WotC D&D Hiring New Game Designer Months After Firing Many

The job pays from $86-145k and is for an experienced game designer—presumably much like one of those they let go a few months ago!

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Notably, one of those let go in December in Hasbro’s company-wide cost-cutting cull of over 1,000 jobs was D&D designer Dan Dillon. Dillon posted on Twitter—“Well. There it is. D&D is hiring a game designer, 8 months later. Was it worth it, you soulless f*****g cowards? Did you save enough money?”

 

[DarkCrisis]

Talk about career suicide! That's a social media post that might follow that fella around for a while. Posting in anger... no good comes of that. Sort of like being out after 2 am... it might feel good in the moment, but you'll be paying the piper later.

Having been a part of many layoffs throughout my career, on both sides of the aisle, I think what's happened at WotC is one of:

1. They laid off folks eight months ago because of a larger corporate need. Those closer to the design team knew they needed them, and that they were quality designers, but there were bigger fish to fry at the corporate level to make those layoffs make sense. Doesn't mean that the corporate requirement made sense... it just means that the management overseeing the designers had no choice in the matter. Having said that, the likelihood that the corporate requirement had benefits to the company that outweighed the costs of letting good people go is high. Folks have a habit of dismissing those that take actions they are angry with as stupid and uninformed. That can be the case, but that is a very dangerous assumption to make.
2. Maybe there were actually problems with those let go! Not a nice thing to think about, and honestly pretty unlikely, but it's definitely a possibility.
3. Option 1 occurred. But... a new project(s) since came up that was too good to let pass by, and a larger design team was required.

My opinion (based on my history with these things) is that number three occurred. But who knows.

Whatever happened, not a thing to get upset about.

We should definitely be good little wage slaves and just go along with whatever our souless corporate masters makes them the most money.

And don’t forget to smile and say thank you as they boot you to the curb while giving themselves raises.

 

[KYRON45]

We should definitely be good little wage slaves and just go along with whatever our souless corporate masters makes them the most money.

And don’t forget to smile and say thank you as they boot you to the curb while giving themselves raises.

Only if you like food and shelter. Most of us don't have other options. We can't all be both angry with our employers and wealthy enough not to take what they offer.

 

[Scribe]

And don’t forget to smile and say thank you as they boot you to the curb while giving themselves raises.

https://readwrite.com/2023-a-treasure-trove-for-hasbro-but-ceo-becomes-villain-of-the-tale/

Just as a reminder for the folks not paying attention.

 

[Morrus]

Only if you like food and shelter. Most of us don't have other options. We can't all be both angry with our employers and wealthy enough not to take what they offer.

But we as unaffected onlookers can support those who speak up.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Point taken re: the structure of this 'industry' and this person's future employment. That said, the persona you present when posting publicly like that though... sort of screams 'I am difficult to work with'. Bad move, regardless of the industry you're in.

TT RPGs are a small industry.

Word-of-mouth about your behaviour is going to count for infinitely more than an angry Tweet directed at the industry equivalent of like, Omnicorp from Robocop. People hiring you will not be going on just what they've seen on Twitter, and I mean, if they are, oh boy, you probably don't want to be hired by them, even if all they've seen is positive.

Further, a lot of people have posted a lot of things that "scream" "difficult to work with" and continue to have careers across a variety of creative industries. You kind of have to be a serial offender and/or known to be a jerk in person for this to be a big problem (or at least attack some beloved studio, not an um, be-hated one). I mean, Chris Avellone, writer of Planescape: Torment and some other games regularly posted kind of wild blasts about his own employers and took pot-shots at them in semi-public for years and it wasn't until a sex assault scandal that that counted for anything. Conversely, Skyrim composer Jeremy Soule basically lost his career without making wacky public statements/insulting employers, and before a sex assault scandal (though there was one), because he was so erratic, demanding, and hard-to-work-with, despite being super-talented. The scandal was just a cherry on top (this is easy to see from looking at what he worked on).

I will say this might make people ask more questions about your behaviour, but so long as the answers they're going to get are positive, I don't think it'll have consequences.

I should stress I broadly agree with you that posting this isn't the best idea, especially for people in fields like mine! I literally don't post on Twitter, nor re-Tweet, and now likes are invisible there's absolutely nothing go on! However I agree with @Morrus that we should support people who do speak out about industry bad behaviour.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

OK.

Not , or 'that's like, your opinion, man'... that's the way it is, regardless of whether either one of us likes it! I get you work for yourself so might not be exposed to this, but that's pretty much how it plays out.

I think there is something to be said for speaking up, and actively normalising “sit down and keep quiet” can be problematic. People shouldn’t be silenced into silence when wronged (as a general principle—not this specifically). While you might be right and it might be damaging for somebody to stand up for themselves, normalising that is a problem in my mind. It would be nice to see a cultural shift there and that begins in small moments like this conversation.

I 100% agree about standing up for one's self. But before you do so, make sure you fully understand the situation you are railing against. Don't go off half-cocked... or you'll be the one paying the price.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Talk about career suicide! That's a social media post that might follow that fella around for a while. Posting in anger... no good comes of that. Sort of like being out after 2 am... it might feel good in the moment, but you'll be paying the piper later.

Having been a part of many layoffs throughout my career, on both sides of the aisle, I think what's happened at WotC is one of:

1. They laid off folks eight months ago because of a larger corporate need. Those closer to the design team knew they needed them, and that they were quality designers, but there were bigger fish to fry at the corporate level to make those layoffs make sense. Doesn't mean that the corporate requirement made sense... it just means that the management overseeing the designers had no choice in the matter. Having said that, the likelihood that the corporate requirement had benefits to the company that outweighed the costs of letting good people go is high. Folks have a habit of dismissing those that take actions they are angry with as stupid and uninformed. That can be the case, but that is a very dangerous assumption to make.
2. Maybe there were actually problems with those let go! Not a nice thing to think about, and honestly pretty unlikely, but it's definitely a possibility.
3. Option 1 occurred. But... a new project(s) since came up that was too good to let pass by, and a larger design team was required.

My opinion (based on my history with these things) is that number three occurred. But who knows.

Whatever happened, not a thing to get upset about.

I think there's only one company who would hold this against him and their too busy stepping on rakes to take much note of it I bet.

 

[SteveC]

This thread took quite a turn and quickly so. I almost think it's going to turn into another unforced error, but advertising for a new game designer isn't bad in and of itself. Anyone want to make a judgement?

Edited to add: I just wanted to add how I continue to feel terrible for the creative people at WotC. You should be on cloud nine at the moment with the new books coming out.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I think there's only one company who would hold this against him and their too busy stepping on rakes to take much note of it I bet.

Lol! Funny, but...

As @Ruin Explorer (and others have) said, this industry has some unique characteristics that might lessen the impact of this, but I guarantee there are some folks at other TTRPG (or CRPG, or other related) companies who have noted this post or will find this post if this person pops up for an interview and they go googling after them (which is in an inevitability in this day and age). If they have to choose between two candidates... this post would tilt the scale against this person.

Even if this guy goes on to pursue a career in a completely different industry... this will follow him. Post in anger, repent at leisure.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

We should definitely be good little wage slaves and just go along with whatever our souless corporate masters makes them the most money.

And don’t forget to smile and say thank you as they boot you to the curb while giving themselves raises.

Well, if that's what you took from my post, and that's your view on what having a career is like...