Charles Ryan (and others) out at WotC?

[Darrin Drader]

My opinion of the kind of corporate planning that has people in the same department, in some cases the exact same people, hired and laid off in alternating waves over a 5 year span can't be stated on a family-friendly messagebaord, but be assured it's negative.

Mt last job (not WotC) does this. They also hired me, kept me for all of 7 months, and then laid me off. What I have to say about companies that bring on employees and then have to lay them off in less than a year (less than two years actually) probably mirrors what you aren't saying above.

 

[Sholari]

It's probably time for more threads of "the sky is falling".

The sky may not be falling, but let's not be too complacent about things either. From what information seems to be garnered here. Sales of Magic or CCGs seem to have taken a tumble. At a high level they realized that their fixed cost structure would eat into their margins as well, and made cuts to bring the cost structure in line with sales. The interesting thing is where they made those cuts.

1) Headcount is one of the more visible places they made the cuts. Are they also making deeper cuts to marketing spend, R&D projects, etc. What is the impact on D&D going forward.

2) Even though Magic is the likely culprit, they do not appear to have made the cuts there. Instead they made it to Hecatomb (which seems to have been a dud anyway), D&D, etc. That may well indicate that D&D is considered expendable next to Magic, and if sales continue to fall they may continue to cut budget for the D&D brand. At a certain point that is likely to haver a very material impact to the game you and I love.

3) Any time they pull in a "new" brand manager there is no guarantee that they are going to pull in somebody that really understands the game. D&D is not just like your average brand and can not be managed as such. However, I have worked in places where they pull in a person that has a top-tier MBA and all the proper credentials for a brand manager, who does not understand the specifics of the market. Often this person knows how to talk a good game to the top, while really screwing up what they are managing.

4) D&D has been screwed up in the past by executives that don't understand the underpinnings of their business and there is nothing to say this could not happen again. I'd argue it is more likely, because D&D isn't even their core business this time around and thus accountability is more dispersed. We were all very lucky that Peter Adkinson turned D&D around the first time, otherwise who knows what could have happened.

The sky may not be falling, but we shouldn't sit on our hands and pretend that this is a great thing either. What happened today may be good for Hasbro, but it is not good for D&D nor for D&D fans. I think that if enough D&D enthusiasts sent in some well-placed, polite letters stating their concerns for how Hasbro is managing D&D it would at least get people's attention and maybe make D&D not the easy place to cut in the future.

 

[mlen1981]

2) Even though Magic is the likely culprit, they do not appear to have made the cuts there. Instead they made it to Hecatomb (which seems to have been a dud anyway), D&D, etc. That may well indicate that D&D is considered expendable next to Magic, and if sales continue to fall they may continue to cut budget for the D&D brand. At a certain point that is likely to haver a very material impact to the game you and I love.

The story on Gaming Report has been updated with additional names. Apparently the Magic Brand Manager and more Veeps are in the expanded list.

 

[chriton227]

Charles,

I wish you all the luck in the world with your future projects. I know that you will continue doing great things, and that the gaming industry will continue to be enhanced by your contributions.

I've been a big fan for a long time (since you suckered me into running ME at Origins), and I've enjoyed seeing all the different things you have worked on over the years. Take some time with your family, and we'll see you when you return. Know that all of us back in Blacksburg/Christiansburg are thinking about you.

--
Paul Pearce

 

[dorentir]

My condolences and best wishes to all those who lost their positions at WOTC recently. I lost my own position of 5 years recently in a very down Michigan economy and it has been a very big struggle.
This sort of thing is increasingly common all over.
I'd be surprised if there is as much logic or thought as to the layoffs as many here seem to hope to find. Corporations tend to make their decisions along lines that don't follow the rules of logic. In my case, our division (which was a consistant earner) had three layoffs over the course of 5 years while other divisions which lost money retained or added staff. As far as I can tell, the decisions were based mostly on interoffice politics and the fact that our divisional manager betrayed us in order to further his own career. In our case, an acquisition got rid of the whole company --- I saw talented, dedicated people tossed out while the weasels got offered new positions, promotions and raises at the new company.

 

[johnsemlak]

Man, I still wish Tracy did game design work. His modules were some of my favorites. I know the novels make him a ton more money though so I don't begrudge him.

IIRC he's doing a module for the Serenity RPG sometime soon, according to an interview on RPGRadio.net

 

[DungeonMaster]

I'm one of the biggest critics of 3.5 and to be perfectly honest, the "pitch" was very good.
I've even been tempted to order a book on the pitch alone.
It's the product specifically a small group of "designers" at WotC that deserve the boot - and HARD. You don't need to be a "sage" to figure it out.

I'm sorry to hear you're wife is expecting when this happens Charles. I think you did a good job.

 

[Darrin Drader]

It's the product specifically a small group of "designers" at WotC that deserve the boot - and HARD. You don't need to be a "sage" to figure it out.

THE MODERATOR SPEAKETH: WE GOT RID OF THE ROLLEYES ICON FOR A REASON. IF YOU FIND YOURSELF WANTING TO USE IT, WALK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER, PLEASE!

 

[seankreynolds]

No, I didn't hear about that 1996 layoff. That's horrendous! Was that around the same time as the whole "everything's going to heck and we can't pay anyone to print the stuff?" Because, yeah, towards the end there, things did seem to get pretty bad.

Yep. Just a few months later was the infamous "problem with the printers" debacle (the problem being "we can't pay the printers, and they have a problem with that").

All I know is, things seemed like a total mess at the end, but years before that (late 80's to early 90's), things seemed cool. People there seemed to actually remember me (even though I wasn't the best nor most prolific freelancer they had), and actually kept in contact with me, remembering me for assignments, without me having to bug them often or do the phone equivalent of waving my arms frantically and clucking like a chicken

They did have a big hiring boost mid-'95 (myself, Miranda Horner, Keith Strohm, Bruce Cordell, Cindi Rice, and several others that I can't remember right now because it's 2:30am) so perhaps they were on the "we don't need freelancers, we have enough in-house designers" side of the pendulum swing.

{I'm intrigued about MOTM being "not a pure sourcebook" thing. I know that, for the 2nd ED AD&D Moonsea book, I didn't like the idea of the Players Guide, since it left me with less room to put in more nifty crunchy bits for the DM. But hey...you write what you're asked to write....right? ;-)}

Acknowledging my role as a typing monkey did wonders for my sanity in my later years at WotC.

{Yeah, I know my list of credits for d20 aren't amazing. But hey, I assumed that the fact that I DID do some writing for WotC in a high-profile lline (d20 Star Wars) was at least a step in the right direction, coupled with doing WotC web enhancements for the Unapproachable East, and the fact that I DID write a bunch of Realms products for 2nd Ed, and let's face it, the Realms is the Realms regardless of what dice you're using. I'm also apparently on some freelancer list of Chris Perkins'. So yeah, I'm a writer, and that means I have an ego of some sort, so yeah, I felt a bit snubbed. Not a huge deal though.}

Well I apologize, not that I have any authority to speak on their behalf.[/QUOTE]

 

[seankreynolds]

Well, actually, I'm going to agree with your earlier post about TSR having more humanity than WotC, though I know Sean doesn't.

I have to admit that you were at TSR several years more than I was, so you got to see more of the good stuff than I did (things were good at TSR for about a year after I was hired before they started having noticeable problems).

Also, as I was "the online guy" I was still kinda on the outside with respect to the Creative Services department; I knew you guys (some of you in particular) and you knew me, but there were a lot of people in CS I didn't interact with at all. Not that I was being snubbed or anything like that, it's just that I was in the circle, but not the inner circle where you actually learned to cast spells and stuff. But I could tell that David, Thomas, Steve, and so on did as much as they could to protect their teams from upper-management stupidity.