Charles Ryan (and others) out at WotC?

[diaglo]

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.

yeah, that's why i asked. i knew he had been in and out of the TSR/WotC fold.

still liked (although i prefer the original more) his adaptation of the Keep on the Borderlands for the return to series.

 

[William Ronald]

Well, there is some news on the Magic the Gathering front: The Mirage Set is being rereleased. Possibly this is a move to get some people who have left the CCG scene back into the fold. (No card pun intended.) Possibly WotC will

I feel very bad for the people who lost their jobs, and I will look for their names on products. It is hard to see good people like John Rateliff, Charles Ryan, Peter Archer, Michelle Lyons and everyone else let go.

The sky may not be falling, but we shouldn't sit on our hands and pretend that this is a great thing either. What happened today may be good for Hasbro, but it is not good for D&D nor for D&D fans. I think that if enough D&D enthusiasts sent in some well-placed, polite letters stating their concerns for how Hasbro is managing D&D it would at least get people's attention and maybe make D&D not the easy place to cut in the future.

This is a good idea. Does anyone have an idea of whom we should contact with our concerns? I have seen several good products from WoTC and I think that the company has seen some support for D&D products. (Okay, I don't know sales figures. However, I have seen some products under Charles Ryan's watch that I have liked.)

 

[MerricB]

Well, there is some news on the Magic the Gathering front: The Mirage Set is being rereleased.

It's for online play only. It isn't being "rereleased", it is being released for the first time in an online format.

Cheers!

 

[William Ronald]

It's for online play only. It isn't being "rereleased", it is being released for the first time in an online format.

Cheers!

I stand corrected. I read too fast. Still, it might be an effort to try to lure in some old timers for the Magic the Gathering crowd.

Still waiting for a response on who to conatact at WoTC or Hasbro. (I suppose if anyone here owns Hasbro stock, it might be worth mentioning in a letter.)

 

[Urizen]

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.

That's pure corporate evil.

I hope everyone on the list lands on their feet soon.

 

[Darrin Drader]

That's pure corporate evil.

It is, and one of the worst things about this is that John is straight up, one of the nicest people you will ever meet. When I was a lowly CS grunt, there were times when someone would write us in desperation, looking for an obscure map out of a first or second edition product, and I decided I would try to be helpful and hunt it down for them. Normally that wasn't a major problem, I would just go to the library, make a photocopy, and send it out. Well at one point they decided to do some housecleaning in the library, and while they did keep at least one copy of everything, they boxed it all up, so it was completely inaccessible for months. Like I said, there were some customers where I understood their plight, they were being very polite, and I wanted to help, so I went to John (because I think he was in charge of the library), and asked if there was anything he could do for me. On several occasions he brought in his personal copies from home, and every time he had them for me the next day. He's also always willing to take some time to talk shop, on one occasion giving me ammo to use against someone who went on a tirade about how Eberron elves were supposedly a direct ripoff of Tolkien elves.

I feel really sorry for those poor people who keep getting let go, crawl back in, get secure, only to get dumped again.There's been a few people who simply decided that it was better to leave what was otherwise a very cool place to work rather than live in constant fear of losing their livelihood. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if there were a number of other companies in the industry, but really there aren't that many with full time staff positions. It's not the easiest industry to work in, and for WotC this is made much worse by the parent company.

 

[Ranger REG]

One thing about these comparisons between TSR in 90s and WotC--One of them is a company that may have seemed to treat employees fairly well but ran itself into the ground; another is a company that is trying to cut costs to keep inself not only afloat but also a healthy viable company.

I am presently working for a company which is shutting down at the end of the year, obviously resulting in everyone loosing their jobs, not just a few layoffs. Until now, the company had been pretty good to its employees.

So... Which is the better (albeit still sucky) choice over the other? Would you have made the same choice if you were age 50 than you would at 30?

 

[Jdvn1]

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:
...
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).

Yeah, I had read that you did some of this stuff. I was thinking, "Isn't he the guy that did..."

I don't keep up with who does what as much as I'd like. SeanKReynolds I know a bit better because I've used some stuffs from his site.

While we're at it, I'll wish for a flying pony that breathes fire!

I recommend against this. You don't want to accidentally be burned to a crisp.

 

[StupidSmurf]

Yeah, I had read that you did some of this stuff. I was thinking, "Isn't he the guy that did..."

I never have been really good at getting my name out. I've been one of those writers that people say "OH...YOU'RE the guy who wrote this and that? Wow! Never knew who you were!" It always give me a chuckle! I also get a kick out of overhearing gamers at OGC con describe me as "That old-school gamer guy"

I don't keep up with who does what as much as I'd like. SeanKReynolds I know a bit better because I've used some stuffs from his site.

As a rule, I only give the credits a cursory glance. I'm too excited to see what lies in the actual product! And these days, I'm actually far more familiar with Sean's work than I am with my own! I'm a big Realms buff, and run a Realms campaign, so if it's Realms, I have it, and use it. Again, I'll have people come up to me and say "Hey, in Four From Cormyr, there was this guy who did this-and-that...did you plan for him to be a so-and-so?" And I'd stand there smiling and nodding and saying "Why, yes! Yes, I did!" and inside going "I wrote this 8 years ago...What guy??"

I recommend against this. You don't want to accidentally be burned to a crisp.

Nonsense. My pony and I would be the bestest of friends. And we'd go off on all sorts of neat adventures. And those adventures would be immortalized in the heart-warming children's series "The Adventures of JT and My Little Pony of Flaming Death!" Copyright 2005, soon to become an award-winning d20 supplement!

 

[Qualidar]

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!

Dropped off, or was snatched off?