Wizards' Online Presence - a personal view

[mhacdebhandia]

I agree with everything Merric says about the new world order over on the D&D forums.

I also think it's really great that Keith Baker spends so much time on Wizards of the Coast's Eberron forums, even though he's a freelancer, not a staff member.

 

[Dire Bare]

You need to wrap your arms around a fundamental concept of corporations.., Make as much money as possible, as efficiently as possible. Fire people who won't do what you need them to do, hire people that say how high when you tell them to jump. " See them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women" has never been spoken with more truth then when describing a corporation. Hasbro is not our friend They supply us with our addiction. If they feel it would behoove them to play nice for a while, they will do so. Don't be fooled.

Yes, because corporations are all the same and are not run by real people, but rather by soulless robot automatons that strive to destroy all light and creativity in the universe.

Sheesh. Hasbro is not my friend. WotC is not my friend. You're right when you imply you can't be friends with a corporation, which is simply a social construct. But many of the people working for WotC and Hasbro have earned my respect as game designers, businesspeople, and, yes, corporate employees. And I imagine if I got to meet many of them in person, not only would I keep these feelings but I would actually make some new friends.

However, the Conan quote you allude to probably IS quoted all the time in WotC offices, just not for the reasons you think. It's because they're all DORKS!!!

 

[resscane]

Have you ever worked for a corporation? A big one with billions in sales every year? Where they outsource all their labor from Rhode Island to China? They outsourced in the 1970''s. Have you ever read Dilbert or seen Office Space? Do you think those are some sort of quaint, inside joke? Those real human dorks can and will be fired, and an Ice Princess straight from the Barbie Line will come in and wipe the floor with the rest.

Maybe I am over the top in my prognostications, just a wee bit. I've been told that before. I just get a bad feeling from any group that can claim any kinship with the rest of the Dorks of the world, and then casually brush aside the destruction of one of our institutions. And no amount of feel good PR is going to change that.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

You need to wrap your arms around a fundamental concept of corporations.., Make as much money as possible, as efficiently as possible. Fire people who won't do what you need them to do, hire people that say how high when you tell them to jump. " See them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women" has never been spoken with more truth then when describing a corporation. Hasbro is not our friend They supply us with our addiction. If they feel it would behoove them to play nice for a while, they will do so. Don't be fooled.

Leave it to a Miami local to be the first threadcrapper.

Shane
Miami ex-pat

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Thanks to Merric and the other folks here who have made me and the other wotc folks feel very welcome!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I love how we get Brand Managers, Publishers, Designers, Writers, Editors, etc., from WotC and other game companies posting on these boards. The fact that they have taken time out to come and hear our thoughts on a hobby that we all love is nice.

Of course I'm under no illusions that they'll use all of our suggestions but the fact that they come to EN World and interact with their fans is great. Hopefully it is something that will continue going forward.

I especially appreciate that several WotC staff members have become more active on these and other boards since "the announcement". They could have quite easily stayed away and avoided a lot of abuse from angry fans.

Olaf the Stout

 

[gribble]

You should come by the Star Wars boards some time. Why, I'm practically chatty there.

And we really appreciate the good work you and Wizo the Hutt do over there!

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Have you ever worked for a corporation? A big one with billions in sales every year? Where they outsource all their labor from Rhode Island to China? They outsourced in the 1970''s. Have you ever read Dilbert or seen Office Space? Do you think those are some sort of quaint, inside joke? Those real human dorks can and will be fired, and an Ice Princess straight from the Barbie Line will come in and wipe the floor with the rest.

Maybe I am over the top in my prognostications, just a wee bit. I've been told that before. I just get a bad feeling from any group that can claim any kinship with the rest of the Dorks of the world, and then casually brush aside the destruction of one of our institutions. And no amount of feel good PR is going to change that.

I am sorry you feel that way but I don't think Merric was talking about the company as much as the people.

In many ways Hasbro/WOTC is big company like any other. They have shareholders, a corporate hierarchy, make un-popular decisions, and sometimes fire people.

Work at wotc is fun, maybe the best job I have ever had but like a lot of jobs sometimes it sucks to drag your a$$ out of bed to go deal with office politics etc. More time than not I have a day where someone reminds me that WoTC is not like all companies and is a great place to work.

Today I was forwarded about a dozen emails from US soldiers serving in Iraq. Regardless of how you feel about the war, these men and women have one of the hardest, suckiest jobs in the world and one minute of their jobs makes my worst day look like a walk in the park. The reason we got the emails was to thank us for all the employees from wotc who donated games from their product allowances to Ziggurat con, the first ever game convention in a war zone. Wotc employees collected and donated over $15,000 of personal product to the con and this is being distributed to soldiers all around Iraq.

I am not telling this story to earn any brownie points. I don't have a burning need to create some online kumbaya moment where you think we are nice company. But I do want you to know that the actions of a company do not always reflect on how the employees are themselves. In the case of WotC it is the employees that make the company agreat place to work and personally it' smy co-wrorkers that give me the motivation to get up every morning to go to work. So if you want to be bitter about the corporation, fine but don't harsh out on the people who work there.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

You need to wrap your arms around a fundamental concept of corporations.., Make as much money as possible, as efficiently as possible. Fire people who won't do what you need them to do, hire people that say how high when you tell them to jump. " See them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women" has never been spoken with more truth then when describing a corporation. Hasbro is not our friend They supply us with our addiction. If they feel it would behoove them to play nice for a while, they will do so. Don't be fooled.

 

[TerraDave]

Its a two way street

Them posting also depends on us.

Take this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=199050

A lot of very cool posts early in the thread from Scott, Eric Mona, and other people at WotC and Pazio. What is the initial reaction...it was cringe worthy. I mean, I am no apalogist for WotC, but you have real insiders taking your concerns seriously and talking about your pet peeve (more greyhawk stuff), really talking about it. I don't think it is a smart way to react, at least not if you really want to see more Greyhawk. (I should note that later in the thread where a number of nicer posts)

And its not the way to react if you want to see these people continue to post here.