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

[Maxperson]

Yes and that's a great example, because people on Kotaku defended the heck out of Bethesda for doing that. Whereas this story being discussed there is... uh... not looking good for WotC. Looking at this story anywhere on social media or comments, it looks extremely bad for WotC. People aren't supportive of this.

Yeah. Given the recent OGL debacle, even if Pinkerton's did everything right, was kind and non-threating and talked the guy into giving up the product, it was still going to be perceived very badly by WotC customers. There was no way for hiring Pinkerton's(or any other major armed guard service) to look good. They needed to handle this much more gently.

 

[Faolyn]

I don't believe that applies in this case. The cards weren't "sent by mistake". Oldschoolmtg claims to have bought them from a third party that did not have the right to sell them yet.

The quote indicated that he would get "the product he intended to purchase," which sounded like a mistake on WotC's end: he ordered A but got B. But if he bought them from someone who shouldn't have sold them, then yeah, OK.

 

[Maxperson]

You think the sort of people hiring them haven't played RDR2? Haven't watched documentaries? Don't know history? Because I can assure you they have/do. That's part of the illicit thrill of hiring an organisation like this, rather than using a brand that doesn't have deep historical association.

Someone pointed out earlier in the thread that the head of WotC security used to work for Pinkerton. There's no way he was unaware of how they conduct business.

 

[Malmuria]

Putting the ethics and legality of the situation to one side, was this a good decision by wotc from a PR perspective? Knowing their audience, knowing the way twitter/youtube works, being mindful of recent history...has it been beneficial to them as a company?

The real tension here is that wotc tries to brand itself and its fans as a "community" and as a "lifestyle," and that is sometimes at odds with the way they work as a corporation, even if their corporate-ness is smaller and less egregious than many others.

 

[Ryujin]

Is it wrong that this feels, to me, like the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch?

 

[trappedslider]

Is it wrong that this feels, to me, like the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch?

which one?

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Is it wrong that this feels, to me, like the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch?

I honestly did not expect the Spanish Inquisition.

 

[Ryujin]

which one?

The first one.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah. Given the recent OGL debacle, even if Pinkerton's did everything right, was kind and non-threating and talked the guy into giving up the product, it was still go to be perceived very badly by WotC customers. There was no way for hiring Pinkerton's(or any other major armed guard service) to look good. They needed to handle this much more gently.

Exactly. If this had been "I received a threatening C&D letter", this would be a non-story. People would be like "that dumb idiot".

With any videogame company except possibly Nintendo, that'd have been what happened. Even with Nintendo it'd likely have been just more legal throwing their weight around unnecessarily. And Nintendo are rapidly acquiring a bad reputation to the point where it's damaging public perception of the brand. WotC's brand is already not looking good - which makes stories like this get way more traction and be much more widespread. Everyone single higher-level employee at WotC should have been on their guard about PR blunders, but here's another.

 

[eyeheartawk]

The real tension here is that wotc tries to brand itself and its fans as a "community" and as a "lifestyle," and that is sometimes at odds with the way they work as a corporation, even if their corporate-ness is smaller and less egregious than many others.

I'm afraid I have some bad news on the "not as bad" front:

New Report: Hasbro Transformer toys made in miserable sweatshop conditions - Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

www.business-humanrights.org

Exclusive: Hasbro pays Mexico tax authorities $65 million in settlement after probe

The world's No. 2 toymaker, Hasbro Inc, has paid $65 million to Mexican tax authorities in a settlement, a spokeswoman for the company said on Wednesday, following a probe into the company for possible for tax avoidance.

www.reuters.com