WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Umbran]

Barbed wire, picket, steel post, wicket? You have to define the skill dude!

The skill system is not that granular.

 

[teitan]

And say what you will about Williams, she at least brought Buck Rogers to the table.
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And was better than we thought but still

 

[Charlaquin]

In recent years the pressure to increase profits has hurt the quality of recent D&D and MTG products. Selling them to Elmo would impose a debt burden and increase the pressure for profit. Followed by firing half the staff then what could go wrong?

I get the desire to use a derisive nickname for Elon, but this is just insulting to the beloved Sesame Street character.

 

[bedir than]

Another no.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I'm not sure this talk of casual gamers and hard-core gamers is a helpful metric. I mean I would imagine casual gamers are not the ones who invest in the material which means everyone we're referring to is a hard-core gamer by default, right?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I always felt that Nentir Vale was a great sandbox setting (with a lot of Middle Earth/Arnor influence) tied to a system that does not support sandbox play. It could be a great 5e setting, and probably have wider appeal than most of WoTC's recent efforts. Not sure I trust them to do an adequate job though; they just don't seem to be putting in much effort compared to the better 3PP companies.

+1 for 5e Nentir Vale. The only issue I had with it was that it was only for 4e.

 

[Umbran]

I'm not sure this talk of casual gamers and hard-core gamers is a helpful metric.

I agree, it probably isn't. In fact, given that the path of entry into RPGs may have changed since the rise of actual play podcasts and shows, it is not clear that "core" gamers are the economic core they used to be.

Back in the day, when most people who bought game materials had been brought into the game by someone in the "core", that distinction could be important. I would be unsurprised if the core gamers are not the recruitment tool they used to be.

 

[wedgeski]

Musk's takeover of Twitter is a model, all right, but of what not to do, or even imagine doing. I'm struggling to think of an OP I have ever disagreed with more.

 

[FrozenNorth]

But even if he does turn things around, a company based on technology is completely different from a content creator with as narrow a market as WOTC. Even if they did "revitalize" the company the odds of them producing a product you personally want is vanishingly small.

To me, this is the key point. Even if you consider that Elon Musk has done a good job as leader of tech companies such as SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring co. (open to dispute), a social media platform is a completely different kind of company, and a wise CEO considers whether the skills and knowledge they have are transferable to a completely new challenge.

It seems pretty clear that Elon Musk not only didn’t consider this, but that whatever qualities he had weren’t transferable .

 

[seebs]

I think it's notable that everyone I know with actual experience running large things is staring at horror at the most incredible destruction of value they've ever seen, while lots of people with zero relevant experience are admiring how brilliant it is to just fire all the people. I think it's important to recognize that unconditional fanboying of famous people is not actually a great way to develop deep expertise in a field.

If I tell you that I stopped taking my car in for oil changes three months ago, and it's still running fine, does that prove that maintenance was always a scam and a waste of money? No. If I fire a bunch of people who are maintaining and supporting a system, and it's still running fine a week or two later, does that establish that it was a good idea? No, for roughly the same reasons.

I note, there's some lovely writeups on how SpaceX manages Elon. They put significant time and effort into keeping him distracted and making sure to present decisions so he'll proclaim the thing the actual competent people already figured out and started doing. When this doesn't work, it's a problem. They're having a great time of this because he's been out of their hair for weeks.