Project Sigil 90% Of D&D’s Project Sigil Team Laid Off

Reports are coming in of a swathe of layoffs at Wizards of the Coast, constituting 90% of the team of the new Project Sigil virtual tabletop platform. In all, over 30 people have been laid off, leaving a team of around 3 people.

Sigil is still in beta, only recently made public three weeks ago. Recent reports indicated that the scope of the project was seemingly being cut back.

WotC’s Andy Collins—who has worked on multiple editions of D&D and other WotC TTRPGs going back to 1996—reported via LinkedIn that he was one of those laid off. He indicated that the small team left behind would continue to work on the project.

More news as it comes in.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I just said what they had to do with teams. Pessimistic outlooks tend to reduce team performance, by reducing dedication to the effort, making success harder or more expensive to achieve. Pessimism is also associated with less creative problem solving.

That there are plenty of them out there doesn't somehow mean the outlook doesn't have a negative impact on efforts to reach a goal.

I suppose I'm talking about personal pessimism, and how I don't see it being inherently worse than personal optimism. I can see your point about it in a team setting.

 

[SteveC]

On the other hand, pessimists generally experience less disappointment.

I have always said, assume the worst and you'll often be pleasantly surprised .

 

[Umbran]

So, insanity. Trying the same thing over and over again hoping for different results...

So, while it feels good to knock big companies, and WotC in particular, let us look at this for a moment...

WotC, the company, tried major software efforts before, and failed. This is true.

But, "the company" isn't really a single, static entity, now is it? It is a collection of people. There's been major leadership changes since the last effort, and actual people behind Sigil are not the same as before. This WotC hadn't tried it before.

Also, this wasn't actually "the same thing". They took a different approach, and brought in-house a bunch of development expertise by buying entire game companies for this project, where in prior efforts they outsourced efforts to single vendors.

So, this effort was significantly different.

And, by the way, what many here may be unaware, but last time I saw the statistics, something just over half of all large software development projects fail. The word "fail" there does a lot of heavy lifting, as it includes projects that never release, as well as those which go massively over time, over budget, or only with drastically reduced features.

It is not strange that Sigil never made it to market. Software development is risky.

 

[TheSword]

I have always said, assume the worst and you'll often be pleasantly surprised .

That approach is one the reasons people never leave their home town.

 

[TheSword]

I suppose I'm talking about personal pessimism, and how I don't see it being inherently worse than personal optimism. I can see your point about it in a team setting.

It’s bad for your health. Markedly. You might think that it’s protecting yourself but it’s actually unhealthy as well as self-defeating.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It’s bad for your health. Markedly. You might think that it’s protecting yourself but it’s actually unhealthy as well as self-defeating.

Just objectively? Or is this your opinion presented as fact?

 

[TheSword]

Just objectively? Or is this your opinion presented as fact?

There are large scale scientific studies. You can draw your own conclusions.

I first read about it the effects in Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers (think it was Outliers) where a large scale study of students found that focussing on positive outcomes as opposed to negative outcomes before an exam improved their quantitive performance in the exam substantially.

Pessimism and risk of death from coronary heart disease among middle-aged and older Finns: an eleven-year follow-up study - PMC

Mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) remains at quite notable levels. Research on the risk factors and the treatment of CHD has focused on physiological factors, but there is an increasing amount of evidence connecting mental health and ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032724011029#:~:text=Low%20optimism%20and%20high%20pessimism%20may%20increase%20depression%20risk%20because,2005%3B%20Yang%2C%202022).

The relationship of future anxiety with a multidimensional framework of well-being among undergraduate students: optimism and pessimism as mediators - BMC Psychology

Background Enhancing and maintaining well-being is of great importance for university students to improve their future lives. Therefore, determining the factors that promote well-being is essential. This study aimed to examine the mediating roles of optimism and pessimism in the association...

bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com

 

[Micah Sweet]

O

There are large scale scientific studies. You can draw your own conclusions.

I first read about it the effects in Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers (think it was Outliers) where a large scale study of students found that focussing on positive outcomes as opposed to negative outcomes before an exam improved their quantitive performance in the exam substantially.

Pessimism and risk of death from coronary heart disease among middle-aged and older Finns: an eleven-year follow-up study - PMC

Mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) remains at quite notable levels. Research on the risk factors and the treatment of CHD has focused on physiological factors, but there is an increasing amount of evidence connecting mental health and ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032724011029#:~:text=Low%20optimism%20and%20high%20pessimism%20may%20increase%20depression%20risk%20because,2005%3B%20Yang%2C%202022).

The relationship of future anxiety with a multidimensional framework of well-being among undergraduate students: optimism and pessimism as mediators - BMC Psychology

Background Enhancing and maintaining well-being is of great importance for university students to improve their future lives. Therefore, determining the factors that promote well-being is essential. This study aimed to examine the mediating roles of optimism and pessimism in the association...

bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com

Ok. What if the situation about which one is expecting positive or negative outcomes is completely outside one's control, like the success or failure of a corporate technological initiative? Does that also have a direct effect on one's health?

 

[KYRON45]

Just objectively? Or is this your opinion presented as fact?

Not everyone processes everything everyone says with such clinical precision. It's very tedious.
Were not curing diseases and preventing wars. Were just people having casual conversations.

 

[SteveC]

That approach is one the reasons people never leave their home town.

As someone who's traveled a lot, I find people to be the same underneath near everywhere. Whether that's for good or for ill depends on if you're an optimist or a pessimist. Honestly I change my opinion on that on a regular basis.