Mari Kolkowsky (D&D Art Director) got laid off yesterday

[Plaguescarred]

/Doublepost

 

[TwoSix]

Why? Should people never get fired?

There's lots of reasons people get laid off. Aside from the fact that Wizards does this every year, there seems to be absolutely no facts behind what happened, so speculating that it was good or bad or french toast is farily pointless.

Are you arguing that it's a good thing for her to get laid off? I'm not arguing that it's a good or bad thing for WotC, I couldn't care less about that. I was objecting to the insinuation that if she got laid off, she probably had it coming.

 

[SquareKnot]

This is a little off topic, but I seem to remember back around the original D&D Next announcement that WotC said that an MMO art department in Asia had been contracted to do most of the art for Next. This may somewhat reconcile the "staggering art budget," art people discontentment, and WotC/Hasbro justification for laying off the art director.

Does anyone else remember that announcement or am I thinking of something else?

 

[variant]

This is a little off topic, but I seem to remember back around the original D&D Next announcement that WotC said that an MMO art department in Asia had been contracted to do most of the art for Next. This may somewhat reconcile the "staggering art budget," art people discontentment, and WotC/Hasbro justification for laying off the art director.

Does anyone else remember that announcement or am I thinking of something else?

It's not really an MMO art department, but they did out source the Forgotten Realms art to a company in Asia.

 

[Mistwell]

Washington is an at-will state, which means that either the employer or the employee can end the employment relationship at any time, with or without notice and with our without cause. There are exceptions to that, like an employment contract.

My guess, and this is purely a guess which may be entirely wrong in every way, is that the head of the department resigned a little while ago, and whoever they are hiring wanted their own team in place. In which case, the term "layoff" is being used as a polite way of saying she was let go so that they could hire a replacement that is coming on board with the new manager.

Regardless, I am very sorry she lost her job. That sucks. I hope she finds something fulfilling somewhere else, soon.

 

[Sunseeker]

Are you arguing that it's a good thing for her to get laid off? I'm not arguing that it's a good or bad thing for WotC, I couldn't care less about that. I was objecting to the insinuation that if she got laid off, she probably had it coming.

I don't feel about it one way or the other. If we don't have any information on why she was let go, it's pointless to speculate on if it's good, bad or deserved.

 

[Gundark]

And if Paizo did take over management of D&D, who's to say it wouldn't end up managing it just like WotC, after building up a bigger revenue stream?

Like how MTV went from music videos to reality garbage, which made everyone complain. So VH1 became the next MTV...until it replaced its MVs with reality garbage.

I suspect that there's an insidious and underlying reason for these patterns.

QFT

 

[Nellisir]

Isn't a staggering amount by definition very large rather than the opposite? (i'm not english native so may be i miss something)

Almost always. Sometimes it's used as "amazing" or "surprising", and could refer to a small amount rather than a large one, but then it's usually written as a "staggeringly small" amount/portion, etc. Used on its own, it's very large.

 

[Nikosandros]

Is someone really arguing that it is possible that Chris Perkins meant that the art budget is very small?? Leaving aside the linguistic analysis and the fact that I consider it extremely unlikely that it would be the case, would it be something to brag about in an interview?

 

[Zireael]

They somehow always manage to lay off the wrong people.

So true.