Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by DonHopkins » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:10 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #109

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.

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…

Sure, but the JavaScript world won, and the Java world lost. A long long time ago, last century. The war has been over for decades, since the demise of Netscape Javagator in 1998. And C# was released 23 years ago, specifically designed to do to Java what Java did to C++, and it did. It's like you're trying to still fight the Civil War.

https://www.wired.com/1998/02/whither-crawls-netscapes-javag...

>WIRED Magazine: FEB 26, 1998 4:26 PM: Whither Crawls Netscape's Javagator? Netscape officials deny a report that work on Javagator, an all-Java version of the Navigator browser, has been suspended.

Oh, and then there's this:

Larry Ellison

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

#182

Post by serf » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:24 PM UTC

DonHopkins wrote: post #103

solardev wrote: post #84

This is the same Hasbro that tried to retroactively close off the D&D Open Game License (and thus the third party ecosystem). It was a massive betrayal that caused a ton of pushback: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/jan/12/dungeons-and-d... They also sell so many overpriced kits with not much going on in them (just a few pieces of paper, not enough dice, sub par instructions ). Or really expensive character toy…

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

that's a good comparison given how litigious Hasbro has been in the past.

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

#183

Post by dmix » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:25 PM UTC

phpisthebest wrote: post #152

rndmwlk wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few friends in the trades, all part of a union, and none of them would echo this sentiment. It's also funny because this is the exact same sentiment people complain about with the corporate world, where it's more about who you know than what you know.

Trade unions and Employment unions are very different. That said, i suspect the parent story was from years ago, most likely late 90's or early 00's when that type of thing was common Today most unions are very very very hard up to find anyone willing to work everyone that wants a job, and can actually follow instructions, and show up on time (harder than it sounds it seems) gets a job right now...

It was early 2000s in Southern Ontario Canada

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

#184

Post by serf » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:35 PM UTC

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.

>What is inherently wrong with co-branded product?

it points towards brand dilution and financial straw-grasping. it indicates that the stewards of the IP no longer care about the thing being meaningful and the release schedule is now no longer ordered to increase impact and brand value, but rather to extract whatever value has been accumulated via customer good-will thus-far.

you can see this trend/process occur in just about any long-standing fantasy/fiction IP.

Some IPs are built to push product. Evangelion and Gundam are designed to shove plastic toys out the door since day 1.

Some IPs slowly evolve into that product push once main-line income dwindles; those are the ones that tend to upset folks with that sort of behavior, and frankly it cheapens the brand appeal by reducing exclusivity.

In other words : niche appeal exists, and generally the move towards synergistic advertisement partnerships over quality generally signals the corporate desire for generating mass market appeal at the sake of sacrificing the niche crowd.

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

#185

Post by jldugger » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:44 PM UTC

mcpackieh wrote: post #63

oliwarner wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those notable titles are pretty old and past development. Same as Transformers. I guess they don't want to be in the legacy media licensing business.

> they don't want to be in the legacy media licensing business. Isn't that business basically free money? The way I see it, no capital investment is needed. You just need to keep a few accountants and lawyers around to handle occasional licensing paperwork. Am I missing something?

It is very much not free -- they apparently raised a lot of debt to buy eOne, and they are going to have find a way to pay that off or roll it over into a much, much higher interest rate environment than 2019.

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

#186

Post by bugglebeetle » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:45 PM UTC

imbnwa wrote: post #179

bugglebeetle wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

DOS2 holds up pretty well. DOS is kind of clunky.

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

#187

Post by nyssos » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:52 PM UTC

seabird wrote: post #177

dragontamer wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

> Was 4 really worse than 5?

They're just very different. 4 is as much a tactics game as an RPG.

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

#188

Post by phpisthebest » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:53 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #172

phpisthebest wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Lets survey the membership, what is left of them, in a year or less and see if they still feel it was a "success"...

I have a feeling a large % of them will not be in WGA jobs in 18 mos

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

#189

Post by solardev » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 9:59 PM UTC

paulddraper wrote: post #164

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…

> getting your app to run on other platforms is as simple as embedding your operating system into WASM and putting it in their browser ???

I'm kidding, but sometimes it feels like that. Javascript is never just Javascript.

It depends on whether you use Typescript (with tsc or tsx or esrun?).

It depends whether you use V8 or Node or Deno or Bun.

It depends whether you're using AWS Lambda or the Serverless framework or a Cloudflare Worker or a Vercel or Fastly edge function.

It depends whether you use vanilla or HTMX or React or Next or Vue or Nuxt or Svelte or Astro or Remix or Angular or or or.

Then if you go native, it depends whether you use React Native and Expo and Electron and Tauri and and and.

Somehow we went from a universal language that can run in all web browsers to a hundred mutants that each only work in some niche...

I've never seen two Javascript codebases that looked the same :/ Every one is like a new archeological dig. Sure, you can still find some identifiable generic pottery fragments and such, but somehow they managed to build an entire civilization in a totally different way from the one next to them, using technologies that no longer exist just a few years later.

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

#190

Post by solardev » Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 10:00 PM UTC

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.

What? Typescript solves an entirely different problem than most frameworks (you mean frontend frameworks?).

Did I miss typings in vanilla Ecma, or...?