Incenjucar
Legend
Bugaboo said:
Wow. That's a lot of buzz words. At least they didn't say 'pro-active'.
More lay-offs at WOTC! [Merged]
- Thread starter jaults
- Start date
- Status
Wow. That's a lot of buzz words. At least they didn't say 'pro-active'.
Pramas
Explorer
William Ronald said:
At its largest, WotC corporate was up to 700 or so employees. After this round of layoffs is done (and today was day one, the rest of the departments get their turn Friday), I would guess the staff will be less than 250. WotC is just not the same company I went to work for four years ago. RPG R&D is a smoldering ruin, spine design (the art directors and graphic designers who make the WotC books look so good) was gutted like a fish today, and the possibility that WotC will ever do anything innovative again has been reduced to near nil. It's a shame really, but corporate culture and gaming culture just don't coexist very amicably.
William Ronald
Explorer
Chris, thanks for replying to my question. If 100 people were laid off, WotC is loosing about one-third of its current employees.
I think the people who are left must be worried as well. I wonder what WoTC can produce beyond what is in the pipeline. Freelancers are good, but many of the people who left were big names in the hobby. Chris, please let the people who were let go know that a LOT of people sympathize with them and wish them the best. (I wish I could do something to help. Elsewhere, I suggested that it might be a good idea to have some of hte people who were laid off work on a product together.)
Paladin, I understand. I am switching careers after one layoff.
The key thing with a layoff is to not give up on yourself. Job hunting can be hard and embarassing, but if you don't believe in yourself who will.
I think the people who are left must be worried as well. I wonder what WoTC can produce beyond what is in the pipeline. Freelancers are good, but many of the people who left were big names in the hobby. Chris, please let the people who were let go know that a LOT of people sympathize with them and wish them the best. (I wish I could do something to help. Elsewhere, I suggested that it might be a good idea to have some of hte people who were laid off work on a product together.)
Paladin, I understand. I am switching careers after one layoff.
The key thing with a layoff is to not give up on yourself. Job hunting can be hard and embarassing, but if you don't believe in yourself who will.
Friadoc
Explorer
Well,Piratecat said:
...as a playtester, heck my name (as well as my group) is in the 3rd Edition PHB, Forgotten Realms, Alternity's Gamma World Revamp, and other books, I can say that we've had one item in the past nine months, or so.
I'm hoping someone else gets it, but I'm really feeling the pain of the playtesting department - we've had zilch since Fiend Folio, before that was (three months or more) Races of Faerun.
Anyhow, it's sad to see this happen, that's for sure.
Cergorach
The Laughing One
Henry said:
My friend, I think you are ascribing waaay too much intelligence to two human brains.
That kind of planning would be way above everybody from Rockefeller, to Ford, to Trump, all the way to Iacoca.
BUT IF IT WERE...
I would duly owe Peter a Wayne's World style "I'm not worthy" kowtow...
Didn't you know? Adkinson is an alias for someone called Darktooth...
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Meepo, if you want to submit, I'm sure we'd recieve it amicably. 
You can stop by the Publishers forum, spout out whatever comes to your brain, and we'll go from there. I'm only a third of the group, but anybody who wants to put the power to the kobold is good in my book.
That goes for everyone, I guess. ^_^;
Anyhoo, I've had my peace on this issue -- even if WotC/Hasbro does everything within their power to squish the OGL and the SRD as we know it, there's enough there (and, more importantly, the *idea* is there) that other publishers can and most likely will pick it up and run with it.
I wouldn't be surprised, with as amiable as most 3rd parties are, if they end up rallying around a new Set of Three for core books, probably controlled by the big guys, and put out something good.
Heck, Everquest did it.
--J
You can stop by the Publishers forum, spout out whatever comes to your brain, and we'll go from there. I'm only a third of the group, but anybody who wants to put the power to the kobold is good in my book.
That goes for everyone, I guess. ^_^;
Anyhoo, I've had my peace on this issue -- even if WotC/Hasbro does everything within their power to squish the OGL and the SRD as we know it, there's enough there (and, more importantly, the *idea* is there) that other publishers can and most likely will pick it up and run with it.
I wouldn't be surprised, with as amiable as most 3rd parties are, if they end up rallying around a new Set of Three for core books, probably controlled by the big guys, and put out something good.
Heck, Everquest did it.
--J
My Opinion
Looking at it from a business perspective (i.e. I will join the ranks of the backseat drivers in this thread), I would say they are merely attempting to get this dawg to hunt where everyone else has failed.
Instead of allowing profitable divisions to support unprofitable ones, and eventually be forced to sell the entire machine, the current management seems intent on dumping that which is unprofitable and keeping that which is profitable (or, it could be that everything is profitable to some extent, but they have a certain profit margin that must be reached).
It also smacks of someone with much more business sense then DnD sense, which I think the division needed anyway.
My two cents worth? Ignore doom and gloom from the armchair company exec's in this thread (especially ignore from anyone who has posted a zillion times and clearly spends more time here then in the real world) and be excited that someone is trying to make this thing work for the long haul.
Looking at it from a business perspective (i.e. I will join the ranks of the backseat drivers in this thread), I would say they are merely attempting to get this dawg to hunt where everyone else has failed.
Instead of allowing profitable divisions to support unprofitable ones, and eventually be forced to sell the entire machine, the current management seems intent on dumping that which is unprofitable and keeping that which is profitable (or, it could be that everything is profitable to some extent, but they have a certain profit margin that must be reached).
It also smacks of someone with much more business sense then DnD sense, which I think the division needed anyway.
My two cents worth? Ignore doom and gloom from the armchair company exec's in this thread (especially ignore from anyone who has posted a zillion times and clearly spends more time here then in the real world) and be excited that someone is trying to make this thing work for the long haul.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
Re: My Opinion
The problem is that D&D is profitable. They cut the D&D part of the company, when it was making money for them. They had, apparently, unrealistic expectations of what D&D could do profit-wise. They were disappointed in Pokemon's performance, basically, so they cut everything. Trying to make the dog hunt is a good thing to do - but don't expect the beagle to go lion-hunting.
Da Man said:
The problem is that D&D is profitable. They cut the D&D part of the company, when it was making money for them. They had, apparently, unrealistic expectations of what D&D could do profit-wise. They were disappointed in Pokemon's performance, basically, so they cut everything. Trying to make the dog hunt is a good thing to do - but don't expect the beagle to go lion-hunting.
- Status
