Mari Kolkowsky (D&D Art Director) got laid off yesterday

[Sunseeker]

Being laid off sucks, but one element that almost never comes up when discussing at will employment is that it cuts both ways. If I'm working at will I can give my customary two weeks notice at any time and move onto a better opportunity. It's true that no one can be compelled to work, but penalties for breaching an employment contract hurt.

BTW Mari thank you for all the work you've done. I hope you're able to move onto bigger and better things.

Technically, you only need to give 24 hours notice. 2 weeks is just polite.

 

[DaveMage]

Poor Dungeons & Dragons. Despite being such an innovation that it pioneered an entire new kind of hobby, it's had the misfortune to never be owned by a company that knew what to do with it.

WotC did - before WotC was sold to Hasbro.

So we got 1.5 - 2 years where they knew what they were doing.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Why would anyone want to work for the Dread Pirate WOTC anymore?

There are lots of potential reasons. One is that it's just an amazing experience. During my 14 months in RPG R&D I met some stunningly cool people, got to work with giants of the industry (many of whom had written the very same game material I used to have fun summers in my mother’s garage as a teen years beforehand), and learned more about game design than any period even twice as long before or since. I sat next to Monte Cook for quite a while, and just a cubical divider away from Jonathan Tweet, James Wyatt, and Rob Heinsoo. Mike Selinker and Rich Baker had offices right behind me. Thomas Reid was my boss at first, and then later Chris Perkins. Most days you could learn a lot just by sitting quietly and listening to those people's conversations (one reason writing for Wotc is differently than doing the same work from home), and if you had a question of your own look at the list of people you could ask!

Now a lot of those folks are gone, along with many other people I have kept in touch with (some of whom, such as Chris Pramas and Stan!, I still work with), but WotC still has some of the best game designers on the planet. So if I had a chance to spend time in the same office as James Wyatt and Rodney Thompson again yeah, I might well take it despite being laid off once before and knowing most likely I’d end up getting laid off again eventually.

Another reason is love of the game. D&D is near and dear to my heart, and the lure of getting to play in the official sandbox again might well be more than I could resist.

Also, to be honest the money is better there than for nearly any other rpg design job.

How many game companies need to spring up and eat WOTC's lunch before they realize how important taking care of your people is to long term success?

My impression remains that corporate WotC and Hasbro do not see any of the companies created or run by ex-employees as competition. None of them come close to touching Magic's numbers, and I bet Wotc sees success of things like Pathfinder to be irrelevant to how D&D sells.

I *disagree* with them, but that's my take of their belief.

 

[jbear]

There seems to be a lot of rumour being talked about as if it was fact in this thread. It seems to have somehow rolled into WotC selling the D&D brand ... oO'' (Wow, bit of a leap, don't you think?). I find it hard to possibly imagine that any company would invest so heavily in relaunching itself only to suddenly give up shortly before the release of that relaunch. So I am going to just put that rumour in the 'Nonsense' box where it belongs.

Having said that, now is when I kick myself in face. IF Mari, the art director has been laid off, and in a sudden, unexpected fashion AND there is a 'massive art budget' ... well that just seems like a dumb move to me. Surely WotC must realise that their public image is not the greatest at the moment, and that something like this is only likely to bring them a negative reaction, which is just what they don't need at the moment. I am left scratching my head, wondering about the details ... but the only thing I can think is 'dumb, dumb, dumb'.

 

[Zardnaar]

They could also have most of the art they need. D&DN has been in development for almost 2 years now and they may recycle some 3rd and 4E art.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Staggering could either mean a lot of money or very little.

Isn't a staggering amount by definition very large rather than the opposite? (i'm not english native so may be i miss something)

Staggering adj
very large, shocking, or surprising

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

They'd probaby do a much better job merely supporting an existing D&D edition.

Their ability to manage so large a brand or actually roll out a new edition they didn't borrow directly from another company that already paid all the overhead for development? That remains to be seen. Frankly, that's the kind of undertaking whose risks can be absorbed by a large company like Hasbro easily but can obliterate a small publisher like TSR or Paizo.

And if Paizo did take over management of D&D, who's to say it wouldn't end up managing it just like WotC, after building up a bigger revenue stream?

Like how MTV went from music videos to reality garbage, which made everyone complain. So VH1 became the next MTV...until it replaced its MVs with reality garbage.

I suspect that there's an insidious and underlying reason for these patterns.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Isn't a staggering amount by definition very large rather than the opposite? (i'm not english native so may be i miss something)

Yes. Yes, it is, without a doubt.

 

[fjw70]

My impression remains that corporate WotC and Hasbro do not see any of the companies created or run by ex-employees as competition. None of them come close to touching Magic's numbers, and I bet Wotc sees success of things like Pathfinder to be irrelevant to how D&D sells.

I *disagree* with them, but that's my take of their belief.

That's an interesting question, how much does Pathfinder sales hurt WotC sales? So I started a thread to do an unscientific sampling.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...ould-you-be-playing-buying-if-PF-didn-t-exist

 

[Plaguescarred]

Yes. Yes, it is, without a doubt.

Ok thanks Tequila!