WotC WotC - why are we still shocked with layoffs?

[Micah Sweet]

There's kind of a weird disconnect I see in threads like this.

The explicit, legally-required responsibility of any publicly-traded company, overall, is to increase profit and stock price. This is, in a very real and tangible way the reason they exist.

Hasbro doesn't exist to employ people. They only do so as necessary to fulfill their true obligation, which is increasing profit and stock price. D&D exists only as long as D&D keeps the number going up enough.

We have this sort of folk understanding of companies as things that hire people to make products, but that's not really true when dealing with something like Hasbro. Those companies make profits. Products are a means to an end.

Whether that is Good or Evil or Neutral or whatever probably depends on your own moral code. But in terms of just practical solutions, we can decry the tragedy of losing your job all day long, and never change anything, because we aren't articulating what we want to see instead. Hasbro isn't unique in this tragedy. Good people lose good jobs every year. Do we want to live in a world where no one is ever laid off? Or maybe in a world where being laid off isn't such a dire pronouncement where one loses health care as well? Or one in which everyone lives in the more precarious indie space of "will enough people buy my pdf for me to afford rent this month?" Or something else?

These are all different problems with different solutions and different ways of achieving the outcomes we want, so I think if you're feeling upset about Hasbro's actions here, what's the competing vision? What should happen instead? Cuz then we can look at what it would take to make that world a reality.

By all means, Buy More Indie Stuff. But if that's all, then in 10 years MCDM or Paizo or whatever is laying off 1,000 people because of a market downturn, we'll be here again with the names changed. And I'm not sure that's what we actually want to see...is it?

At this point, I'd rather the entire industry were small companies and below, but if wishes were horses...

 

[Micah Sweet]

Absolutely.

No thanks. Way, way, way too crunchy.

Wrong kind of crunch for me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh yay. Yet another person who wants D&D to fail. I find it amazing how many people on a supposed D&D "fan site" openly hate D&D.

Fan of the game, not the company that makes it. We really don't need them anymore.

 

[Malmuria]

A lot happens in this world that is not OK.

The real question is what are you going to do about it?

Buying Indie Stuff won't change the forces that made Hasbro do this. Hasbro is no worse (and no better) than any other company in their position. It's not a Hasbro-specific problem.

So what world would we rather live in, and how do we make that world come about?

So if we can't change the world all at once, then it's not worth taking any action, or even criticizing those in power when they act in unethical ways?

Moreover, Hasbro has a dedicated and passionate fanbase for its products; this makes it particularly amenable to consumer activism, more so than, say, a company that sells cheap electronics via amazon (even if the supply chains of the latter are objectively worse for labor and for the environment).

 

[cranberry]

A lot happens in this world that is not OK.

The real question is what are you going to do about it?

Buying Indie Stuff won't change the forces that made Hasbro do this. Hasbro is no worse (and no better) than any other company in their position. It's not a Hasbro-specific problem.

So what world would we rather live in, and how do we make that world come about?

Yes, that sounds good. But it's easier said than done. What are your ideas?

 

[cranberry]

Oh yay. Yet another person who wants D&D to fail. I find it amazing how many people on a supposed D&D "fan site" openly hate D&D.

Yea, why would anyone have issues with WoTC?

cough OGL cough
cough Pinkertons cough
cough paying for award cough
cough Near Xmas layoffs cough*

 

[MichaelSomething]

Yes, that sounds good. But it's easier said than done. What are your ideas?

Support more ethical creators!
Buy and run TTRPGs besides D&D!

 

[Ghost2020]

Oh yay. Yet another person who wants D&D to fail. I find it amazing how many people on a supposed D&D "fan site" openly hate D&D.

Bwhahahaha!!!

Settle down, nothing in any post said I want D&D to fail. Openly hate D&D? Oh goodness. Don't hurt yourself with that reach.

I said a dent, so others can have a bigger share.

I've been doing the D&D dance for 40+ years, it would be nice to see another system be the big boy on the block for a decade or two.

Just because I want another system to succeed wildly doesn't mean I want D&D to fail.

 

[Hussar]

Yea, why would anyone have issues with WoTC?

cough OGL cough
cough Pinkertons cough
cough paying for award cough
cough Near Xmas layoffs cough*

"paying for award"? I missed this particular tempest in a teacup. what was this that had folks in a tizzy?

 

[cranberry]

"paying for award"? I missed this particular tempest in a teacup. what was this that had folks in a tizzy?

No tempest. More of an eye roll, but pathetic nonetheless.