New WotC Layoffs?

I have been unable to verify any of this, so consider this no more than a "rumour report". However I'm hearing that layoffs have occurred at WotC this week, and that one of the victims is art director Mark Painter. Again, all rumour at this point.

 

[Mark CMG]

I think it's about time a billionaire gaming enthusiast buys the brand from WotC/Hasbro

I'll get right on that.

 

[Umbran]

No offense, but "corporate vision and restructuring" sounds precisely like "some ominous corporate design."

Stop there. He said, "some ominous corporate design to warp D&D or Magic".

You cut out a major element of his statement, which makes this a strawman.

Corporate restructurings happen. To assume, out of the gate, that the restructuring happens to be about our favorite product line, specifically, is a bit of egotism on our part. Double so when we don't yet have any confirmations on who got let go (and who is going to be hired) as part of the restructuring.

TL;DR: Don't jump to conclusions, and it ain't all about you.

 

[Mark CMG]

Corporate restructurings happen.

Yup, inserting "Corporate restructurings" into the blank doesn't change the standard use of that phrase in the slightest.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

So let me see if I understand your position...

1) Hasbro has fired 'too many' people and "done bad" by DnD..

2) DnD is a good product and doing well....


I dont' think your premise and conclusion quite match up....

1) The <insert name of almost any> Empire had some really really nasty emperors that did some atrocious things.

2) The <insert name> Empire was a wildly successful political entity that improved the lives of many.

Seems to work.

I'm speaking more about the value of giving artists and designers a bit of the human dignity of some degree of job security.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Stop there. He said, "some ominous corporate design to warp D&D or Magic".

You cut out a major element of his statement, which makes this a strawman.

My only point is that "corporate vision and restructuring" is also "ominous corporate design" in many ways, so it's not exactly constructive to draw a distinction between those - what the vision/restructuring/design is for is irrelevant to that aesthetic point.

Corporate restructurings happen. To assume, out of the gate, that the restructuring happens to be about our favorite product line, specifically, is a bit of egotism on our part. Double so when we don't yet have any confirmations on who got let go (and who is going to be hired) as part of the restructuring.

Yes, but that doesn't make "corporate vision and restructuring" sound any less like "ominous corporate design."

TL;DR: Don't jump to conclusions, and it ain't all about you.

Of course it's about me, I'm a solipisist.

 

[Icon_Charlie]

No offense, but "corporate vision and restructuring" sounds precisely like "some ominous corporate design." It isn't always but is often enough PR doublespeak for "we are going to be putting several people out of jobs."

I hope everyone out in Redmond is doing OK.

I deal with corporate 500 companies. This double speak always pisses me off to no end. Generally translates to... "we are going to screw you and the rest of the masses for personal gain"

Luckily in my case it is about "Location, Location. Location" and what their 3-5 year lease is going to be.

But yea I'm a blue jeans type of guy deal dealing with people in gated communities and their trophy wives.

The hypocrisy is rather thick at times.

On that note let us see what officially comes down the line and then discuss. Not much information is out to truly state one opinion over another

 

[Mercurius]

I like 5e, but I don't much like the D&D Brand right now, if that makes any sense. I've said elsewhere, soon the D&D Division (or whatever its called internally at WotC) will be just one person whose job is to listen to 3rd party proposals...then say "Yes" or "No", and stamp a WotC/D&D logo on it.

As for the first line, yes, it makes sense to me. But as the rest, well, I think that's pretty much where we're at. D&D is basically Mearls and Perkins, right? What have they done recently? As far as I know, the last books they actually worked on (that were published) were the trinity. Maybe they're working on something, maybe Mearls is doing a psionics book and Perkins is polishing up his home campaign setting for publication, who knows. But what it looks like is that they got the core rulebooks out the gate and now are just going to yea or nay outsourced story arcs, while writing their monthly articles.

I think it's about time a billionaire gaming enthusiast buys the brand from WotC/Hasbro so it can have real support (and I'm not talking about a glut of products, I'm actually reasonably satisfied with the slow release rate). As it is now there is always this sense of trepidation that Hasbro is going to just say, "Why do we need anyone working on it anymore?" and just close up shop on D&D, reprinting the current books according to demand. I don't feel they (Hasbro) deserve to be custodians of D&D. They don't "get it."

Yes, I agree. This is simply the problem of a big corporation owning a niche product. Niche products should be owned by small companies (see, "Paizo/Pathfinder").

 

[hbarsquared]

First, I tend to wear rose-colored glasses, so there's that.

Does no one realize how much time it actually takes to outsource/delegate/mamage a product? Let alone a product line? Let alone a creative product line. Any of these "outsourced" companies and their representatives can tell you the tremendous amount of back-and-forth, the meetings, the emails, the rewrite-from-scratch, the time investment on the Mearls&Co side.

Also, isn't this kind of what we wanted? To have a variety of designets and creative minds creating sanctioned high-quality products, instead of ivory tower stuck-in-their-ways WotC designers? I applaud this structure, especially if it's financially feasible. We get a true variety of products from acclaimrd designers, as well as fresh blood, and WotC is able to market D&D as a successful brand that can be supported for years to come.

4-6 people to manage the brand, not produce the brand, actually sounds about right. And if we can have a healthy, evolving game because of it - more power to them.

 

[Mistwell]

First, I tend to wear rose-colored glasses, so there's that.

Does no one realize how much time it actually takes to outsource/delegate/mamage a product?

Often they don't. Particularly one you're editing and story bibled to begin with, based on your system, and your formatting and marketing and publishing standards and distribution and financing and scheduling and accounting, etc...

It's the same thinking that went into things like the Dwimmermount Kickstarter - guy thinks hey, I've sorta written up this adventure I sent my players through, it should be a snap to get it into publishable form. A couple YEARS go by and oh yeah, that's actually the easy part isn't it.

But it's really difficult to explain that to people - they sometimes have to see it or be involved in some way before it sinks in. WOTC's always used freelancers to write some story for their stuff - but that in no way means the freelancer is doing the bulk of the actual work to create that product. But it's not sexy to explain how the sausage is made, and you can't really succeed at conveying what goes into it sometimes.

 

[DM Howard]

Oh D&D, your game is pretty good, but sometimes I don't know who you are anymore.