WotC New WotC Statement on Orion Black

[Spohedus]

In reading her tweet, she burned the bridge already and put all other employers on notice on how she resolves disputes or differences of opinion; in the public square with the megaphone in her hands. She may not have the experience or awareness to accept it, but just because WotC tweeted a relatively humble statement doesn't mean they agree with her or see her comments as anything other than extremely adversarial. (yep, conjecture on my part. I have no idea what they really think about all of this)

 

[Oofta]

(My understanding only)

tl;dr Orion felt they were brought on as part of a serious push to improve D&D's Diversity and Inclusion. Instead, Orion ran up against an insiders-only culture that Orion felt only brought them on to improve their image rather than make actual change. Furthermore, Orion felt that leadership was inadequately supporting the actual work they did, both through a lack of assignments and through stolen credit. This capped off with WotC's "Diversity" statement that was in part a response to controversies around Orc representation, which Orion publicly criticized as all talk no action. Orion's freelance contract wasn't renewed, which Orion claimed was retaliation for going public with concerns that had been ignored in private forums.

Just wanted to add - we don't know the whole story. However, Greg Tito did say that things were handled poorly and that he would be discussing it with upper level management.

On a related note, although I'm in IT which is completely different environment, contractors are outsiders. I've been on both sides of the desk so to speak, and it's rare that a contractor has as much pull as a full time employee.

But again, we don't know the whole story and likely never will.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

In reading her tweet, she burned the bridge already and put all other employers on notice on how she resolves disputes or differences of opinion; in the public square with the megaphone in her hands. She may not have the experience or awareness to accept it, but just because WotC tweeted a relatively humble statement doesn't mean they agree with her or see her comments as anything other than extremely adversarial. (yep, conjecture on my part. I have no idea what they really think about all of this)

Since WoTC hired Jessica Price to work on the Theros book, I don't think that the much tamer statements that Orion made about their employer are career ending.

Orion said they had a bad time working there. WoTC apologized for that.

 

[Umbran]

It's easy to put out a marketing statement, harder to change corporate culture.

Agreed. The statement is a reasonable first step, but only time will tell if they have follow-through.

As much as we care about the game, for Hasbro it's just a tiny slice of the pie and if the accusations are accurate* the problem and solutions may well go fairly far up the chain.

On the flip side, if it is a tiny slice of the pie, then Hasbro really isn't going to be fiddling about with project-level resource management. It is unlikely that anyone outside WotC had any direct impact on what projects Orion was assigned, for example.

Hasbro could be an ugly nest of nastiness, but the D&D team could still be managed properly.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

On the flip side, if it is a tiny slice of the pie, then Hasbro really isn't going to be fiddling about with project-level resource management. It is unlikely that anyone outside WotC had any direct impact on what projects Orion was assigned, for example.

I am a shareholder of Hasbro. WoTC (Magic) moves the needle for them on their earnings. D&D has been mentioned recently in earnings calls and by their CEO. I am quite aware of how larger companies handle this type of thing and from the outside, it looks like Hasbro corporate HQ is engaging.

 

[ChaosOS]

Added Orion's response to the OP. Not a great look by wizards to do the public apology before contacting the person you're apologizing to.

 

[MGibster]

I read Orion's statement (but not the ensuing thread).
Hopefully this clears away Orion's fear of "burning the bridges" and future career being squelched.

After seeing Orion's reply, I'm guessing they're comfortable with having burned the bridge.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

After seeing Orion's reply, I'm guessing they're comfortable with having burned the bridge.

I would say that they were comfortable burning the bridge, burning down the forest so no more wood could be had for bridges to be made, and then salting the earth so that no trees might planted that could lead to wood for any future bridges ....

And then burned the dictionaries with the word "bridge" in them just in case.

 

[Umbran]

...it looks like Hasbro corporate HQ is engaging.

Mention in an earnings call is not reason to expect they're engaging on the level of what contractors work on which projects, as Orion described, especially when the brand is doing fantastically well, from a historical perspective. I don't think the products they put out have shown signs of that kind of micromanagement from distant corporate overlords.

 

[Raduin711]

she

Unless I am somehow misreading who you are referring to, Orion is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.