My gut and my experience says that the hiring of many temp/seasonal/freelance workers works well as a cost savings for a company where creativity in terms of the item produced is less of a factor. In other words, it works when the temp worker is doing cookie cutter stuff, or work where a certain outcome or product is specifically requested in detail. Like "Develop for me a computer program which does X,Y, and Z. Here are 20 pages of specs for the program." I am not saying there is no creativity involved in programming. Its just that in situations where the end product requested of the freelancer is described in great detail, there is less room to really leave a creative stamp on the product where people recognize "Ahh, this was a program created by Bill," when the program is simply a bit of accounting software or online billing product created to certain specific specifications. Temp stuff also works well for stuff like boring filing, document review, etc.
(I am not trying to denigrate programmers, and I suspect we may have a large population of them here, or any other job, as I have experience with all of the jobs I spoke of above, so I used them as examples. If you want to argue the point with me rather than try and understand the larger point i am trying to make, take it to email please.)
I don't see temp/freelance/seasonal working too well when you are developing core products and systems for a game like D&D, where the style and taste and overall mindset of the core crew of creative minds behind the game leave such a huge mark on the final product. It does work well for supplements, splat books, stuff like that. It's just hard to keep a consistent style, vision, and cohesiveness to the core materials when you keep wiping out the team of masterminds behind the core materials before all the core materils are all the way out the door.
Plus, as Monte said, you lose all the institutional experience when you fire the "old guys" which leads to the new guys making the same mistakes every few years.
But rather than argue the merits of temp vs full time, I again want to express my sympathies for those who were heartlesly fired just a few weeks before the holidays, and express my concern for what this means for the future of WOTC and the D&D brand. While I don't care at all for 4e, I do appreciate the role the D&D brand has in bringing new gamers to the tables. Who knows, maybe it truly is the beginning of a great new era in gaming, without the 800 lb. gorilla overshadowing everything.
(I am not trying to denigrate programmers, and I suspect we may have a large population of them here, or any other job, as I have experience with all of the jobs I spoke of above, so I used them as examples. If you want to argue the point with me rather than try and understand the larger point i am trying to make, take it to email please.)
I don't see temp/freelance/seasonal working too well when you are developing core products and systems for a game like D&D, where the style and taste and overall mindset of the core crew of creative minds behind the game leave such a huge mark on the final product. It does work well for supplements, splat books, stuff like that. It's just hard to keep a consistent style, vision, and cohesiveness to the core materials when you keep wiping out the team of masterminds behind the core materials before all the core materils are all the way out the door.
Plus, as Monte said, you lose all the institutional experience when you fire the "old guys" which leads to the new guys making the same mistakes every few years.
But rather than argue the merits of temp vs full time, I again want to express my sympathies for those who were heartlesly fired just a few weeks before the holidays, and express my concern for what this means for the future of WOTC and the D&D brand. While I don't care at all for 4e, I do appreciate the role the D&D brand has in bringing new gamers to the tables. Who knows, maybe it truly is the beginning of a great new era in gaming, without the 800 lb. gorilla overshadowing everything.