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Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

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Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#171

Post by realusername »

sublinear wrote: post #148
solardev wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever want another huge, ancient labyrinth of a language that also kinda sorta runs everywhere, the Javascript world welcomes you with open tentaces! Here we're controlled by an evil older than Oracle itself (Microsoft and Typescript), with upgrades and crossgrades and cross compilers that deliver astounding 15% improvements in performance in exchange for a mere few animal sacrifices and a lifetime of misery. I…

> controlled by an evil older than Oracle itself (Microsoft and Typescript) Who still uses typescript? It's not the mid-2010s anymore. Plain javascript is everywhere and I'd argue using a framework implies an immature project or team.

I've never seen a large js codebase without typescript and I'm not even sure how you could realistically manage one without.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#172

Post by criddell »

phpisthebest wrote: post #153
criddell wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions prioritize whatever it is the members want prioritized.

Unions like government prioritize what ever the vocal, loudest, and most organized minority of the group wants prioritized, this will not align with all members, and rarely even aligns with what the majority of members desire

I don't think that's generally true.

A recent example: the WGA just ended a strike against the movie and television studios and from what I've read about it, the resolution was not determined by the loudest minority. A deal was worked out, the membership voted, and 99% voted to accept the agreement. That seems like a success.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#173

Post by solatic »

Waterluvian wrote: post #10
getwiththeprog wrote: post #7

As a long term Wizards player / purchaser, I think their product quality has been dropping over the last few years. In D&D, take the Planescape box set - it was a really empty world lacking in the imagination that the original second ed Planescape had. All the D&D content just seems like filler to me. In MTG, they are releasing so many sets that it would cost a fortune to keep up, and the cards are all like 'meh'. Th…

I think this hypothesis is a good example of an opinion I’m developing that any average executive team can follow the spreadsheet. But what makes a team truly exceptional is the ability and wisdom to identify and act on the subjective and immeasurable qualities of the business. If quality falls but sales rise, did quality not matter? Will it not matter? Maybe we’re not measuring the right things. Maybe we have the wr…

> any average executive team can follow the spreadsheet. But what makes a team truly exceptional is the ability and wisdom to identify and act on the subjective and immeasurable qualities of the business.

This precisely. The spreadsheet explains your limitations, not your potential. No spreadsheet can truly predict demand. The best example is in marketing - you can give a marketing department $50 million to light on fire, or the right person in the right place at the right time can do the right thing and set word-of-mouth ablaze without spending a dime. Having a $50 million marketing budget doesn't allow you to control the outcome, it merely limits you to spending no more than $50 million in coming up with your own approach. It's not the same thing.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#174

Post by Mtgtrw »

Yhippa wrote: post #142
Supermancho wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The enshittification already happened. The most recent incorporation of other IPs, like the upcoming Dr Who, is a series of last gasps. While sales have followed along the aging income growth of existing players, the inverse pressure of exiting players is past sustainable levels. Other forms of gamba have eroded the MTG gamba allure. Re: Youtube - Tolarian Community College - which is very good at capturing the state…

What is inherently wrong with co-branded product? Do you have any data to back up "exiting players"? I don't think we really have a good read on that. The MagicCons I've been to have been increasingly packed with people.

[flagged]

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#176

Post by DylanSp »

morelisp wrote: post #158
prakhar897 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't free site, it's extensibility. Chess/chess.com has 100s of variants, ability to study games, and lots of other chess specific features. Bga has fixed set of features for all its games. And their focus is divided. This game atleast deserves its own home.

Look, for all I know Gigamic is just waiting for someone to come along and make chess.com for Quoridor, and you're the guy to do it. But I think your ignorance of the hobbyist game market is revealed a bit here already (not having full context for BGA, not knowing if Gigamic still owns it - they certainly do and had a booth at Essen this year like they do every year) - and you're vastly overestimating not just Quorid…

Expanding on one point - not just market size, but the amount of competition. As you said upthread, there's no shortage of reasonably popular [1] modern abstract games, there's plenty of other options for people to play. It might be possible to try and promote Quoridor more broadly, given how simple its rules are, but that'd be tough (and marketing it more yourself, beyond just providing an implementation, would probably cause issues with Gigamic).

[1] Popular within the modern board game community, at least.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#177

Post by seabird »

dragontamer wrote: post #90
dumpsterlid wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We just need to move on from DnD to other IPs at this point, it is absurdly clear that everyone putting all their eggs in the basket with wizards of the coast and it is just a bad idea. There are plenty of fantastic alternatives, we really don’t need the DnD universe. I mean, as highly acclaimed as BG3 is, people in general seem to feel that the dev’s previous game Divinity Original Sin 2 has better combat mechanics……

The alternative systems flourished with DnD 4.0 back in 2008, since that system just wasn't as good as 3.5 or the new 5th edition. Wizards of the Coast did a great job with the balance of customization vs simplicity of 5e and that's why DnD did so well recently. But the alternatives always were there. Its a big community of literal house-rule makers (everyone plays DnD with their own houserules). Its a community used…

Was 4 really worse than 5? Everyone I've heard speak on it is pretty hesitant to say 5 is better, and that a lot of of great design choices (martial classes not being completely outclassed, less frustrating saving throws, rule clarity, better handling of numbers on enemies, better rest mechanics, etc.) were thrown out in 5 because 4 caught so much shit for being "not 3.5".

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#178

Post by [deleted] »

bsdpufferfish wrote: post #99
blobbers wrote: post #85

“now it’s a union shop in the same state as Wizards” - regarding unions is it considered a good thing? I still think of it as a crony workplace where only age is promoted and not merit. Am I wrong? Only did union job at a grocery store (UFCW)

Unions tends to reward credentials and years of experience over performance or capability. For most people it lowers downside risk and lowers upside opportunity.

[deleted]

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#179

Post by imbnwa »

bugglebeetle wrote: post #170
imbnwa wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>All the BG3 combat, outside a handful of battles, felt trivial and anti-climactic. The final battle in BG3 was clearly rushed in design IMO. You just avoid the fight entirely and you're done. That's not what I want in a climatic final battle with an other-dimensional entity of immense power that has to be controlled by implements of the gods. You straight up shouldn't be able to cheese it, almost as a requirement; i…

Yeah, you can beat the whole thing in a few turns. The enemies in the courtyard and ascent to final boss were a bit better, but still akin to any number of fights in DOS2 (vs. a climax).

Yeah, just to add on, Orin and Gortash were much more interesting fights for me even; Ketheric took a few iterations to realize what the pattern was. But the final battle is either Sisyphean or cheesed entirely. I haven't played either DOS games, I might take a go at em.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#180

Post by DonHopkins »

saiya-jin wrote: post #119
DonHopkins wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like Oracle buying Sun. We just need to move on from Java to other languages at this point.

You sir go wherever you want but please leave Java to professionals that make companies just work (TM). Yes its not ultra fashionate with all new features in some other languages (but improving constantly), but TBH I don't care, at all, I can work till retirement with Java 8 and be very happy, at the end its just a tool to solve problems and darn good one. Proper quality engineering is delivering good robust solution…

All those wonderful technical and business arguments and whataboutisms and swag, but there's still:

Larry Ellison

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