As the recently-fired speak up, way more details emerge on the "Office Space" levels of ineptitude that WotC handled 2024 Dungeons & Dragons.

I'm convinced that Hasbro is fucked and they are trying to bail as fast as they can to keep from sinking long enough to come up with some form of cash flow.

heh-heh. You kept calling Cynthia Williams Loraine Williams till bout half way through. And then start again later in.

wotc left hand not knowing what the right is doing is standard for these people. Really.

wotc cutting off fake 5e is unlikely unless Hasbro puts the leash back on the dog and Hasbro has no clue either.

Also congratulations on "uh-ing" almost none at all in this one!

The thread title could be: how to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

Quote from: Man at Arms on March 24, 2025, 09:32:22 PMThe thread title could be: how to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

He might as well title all his WOTC videos "Another day ending in Y" because it's about all the same.
 the last time WOTC had an interesting failure was when they hired the pinkertons! now that was entertaining,

Quote from: RPGPundit on March 24, 2025, 03:27:26 PMAs the recently-fired speak up, way more details emerge on the "Office Space" levels of ineptitude that WotC handled 2024 Dungeons & Dragons.

I agree with the premise and content of your video, but I would posit that it goes one step further.  The fundamental problem that isn't emphasized enough (though you do mention it in the video) is the complete lack of vision from the higher-ups at Hasbro and WotC.  This is a complete failure of executive leadership.  Their "vision" was (as you pointed out) to make lots of money with D&D.  Like underpants gnomes, they had no idea how to actually translate their desire into something having to do with the actual product.  That's a lack of vision at the top, and it's an indictment of how little the suits really understand their products and market.  It's what happens when a company becomes a corporation...

Quote from: Socratic-DM on March 24, 2025, 09:42:04 PM

Quote from: Man at Arms on March 24, 2025, 09:32:22 PMThe thread title could be: how to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

He might as well title all his WOTC videos "Another day ending in Y" because it's about all the same.
 the last time WOTC had an interesting failure was when they hired the pinkertons! now that was entertaining,

With wotc failure is the only option.
Some how, some way, they will steal defeat from the jaws of victory.
wotc "5e's doing great? As GOD is our witness we will FUCK this UP!!!!"

Can you imagine if wotc would have contracted, with the famous creators of the best most successful projects ever produced by TSR?  That's how you sell stuff to the grognards, and make money.  The grognards have money.

There is a short list of well known names, who could have written some good old school modules for wotc.  Names that could have generated some sales.  But no, they couldn't do that.  It makes too much sense.

This increasingly sounds to me like corporate sabotage. The VTT team had no contact with the D&D dev team? And the VTT they made can't do unarmed attacks?!

The explanation which makes sense to me is that the VTT was a C-Suite decision most WotC employees were not on board with, so the D&D dev team maintained no contact with the VTT team. And the only explanation I can think of for not being able to do unarmed strikes is that HR made a point to avoid hiring people who actually play roleplaying games so that the VTT team could not possibly make a successful VTT without help from another team at WotC. Help which no one wanted to give.

Quote from: Omega on March 24, 2025, 05:34:53 PMheh-heh. You kept calling Cynthia Williams Loraine Williams till bout half way through. And then start again later in.

wotc left hand not knowing what the right is doing is standard for these people. Really.

wotc cutting off fake 5e is unlikely unless Hasbro puts the leash back on the dog and Hasbro has no clue either.

Also congratulations on "uh-ing" almost none at all in this one!

I'm pretty sure that the female "Williams" is just an archetypal entity, representing what ruins RPGs.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on March 24, 2025, 10:09:54 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on March 24, 2025, 03:27:26 PMAs the recently-fired speak up, way more details emerge on the "Office Space" levels of ineptitude that WotC handled 2024 Dungeons & Dragons.

I agree with the premise and content of your video, but I would posit that it goes one step further.  The fundamental problem that isn't emphasized enough (though you do mention it in the video) is the complete lack of vision from the higher-ups at Hasbro and WotC.  This is a complete failure of executive leadership.  Their "vision" was (as you pointed out) to make lots of money with D&D.  Like underpants gnomes, they had no idea how to actually translate their desire into something having to do with the actual product.  That's a lack of vision at the top, and it's an indictment of how little the suits really understand their products and market.  It's what happens when a company becomes a corporation...

The underpants gnomes is an apt comparison, yes.

Quote from: Man at Arms on March 25, 2025, 12:21:54 AMCan you imagine if wotc would have contracted, with the famous creators of the best most successful projects ever produced by TSR?  That's how you sell stuff to the grognards, and make money.  The grognards have money.

There is a short list of well known names, who could have written some good old school modules for wotc.  Names that could have generated some sales.  But no, they couldn't do that.  It makes too much sense.

Imagine if they produced a version of Rules Cyclopedia and released it as Classic D&D for the 50th anniversary. Spun off a separate group to support this Classic D&D staffed with some of the folks you allude to. Some could bring AD&D modules and titles into alignment with the new rules and others to create new stuff.

Hasbro <> Disney

It's like watching twin movies with the same plot and impending ending.

I mean, Warner isn't doing too much better. They just released a Looney Tunes film in theaters which nobody even knew about and they pulled nearly all the classic Looney Tunes shows from Max at the same time. These people worship their shareholders and are drunk on the notion of burning everything down if it'll save a few pennies right now. The only saving grace of all this is that Zaslav realized that Warner Archive was actually making money and didn't shut them down. They're the only heartbeat coming from Warner now, and though they don't have many resources, they're releasing some really unique Blu-rays from new transfers, almost like they know their time could be over soon and they want to see things through, as much as they can, and I really respect that.

Quote from: Man at Arms on March 25, 2025, 12:21:54 AMCan you imagine if wotc would have contracted, with the famous creators of the best most successful projects ever produced by TSR?  That's how you sell stuff to the grognards, and make money.  The grognards have money.

There is a short list of well known names, who could have written some good old school modules for wotc.  Names that could have generated some sales.  But no, they couldn't do that.  It makes too much sense.

wotc hates everything TSR. And they do not look too kindly on anything pre-5e either.