WotC WotC President Cynthia Williams Resigns

Cynthia Williams, who has been president of Wizards of the Coast for the last two years, will be leaving the company at the end of the month, according to an SEC filing dated April 15th. Hasbro is already looking for somebody to step into the role.

Williams worked for Microsoft on the Gaming Ecosystem Commercial Team before joining WotC two years ago, stepping into the role that then-president Chris Cocks vacated when he was promoted to CEO of Hasbro in February 2022.

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On April 15, 2024, Cynthia Williams, President of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming, informed the Company of her resignation from the Company effective April 26, 2024. The Company is conducting a process to identify her successor, looking at both internal and external candidates.

According to Rascal News, WotC responded with a comment: "We’re excited for Cynthia to take the next step in her career and grateful for the contributions she has made in her more than two years at Wizards and Hasbro. We wish her the absolute best in her next endeavor. We have started the search for our next President of Wizards of the Coast and hope to have a successor in place soon."

 

[Parmandur]

If I ignored everybody I occasionally disagreed with, not sure I'd have anything to read. Even my own posts because I'm sure at some point I've said some pretty dumbass things.

There is disagreeing, and then there is raising blood pressure.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But still this upset, bringing it up at every opportunity a year and a half after the idea was hatched? Yeah, I call that demonization and holding a grudge. It feels like latching on to an excuse to trash the company.

If that is your threshold for a grudge - I wow - I've been laughing almost too hard to type!

I mean you do you! If that is how you want to live your life, essentially calling people "evil and unfair" for being pissed about something that happened less than 18 months ago, and who aren't even mad with a person, or a small company, but a big fat corporation. I just feel like maybe that isn't very productive lol damn lol.

Also, a literal handful of people being perma-mad isn't very representative, it's just unrealistic and being a silly-billy to think they're the issue. The much bigger body of people who don't hate WotC but are but... skeptical of WotC still... that's a real issue, and you can't expect < checks notes > less than 18 months lol to clear that, not when WotC have done precisely nothing* since then to make themselves look good (but equally haven't done anything truly insane).

If I had a friend (or neighbor) that made a mistake and ran over my petunias last year, but they paid to fix the fence? Yes I would forgive them. No, I would not bring it up again, even during an argument. It's not good for your mental health or relationships to continuously bring up past mistakes.

You don't see the irony of preaching like these whilst seeming to be incredibly angry with people - who don't even seem to be in this thread, as @Parmandur points out - who "demonize" WotC and bear "grudges" for almighty and astonishing less than 18 months?

30 years of being online gives me a high confidence in how people behave online.

I think your views are preventing you understanding, actually. It's just purified and rather outdated cynicism, that might have been semi-reasonable 20 years ago, in a much smaller industry with a much more homogenous fanbase, but now is just not helping you. WotC is not this hated victim that you seem to believe. Nor is it as doomed as you seem to believe.

* = The 3PP on DDB thing is decent, but it's so obviously profit-motivated and limited so far that I don't think it's moving the needle. It might eventually.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If I ignored everybody I occasionally disagreed with, not sure I'd have anything to read. Even my own posts because I'm sure at some point I've said some pretty dumbass things.

This though is wisdom lol.

I would definitely have ignored me from like, even, I dunno, 10-15 years ago.

 

[SteveC]

There is no exact we. There is only recognition that the past was hardly flawless, and that we should think twice before holding WotC beholden to drive specifically towards that past.

Well, that's good. I was just thinking there was a series of meetings I was missing.

 

[Scribe]

That they will never, ever, forgive them and take every opportunity to bring it up and remind everyone how terrible WotC is no matter how tangential it is to the thread topic.

I mean, kind of. I'll likely never get over what they did to Magic, and I would make an absolute spectacle of myself if locked in a room with Maro and Forsythe. Hell, I don't know if they are still involved in Magic, and I would still act like a fool. I can't even talk about it in public with guys that agree with me, and it's been over 6 years.

 

[mamba]

They have all sorts of customer data, I see no reason to believe they are wrong to not believe there is any longterm brand effect.

I doubt they have a good handle on why someone is not buying something. They certainly know what their sales are, and at a minimum 2023 ended 5e's growth, but as to why it did / how much or little the OGL contributed to that... I have my doubts that they know

 

[Oofta]

If that is your threshold for a grudge - I wow - I've been laughing almost too hard to type!

I mean you do you! If that is how you want to live your life, essentially calling people "evil and unfair" for being pissed about something that happened less than 18 months ago, and who aren't even mad with a person, or a small company, but a big fat corporation. I just feel like maybe that isn't very productive lol damn lol.

Did I say the people holding the grudge are evil or unfair? I said I don't understand it.

Also, a literal handful of people being perma-mad isn't very representative, it's just unrealistic and being a silly-billy to think they're the issue. The much bigger body of people who don't hate WotC but are but... skeptical of WotC still... that's a real issue, and you can't expect < checks notes > less than 18 months lol to clear that, not when WotC have done precisely nothing* since then to make themselves look good (but equally haven't done anything truly insane).

I guess I don't understand why anybody would trust a corporation to do anything other than what's best for the corporation either. Either I like their products and think they're worth purchasing or I don't.

You don't see the irony of preaching like these whilst seeming to be incredibly angry with people who "demonize" WotC and bear "grudges" for almighty and astonishing less than 18 months?

I'm not incredibly angry. Not even angry. I just think that any ongoing angst or hurt at this point is to a large degree self inflicted. I haven't ever talked in person to anyone that runs a 3PP so I don't understand all the issues. But I don't blame them for being upset at the time. Still upset about something that can't be undone when they reversed course? Something entered into the CC cannot be revoked, so that shouldn't be a concern. They're opening up DDB to 3PP (and promoting it on the site) and it's possible they'll be doing more as time goes on.

What ongoing harm is there other than the people still being upset about something that, barring time travel, cannot be changed?

 

[Burnside]

They have all sorts of customer data, I see no reason to believe they are wrong to not believe there is any longterm brand effect.

Not saying that you're wrong, but there is zero chance that Cocks in that NPR interview would have admitted any damage from OGLGate, regardless of whether there was any or not.

 

[Oofta]

This though is wisdom lol.

I would definitely have ignored me from like, even, I dunno, 10-15 years ago.

Nah, more like 10-15 days ago.

 

[LesserThan]

that is my theory too

So it becomes funny when people blame her for more than her comments, like Chepak being blamed for things he did over 2 years at Disney, when the results of any decision they made have come out of production yet except for maybe Thunder Junxtion for Magic and Book of Many things for D&D.

Some people think development and production time is 0:00:00.00 seconds.