WotC Greg Tito On Leaving WotC: 'It feels good to do something that doesn't just line the pockets of *****'

We reported earlier that WotC's communications director Greg Tito had left his 9-year stint managing the Dungeons & Dragons brand for a political appointment as Deputy Director of External Affairs for the Washington secretary of state's office.

Greg Tito Leaves Wizards of the Coast

Greg Tito, formerly the communications manager in charge of overseeing messaging for the Dungeons & Dragons brand, is departing Wizards of the Coast for a career in the public sector. Tito announced that he would be joining the Washington secretary of state's office starting this week, ending an...

www.enworld.org

In a surprising turn of events, Tito criticized his former employers, saying "It feels good to do something that doesn't just line the pockets of a**holes." He later went on to clarify "Sorry. I meant "shareholders".

Tito is now Deputy Director of External Affairs for the Washington Secretary of State office in Olympia, WA.

 

[Scribe]

Six separate posters talked about the OGL debacle in this thread (myself being one of them). Yet, that's completely glossed over.

It's a 30 page thread, and I was out and driving most of the weekend. Please forgive my lapse if there are other people consistently downplaying what Hasbro/Wizards intended to do.

 

[Hussar]

It's a 30 page thread, and I was out and driving most of the weekend. Please forgive my lapse if there are other people consistently downplaying what Hasbro/Wizards intended to do.

You missed the point. Multiple people didn't "downplay" anything. They talked about the OGL debacle as it pertains to Mr. Tito's job at WotC. Fair enough. It makes sense in context. But, the fact that you jumped all over the ONE post that points out the actual fact that WotC NEVER IMPLEMENTED THE PLAN says a lot. @Oofta didn't "bring it up". It was already brought up. By multiple other people.

Yet, dead silence on the fact that multiple other people are "bringing it up". As usual. So long as we continue to toe the party line and talk about how bad WotC is, it's perfectly fine to say whatever we want. Make up facts. Massage the truth. Repeat misleading talking points. That's perfectly fine. But, actually bring up facts? Oh hell no. We must never do that. We must never let things like facts get in the way.

 

[Scribe]

But, the fact that you jumped all over the ONE post that points out the actual fact that WotC NEVER IMPLEMENTED THE PLAN says a lot. @Oofta didn't "bring it up".

Oh, well thats because as you say there is context to bringing it up, vs an ongoing attempt to downplay which has been going on for what, a year?

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Heh, perception is a funny thing.

The OGL debacle was brought up no less than 6 times in this thread alone before @Oofta said a single thing about it.

Yet, he gets taken to task for "bringing it up all the time".

Gets right back to what I was saying about people being pretty fast and loose with "facts" every time there's anything to do with WotC and it's actions over the years. Six separate posters talked about the OGL debacle in this thread (myself being one of them). Yet, that's completely glossed over.

See my post right above yours.

 

[Dausuul]

I'd agree with this.

The war between creatives and managers/marketing has always been strange to me, as I found myself on both sides of the fence and understand them quite well.

The idea that if you leave creatives alone and let them do the products that they want to do will inevitably lead to a good product and success is moot. It does happen. And when it happens many creatives point it out as a proof. But more often than not, it leads to a bad product, a product that's not within budget or no product at all. And then revenues go down, people lose their job and we point the finger at managers.

My experience is mostly with the video game industry. The number of games being released increases drastically every year. Just on Steam, a few years ago we passed the 7000 games in a year threshold (if I remember right). A vast majority of that are indies or small teams that make passion products, with no thoughts in marketing and just release the product when they feel like it's done, or when they can't afford to keep going. You've never heard of most of these games.

Now, I'm not saying that creatives need to be put in a stranglehold. But experienced and competent creatives learn to work with and embrace certain constraints: budget, target audience, resources available, etc. And it's a manager job to make sure that these constraints are clear, and to let the creatives focus on the product by removing road blocks or bringing an outsider point of view.

When companies get as big as Hasbro and WotC, the numbers after the commas start equating jobs. If your creatives make a great product that's not properly aligned with the marketing, or misses a deadline and a release window and that sales are down 10%. It doesn't seem like much, but in most companies, a decrease of 10% in revenue means jobs cut.

I work in a company that has between 5 and 10 million dollars in operating costs. I worked on the creative side before, and I manage the operations now. Keeping the production (creative), finances and marketing aligned on one goal is a very hard task to do at this scope. I cannot imagine at a bigger scope.

Exactly.

Good managers do a lot more than "get out of the way." They keep their employees aware of business requirements and constraints; resolve interpersonal issues; keep people on the same page so the final product comes together; go to bat to secure the resources their team needs; ensure that the right people are working on the right things; hire and, when necessary, fire people.

There are a lot of ways managers can be bad at the job. But let's not pretend the job is simple or easy.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

You missed the point. Multiple people didn't "downplay" anything. They talked about the OGL debacle as it pertains to Mr. Tito's job at WotC. Fair enough. It makes sense in context. But, the fact that you jumped all over the ONE post that points out the actual fact that WotC NEVER IMPLEMENTED THE PLAN says a lot. @Oofta didn't "bring it up". It was already brought up. By multiple other people.

Yet, dead silence on the fact that multiple other people are "bringing it up". As usual. So long as we continue to toe the party line and talk about how bad WotC is, it's perfectly fine to say whatever we want. Make up facts. Massage the truth. Repeat misleading talking points. That's perfectly fine. But, actually bring up facts? Oh hell no. We must never do that. We must never let things like facts get in the way.

On a slightly related note about actual facts... remember the big Pinkerton story?

I tried to find out what happened. I couldn't find anything (ANYTHING) after the initial explosion of articles.

I went to the person's youtube feed, and I saw the original post, and then the "Don't believe third parties" post, and then a post later showing him unboxing the set he bought, and then .... just a LOT of MTG unboxing videos.

Everyone remembers the initial report, and then there is always a lack of followup coverage. I am not ascribing any normative value to what I can't find- I think it's too easy to put your own bias on a lack of information. But it's another example of how we often lack facts to underlie our very strong opinions.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

Gets right back to what I was saying about people being pretty fast and loose with "facts" every time there's anything to do with WotC and it's actions over the years. Six separate posters talked about the OGL debacle in this thread (myself being one of them). Yet, that's completely glossed over.

In my relatively short experience here, it's actually a bit worse than just being "loose" with facts. It's bordering on the vitriol you find in political sub-reddits.

Just looking at recent threads, people are called sheep, shills, brainwashed, and several other lovely adjectives, all for even a mild defense of WotC. While others spout falsehoods, with zero supporting evidence, and defend them with platitudes for page after page.

You don't even have to go that far, this very thread has examples. Where just pointing out that WotC is acting within norms results in a barrage of negativity. This guy couldn't possibly be a disgruntled employee, no WotC is obviously the corporate equivalent of Satan.

I don't know if it's worth fighting such strong negative biases. Sometimes it's better to just say something negative about WotC and enjoy the dopamine rush from the likes. Or really stir the pot, and talk about 4e.

 

[Scott Christian]

Or really stir the pot, and talk about 4e.

Remember how great 4e was? And the lore - fantastic!

(In all seriousness, I did have fun playing 4e. I know others didn't, but I enjoyed it.)

 

[Oofta]

On a slightly related note about actual facts... remember the big Pinkerton story?

I tried to find out what happened. I couldn't find anything (ANYTHING) after the initial explosion of articles.

I went to the person's youtube feed, and I saw the original post, and then the "Don't believe third parties" post, and then a post later showing him unboxing the set he bought, and then .... just a LOT of MTG unboxing videos.

Everyone remembers the initial report, and then there is always a lack of followup coverage. I am not ascribing any normative value to what I can't find- I think it's too easy to put your own bias on a lack of information. But it's another example of how we often lack facts to underlie our very strong opinions.

There was a decent article here: Magic publishers sent Pinkerton agents to a YouTuber’s house to retrieve leaked cards

Spoiler: Highlights if anyone cares

From what oldschoolmtg said

• A collection agency (the Pinkertons) knocked on the door and the guy's wife answered.
• The fact that the original Pinkerton agency was a "paramilitary force" a century ago is mentioned in the article*
• Oldschoolmtg's wife was frightened by the agents who provided contact information for someone at WotC.
• They pulled the video
• Oldschoolmtg contacted Wizards. The contact was very apologetic, they simply wanted their product back so WotC could figure out what happened and why the product was delivered.

According to WotC had tried to reach out to Oldschoolmtg multiple times before sending a collection agency. From their reply to the inquiry
"...an investigator visited him and asked that he reach out to us as part of our investigation and return the embargoed product and packaging. He agreed to do both. The unreleased product will be replaced by us with the product he intended to purchase."
That's it. That's all we know.

My thoughts?

• It's quite possible the agents went overboard in their accusations. The WotC representative knew the cards were not stolen and that it was just a mix-up.
• Oldschoolmtg's viewership doubled after these videos. That would be incentive for a lot of people to potentially exaggerate a bit or simply not give updates to explain more details.
• We will never know the full story.

*What difference does it make what the Pinkerton Agency did a century ago when no one involved with the company now is still alive? Collection agencies aren't on the top of my favorite companies list, but they provide a legitimate service.

 

[Umbran]

It's a 30 page thread, and I was out and driving most of the weekend. Please forgive my lapse if there are other people consistently downplaying what Hasbro/Wizards intended to do.

Mod Note:
No. That is precisely the time when you need to have self-control.

Your defense of this seems to be that people disagreeing with you should be some excuse for treating people poorly. That's a problem, because people will disagree with you all the time here.

If you cannot treat people well on this subject, I advise you to avoid the subject.

Everyone else: you should not be beating this horse. The issue should be closed now.