WotC WotC - why are we still shocked with layoffs?

[overgeeked]

Yet we're still shocked when WotC\Hasbro has layoffs and bad press. Why?

We shouldn't be. Most aren't. Some are. For a few people this was their first time with a WotC layoff. It hasn't happened in a few years, right? Most 5E players are new to D&D with 5E, so this is their first time. People who really love a thing tend to see the maker of that thing is an...overly generous light. See...well WotC/Hasbro and D&D.

Why are we clutching our pearls when corporate sh!t heads act like corporate sh!t heads? Shame on us. We need to be better than this.

Some people love capitalism regardless of what it does, who it hurts, or what planets it actively destroys. For some people, where their empathy should be you only find greed.

Do we walk away from D&D?

If we're luck more and more people will walk away from WotC-branded D&D. But with the mechanics under the CC-BY license, they don't need to abandon the game. There's also all the older editions still out there. There's also the entire rest of the industry. There are games out there that do the thing you love about D&D infinitely better than D&D ever has. Guaranteed.

So, how do we support the creatives, even the ones at WotC, but not the corporations? Is it even possible?

If you can afford to, buy indie products instead of corporate products. There are far more indies out there than creatives at WotC. Support them instead of the massive corporation. Again, there are better games out there. Mountains of them. There is a game (or ten) out there that does whatever you love about 5E D&D far, far better than 5E does it.

 

[Malmuria]

First there's this idea that corporations are evil, or more evil than a more independent company. I simply disagree. Business large and small are driven by needing to make a profit. Some may be have more moral practices than others, but by and large what's considered "more moral" is in the eye of the beholder. But it's not like the size of a company makes them inherently better or worse.

Second, at least a couple of the people that were laid off have little more than praise for their previous employer https://www.enworld.org/threads/dan...mf-podcast-youtube-stream-notify-link.701659/. They enjoyed their time while working on the D&D team and had positive things to say, it sounds like they had generous severance packages.

Third, I think that it's better if people accept that while layoffs happen it's just a reality of business. My father ran a small drainage tiling business in addition to farming and at one point had to let go of the surveyor that he had employed. It wasn't anything personal, it was just that with new technology the guy wasn't needed any more. It wasn't great for my dad or the person he let go. A company doesn't owe an employee a job any more than an employee owes a company their loyalty.

So do with that whatever you want. Companies aren't evil because they lay off people, WOTC is one of the better employers according to ex employees than most other options. There's nothing to solve. If you really want to give creative people the best chance at gainful employment, spend money of TTRPG products, including WOTC which according to many is one of the best companies to work with.

There's really good evidence to suggest that these layoffs are the result of Hasbro's mishandling of the purchase and sale of eOne. In other words, executives made a series of bad decisions and offloading the consequences onto the 20% of their employees who were let go (even from seemingly profitable divisions). I'd actually agree that I'm not sure that moral terms like good and evil are helpful here, but it's clear that corporate executives get rewarded for extracting values for their employees and treating them as disposable. When the Chris Cox's of the world are buying second and third homes because of these sorts of decisions, while the people they lay off struggle to pay rent and have healthcare, it's easy to see events like this as indicative of a really significant social-economic problem.

 

[MichaelSomething]

If you're looking for TTRPGs that free of megacorp control, there's always Level Up! Enworld's very own 5E style game!

 

[Oofta]

There's really good evidence to suggest that these layoffs are the result of Hasbro's mishandling of the purchase and sale of eOne. In other words, executives made a series of bad decisions and offloading the consequences onto the 20% of their employees who were let go (even from seemingly profitable divisions). I'd actually agree that I'm not sure that moral terms like good and evil are helpful here, but it's clear that corporate executives get rewarded for extracting values for their employees and treating them as disposable. When the Chris Cox's of the world are buying second and third homes because of these sorts of decisions, while the people they lay off struggle to pay rent and have healthcare, it's easy to see events like this as indicative of a really significant social-economic problem.

So prettymuch your argument is ... corporations bad!!!

 

[Composer99]

It seems to me that there is rather a difference between being surprised and being appalled or disappointed, a distinction that I feel comes across as not being fully appreciated in the OP. But both feelings can be summarised within the term "shocked" (indeed, I would say that "shocked" is usually used to mean a combination of the two kinds of feelings - but, I suspect it can also be used to simply mean the latter set of feelings).

I think hardly anyone who has more than rudimentary knowledge about how shareholder-driven for-profit corporations behave is surprised by the layoffs (at least in a "strategic" sense; we might legitimately be surprised that Hasbro is laying off as many people as it is at this particular moment in time).

I also think it's not really apropos to call people out for being appalled or disappointed and for expressing such feelings. I don't think that's the intent of the OP, but it does give that impression in part due to the considerations noted in my first paragraph.

 

[Scribe]

So prettymuch your argument is ... corporations bad!!!

I think the argument could more charitably be made to be 'This layoff didnt need to happen. While there are arguments that could be made for staff reduction for a number of factors, in this case it doesnt appear to have been required at all, and yet it was done anyway to make up for a mistaken acquisition in the past.'

Putting a 'Good/Bad' label on it would fine, but I would argue that 'unnecessary beyond a desire to increase profit and the stock price' would be perhaps more accurate.

 

[Oofta]

I think the argument could more charitably be made to be 'This layoff didnt need to happen. While there are arguments that could be made for staff reduction for a number of factors, in this case it doesnt appear to have been required at all, and yet it was done anyway to make up for a mistaken acquisition in the past.'

Putting a 'Good/Bad' label on it would fine, but I would argue that 'unnecessary beyond a desire to increase profit and the stock price' would be perhaps more accurate.

We don't know the reasoning behind the layoffs. Just stating they did it because they're greedy MF's just simply isn't informative or necessarily accurate. It might be true, it might not be. It might be because they were forced to because of external creditor demands it might be because the head of the company is the literal devil ... we just don't know.

All we do know is that the two people interviewed that were just laid off were happy with their experience and severance, didn't mind the timing, had enjoyed working on the team and would happily work there again. I've been laid off before more than once (one time because they laid off the entire floor) but if people that were laid off are still positive about the company? That's not the worst thing that can happen.

 

[payn]

We don't know the reasoning behind the layoffs. Just stating they did it because they're greedy MF's just simply isn't informative or necessarily accurate. It might be true, it might not be. It might be because they were forced to because of external creditor demands it might be because the head of the company is the literal devil ... we just don't know.

All we do know is that the two people interviewed that were just laid off were happy with their experience and severance, didn't mind the timing, had enjoyed working on the team and would happily work there again. I've been laid off before more than once (one time because they laid off the entire floor) but if people that were laid off are still positive about the company? That's not the worst thing that can happen.

Generally, speaking its a societal problem in the U.S. and not unique to Hasbro.

 

[overgeeked]

If you're looking for TTRPGs that free of megacorp control, there's always Level Up! Enworld's very own 5E style game!

To be fair the number of RPGs that are not megacorp holdings are...what...all of them except D&D. Oh, wait...isn't Cortex Prime now owned by a megacorp? So that's all but two.

 

[Scribe]

We don't know the reasoning behind the layoffs.

Well, we know it wasnt about profits, outside of some fun accounting practices, so..that is true. We dont know.