Charles Ryan (and others) out at WotC?

[3catcircus]

do they have a noncompete clause in their employee contracts upon hire?

IANAL...

Non-compete agreements have been routinely struck down (partially, or in whole) in the courts, the most recent was the guy that Google hired from Microsoft.

Most people who have an NCA can and do ignore them if they get fired.

A non-disclosure agreement, on the other hand, is something you don't want to trifle with.

 

[3catcircus]

In a perfect world...

In a perfect world, one could hope that the remaining people working on D&D would all quit, start up their own OGL company, and wait for the D&D line to tank and watch as Hasbro is forced to sell the IP...

 

[Thomas Percy]

It's hard to treat a work for great American company as a solid job*.
And managers know it.
WotC is a chance of self-promotion in the industrty after all.

* I was workin' for HewlettPackard Poland some years ago, a I was fired by the guy who was fired next month by another guy who was fired next year by CEO from USA. And there is third CEO from this time.

 

[StupidSmurf]

I just want to say thanks to StupidSmurf, Charles, and Sean. I've been following the thread for the last couple of pages and it's immensely interesting to me to see the POV's of people in the business (past or present).

I don't know whether or not others of you are in the industry, but thanks to all of you.

I wish all of you luck in your future endeavors, and I'm actually pretty a big fan of the three of you (although I'm only about 60% sure who StupidSmurf is ).

Heh heh...I'm not quite sure how you mean it when you wrote that you're only 60% sure you know who I am, so permit me the luxury of a minor hijack here, and do a thumbnail:

"Real name's John Terra, I live in NH, and I'm 46. Got started doing gaming writing in 1986 with a Dragon article called "Administrators Advice", on how to run the Top Secret RPG (the original, good one...not Top Secret SI). I developed a good working relationship with Roger Moore and Bruce Heard, and contributed to a lot of various adventure anthologies.

I got more work, and ended up doing more Dragon articles, some early Dungeon stuff, and a whole slew of old RPGA tournaments. I also expanded my client base, and wound up doing writing for FASA (Earthdawn), Mayfair (DC Heroes), and West End Games (Star Wars, Shatterzone, Indiana Jones, and TORG).

Hit my stride when I wound up doing a bunch of AD&D stuff (parts of 2nd Ed Monster Manual binder pages Vol 1 and 2, part of Arms and Equipment Guide, part of Draconomicon, and the first Fighters Challenge module), Dragonlance stuff (Tree Lords, contributions to Otherlands and Tales of the Lance boxed set), and Realms stuff (Moonsea, contributions to Zhentil Keep boxed set, and to Warriors and Priests of the Realms).

My last product for the old TSR was the Realms adventure "Four From Cormyr" (and I never ended up getting my free copies! Bwahahaha!) which had delays in release because of that printer problem Sean mentioned. With the gaming market for freelancers dried up, I began writing for the "real world".

With freelancers back in use again, I've made inroads into getting back into gaming writing, but now as a supplement to my job, as opposed to the old days, where freelancing WAS my job. Thus far, I've done a portion of WotC's Star Wars "Coruscant and the Core Worlds," some web enhancements (including for Unapproachable East), and a "splat" book for KenzerCo's Kingdoms of Kalamar ("Stealth and Style"). " Oh, and I also did a chunk of a Chaosium Call of Cthulhu supplement that'll never see the light of day because the co-ordinator of the project dropped off the face of the Earth, apoarently!

There..that should do it. And if anyone's ever in the New England area and goes to OGC Con in the summer, swing on by...I'll be one of the guests of honor again.

We now return you to the topic in question:
Sean: Again, thanks for your reply. But really, no apology needed, though I appreciate the words. Seriously, I wasn't looking for an apology. Consider my initial remarks as my expressing a WTF moment that I believed was symptomatic of a bigger issue, namely that companies these days don't have the same degree of niceness that they used to.

Jdvn1 and Edena: Thank you, and you're welcome!!!

In General: I was telling my wife that I think the perfect thing would be a company that has the humanity and niceness of the old TSR and the business acumen of Hasbro. While we're at it, I'll wish for a flying pony that breathes fire!

 

[Pielorinho]

Moderator's Notes

Whisperfoot, we got rid of the rollseyes icon because it contributed to snarkiness in a way that doesn't fit with the board's tone. Please don't do that again.

Everyone, I know this is a heated topic, but please respond to the thread only if you can do so with utmost civility and respect for other members of the board. If you see someone posting inappropriately, please report their post and do not respond to it.

Personally, while I feel for the people who lost their jobs, I've got no interest in corporate politics at this level; I play D&D to escape from such concerns, and I moderate on this board because I love having a place to talk about D&D. Threads like this are in keeping with the board's mission, of course, but when someone reports a post in them, I've got to come read them, and that makes me cranky, and a cranky moderator is not someone you want to get on your bad side . So please don't post anything that will result in someone reporting your post.

Thanks!
Daniel

 

[Pramas]

If you mean John Rateliff, yeah, he was #8 on the list, above...

This is the third time poor John has been laid off too. First, he got it from TSR in their final days. Then he was laid off from WotC a few years ago. He was brought back on as a contractor maybe 18 months later. I had lunch with him a month ago and he told me he had finally been hired back as a regular staffer with benefits and all that he was quite happy about it. I hope he lands on his feet.

 

[Turjan]

I think Hecatomb had a major negative impact at Wizards. I have at least two stores that are literally giving it away as prizes because no one will buy it. Wizards made a huge push with this "adult" game and I do not think it has done too well. The game play really stinks and the cards are very difficult to shuffle.

"Adult" game? Maybe. I think that's not the only problem. Here an excerpt from the product description:

"To some players, antediluvian promises have been revealed: to he who can obliterate the universe, divine power is bequeathed, enough to recast existence in his own image. To this end, players need to tap the power of ancient gods of destruction, flirting with personal obliteration all the while."

This makes me think what the target group is. Perhaps, megalomaniac academics ?

 

[jgbrowning]

This is the third time poor John has been laid off too. First, he got it from TSR in their final days. Then he was laid off from WotC a few years ago. He was brought back on as a contractor maybe 18 months later. I had lunch with him a month ago and he told me he had finally been hired back as a regular staffer with benefits and all that he was quite happy about it. I hope he lands on his feet.

Damn, that really sucks. I've never met the man but I can feel dedication like that through the keyboard. I hope he does find work doing something he enjoys.

joe b.

 

[Turjan]

This is the third time poor John has been laid off too. First, he got it from TSR in their final days. Then he was laid off from WotC a few years ago. He was brought back on as a contractor maybe 18 months later. I had lunch with him a month ago and he told me he had finally been hired back as a regular staffer with benefits and all that he was quite happy about it. I hope he lands on his feet.

This sounds horrible. I imagine that this doesn't exactly pamper the self-esteem.

 

[Monte At Home]

Not that I was being snubbed or anything like that, it's just that I was in the circle, but not the inner circle where you actually learned to cast spells and stuff.

Sean, you weren't supposed to know about that.

And you certainly weren't supposed to mention it on a public messageboard.

You're going to have to be silenced permenently, now, veggie-boy.