[Updated] Chris Sims & Jennifer Clarke Wilkes Let Go From WotC

The details are unclear, but D&D editor Chris Sims has reported that he is now in need of a job, and is willing to relocate. He was hired by WotC in 2005 after working for them as a freelance editor. Part of the D&D 5E launch, he was one of the editors for the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, and was responsible for stat block development in the Monster Manual. The reasons have not been revealed, nor is it clear whether he left or was laid off.

Whether this is an isolated thing or part of more layoffs if unclear right now. More if I hear anything! In the meantime, if you can hire an excellent writer and editor, please do!

For more on ex-WotC employees, please check my list here!

UPDATE: Jennifer Clarke Wilkes is also in the same boat. She has worked on both D&D as an editor and on Magic: the Gathering, and has been working for WotC for many years.

UPDATE 2: Chris Sims confirms here that he and Jennifer were both laid off.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Disappointed by the news, but not surprised.

Here's to Chris and Jennifer both landing on their feet.

 

[Mistwell]

The second decision that hamstrings D&D now, as it has for two decades, is the stubborn insistence not to have an online store.

Allow me to introduce you to dndclassics.com. You are now caught up to two years ago. WOTC only paused selling PDFs for a period of 3.5 years total. Aside from that, they've always sold PDFs essentially since I think 2005 (?). You're behind the times.

I will give you an example. Search for Scourge of the Sword Coast on the WOTC site, which was an excellent adventure for D&D Next. I will save you time, here it is. See the first sentence which includes a link to "www.dndclassics.com"? Click the link, which takes you to their online store to buy it. You will find a similar link on many many many WOTC product pages.

They add new stuff quite often. You should check it out.

 

[Steven Winter]

I'm well aware of dndclassics. Send me another link when you can buy the 5E PHB, DMG, or MM there.

I'm also well aware of how successful D&D Insider was. I was part of the DDI team from the beginning, and I'm quite proud of the fact that we made it one of the few successful subscription services of its type. Despite its success, it never met the laughably unrealistic goals that were promised for it before the project got off the ground, and that "failure" always tainted DDI and digital publishing inside the company. Plenty of people there understand that DDI succeeded and how it could be improved, but they're fighting an uphill battle against a block of institutionalized myth that it failed to deliver the subscribers and the revenue it promised.

Steve

 

[kenmarable]

Allow me to introduce you to dndclassics.com. You are now caught up to two years ago. WOTC only paused selling PDFs for a period of 3.5 years total. Aside from that, they've always sold PDFs essentially since I think 2005 (?). You're behind the times.

I will give you an example. Search for Scourge of the Sword Coast on the WOTC site, which was an excellent adventure for D&D Next. I will save you time, here it is. See the first sentence which includes a link to "www.dndclassics.com"? Click the link, which takes you to their online store to buy it. You will find a similar link on many many many WOTC product pages.

They add new stuff quite often. You should check it out.

There's several issues there:

#1) Dndclassics.com is NOT WotC's storefront. It's part of OneBookShelf just branded for D&D. So they are still giving money to a separate distributor.

#2) That link in the first line of the Scourge of the Sword Coast entry? Where does it point? To the home page of dndclassics.com, not the actual product page, making you have to search for it all over again. That's failing ecommerce 101.

#3) It's also all PDFs. I think it's a safe assumption that WotC is trying to make money off of physical books, and even if it was owned by WotC and not OnebookShelf, it's still digital only. WotC lacks any online store front for physical books.

#4) It doesn't even have their current releases for the current edition. The latest it has are transition/playtest adventures.


So claiming that WotC lacks any online store front for directly selling their products, is actually 100% accurate on several levels. Maybe I'm reading into comments, but I think it is a safe assumption that "wanting to buy products directly from WotC" would imply wanting to buy *current* products including the more popular *physical* versions. Even aside from that, OneBookShelf has an online store front for previous edition PDFs, WotC does not.

ETA: Also, taking a quick look at the other D&D Next playtest/transition adventures... it looks like Scourge of the Sword Coast is the ONLY one that links to dndclassics.com. Murder in Baldur's Gate? Nope. Legacy of the Crystal Shard? Nope. Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle? Links to Gale Force 9 in order to pre-order a product from 2013!! Methinks Scourge of the Sword Coast is the rare exception, not the rule.

 

[Mark CMG]

Ok, I joined then posted to the FB group...confirmed that Expeditions are not available for home play, only public play. There was discussion of what constitutes public play in an earlier thread, and it was basically in-store, at a convention, special event, etc., as long as it's public.

Interesting. I suppose once you get a group together, you can limit how many seats are available to how many players you have in your group and call the game as public no matter where you play, no? Special event at my house, five seats filled by my son and his five friends?

 

[Mistwell]

I'm well aware of dndclassics. Send me another link when you can buy the 5E PHB, DMG, or MM there.

If you are well aware of it, then why did you say, "The second decision that hamstrings D&D now, as it has for two decades, is the stubborn insistence not to have an online store."

In what way is dndclassics.com not an online store? Other than the 3 and 1/2 years they did not sell PDFs, since around 2005 they've sold PDFs online for most of their product back catalog. How have they not had an online store for two decades, given that fact? Are you saying if they fail to sell all their products at all times in that online store it's the equivalent of not ever having an online store at all? Because that doesn't make sense to me. They sell most of their products in an online store - that has some meaning, and it runs contrary to your claim.

 

[Mistwell]

There's several issues there:

#1) Dndclassics.com is NOT WotC's storefront. It's part of OneBookShelf just branded for D&D. So they are still giving money to a separate distributor.

Everyone uses someone else's platform(s) in some ways. Even if it's just a credit card processing agent, or a web development company that fits the shopping cart into their main site. There is no issue I know of with using OneBookShelf as the back-end with D&D branding on the front-end. What, you think changing the url to "wizards.com/purchase" would be a meaningfully different? I don't. In fact I'd say the security and design elements are far superior than what WOTC would end up doing if they hired someone to program it in-house. And I think it's better than Paizo's shopping cart system in many ways as well. What do you see as the issue with using OneBookShelf as the back-end?

#3) It's also all PDFs. I think it's a safe assumption that WotC is trying to make money off of physical books, and even if it was owned by WotC and not OnebookShelf, it's still digital only. WotC lacks any online store front for physical books.

Because there are very substantial issues with developing an in-house distribution system, which was one of the many things TSR did which took their focus off their core specialties. I think it's wise that the only time WOTC sells direct to customers is at a few conventions. Better for their retail stores, and better for their own internal focus. This is also one reason they sold off their Wizards retail shops.

So claiming that WotC lacks any online store front for directly selling their products, is actually 100% accurate on several levels

No it's not. There is no "100%" about it. They have an online store. It sells their products. It does not sell all their products, but that's not the claim I was responding to. It shares a very small portion of their revenue with a back-end designer, but that's not the claim I was responding to. I was responding to the claim they have no online store - which isn't accurate. No matter how you try and spin it, they do have an online store.

Maybe I'm reading into comments, but I think it is a safe assumption that "wanting to buy products directly from WotC" would imply wanting to buy *current* products including the more popular *physical* versions.

The stuff dndclassics is selling is in pretty good demand. Look around EnWorld and you will see plenty of discussion of it. Much of it has never seen PDF distribution before. A lot of it is evergreen stuff, like settings. Just because it does not interest you, that does not mean it doesn't interest plenty of other people who are clamoring to buy the first time digital release of settings and adventures they love.

As for physical stuff - I don't but that for a second. If you want to buy a physical copy online, you buy it at discount at Barnes and Nobel or Amazon or one of the other online companies. Why would you want to buy it direct from Wizards at full price instead of 30-40% off at another site? They're both online shopping carts selling you the identical product. Companies that sell direct, do it because they make more money by charging closer to or at full retail price and making sure B&N and Amazon and such either don't get it, or don't get it at the same discounts that Wizards is able to give those stores.

 

[Torg Smith]

Allow me to introduce you to dndclassics.com. You are now caught up to two years ago. WOTC only paused selling PDFs for a period of 3.5 years total. Aside from that, they've always sold PDFs essentially since I think 2005 (?). You're behind the times.

I will give you an example. Search for Scourge of the Sword Coast on the WOTC site, which was an excellent adventure for D&D Next. I will save you time, here it is. See the first sentence which includes a link to "www.dndclassics.com"? Click the link, which takes you to their online store to buy it. You will find a similar link on many many many WOTC product pages.

They add new stuff quite often. You should check it out.

And, before they started selling the PDFs back then, they were giving a bunch of stuff away free in PDF and RTF.

 

[Mark CMG]

And, before they started selling the PDFs back then, they were giving a bunch of stuff away free in PDF and RTF.

How many of these links are still good?

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?154448-Free-Adventure-Path

But be sure to understand this much, FWIW -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...e-Path/page4&p=6150502&viewfull=1#post6150502

 

[Torg Smith]

There's several issues there:

#1) Dndclassics.com is NOT WotC's storefront. It's part of OneBookShelf just branded for D&D. So they are still giving money to a separate distributor.

#2) That link in the first line of the Scourge of the Sword Coast entry? Where does it point? To the home page of dndclassics.com, not the actual product page, making you have to search for it all over again. That's failing ecommerce 101.

#3) It's also all PDFs. I think it's a safe assumption that WotC is trying to make money off of physical books, and even if it was owned by WotC and not OnebookShelf, it's still digital only. WotC lacks any online store front for physical books.

#4) It doesn't even have their current releases for the current edition. The latest it has are transition/playtest adventures.


So claiming that WotC lacks any online store front for directly selling their products, is actually 100% accurate on several levels. Maybe I'm reading into comments, but I think it is a safe assumption that "wanting to buy products directly from WotC" would imply wanting to buy *current* products including the more popular *physical* versions. Even aside from that, OneBookShelf has an online store front for previous edition PDFs, WotC does not.

ETA: Also, taking a quick look at the other D&D Next playtest/transition adventures... it looks like Scourge of the Sword Coast is the ONLY one that links to dndclassics.com. Murder in Baldur's Gate? Nope. Legacy of the Crystal Shard? Nope. Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle? Links to Gale Force 9 in order to pre-order a product from 2013!! Methinks Scourge of the Sword Coast is the rare exception, not the rule.

If they don't want to deal with that part of business, they can contract it out. It removes a bunch of liabilities they have to concern themselves with. Remember, they use Digital River for their DDI. Not every producer operates their own store. Just because they don't want to be bogged down by maintaining a storefront doesn't make them any less a producer.