a small budget and therefore can't shuffle employees around to deal with unanticipated issues when they arise" - and I do believe that that is the actual source of the problem - than they're better off maintaining a radio silence policy.

Just look at some of the threads on ENWorld right now. They'd have to deal with an endless torrent of fans asking "why?" and "how come you can't just increase the size of the team?". There's no answer to those questions that will satisfy their critics.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

What constitute a formal announcement anyway? Perkins made that statement at a Con during a seminar. It certainly more formal than twitter and more official, as he was there to represent WotC.

Now the "WotC is not my bitch" incantation is cute, but I'm not WotC's bitch either. Dangling stuff in front of me and taking it away is not very respectful.

Well, I'd agree that a con appearance is more official than Twitter comments, but saying "we'd like to do X but don't know when we'll get around to it" isn't exactly a formal announcement, you know?

And with respect to the conversion documents being dangled in front of you and taken away - yeah it sucks, but what would you have done in their place, pull people off of other projects to work on the conversion documents instead? I'm not saying that I wouldn't do that if I were in Mearls' place, but just pointing out that Mearls actually knows what everyone is working out and may be quite justified in delaying a couple of free PDFs in favor of whatever's in the pipeline.

 

[Wicht]

"Lying" wasn't in either scenario of the hypothetical though, at least not in how I was interpreting it when I created it.

Misdirection of priorities is a sort of a lie. Lies by omission to create a certain impression can backfire just as readily as more obvious lies.

I agree with your point that cover-ups are worse than the crime, and that clear communication generally leads to people being fairly forgiving of problems in general. I'm still of the opinion however that if the problem is "we only have a small team with a small budget and therefore can't shuffle employees around to deal with unanticipated issues when they arise" - and I do believe that that is the actual source of the problem - than they're better off maintaining a radio silence policy.

Just look at some of the threads on ENWorld right now. They'd have to deal with an endless torrent of fans asking "why?" and "how come you can't just increase the size of the team?". There's no answer to those questions that will satisfy their critics.

If the size of the team is the problem, then the polite way of framing it, on their end, is, "We over-estimated what we would be able to handle with the resources available to us." Nothing more needs to be said. Its an honest, candid answer that everyone would understand.

Likewise, when people ask "why not increase the size of the team," the polite response is, "That is outside of my control."

I disagree that people would not accept these responses. They would be understood, and while WotC as a company would get some grief over not putting more resources in, nobody would blame the actual team, and, moreover, they would not have said anything inpolitic or inappropriate about their employers.

 

[Kramodlog]

Well, I'd agree that a con appearance is more official than Twitter comments, but saying "we'd like to do X but don't know when we'll get around to it" isn't exactly a formal announcement, you know?

And this is why these announcements are problematic. Do them only when they are a done deal.

And with respect to the conversion documents being dangled in front of you and taken away - yeah it sucks, but what would you have done in their place, pull people off of other projects to work on the conversion documents instead?

Have realistic expecations of the work my team can produce and not announce it for autumn. Back then there was no jury duty. The delay of the conversion docs aren't only due to jury duty. That is just the excuse he is using now. What was it back then? What will it be next?

 

[bmfrosty]

What constitute a formal announcement anyway? Perkins made that statement at a Con during a seminar. It certainly more formal than twitter and more official, as he was there to represent WotC.

Now the "WotC is not my bitch" incantation is cute, but I'm not WotC's bitch either. Dangling stuff in front of me and taking it away is not very respectful.

There's a certain quality to something official. Like anything posted here or here or here:

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles

http://company.wizards.com/press

https://dnd.wizards.com/elemental-evil

Would be announcements.

These would not be WotC announcements:

http://www.denofgeek.com/books-comi...geons-dragons-the-sundering-and-shared-worlds

http://www.enworld.org/forum/conten...Return!-And-Other-Short-Stories!#.VRKwrvnF-xU

https://twitter.com/

http://www.enworld.org/

But they might link to WotC announcements.

Don't take it as an announcement unless it actually appears on the WotC website itself.

The thing about you being WotC's bitch..... If you want to discuss that, PM me. Maybe it will foster enough discussion to make a *different* thread about.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Misdirection of priorities is a sort of a lie. Lies by omission to create a certain impression can backfire just as readily as more obvious lies.

What "certain impression"? I'll repeat my earlier point:

Are you saying that's a lie of omission? That's subjective - just because they've decided it makes better business sense to scale down the pen-and-paper team to put out less product doesn't mean they have to announce to the heavens that the fans are a "low priority".

If the size of the team is the problem, then the polite way of framing it, on their end, is, "We over-estimated what we would be able to handle with the resources available to us." Nothing more needs to be said. Its an honest, candid answer that everyone would understand.

Likewise, when people ask "why not increase the size of the team," the polite response is, "That is outside of my control."

I disagree that people would not accept these responses. They would be understood, and while WotC as a company would get some grief over not putting more resources in, nobody would blame the actual team, and, moreover, they would not have said anything inpolitic or inappropriate about their employers.

Respectfully, that's how it would go over if people on the internet were reasonable. Instead it would immediately turn into multiple 50+ threads about how Wizards is running D&D into the ground and not giving it the attention it deserves.

 

[Kramodlog]

There's a certain quality to something official. Like anything posted here or here or here:

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles

http://company.wizards.com/press

https://dnd.wizards.com/elemental-evil

Would be announcements.

These would not be WotC announcements:

http://www.denofgeek.com/books-comi...geons-dragons-the-sundering-and-shared-worlds

http://www.enworld.org/forum/conten...Return!-And-Other-Short-Stories!#.VRKwrvnF-xU

https://twitter.com/

http://www.enworld.org/

But they might link to WotC announcements.

Don't take it as an announcement unless it actually appears on the WotC website itself.

The thing about you being WotC's bitch..... If you want to discuss that, PM me. Maybe it will foster enough discussion to make a *different* thread about.

While reading the Perkins interview I saw this: "While I can’t comment on products that have not released [...]". Made me laugh a bit.

 

[Wicht]

What "certain impression"? I'll repeat my earlier point:

If, under your hypothetical, a company tried to give the impression, via silence and omission, that a certain set of customers were its primary focus, when in fact they were not, that would be a kind of deception, and it would backfire.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

If, under your hypothetical, a company tried to give the impression, via silence and omission, that a certain set of customers were its primary focus, when in fact they were not, that would be a kind of deception, and it would backfire.

Strictly speaking this is of course true, but now we're debating what exactly qualifies as trying to "give the impression that a certain set of customers were its primary focus". Does simply continuing to sell them products while viewing other parts of the brand as more profitable constitute a lie of omission?

We're leaving the bounds of my hypothetical here, as I truly do think that Wizards has shifted their focus to the larger brand. Hasbro has waded into court over the D&D movie rights and they're promoting Sword Coast Legends and MMO expansions as heavily as they are the adventure paths. I think the tabletop game is still important - it's the brand's heart, the common thread that ties it all together and gives everyone a point of reference - but it's not where their business lies. With the exception of the conversion documents we've been talking about, WotC hasn't said anything to imply they're working on anything other than biannual adventure paths.

So what constitutes giving us, a certain set of their customers, the impression that we're their primary focus? Wizards is selling individual products, not a subscription or a service. You either like a product they've produced and will buy it, or not. I've not seen them do anything intentionally misleading to date, and don't think that them going out of their way to rub their tabletop audience's nose in the fact that we're small potatoes next to all that Hollywood and video game money is beneficial to WotC or desirable to us.

 

[Hussar]

Personally, I think the upshot of this is there will always be a segment of the fandom that will protest no matter what WOTC does. "This twenty dollar bill is folded entirely wrong!"