Well now you're just being silly. That's not going to lead to a constructive conversation, so I'm going respectfully decline to continue this particular topic with you. Have a great rest of your day, though.
No, I'm not being silly. Wizards has a demonstrated track record, starting with the OGL fiasco, of lying when their policies blow up in their face - and they've basically done so here. This is their first statement from
the original article:
When asked for a comment, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that the video, its allegations, and the alleged Pinkerton agents were a “part of their investigation.” When asked for clarification, the company said it had no additional details to share, and did not deny the hiring of Pinkerton to aid in the product retrieval. io9 has reached out to oldschoolmtg for comment.
Here's the second statement from
the follow-up article:
Wizards of the Coast says it “strongly refutes this depiction of events, which contradicts both the report from the investigation as well as the conversation between the individual and the Wizards of the Coast representative after the interaction in question.” The company also stated that “under no circumstances would we instruct any employee or contracted agency to intimidate an individual.”
As far as the Pinkertons go - they also, even to this day, have a tendency to overstep their bounds on contracted jobs. In 2020, a Denver TV news station hired the Pinkertons to provide
unarmed security to a camera crew covering protests following the death of George Floyd. This particular event was going to have protests from BLM groups and groups in opposition to BLM in close proximity. One of the members of the anti-BLM groups took issue with the local news filming, and attempted to assault the film crew and security. The Pinkerton providing security - who was supposed to be unarmed, and was not licensed to provide armed security, pulled a gun and shot and killed that person. This is not in dispute - there's clear video from another group of reporters. Charges were ultimately dropped by the Denver District Attorney, but the facts remain in evidence - when hiring the Pinkertons, even if you give them clear instructions in terms of the scope of what actions they should take and that they should not escalate - this doesn't mean they'll follow your instructions.
Sources:
A security company that employed the unlicensed guard who shot a man at a protest downtown is losing its license to operate in Denver.
www.cbsnews.com
Prosecutors plan to drop the second-degree murder charge filed against an unlicensed security guard who shot and killed a man outside of competing rallies in Denver in October 2020, according to the man’s attorney and the district attorney's office.
www.denver7.com
By contrast, Cannon is just a guy. He's not an influencer at the level of PewDiePie or the Pauls or even Tolerian Community College, he just has a YouTube channel just like lots of other people, and he did a video of an unboxing just like lots of other people do. Starting from the perspective of viewing him as an "Attention seeking youtuber out for clicks" operates from the perspective that people with YouTube channels are inherently untrustworthy. Admittedly, as someone who has a YouTube channel, I'm predisposed to consider that an unfair statement. So, as things stand, he has not done anything that would make me assume that he is a liar. He, unlike Wizards, has no track record of such things.
I also clearly remember, during the OGL fiasco, a whole lot of shade being thrown at Linda Codega because they wrote for Gizmodo, with their reporting being dismissed as an "attention-seeking gossip-monger out for clicks" - and their reporting was born out as being truthful, so I'm willing to give Codega the benefit of the doubt. Same with Sisi Jiang at Kotaku.
So, with Wizards' statements, there are two possible scenarios for their contradictions:
1) Statement #1 is a lie, statement #2 is what they
think is the truth because Wizards was lied to by the Pinkertons. They didn't watch the video before statement #1, nor did they compare the description of events given by Codega to what they were told by the Pinkertons until later, when the brown stuff hit the air circulation device. If this is the case, Wizards is in the wrong because they failed to do their due diligence regarding who they contracted with, in terms of their reputation, in terms of their track record for not escalating when told not to, and in terms of considering the risks of PR backlash, even if the Pinkertons completely behaved themselves. They screwed up, and are refusing to re-evaluate the situation based on the possibility that the organization they contracted with (which has a long-standing reputation of acting like goons) acted like goons.
2) Statement #1 is the truth, and Statement #2 is a lie that they're giving because this just blew up in their face. This fits with what happened with the leaked OGL change, where they repeatedly stated that the final version was going to be nothing like the leaked version (and in some cases claimed the leaked version is a total fabrication). If this is the case, Wizards is in the wrong, because they hired goons, who in turn acted like goons, and then they lied about having hired those goons when things blew up in their face.
If I'm going to give any benefit of the doubt to Wizards here, it would be from the possible perspective that all of this was pushed down from the top by Hasbro (again, members of Hasbro management are former Pinkertons), and Wizards management had no choice in the matter. That doesn't excuse or justify the decisions made by Wizards, but it does explain them.
gizmodo.com
