D&D 5E Mearls' "Firing" tweet

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'm pretty sure he wasn't being literal. Treating his statement like it was literal seems to be deliberately missing the point to criticize him.

Of course. I wasn't criticizing him.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Sure, but one of the sides is right. I'd rather have Mearls stand up on the side that's right than duck and cover. That happens way too often. Just ask over 100 female gymnasts how well they've been served by the ducking and covering engaged in by MSU, USA Gymnastics, and the USOC.

Ghostbusters, Marvel, Yahoo, and Gawker Media all took that same stance. How many of those came out the better for it?

Ignoring the trolls would have undercut their voice and allowed the game to fight it without directly engaging. And no direct engagement deprives them of the majority of their power.

Fight smarter, not harder.

 

[ad_hoc]

What was Mearls thinking?

This is one of the worst societal conflicts in recent history. Both sides are openly engaged in a holy war with each other and actively harass each other, to the point of ruining lives and sometimes driving each other to suicide.

Mr. Mearls, if you are reading this, consider how big of a mistake you just made. The first rule of the net is "Don't feed the trolls." And you just opened a buffet the size of Jupiter for them. Please, for the love of Gygax, turn out to have been drunk or something. Or just lie and say you were. The very stance you have taken is the one taken by Ghostbusters, Marvel, and dozens of others. The hostility toward fan base never works out. Just get out of the conflict and wait until the trolls get bored and go away.

And if you cannot, please leave WotC. I am a big fan of your work. But if you cannot control your temper with a fanbase that has always been full of vitriol and keep EnD in a fight where both sides now have reason to hate the franchise, then it is best you move on before you destroy the game.

By the way, I am interested to see what your new hire contributes. But I have reservations, just as I would if she were a man.

Oh I see how it is.

Nazis think non-white people are evil and want them exterminated. Non-white people think Nazis are evil. So they're both wrong!

This isn't an intellectual exercise. This isn't about trolls or arguing on the internet.

This is about real lived experiences. Systemic misogyny is a real thing that actually affects people's lives in very negative ways. Standing up and declaring a space to be safe from that, even though there will be blowback from the misogynists, is a noble thing.

Mearls is hoping the hostility toward the toxic parts of this fanbase does drive them out. You're not welcome anymore.

 

[Zardnaar]

That is not a hiring process. That's a career path. A hiring process is learning about a job, submitting a resume and application, getting interviewed, and being selected. That's a process. Who the blazes cares if she's "paid her dues"? Who gets to set that as a requirement anyway? Nobody in the peanut gallery, that's for sure! Nobody has that authority but the people doing the hiring and if they were sufficiently impressed by the "dues" she paid in her previous work, even if not D&D related, more power to her.

True but most of the successful D&D designers have gone down that path so people expecting that from new hires is not unreasonable IMHO.

The people Paizo hired did that, Mearls did it, Monte did it, Zeb Cook did it, Bauer did it, Weiss and Hickman did it, even Gygax in a way. Its compounded by the D&D design team being so small so it stands out and if it stand out people are going to comment on it.

Its a bit unusual to say the least hence its being commented on. Its really none of our business and we do not know what other criteria they had and I generally trust their process- its not going to wreck D&D at all.

Hell she may have been hired because she had the balls (so to speak) to ask for a job and that is respectable IMHO. Is she the absolute best candidate, probably not, was she in the right place, right time with the right attitude probably.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Funny, I'd have said the fight is far too important to not get involved with.

Depends on your priorities. Mine are to gain victory with the fewest losses. Sacrificinh DnD this way does not strike me as an intelligent tactic.

DnD had been engaging indirectly before. That works well, and keeps the game around for the aftermath.

 

[billd91]

Ghostbusters, Marvel, Yahoo, and Gawker Media all took that same stance. How many of those came out the better for it?

Ignoring the trolls would have undercut their voice and allowed the game to fight it without directly engaging. And no direct engagement deprives them of the majority of their power.

Fight smarter, not harder.

Sounds to me like you're advocating not fighting at all. And that would give the trolls the most power of all because they're driving everyone else from the field.

 

[Hussar]

The thing that some people have an issue with I suppose is she got parachuted into a top level job in the RPG world with no D&D design credits. There are posters here on ENworld with more published work than her.

The women Paizo hired more or less done the same thing Mearls did. They worked for 3pp/did freelance work, got published, got noticed, got more work, eventually got hired. Amanda and Crystal did that, I was looking through old Dragons and found an interview with Mearls in 2000 Dragon d20 special. Mearls also had a few adventures published in Dungeon for 3.5.

The new hire has skipped that process which I think is what a few people would expect, she has not done her dues in the trenches so to speak. Its not unprecedented in the D&D world but you would probably have to go back to TSR to find examples as most of the 3E and 4E crew were either from TSR or had been published in things like Dragon and Dungeon. With no Dragon and Dungeon you would expect published 3pp and freelance work and the DMGuild.

IDK if its unique in the modern D&D era, but it is unusual to say the least hence why I think some people are accusing her of being unqualified. She has skipped a few steps most designers have gone down. Getting published and getting noticed has been the more traditional way of doing things I suppose nothing to do with her gender although it looks like some idiots have made it an issue.

Hrm, the new President of WotC, Chris Cocks, recently came over to helm the largest RPG company from Microsoft. He has ZERO publishing credits, certainly no gaming publishing experience and was vice president of OEM sales for Microsoft.

Yet, his hiring garnered a half a dozen pages of speculation and whatnot.

Gee, I wonder what the difference is? I mean, you don't get a higher level RPG job than PRESIDENT of the company. But, hey, what do I know. Everyone is so busy pretending that it's all about the qualifications that it couldn't possibly be anything else right? It's only the qualifications that matter right? We only want qualified RPG folks doing the RPG business?

Right?

I mean, heck, Chris Perkins sole writing qualification was a single Dungeon magazine sale when he became the editor of Dungeon Magazine. I guess we should eject him based on lack of qualifications.

This notion that everyone comes up through 3pp and freelancing has never been true and it's just yet another white wash job trying to hide the real issue - which is misogyny. Flat out, full stop. No hiding it.

 

[nswanson27]

Nope.

When systemic racism has caused you hardships throughout your life and you have been harassed, threatened, and abused, by bigots who have the safety of being in power, then it is completely fine for you to dislike those people.

This is especially true of those individuals in power who use their pain as a way to further attack them. They call them racists. They say 'not all men!' and then silence them by taking the podium.

Reverse racism doesn't exist. Reverse sexism doesn't exist.

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/...please-stop-pretending-reverse-racism-is-real

Having the most hardship doesn't grant the moral authority to draw the line of where it's ok or not to dislike someone. Just because it doesn't happen on the same level does not mean it doesn't exist. And just because a columnist or a group of people think a particular way doesn't make it so either.
Now not saying there aren't plenty of cases where your accusations don't ring true, but it's not an absolute thing.

 

[Zardnaar]

Hrm, the new President of WotC, Chris Cocks, recently came over to helm the largest RPG company from Microsoft. He has ZERO publishing credits, certainly no gaming publishing experience and was vice president of OEM sales for Microsoft.

Yet, his hiring garnered a half a dozen pages of speculation and whatnot.

Gee, I wonder what the difference is? I mean, you don't get a higher level RPG job than PRESIDENT of the company. But, hey, what do I know. Everyone is so busy pretending that it's all about the qualifications that it couldn't possibly be anything else right? It's only the qualifications that matter right? We only want qualified RPG folks doing the RPG business?

Right?

I mean, heck, Chris Perkins sole writing qualification was a single Dungeon magazine sale when he became the editor of Dungeon Magazine. I guess we should eject him based on lack of qualifications.

This notion that everyone comes up through 3pp and freelancing has never been true and it's just yet another white wash job trying to hide the real issue - which is misogyny. Flat out, full stop. No hiding it.

Corporate position, they hired a corporate type with a proven track record.

I think its safe to say Chris Perkins has proved himself and whatever he was doing was D&D related.

Some posters have made it about gender though. I don't care to much one way its not going to kill D&D. At the worst, they hired the wrong person at best a few years down the track they may have found themselves a new designer for 6E or 7E.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Oh I see how it is.

Nazis think non-white people are evil and want them exterminated. Non-white people think Nazis are evil. So they're both wrong!

This isn't an intellectual exercise. This isn't about trolls or arguing on the internet.

This is about real lived experiences. Systemic misogyny is a real thing that actually affects people's lives in very negative ways. Standing up and declaring a space to be safe from that, even though there will be blowback from the misogynists, is a noble thing.

Mearls is hoping the hostility toward the toxic parts of this fanbase does drive them out. You're not welcome anymore.

Right. Because engaging them like this worked out so well for Marvel and Ghostbusters.

How about we try effective tactics and not suicide bombings?