Charles Ryan (and others) out at WotC?

[rgard]

Just curious: where is the Antarctica office of WOTC located, exactly?

(I can well believe that people currently living there would play a lot of stuff like M:tG and D&D, though!)

It's next store to my Antartic game store: Blue Star Games South.

 

[Pramas]

What scale is it? The manual states that it IS 15mm.

OK, this is waaaaayyy off topic, so I apologize.

This is one of the problems with Axis & Allies. When they announced it, I thought I'd get a starter and maybe a booster or two to give it a try. Worst case scenario, I'd get some pre-painted vehicles I could use in Flames of War. The trouble is that while the infantry are more or less 15mm, the vehicles are not. They are maybe 10-12mm so they look small next to actual 15mm figs. I got a Jagdpanther in my A&A starter set, for example, and when you put in next to a FOW Panzer III you can see that it's smaller. 60 ton assault guns should not be smaller than 20 ton tanks. I don't like A&A enough to keep buying it on its own merits. I may have continued to pick up some boosters if I could use the vehicles in other 15mm games, as I'm a lazy painter. Once I did the size comparison though, I jettisoned that idea.

 

[StupidSmurf]

Well, actually, I'm going to agree with your earlier post about TSR having more humanity than WotC, though I know Sean doesn't. Now normally, far be it from me to defend or say anything good about TSR upper management. But that's not the whole picture of TSR. While TSR was corrupt at the top, everyone from the middle managers on down were good people. There were people there who fought for other people's jobs, and eventually lost their jobs because of it. And even the dreaded upper management didn't do layoffs until they absolutely had to. It was clear to all concerned that things were terrible, and something like that was coming. Not like most of the WotC layoffs, where I'm told that people were apparently quite blindsided. Unlike TSR, WotC has a typical backbiting corporate atmosphere at every level of the company.

I suppose in the end it's just a lesser of two evils thing.

Yes! YES! Monte, you hit the nail RIGHT on the head!!! "Everyone from the middle managers on down were good people." That's EXACTLY the case, I found. I recall working with Zeb Cook, Bruce Heard, Roger Moore, Karen Boomgarden, Harold Johnson, Anne Brown, to name a few...all of them really really nice people. They went to bat for you, and you weren't forgotten. I was given first crack at deciding if I wanted to do a project, sent free stuff, asked if I wanted to be included in playtesting, heck even invited to participate in a panel discussion at GenCon.

 

[diaglo]

Yes! YES! Monte, you hit the nail RIGHT on the head!!! "Everyone from the middle managers on down were good people." That's EXACTLY the case, I found. I recall working with Zeb Cook, Bruce Heard, Roger Moore, Karen Boomgarden, Harold Johnson, Anne Brown, to name a few...all of them really really nice people. They went to bat for you, and you weren't forgotten. I was given first crack at deciding if I wanted to do a project, sent free stuff, asked if I wanted to be included in playtesting, heck even invited to participate in a panel discussion at GenCon.

i've read comments by (T)Ed Stark to the same effect when he spoke of Harold Johnson going to bat for him.

 

[francisca]

i've read comments by (T)Ed Stark to the same effect when he spoke of Harold Johnson going to bat for him.

I briefly gamed and chatted with Harold in Lake Geneva and Gencon earlier this year, he is a really nice guy, and a hoot to play MA with!

 

[Henry]

Let me take a break to rave to Stupidsmurf: It certainly took my dim brain long enough to figure out who you were, but I wanted to say thank you for some great works in the past from both D&D and Top Secret. One of your articles on Top Secret was one of my favorite Dragon articles of the past 25 years (the one about the PC who parleyed knowledge of Latin into a whole lot more than he probably should have. )

That's all.

 

[Siran Dunmorgan]

In this case the restriction is a self-imposed one, from within Hasbro. As a matter of policy they can not hire "freelance" someone they just layed off. (I don't know the genesis of that policy.)

I am not certain, but I think that the duration of this "probation" extends to the limit of the severance package.

Anyhow, this isn't specifically a "non-compete" kind of situation. Maybe your question wasn't asking that, but as it followed on the heels of (and quoted) Nicole I couldn't tell.

A freelancer could (hypothetically) gain employment with another outside design firm to do an end-run around this restriction. That is to say, Hasbro pays Elite Design Studio to complete some outside design work. Elite Design subcontracts the job to John Doe, knowing that he is the best man for the job with up-to-date, intimate experience of the brand in question.

In this case, though again I am not certain, any 'competitive' employment of John Doe within the duration of his severance package could invalidate his severance package (and this may or may not include Elite Design Studio).

I am not certain, otherwise, how a non-compete clause is enforceable under the law. The employer really has no other legal leverage over their former employee to make such demands.

I can speak to some of this; many large companies have policies that originate in the idea that "we can't pay these people twice for doing the same job", i.e., they can't be hired during the time that their severance is in effect, e.g., if you have a three-month severance, they can't hire you back on a contractor basis for three months.

I know people to whom this has happened; some of them even tried giving back the severance package in order to be hired as contractors immediately. However, the company had already booked the severance as payroll expense and reported it to Internal Revenue: the company could not reasonably take it back.

The extent to which a company can hire a third party—Elite Design Studio, in your example—who in turn hires the original employee varies on a state-by-state basis in the US. It's perfectly legitimate in California, for example, but I believe is under certain restrictions in New York and some other states with strong protections for trade unions. I don't know at all the extent to which this applies in Washington.

—Siran Dunmorgan

 

[StupidSmurf]

Let me take a break to rave to Stupidsmurf: It certainly took my dim brain long enough to figure out who you were, but I wanted to say thank you for some great works in the past from both D&D and Top Secret. One of your articles on Top Secret was one of my favorite Dragon articles of the past 25 years (the one about the PC who parleyed knowledge of Latin into a whole lot more than he probably should have. )

That's all.

Wow. Thanks! I'm delighted you liked them!

To Diaglo and Francisca: Ed Stark is really good people too. Matter of fact, the only reason I didn't include him in my list of cool people at TSR is that I actually began dealing with him when he worked at West End Games. He was one of the cool WEG folks!

 

[vrykyl]

I briefly gamed and chatted with Harold in Lake Geneva and Gencon earlier this year, he is a really nice guy, and a hoot to play MA with!

There was a story of Mr. Johnson back in the early 80s, when then-game designer Tracy Hickman was on the chopping block and Harold offered to resign instead because Tracy had young children. It was part of the more community (and less corporate) feel that I had in my visits to the TSR offices in the early-to-mid 90s. There was something special about the company's atmosphere, despite its obvious problems, that made me really want to work there.

Another decade later, and now I'm working just down the street from where TSR was founded (and right next door to the original site of Gen Con). I drive by the old office on Sheridan Springs Road quite often, and always shake my head sadly.

Jamie Chambers
Vice President
Sovereign Press, Inc.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Tracy Hickman

There was a story of Mr. Johnson back in the early 80s, when then-game designer Tracy Hickman was on the chopping block and Harold offered to resign instead because Tracy had young children. It was part of the more community (and less corporate) feel that I had in my visits to the TSR offices in the early-to-mid 90s. There was something special about the company's atmosphere, despite its obvious problems, that made me really want to work there.

Another decade later, and now I'm working just down the street from where TSR was founded (and right next door to the original site of Gen Con). I drive by the old office on Sheridan Springs Road quite often, and always shake my head sadly.

Jamie Chambers
Vice President
Sovereign Press, Inc.

Man, I still wish Tracy did game design work. His modules were some of my favorites. I know the novels make him a ton more money though so I don't begrudge him.