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.

 

[Distracted DM]

I have found that DDB slows games down (especially on the phone app) and causes players to not learn how to play their characters. Going back to paper character sheets and spell cards has sped up our games with the cost of a little longer session 0 where we do character creation. I only play in-person games.

I was big on using DDB until the market place changed. I bought 90%+ of everything up to Monsters of the Multiverse. Now it all sits unused because it doesn't save anytime and the way they chose to implement the 24 stuff has broken so many things for the people that don't use them. I can't sell it and I don't use it hence the regret. Every major issue I have with DDB is something wotc did after they bought the site.

Yes, DDB is a crutch to new players that prevents many of them from having to learn the game/their characters. This is just my experience obviously, but when I forced players off of DDB and went through character creation and transfers to paper, they learned their characters and game knowledge that I long took for granted and didn't (originally) understand why they couldn't answer "simple" questions about the characters they had made when they came up during play.

It's not just DDB, btw, it's any extremely-automated character creator.. but most character creators (back in the day) weren't that automated, you still needed to know what you were doing.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Yes, DDB is a crutch to new players that prevents many of them from having to learn the game/their characters. This is just my experience obviously, but when I forced players off of DDB and went through character creation and transfers to paper, they learned their characters game knowledge that I long took for granted and didn't (originally) understand why they couldn't answer "simple" questions about the characters they had made when they came up during play.

It's not just DDB, btw, it's any extremely-automated character creator.. but most character creators (back in the day) weren't that automated, you still needed to know what you were doing.

I think this is right. I am using an electronic program for character generation and don’t think my kids know the bones underneath.

I am going to transfer to paper sheets and walk them through it all…

 

[OB1]

Sorry to hear about your career woes, that bites.

Honestly, looking at what other film industries are able to accomplish these days, a decentralization of gilm/TV around the world may just be an inevitable result of technology changing. Look at what Godzilla Minus One did with a slim budget.

Appreciate the sentiment. Honestly, I've been very lucky in my career the last 20 years and have little to complain about. I'm also enjoying going back to school and getting into a field where my natural aptitude for science and math will get to play a bigger role.

And yeah, the decentralization of the industry will likely be a positive for the art form. Whether theatres survive as the way to consume it is yet to be seen, though the rest of the world is leagues ahead of the US when it comes to keeping the theatrical experience relevant.

 

[tetrasodium]

I have found that DDB slows games down (especially on the phone app) and causes players to not learn how to play their characters. Going back to paper character sheets and spell cards has sped up our games with the cost of a little longer session 0 where we do character creation. I only play in-person games.

I was big on using DDB until the market place changed. I bought 90%+ of everything up to Monsters of the Multiverse. Now it all sits unused because it doesn't save anytime and the way they chose to implement the 24 stuff has broken so many things for the people that don't use them. I can't sell it and I don't use it hence the regret. Every major issue I have with DDB is something wotc did after they bought the site.

That was my experience as well. An additional problem I noticed was players getting custom modified magic items like a wand with N charges that does not recharge or whatever & just ignoring the modifications to take the default unless the modification makes it stronger. A lot of spellcasters using ddb would just treat their class spell list as spells prepared/known too. Policing all of the bad behavior was just too much overhead compared to the obvious "I can see the pencil is not moving & you never erased anything Bob"

 

[Parmandur]

Appreciate the sentiment. Honestly, I've been very lucky in my career the last 20 years and have little to complain about. I'm also enjoying going back to school and getting into a field where my natural aptitude for science and math will get to play a bigger role.

And yeah, the decentralization of the industry will likely be a positive for the art form. Whether theatres survive as the way to consume it is yet to be seen, though the rest of the world is leagues ahead of the US when it comes to keeping the theatrical experience relevant.

It is really hard for me to see a future in the theatrical experience. And I used to go every week!

 

[OB1]

It is really hard for me to see a future in the theatrical experience. And I used to go every week!

Alamo Drafthouse is the model.

At the very least, theatres need to realize they are competing with restaurants as a fairly inexpensive way to enjoy a night out from the house. You attract customers with atmosphere and food offerings, not necessarily the content on the screen. But most US theatre chains are too addicted to studio content selling tickets for them to pivot to the new reality.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Alamo Drafthouse is the model.

At the very least, theatres need to realize they are competing with restaurants as a fairly inexpensive way to enjoy a night out from the house. You attract customers with atmosphere and food offerings, not necessarily the content on the screen. But most US theatre chains are too addicted to studio content selling tickets for them to pivot to the new reality.

If you're suggesting that WotC buy a chain of bars around the country and then dig a giant hole in the middle that leads into an underworld full of dangerous animals and death traps, you've clearly got a future in the Hasbro C-Suite.

 

[OB1]

If you're suggesting that WotC buy a chain of bars around the cuontry and then dig a giant hole in the middle that leads into an underworld full of dangerous animals and death traps, you've clearly got a future in the Hasbro C-Suite.

No, I was having a side conversation about the declining theatrical experience in the US, which relates to D&D through the problem of AAA titles being a much bigger crapshoot due to fractured audiences (ie Sigil). How movie theatres fix that probelm is very different than how video game companies fix the problem. WotC's issue remains how to get more people to play the game in the first place. They thought a AAA digital version of the game might be able to do it, but it proved to difficult and/or too expensive, so they canned it.

 

[Parmandur]

Alamo Drafthouse is the model.

At the very least, theatres need to realize they are competing with restaurants as a fairly inexpensive way to enjoy a night out from the house. You attract customers with atmosphere and food offerings, not necessarily the content on the screen. But most US theatre chains are too addicted to studio content selling tickets for them to pivot to the new reality.

I agree, just don't see much evidence that is happening yet.

 

[OB1]

I agree, just don't see much evidence that is happening yet.

Unfortunately not. I actually spent quite a bit of time looking at opening a dine-in theatre in my area (which, while close to LA proper, doesn't have one within 40 miles) when I first lost my job and put together a solid biz plan, but didn't have the capital to get a loan sufficient to get it off the ground (even if I had decided to put my house up as collateral).

Point being, it's expensive and risky to do what Drafthouse is doing (hence why they are expanding so slowly and carefully) and the big chains, being slow moving corps, are having a difficult time adapting as well, and thus still desperate for those $400M blockbusters that drive people to theatres just to see the movie.