WotC may have sent the Pinkertons to a magic leakers home. Update: WotC confirms it and has a response.

[ersatzphil]

The specific incident doesn't matter. It's how they respond to the incident. And IMO, with both the OGL and this leak, they chose poorly.

I’m still in mild shock over seeing that ‘we all won’ comment in their initial response to the OGL issue. Just shockingly poorly done. As someone said upthread, they’re doing an amazing job of stepping on every land mine they can.

 

[Parmandur]

Official statement from WotC on the matter:

As part of an investigation into the unauthorized distribution and disclosure of embargoed product, we repeatedly attempted to contact an individual who had received unreleased cards. After that outreach was unsuccessful, an investigator visited him and asked that he reach out to us as part of our investigation and return the embargoed product and packaging. He agreed to do both. The unreleased product will be replaced by us with the product he intended to purchase. We appreciate the individual’s cooperation and the investigation is ongoing.

Yeah, that makes sense.

 

[darjr]

 

[RealAlHazred]

Listen, I can get more human customers easily, I'll just.. uh... order them... from the human store... where the other businesses go. What I can't get is a new successful IP without a lot of work. I'm an executive, not a creative! I don't do work!

 

[humble minion]

Official statement from WotC on the matter:

As part of an investigation into the unauthorized distribution and disclosure of embargoed product, we repeatedly attempted to contact an individual who had received unreleased cards. After that outreach was unsuccessful, an investigator visited him and asked that he reach out to us as part of our investigation and return the embargoed product and packaging. He agreed to do both. The unreleased product will be replaced by us with the product he intended to purchase. We appreciate the individual’s cooperation and the investigation is ongoing.

We'll see. I'm at the very least waiting on Linda Codega's next article. (We're very lucky that Linda is around, to be honest. Having a reporter keeping an eye on the WotC beat, and one who is seemingly trusted by inside WotC and industry sources to be a straight shooter, can only be a good thing for the hobby)

Unfortunately, WotCs public post-crisis statements carry very little weight with me any more. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on you and all that. They're still trying to pretend that OGL 1.1s 25% cut of revenue etc was all to prevent Meta creating a D&D metaverse under the OGL, when the 'pdfs and printed materials only' clause would have done that already, and all the commentary on the draft licence was about how 'the OGL was never intended to allow the creation of competitors for D&D'. I'm forced to conclude they are not telling the truth about what their intentions were for OGL 1.1, and I will be reading their statements on other matters with that conclusion in mind.

 

[Parmandur]

We'll see. I'm at the very least waiting on Linda Codega's next article. (We're very lucky that Linda is around, to be honest. Having a reporter keeping an eye on the WotC beat, and one who is seemingly trusted by inside WotC and industry sources to be a straight shooter, can only be a good thing for)

Unfortunately, WotCs public post-crisis statements carry very little weight with me any more. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on you and all that. They're still trying to pretend that OGL 1.1s 25% cut of revenue etc was all to prevent Meta creating a D&D metaverse under the OGL, when the 'pdfs and printed materials' clause would have done that already, and all the commentary on the draft licence was about how 'the OGL was never intended to allow the creation of competitors for D&D'. I'm forced to conclude they are not telling the truth about what their intentions were for OGL 1.1, and I will be reading their statements on other matters with that conclusion in mind.

Pretty sure the clickbaiter who was begging about his inside sources is a bit of a suspect source of information, too.

Are the Pinkertons a heavy handed option? Yes. Do I believe they tried to contact the guy first and were ignored? Yeah.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We're very lucky that Linda is around, to be honest. Having a reporter keeping an eye on the WotC beat, and one who is seemingly trusted by inside WotC and industry sources to be a straight shooter, can only be a good thing for

They work for a company that very famously does not give a crap about the quality of the work or the working conditions for their writers at their various publications. I suspect they will bounce sooner rather than later. Hopefully they land somewhere that will keep them on the RPG beat.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are the Pinkertons a heavy handed option? Yes. Do I believe they tried to contact the guy first and were ignored? Yeah.

They still chose to go from zero to 60. He was never under any obligation to talk to them, no matter how much they might want him to.

And again, they could have sent someone not-Pinkerton with a not heavy-handed option.

 

[Parmandur]

They still chose to go from zero to 60. He was never under any obligation to talk to them, no matter how much they might want him to.

And again, they could have sent someone not-Pinkerton with a not heavy-handed option.

Both true.

 

[ersatzphil]

I'm forced to conclude they are not telling the truth about what their intentions were for OGL 1.1, and I will be reading their statements on other matters with that conclusion in mind.

Honestly in retrospect I have the hunch that the whole debacle rose out of Disney and Ravensburger releasing Lorcana, their CCG offering, and executives having a panic attack over how it might impact the M:tG market. "Lock everything down now! Yes, the entire company!"