Jeff Grubb on WotC and layoffs

[Kzach]

Just speculating... but this may be one reason why author by-lines are now showing up as "RPG Team" or "Wizards RPG Team" on several 4E products.

At least, that's how several recent supplements have shown their authors over at Amazon.

This is bad news for WotC shareholders and especially the board of directors; if you can't develop a good reputation, how will they know who to fire next?

 

[Therise]

I'm sure you are right, but I'm not sure that it follows that even if the consumer does not know the name that they aren't able to distinguish between the quality of the product. In short, I'm saying that some designers really produce a better quality product than others, and that those designers will establish a reputation eventually....

Additionally, even if it doesn't matter whether consumers know a designer's name, the -industry- tracks people who make a name for themselves.

If WotC switches to a generic "RPG Team" author credit (and I have seen this on many recent products, at least as listed on Amazon), it muddies the waters within the industry as to who is the leading designer with the most talent.

Consider the situation in Hollywood if Cameron were not associated with Avatar and his other movies... and instead, credits simply said "Movie Team"...

 

[Therise]

This is bad news for WotC shareholders and especially the board of directors; if you can't develop a good reputation, how will they know who to fire next?

Heh... more seriously, new designers will not be known when they do get their pink slip. Makes it harder to ask for a salary based on real experience, if you're perpetually under the banner of "team"...

Or, perhaps, it's a way to keep salaries low in the first place... color me jaded.

 

[Klaus]

This is bad news for WotC shareholders and especially the board of directors; if you can't develop a good reputation, how will they know who to fire next?

When Amazon labels a product as "by staff", the team is usually in flux (I got added to Heroes of the Feywild after design began) or it is a product without clear "design" (such as Dungeon Tiles), so it's hard to pinpoint authorship (although I think Dungeon Tiles should be "By Jason Engle").

 

[Therise]

When Amazon labels a product as "by staff", the team is usually in flux (I got added to Heroes of the Feywild after design began) or it is a product without clear "design" (such as Dungeon Tiles), so it's hard to pinpoint authorship (although I think Dungeon Tiles should be "By Jason Engle").

It's not listed as "staff" though... it's "RPG Team" or "Wizards RPG Team" that I've seen at Amazon.

 

[Klaus]

It's not listed as "staff" though... it's "RPG Team" or "Wizards RPG Team" that I've seen at Amazon.

Yes, and that's what I meant.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Problem with that is it dilutes the brand. You want people following your brand, not your employees.



Exactly. Case in point. Make the creator the brand, the creator moves elsewhere, your brand goes with him. Which can be a sore point if you spent millions promoting and developing the brand.

Absolutely true, from the company's perspective. From the writer's perspective, though, anything they can do to increase their personal brand is absolutely in their interest to do. Spiderman didn't cease to be Spiderman when Kirby went to D.C., but Kirby's personal cache went with him.

I think Monte Cook did a good job doing something similar after leaving WotC, using the rep he had developed to do what he wanted to do. But here again, small market, little room for a lot of duplication of that approach.

 

[Jeffrey]

Layoffs happen.

With that in mind were I an Evil Minor Godling with the power and the notion to, in this age of internet communication, make a bad PR situation even worse for WoTC, I would arrange it so that they would have to commit to their lay-offs at...

...Christmas time.

Yup.

 

[Erik Mona]

Just speculating... but this may be one reason why author by-lines are now showing up as "RPG Team" or "Wizards RPG Team" on several 4E products.

At least, that's how several recent supplements have shown their authors over at Amazon.

Just as a bit of inside info, this is more likely a byproduct of the schedules necessary to successfully solicit a product for distribution to the book trade.

Generally speaking, publishers must submit title information to their distributor at least 6-10 months in advance, often before the precise creative team has been established (especially in the case of freelancers).

This is why you will also see "Paizo Staff" as the author of some of our books. When the solicitation information was due, we didn't know who would be writing it yet.

--Erik

 

[Windjammer]

This is bad news for WotC shareholders and especially the board of directors; if you can't develop a good reputation, how will they know who to fire next?

Easy. You just look at who got promoted recently. The shorter the promotion time span the better.

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Just read this on Rich[ Baker]'s blog:

"I am now the RPG Group Manager, which means that I’m leading the team of RPG designers and editors. In essence I have the job that Mike Mearls had, and Mike is now the Senior Manager for RPG R&D (which includes novels, boardgames, DDi, and D&D-based licensing)."

community.wizards.com/wotc_richbaker/blo...

So Rich has Mike's old job, and Mike has Bill's old job. Congratulations to Richard Baker for moving up in the company. No doubt it's due to your decades of good work in the RPG field, related fiction, and Axis & Allies game theory. I'll be pleased to have such a renaissance man in charge of D&D.

That was in July 2011. Half a year later he gets the sack. I'd hate to work in a company where a major promotion like this must come across as a 'generous redundancy package' (to use a UK euphemism).

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