Mike Mearls Laid off From WotC! Other Also Let Go During the XMas Purge

GhostNinja · December 12, 2023, 08:36:23 PM

Hasbro has announced they are laying off 1,100 employees and it appears that Mike Mearls was one of those people.

Found this on Tenkar's Tavern:

https://youtu.be/hwoD_ISbSWc?si=oEP3eN6lVj6hj9Sa

Is this a bad sign? Or just another Wizards/Hasbro screwup?

Grognard GM · December 12, 2023, 08:51:12 PM

Bad sign in what sense? A lot of us want WOTC to burn down, fall over, and sink into the swamp. The sooner the better.

When I see someone say they just got fired, and are excited for what the future holds, I know a tanker trailer of Copium just pulled up at their house.

Monero · December 12, 2023, 08:57:46 PM

It would be incredible if Hasbro tanks and they're forced to sell their IPs. I'd love for D&D and Magic to be bought by somebody that gives a fuck and doesn't hate their REAL supporters.

GhostNinja · December 12, 2023, 09:15:11 PM

Quote from: Monero on December 12, 2023, 08:57:46 PM
It would be incredible if Hasbro tanks and they're forced to sell their IPs. I'd love for D&D and Magic to be bought by somebody that gives a fuck and doesn't hate their REAL supporters.

Yes it would. Wonder who could afford to buy it? I think that the VTT is going to tank. Professor Dungeon Master tried it at Pax Unplugged and said it had good points but he didnt sound excited about it.

BoxCrayonTales · December 12, 2023, 09:28:28 PM

Hasbro would sooner go bankrupt than sell any of the many IPs they're not using. I doubt they even remember the vast majority of their acquisitions.

GeekyBugle · December 12, 2023, 09:38:27 PM

In Mearls' twatter profile it still says he's working at WotC, but he hasn't posted anything in months.

Ratman_tf · December 12, 2023, 09:43:12 PM

Quote from: GhostNinja on December 12, 2023, 08:36:23 PM
Is this a bad sign? Or just another Wizards/Hasbro screwup?

I imagine it's typical corporate shenanigans. Fire a bunch of people to save money. Rehire people when they need to ramp up again.

I don't think WOTC/Hasbro are going anywhere.

Jam The MF · December 12, 2023, 09:49:41 PM

I'm sure they had Mearls sign a no compete agreement, a long time ago. But it sounds like they let him go, rather than him leaving them. The way this all plays out, could get interesting.

I'd love to see him do work for a competitor, now. Just for giggles.

GhostNinja · December 12, 2023, 10:54:33 PM

Quote from: Ratman_tf on December 12, 2023, 09:43:12 PM
I imagine it's typical corporate shenanigans. Fire a bunch of people to save money. Rehire people when they need to ramp up again.

I don't think WOTC/Hasbro are going anywhere.

True and with WOTC being prone to stupid mistakes, its unsurprising.

Venka · December 12, 2023, 10:58:00 PM

Kyle Brinks told us that guys like Mike Mearls can't leave soon enough. I guess they decided to press the issue.
I bet almost all the layoffs are white men.

QuoteGuys like me, we're leaving the workforce, to be blunt. We're not the face of the hobby anymore. I'm not the majority of this hobby anymore.

And so it's important to me that my team of creators look like my players, and have the lived experience that my players do.

And I think there's been mistakes made in years past where people assumed that D&D players were all, y'know, white dudes in a basement. Which has been a faulty assumption for a lot of years and gets more and more false every day and so in my viewpoint, honestly, guys like me can't leave soon enough for this hobby.

Venka · December 12, 2023, 10:59:14 PM

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/18h3oto/mike_mearls_a_lead_designer_of_5e_has_been_laid/

Reddit toasted the thread about it, claiming that "Posts made to /r/dndnext must be related to DnD, or specifically of interest to the DnD community."

GeekyBugle · December 12, 2023, 11:05:03 PM

So, by the looks of it it was a woketard purge, I bet there's still lots of them there left but still, below a list of those fired from WotC that we KNOW off so far:

Dan Dillon: Woketard confirmed
Trystan Falcone: Pronoun Wearer (so woketard confirmed)
Dixon Dubow: Woketard confirmed
Bree Heiss: Woketard confirmed
Eytan Bernstein: Woketard confirmed

Mike Mearls either because he's a true believer or out of fear threw his lot with the they/thems, so same difference

Venka · December 12, 2023, 11:14:29 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on December 12, 2023, 11:05:03 PM
So, by the looks of it it was a woketard purge, I bet there's still lots of them there left but still, below a list of those fired from WotC that we KNOW off so far:

I mean... ok, maybe. But here's my hypothesis; finding out that firing a bunch of people at WotC (location: right outside Seattle, Washington) results in a lot of pushers of woke ideology getting fired is a lot like finding out your fishbowl crashing onto the ground results in a really high percent of creatures you are rescuing from the floor being water breathers.

GhostNinja · December 12, 2023, 11:21:08 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on December 12, 2023, 11:05:03 PM
So, by the looks of it it was a woketard purge, I bet there's still lots of them there left but still, below a list of those fired from WotC that we KNOW off so far:

Dan Dillon: Woketard confirmed
Trystan Falcone: Pronoun Wearer (so woketard confirmed)
Dixon Dubow: Woketard confirmed
Bree Heiss: Woketard confirmed
Eytan Bernstein: Woketard confirmed

Mike Mearls either because he's a true believer or out of fear threw his lot with the they/thems, so same difference

I thought WOTC loved the woke crap. Or are they seeing the light and seeing it's backfiring and trying to stear the ship in a better, non-woke direction?

Grognard GM · December 12, 2023, 11:29:53 PM

I think it's just non-targeted layoffs across the board, from Hasbro down; and if it seems like a lot of Wokes are getting the boot, that's just because WOTC is full of Wokies.

Like when terrible online 'news' sites die, and they scream women of color are being targeted, because dun dun duuuunnnn, they hired lots of useless activists before dying.