AMpersand #400 Bill S leaving WotC (and others?)

[mhensley]

Clear up a couple things I read that are not correct.

Hasbro fiscal is January - December.

This has nothing to do with an upcoming earnings call. Hasbro is a 4 billion dollar a year company with a market cap of 5.95 billion. Wall Street does not care about a layoff of a handful of employees.

That said, it would be very interesting to know whether or not the layoffs affected other divisions of wotc or just D&D.

 

[qstor]

This has nothing to do with an upcoming earnings call. Hasbro is a 4 billion dollar a year company with a market cap of 5.95 billion. Wall Street does not care about a layoff of a handful of employees.

I'm sure it has SOMETHING to do with sales of D&D though.

Wish them the best and hope they find something soon.

Mike

 

[Piratecat]

Sounds like a strategic realignment to me. I wish them nothing but the best; I have exceptional amount of respect for each one of them. With luck, they'll settle in a job they love even more.

 

[TarionzCousin]

This has nothing to do with an upcoming earnings call. Hasbro is a 4 billion dollar a year company with a market cap of 5.95 billion. Wall Street does not care about a layoff of a handful of employees.

[MENTION=51773]Scott_Rouse[/MENTION]: Any guess as to why the layoffs, then? It's okay; we won't tell anyone else.

I hate to hear this stuff. I hope they all get good jobs soon and nobody goes hungry.

 

[Dedekind]

So sorry to hear about the layoffs, but I hope some video game company will be gaining some talented people.

I've never understood who actually makes these decisions. It certainly isn't Hasbro directly (no matter how often that gets repeated on Enworld).

 

[Scott_Rouse]

[MENTION=51773]Scott_Rouse[/MENTION]: Any guess as to why the layoffs, then? It's okay; we won't tell anyone else.

I hate to hear this stuff. I hope they all get good jobs soon and nobody goes hungry.

I don't have any insight and I don't want to guess, that just drives more speculation like "oh noes they're selling D&D"

Having gone through this myself, I hope they're able to get through the wave of emotions they're likely to experience over the coming days & weeks. It's hard to walk away from something you put your heart and soul into.

 

[TarionzCousin]

"oh noes they're selling D&D"

What?!?



But seriously, this news sucks. I've been laid off twice and it's no fun. Oh sure, you have lots of time to play games and sleep in, but finding cash to pay bills is stressful.

I think all of WotC's unemployed should form a film studio and make good sci-fi/fantasy movies. Who here wouldn't want to watch "White Plume Mountain," "Dead Gods," or the G-D-Q series? Even if they were cheap and/or animated they would be entertaining.

 

[Dragonblade]

Honestly, while I hope Bill finds a new job soon, there is a lot about his direction of D&D and the products he has had a hand in that I despise.

Going all the way back to the 90's, when he did the Revised Dark Sun campaign box. I felt like he butchered the Dark Sun setting and watered down and neutered everything that was cool about the original setting.

Throughout the years, I have found that I disagree with his vision of D&D and stewardship of the brand. More recent examples, include the increasing move to all digitial subscription based content, and the online tools fiasco. The cancellation of paper Dragon and Dungeon, and to add insult to injury even the removal of compiled PDF articles. The ever progressing boardgame-ification of D&D, and so on to name just a few.

All of it has his fingerprints all over it. I just hope whoever takes the reins next can salvage the ruins of the game I grew up with.

And no Paizo fans, Pathfinder is not the answer to what ails me. 90% of everything I despised about 3e is still alive and well in Pathfinder. I play both Pathfinder and 4e and know the flaws of both systems intimately.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Ah yes, too bad for Bill and crew, getting the axe can suck. OTOH in my experience it always leads to something good in the end. Life goes on.

The positive side is new blood. Someone will be filling Bill's shoes. There's little doubt that will mean some reassessment of where the game is at. Perhaps there will be some positive developments out of that.

 

[Zaran]

Maybe Bill's absence will pave the way for the Donkey to be introduced back into DnD!

Good Luck Bill! I really hope you can find your way back into a Star Wars RPG!