Bob the World Builder Interviews Kyle Brink

[Parmandur]

One thing that strikes me. When the question is a tough one Kyle often says “I dint know I’m not a part of that department or that was before my time” yet he goes into great detail about things that are positive, in an authoritative way, about areas he’s stated are not in his area or were before his time.

Note however I am probably biased.

My guess is that it's easier for him to find out information reliably that is positive outside of his own experience, than it is negative. Like, who wants to talk about a toxic management episode from 7 years ago?

 

[ThorinTeague]

Just to be clear. I like that Kyle has done this. And I do think he’s sincere.

I think he's sincere too but I think he's being used. And we still need the org chart. We still haven't identified who the architects of this decision were. Actually, the investors need to know this more than the fandom does.

 

[Parmandur]

Haven't come back to Dark Sun the setting because it has problematic elements and it is difficult to be faithful to the source material and update to current standards.

Well, easy enough to guess that, appreciate that he's forthright about it.

 

[Loren the GM]

The bolded part was new to me too, I heard him say the rest of it before. I hadn't thought that before, but it makes sense.

Yes, that is specifically the part that felt new, and filled in some question marks about the situation for me.

 

[darjr]

My guess is that it's easier for him to find out information reliably that is positive outside of his own experience, than it is negative. Like, who wants to talk about a toxic management episode from 7 years ago?

You haven’t worked in corporate America have you?

 

[Parmandur]

Good question about games Kyle likes to play (besides D&D):

Savage Worlds
A Blades in the Dark based game
GURPS

One of the cool things about D&D today is that random grizzled professional corporate operations guys can now.be people who have been RPGing for thirty years. Different than the 80's or 90's.

 

[Parmandur]

You haven’t worked in corporate America have you?

LOL, I have and boy howdy. But truth is, people put a lot under wraps. And I wouldn't expect him to be able to speak to managerial stuff from 3+ years ago. He seems to speak authoritatively when he believes he has good info.

 

[dave2008]

I think he's sincere too but I think he's being used. And we still need the org chart. We still haven't identified who the architects of this decision were. Actually, the investors need to know this more than the fandom does.

I don't need to know that. There were many people involved along the way. Kyle said he had been involved for 2 years, well before his current position. In fact, it was going on well before most of the top people were in their current positions or even at WotC/ Hasbro. The architects of the original concept may no longer even be with company. It just really isn't relevant to me.

What I care about is how they move forward. Did the current leaders learn from this issue, a mess they mostly inherited from others and didn't understand the ramifications of previously. Do they understand it now?/

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

In fact it was going on well before most of the top people were in their current positions or even at WotC/ Hasbro. The architects of the original concept may no longer even be with company.

I wouldn't be surprised if it started, at least in some form, when they realized that the GSL was a failure.

 

[Lojaan]

Biggest take away so far for me that hasn't been covered in other interviews (not finished listening) is around the 33:00 minute mark. In addition to the scrambling to put out actual changes to the OGL and not wanting to communicate until something concrete could be said so as not to flame the fire, the internal leaks shut down internal communication. This made it harder to create external communication. For instance, that first statement was not seen by Kyle until it literally got posted, because the internal systems of communication shut down because of a lack of trust as the leaks continued.

This feels very accurate and helps explain this part of the breakdown in communication to me, and why that first public response was so bad.

Ugh this feels like spin to me. If it was true, why wasn't it mentioned before?

Feels like a "oh I've thought up a great answer for when they ask about X!" situation.