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The Economics of Open Gaming - An Open Letter To WotC
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<blockquote data-quote="mxyzplk" data-source="post: 4136723" data-attributes="member: 16450"><p>Yeah. It entertains me how people idolize MBAs and "businessmen" when the nightly news shows how well that works out. Must be people that have never worked for a company where they had any back office interaction. There are people whose job it is to do something, they allegedly are trained to do it, and have done it for years, and still are rank incompetents - I think the company I work for is pretty strong in that way but there's still some people in key positions with massive blind spots.</p><p></p><p>As companies grow from small to large, the commonly accepted practices they follow have to change. One of the biggest hurdles, and I've seen this first hand several times, is changing one's business mentality from when you're nothing, then as you become more of a "player" in a given industry, to when you are on top. There are plenty of "qualified businesspeople" that have to get turned over as a company goes from small to medium to large because their area of expertise is in a differently sized corporation. I've seen small business owners try to adapt to the world of mergers and acquisitions and it's not a pretty sight - one of the main things that sends people out of business when they should be "established." </p><p></p><p>Anyway, there's nothing wrong with having a skill set that's not 100% what your company needs at the time. Doesn't make you a bad person. But I'm not really seeing any right-sized economic leadership at WotC right now. Gen Con is going bankrupt - that's a separate company now technically, sure, but it just goes to show. (<a href="http://www.gencon.com/2008/corporate/news-pr/releases/2008/2008.02.15.Press.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.gencon.com/2008/corporate/news-pr/releases/2008/2008.02.15.Press.aspx</a> for anyone so out of it that they don't know this.)</p><p></p><p>Even established old-line companies are figuring out that openness, engaging heavily with your customers, etc. is a good idea. I'm not goign to engage in a new media primer for everyone that doesn't know what I'm talking about. But the very closed nature of how WotC has been confucting itself - not just with rescinding the OGL but with how they've conducted themselves over the last number of years - is not an encouraging sign to someone on the outside looking for generally accepted "they get it" signs of how to successfully do business nowadays. </p><p></p><p>Many of you have made the point that I'm just "some guy on the Internet." True. Successful companies nowadays try to engage the "guy on the Internet." They have better than average discretionary income and have the means and desire to evangelize your products for you. And sometimes, they have professional knowledge besides "16 year old gadfly" and have good ideas worth listening to.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mxyzplk, post: 4136723, member: 16450"] Yeah. It entertains me how people idolize MBAs and "businessmen" when the nightly news shows how well that works out. Must be people that have never worked for a company where they had any back office interaction. There are people whose job it is to do something, they allegedly are trained to do it, and have done it for years, and still are rank incompetents - I think the company I work for is pretty strong in that way but there's still some people in key positions with massive blind spots. As companies grow from small to large, the commonly accepted practices they follow have to change. One of the biggest hurdles, and I've seen this first hand several times, is changing one's business mentality from when you're nothing, then as you become more of a "player" in a given industry, to when you are on top. There are plenty of "qualified businesspeople" that have to get turned over as a company goes from small to medium to large because their area of expertise is in a differently sized corporation. I've seen small business owners try to adapt to the world of mergers and acquisitions and it's not a pretty sight - one of the main things that sends people out of business when they should be "established." Anyway, there's nothing wrong with having a skill set that's not 100% what your company needs at the time. Doesn't make you a bad person. But I'm not really seeing any right-sized economic leadership at WotC right now. Gen Con is going bankrupt - that's a separate company now technically, sure, but it just goes to show. ([url]http://www.gencon.com/2008/corporate/news-pr/releases/2008/2008.02.15.Press.aspx[/url] for anyone so out of it that they don't know this.) Even established old-line companies are figuring out that openness, engaging heavily with your customers, etc. is a good idea. I'm not goign to engage in a new media primer for everyone that doesn't know what I'm talking about. But the very closed nature of how WotC has been confucting itself - not just with rescinding the OGL but with how they've conducted themselves over the last number of years - is not an encouraging sign to someone on the outside looking for generally accepted "they get it" signs of how to successfully do business nowadays. Many of you have made the point that I'm just "some guy on the Internet." True. Successful companies nowadays try to engage the "guy on the Internet." They have better than average discretionary income and have the means and desire to evangelize your products for you. And sometimes, they have professional knowledge besides "16 year old gadfly" and have good ideas worth listening to. [/QUOTE]
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