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!

228 Senior Game Designer jobs in United States

Today's top 228 Senior Game Designer jobs in United States. Leverage your professional network, and get hired. New Senior Game Designer jobs added daily.

www.linkedin.com

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?”

 

[darjr]

Ouch! It sounds like you're saying his work is something to worry about, as it's worse than his comment. If you're intending this to be a benefit to Dan, I would clarify that.

Better?

 

[Nikosandros]

Better?

For what is worth, I found your original post 100% clear.

 

[Scribe]

Better?

Your initial statement was perfectly understandable and clear.

 

[darjr]

For what is worth, I found your original post 100% clear.

Your initial statement was perfectly understandable and clear.

Thank you!

 

[Cergorach]

But sometimes people 'over scummify' things that have more reasonable explanations. Occam's Razor.

Of course, just as people over glorify things when the reality is different.

On the other hand: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. We've been around long enough that we're way, way beyond the 'twice' point with WotC/Hasbro...

For example the stocks of Hasbro were at an all time low a month before the firings were submitted. The stocks were so low that even the stock crash at the start of the pandemic wasn't that low. The stock was only that low in march 2013 and before. That's without adding 10+ years of inflation (almost 31%). Hasbro is doing really badly and that seems to be a structural issue with Hasbro. So cutting costs isn't a bad idea in the first place, but firing ~30% of your workforce in a year is extremely drastic. It did work for the stock price, but if it works for profitability is a whole different question...

It also doesn't help that many people here feel that people that work at WotC/Hasbro have a right to a job for life there. And that isn't how the world works, especially not in the US. For many in the US unions sound like a god send, but just as I don't like how companies can fire tons of people without oversight, I don't like US unions either because imho they are the other extreme. And that's coming from a Dutch person where workers are protected very well, but even here certain unions have WAY too much power. There have been times where I felt unsafe because I wasn't a union member, they were striking and I wasn't. And having worked in bureaucracies where it was extremely difficult to get rid of incompetent people, that might not sound like a NOT you problem until you realize that you have to do the work they can't. I've been in the situation where I was suddenly stuck doing the work of five people. You can imagine what that does for someone's mental health... That's the reason why I'm now a self employed freelancer, no Union to report to, a lot more independence then an employee.

 

[TiQuinn]

On the other hand, how long has WotC/Hasbro been doing nasty firings, often around the holidays? 20 years?

Dan Dillon knew what he was getting into when he signed up with WotC/Hasbro in 2019 or he didn't do his due diligence, but every fanboy wants to work for WotC and work on D&D... Getting fired won't happen to me, I'm special! Until WotC/Hasbro decides that they aren't that special...

It's interesting but coming off of the When We Were Wizards podcast, I'm struck by how similar TSR back in the 70s and 80s was to several modern companies in industries such as video games, special effects, comic books, and the current TTRPG industry in that they seem to take full advantage of the fact that people want to work in a "fun" field, and use that cachet to keep salaries lower and create difficult work conditions.

Yes, of course, a lot of people dream of working at a place like WotC or Paizo, but there's only so many jobs, and frankly, they know people want to work with cool stuff, and they take full advantage of that.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

And the reason for that was not because of WotC's performance, but that Hasbro as a whole was hurting, so it had to seal the leaks by doing what it could across its entire enterprise. Not fair to WotC, but as a component of Hasbro, that's part of the cost. There are many benefits, but there are costs as well.

It wasn't hurting, profits were down, but it only looked liked it was losing money because they sold EOne for far less then he should have, and the regular folks payed for it.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Thank you!

You understand that wasn't a personal attack hopefully?

 

[darjr]

You understand that wasn't a personal attack hopefully?

Yea. No worries.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Of course, just as people over glorify things when the reality is different.

On the other hand: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. We've been around long enough that we're way, way beyond the 'twice' point with WotC/Hasbro...

For example the stocks of Hasbro were at an all time low a month before the firings were submitted. The stocks were so low that even the stock crash at the start of the pandemic wasn't that low. The stock was only that low in march 2013 and before. That's without adding 10+ years of inflation (almost 31%). Hasbro is doing really badly and that seems to be a structural issue with Hasbro. So cutting costs isn't a bad idea in the first place, but firing ~30% of your workforce in a year is extremely drastic. It did work for the stock price, but if it works for profitability is a whole different question...

It also doesn't help that many people here feel that people that work at WotC/Hasbro have a right to a job for life there. And that isn't how the world works, especially not in the US. For many in the US unions sound like a god send, but just as I don't like how companies can fire tons of people without oversight, I don't like US unions either because imho they are the other extreme. And that's coming from a Dutch person where workers are protected very well, but even here certain unions have WAY too much power. There have been times where I felt unsafe because I wasn't a union member, they were striking and I wasn't. And having worked in bureaucracies where it was extremely difficult to get rid of incompetent people, that might not sound like a NOT you problem until you realize that you have to do the work they can't. I've been in the situation where I was suddenly stuck doing the work of five people. You can imagine what that does for someone's mental health... That's the reason why I'm now a self employed freelancer, no Union to report to, a lot more independence then an employee.

There is a lot to unpack here. You're speaking from a place where this hurts you? Elaborate if you can.