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."

 

[Azzy]

Just wow!

 

[MNblockhead]

I’m pretty sure they’re not going to have the same problem with the core books that they had with the Deck of Manh Things…

The Deck of Man things!? I shudder to ask but am not ashamed to admit I'm curious.

 

[Fandabidozi]

She looks very fuzzy.

 

[Fandabidozi]

The Deck of Man things!? I shudder to ask but am not ashamed to admit I'm curious.

Curious here also

 

[mamba]

The Deck of Man things!? I shudder to ask but am not ashamed to admit I'm curious.

they had issues with the foil on the cards they printed and had to recall the whole thing and print new ones, causing the print version to be released two months or so later

 

[bedir than]

It also seems like they're going to include more art (or at least bigger art, such as full page splash pages for each class), also decreasing actual "column inches" of text.

They likely consider art to be content, a completely reasonable stance

 

[michaeljpastor]

They likely consider art to be content, a completely reasonable stance

Never said it wasn't content. It's less text, though. Which is reasonable to say is the core purpose of the book.

 

[Zardnaar]

Citation needed.

One thing that watching online discussion of this industry over the past few decades has taught me (including with how wide the reach of the OGL fiasco wound up being) is that forum posters citing how large they think certain subgroups are typically has zero actual evidence behind it other than their personal anecdotal experience (at best).

Very snall numbers offended can also set a narrative. Eg youtubers. Very negative on the OGL.

So even casuals might here about why WotC are terrible.

 

[Belen]

You don't get 2 weeks notice if you're fired. As far as the new edition, it's pretty much done at this point. The D&D books aren't where the real money is anyway.

Not true. Companies allow you to resign rather than be fired all the time.

 

[Belen]

Some people on this forum openly wish for WotC's failure. 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. So yes, I do consider it demonization and holding a grudge. Were people right to be upset at the time? Not my call because honestly I don't really have any skin in the game on that one but I can understand why they were. 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 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. Of course, once again, I don't trust corporations in the first place so it's kind of apples and oranges.

Yeah! I still have not forgiven them for that garbage 4e.

It's not like I own all the official 5e books in print and DDB....

Or that I dropped PF as soon as 5e offered me something better...

I will never forgive D&D!