WotC New D&D survey from WotC as part of the 50th anniversary year.

[Yaarel]

I was unaware of what was going on in Magic The Gathering, where WotC hired Pinkerton. Ostensibly this is a group of "fixers" who investigate and enforce, who have a history of crossing the line into ugly tactics at the expense of innocent people. The reference to a corporation hiring "goons" seems surprisingly fair. It is surprising Pinkerton is a Swedish company, because stuff like this is culturally shocking.

WotC hired Pinkerton. Presumably, the individuals who did the hiring were expecting the ugly behavior by Pinkerton.


It used to be a joke, that WotC would send the "game police" to ones door. Turns out to be goons?

 

[Clint_L]

Trying not to derail the thread but the Pinkerton thing is greatly misrepresented by many.

There are many divisions with Pinkertons. One is security - and that seems to be the guys people think were involved with this. Another is private investigators, and that is the actual department involved with this.

Security are the big tough intimidating scary guys.

Investigators are practically gamers themselves. They are mostly researchers.

Two investigators were sent into the field on this matter to talk to a guy who, as it turns out, accidentally received the wrong product that had not been released yet thinking something nefarious had happened.

Eh, just pointing out that going by his own accounts (of which there were many; he altered his story every time the wind changed) it was more like "accidentally on purpose" - the whole thing looked pretty sketchy, and the fact that he was clearly either lying or having severe memory issues didn't really make him super credible.

Once the matter was clearly up, WOTC apologized to the guy and sent him a bunch of free stuff to make up for the misunderstanding.

Did they apologize to him? I don't recall that. It seemed more like "you can't have that stuff, but for the sake of PR we don't want to pursue it further so here is an equivalent value of legit product."

In most of the world, this is not some major "they're evil!!!!!!" event. However because this is being viewed by fantasy roleplayers, somehow the extremely old (like 75 years plus) old reputation as all Pinkertons being union busting gun toting thugs was conflated with this event, like it's some movie.

I agree with that. It was ridiculous. Especially given that the dude was not remotely credible (see above).

 

[Parmandur]

Really? No. It was the goons fault. My guess is it was by their plan, their methods. In a nutshell I believe their intent was to intimidate his wife so bad it could drive her to tears. If true that wasn't his fault and it wouldn't have been yours.

Well, yeah, the psychological warfare is how this sort of person operates, and it is not any sort of positive good that he did: yet he would not have been there if the leaker had used a burner email at the public library to post the stuff on Reddit, say. Once the information is posted about a distribution chain leakage with personal identifying information...WotC will pursue the matter, it just follows. It isn't good or bad, it just is what it is.

 

[Parmandur]

How exactly was it illicit?

It was not purchased legally, it was procured through a leak in the the distribution chain. WotC Jason a legal right to pursue infor.stion I'm thst, and to demand the cards back. They seemed to want to have avoided suing the guy to do so, bit they could have gone that route instead, which I would see as way more damaging.

 

[Parmandur]

WotC hired Pinkerton. Presumably, the individuals who did the hiring were expecting the ugly behavior by Pinkerton.

Not necessarily: Hasbro, like my employer, probably has them on retainer for handling all security matters. Who knows what rhe person who made the call thought it would imply, but it was likely as simple as "we can't get hold of this guy, give his info to security."

 

[Yaarel]

Not necessarily: Hasbro, like my employer, probably has them on retainer for handling all security matters. Who knows what rhe person who made the call thought it would imply, but it was likely as simple as "we can't get hold of this guy, give his info to security."

I strongly suspect, people who even know who Pinkerton is, call them because they are Pinkerton.

That the group specializes in intimidating workers, is also eyebrow raising.

 

[Parmandur]

I strongly suspect, people who even know who Pinkerton is, call them because they are Pinkerton.

That the group specializes in intimidating workers, is also eyebrow raising.

Well, yeah, they are jerks. But this wasn't them being hired as a one-off, they undoubtedly do all sorts of work for Hasbro, mostly boring stuff like the guards at the factory where I work.

 

[Yaarel]

Well, yeah, they are jerks. But this wasn't them being hired as a one-off, they undoubtedly do all sorts of work for Hasbro, mostly boring stuff like the guards at the factory where I work.

You are saying the guards there are from Pinkerton?

 

[Parmandur]

You are saying the guards there are from Pinkerton?

From Securitas, yes. And any investigation matter (like a stolen company laptop, say) would be handled by Securitas...through their branch known as the Pinkertons. It is a part of a very large company that is embedded in other corporations throughout the world, not some small group of thugs anyone at the level of WotC decided to hire this one time.

 

[Yaarel]

From Securitas, yes. And any investigation matter (like a stolen company laptop, say) would be handled by Securitas...through their branch known as the Pinkertons. It is a part of a very large company that is embedded in other corporations throughout the world, not some small group of thugs anyone at the level of WotC decided to hire this one time.

Heh, sorta like the militant wing.