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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

#131

Post by aardvark179 »

el-dude-arino wrote: post #14
jmcgough wrote: post #8

A layoff gives managers the opportunity to fire people who they've wanted to fire for a while. The firings within WotC were likely opportunistic and not about trying to change the direction or strength of the company. Doing it as part of larger layoffs gives an excuse for it and in theory mitigates drama.

Ah you beat me to it. Layoffs like this mitigate the drama for sure, but also mitigates legal liability, which just goes to show you; you're a fool to remain loyal to the company. A lot of the people fired were rated highly in their performance reviews, I'm sure. But if you're too ambitious or criticized the boss for making a mistake or just looked at him wrong... you're gone. My advice: - Always be interviewing - Ne…

This feels like a self fulfilling thing. You get laid off, so you start following these rules and you are even more likely to get laid off.

I can honestly say I not only don’t follow these rules, I think I follow almost their direct opposite, and despite many around me being laid off I never have been even when voluntary redundancy was being offered and applying for it, I have more than enough money to walk away from a job if I want to.

If you find every workplace so hateful that you must follow these rules have you considered that the problem might actually be you?

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

#132

Post by pavel_lishin »

rtkwe wrote: post #100
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…

Also their recent move to 3-book + DM screen sets is really annoying. They did it first with Spelljammer's rerelease into 5e and I think the oceanic thirst for Spelljammer content might have sent them the wrong signal about the popularity of the actual content which was pretty thin for the amount you paid for it with notable missing rules like long range travel... for the space setting.

The combat system is pretty piss-poor, too - to the point where many people have released their own, better, rulesets for combat to address these problems.

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

#133

Post by bugglebeetle »

solardev wrote: post #121
bugglebeetle wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Divinity Original Sin 2 has better combat mechanics While I think the combat in 5E combat in BG3 is fairly simple by comparison, DOS2 combat was definitely not better. All combat devolved into status effect versions of “the floor is lava” and a lot of builds become unviable late game.

You didn't like the environmental interactions? I thought it was awesome how the "floor is lava" could quickly become "the air is now noxious gas / steam / full of lava elementals", how undead and the living react to elements different, etc. But it's really more that the action points system gave you a lot more tactical flexibility than the D&D "attack/cast + move" limits. Still, though, I loved the different builds…

I think the environmental effects were fun, but in longer or large battles, too much of the emphasis was placed on managing them. One thing I appreciated about BG3 is that you can use them to your advantage, but they’re not a primary focus of combat. I like the scale and variety of combat in DOS2 better overall, however. All the BG3 combat, outside a handful of battles, felt trivial and anti-climactic.

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

#134

Post by criddell »

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.

Unions prioritize whatever it is the members want prioritized.

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

#135

Post by gruez »

jimbob45 wrote: post #91

Getting laid off has got to be the single highest trigger of suicide. Maybe breakups or child loss are higher but it’s at least top 3. Watching companies perform layoffs on thousands of employees just for their stock price to temporarily bump is really disgusting. I’d like to see some legislation that significantly penalizes companies engaging in layoffs. They should be a last resort, not a well-worn tool.

>I’d like to see some legislation that significantly penalizes companies engaging in layoffs. They should be a last resort, not a well-worn tool.

Be careful, such legislation might reduce layoffs, but might make other aspects of the labor market worse. For instance, in some European countries where layoffs are hard to pull off, companies are very adverse to hiring anyone, lest they hire a dud that they have to keep on payroll forever. Or they only hire them for fixed term contracts, so that if the economic winds change they're not stuck with a long term liability. It's the opposite in freerer labor markets like in the US. Companies are more willing to hire unproven/unconventional candidates because they know they can be easily fired if things don't work out, and they react faster to demand shocks because each hire isn't a long term liability. That's not to say we should accept people committing suicide after layoffs as a trade-off for a more dynamic labor market. A robust unemployment system and/or social safety net mitigates the negative effects of layoffs without the affecting dynamism of the labor market, and should be the solution rather than making workers harder to fire.

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

#136

Post by solardev »

dragontamer wrote: post #125
solardev wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's called a "Cube" in Magic the Gathering. It wasn't super clear to me from that article, but does this mean everyone drafts from the same cube (like you combine cards and then everyone draws from them)? Or does everyone make their own cubes? I think a difference there (vs a limited number of cards in the game, period) is being able to realistically know all the cards that can be played. There's not this surpri…

> It wasn't super clear to me from that article, but does this mean everyone drafts from the same cube (like you combine cards and then everyone draws from them)? Or does everyone make their own cubes? A cube is 360 (total) cards that you tell all your friends about. Some of these cards are repeats (ex: 4x Elite Vanguards). You bring those cards, you shuffle them up, deal out 15-to-each-person, and then start draftin…

> Then keep to the same cube. The "owner" of the Cube is responsible for "balance patches" (Hmmm... Red is too strong. I'll replace some of these powerful Red cards with weaker ones). So its not completely static. But the general plan is to build a set that your group can "recycle" and grow to become experts in.

Thanks for explaining this! I actually really like this. I will suggest it to our Magic group next time :) That might just be the kind of experience we're needing.

> All of this information is published ahead of time. Some, more competitive, players even playtest / draft when the spoilers are released long before the Pre-release. Using computer software to emulate a draft.

Wait, really? I didn't know that either. So if I'm understanding you right, people basically simulate drafts (in software... any recommendations?) before the actual release? Does the software include estimated rarity, such that if you practice drafting a few times, you're as unlikely to get the rares as in the real card version?

> Draft-players don't "collect" the cards. You usually sell the cards after the draft.

This probably just goes back to the difference in preferences earlier: novelty in cards vs novelty in tactical deck-building. I prefer the latter, where you work a small pile of "knowns" and rearrange them more effectively, vs constantly having new piles of unknowns. The "curated Cube" may just be the perfect answer to that. Thanks again!

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

#137

Post by Yhippa »

gymbeaux wrote: post #56
THENATHE wrote: post #48

I really miss 2016 MtG. I remember when full art lands and full art promos were RARE and with money for no reason other than their collectability. I really liked when cards were rare because of the fact that they were good and uncommon and maybe because they were the same as the regular card but foil, not because they were arbitrarily a different type of shiny, or like when that one card from Kamigawa had a different…

My theory is that all cards will eventually be under $10, because cards like Mana Crypt are opportunities for WoTC to make money via reprints. I’ve only been playing/buying since March, but I’ve seen so many cards dropping dramatically in price, much more often than seeing a card shoot up in price. Reprints help drive sales and justify the higher prices for booster packs. Cutting staff implies that, perhaps, they ant…

They're in a tough spot because they have to keep several audiences happy: collectors and players. Players generally want the cheapest set pieces while collectors want the value of their collection to grow. I think WotC has done a decent job trying to satisfy both groups and are at least trying different things. As an investor, you should be happy about that. Whether or not this sea change of releases over the pandemic helps or hurts the long-term health of the game is a worry of mine.

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

#138

Post by rendall »

dmix wrote: post #97
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)

I worked at a unionized job as a teenager at an industrial plant and I asked how to get hired for real instead of temping and he explained how unions worked there and other plants in town. He said it's extremely neoptistic, they'd usually hire a kid of one of the workers or a friend and the odds of an outsider getting in was thin. They dealt out jobs like a mafia family.

I worked at a unionized job. It was not that way for us at all. Perhaps a different industry? It was mostly just protection from shenanigans. Once, for instance, the owner of the company tried not to give us a contracted wage increase - a wage increase he agreed to - and he got slammed by the civil judge. We were paid 3 times the wages that he had tried to steal.

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

#139

Post by solardev »

bugglebeetle wrote: post #133
solardev wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't like the environmental interactions? I thought it was awesome how the "floor is lava" could quickly become "the air is now noxious gas / steam / full of lava elementals", how undead and the living react to elements different, etc. But it's really more that the action points system gave you a lot more tactical flexibility than the D&D "attack/cast + move" limits. Still, though, I loved the different builds…

I think the environmental effects were fun, but in longer or large battles, too much of the emphasis was placed on managing them. One thing I appreciated about BG3 is that you can use them to your advantage, but they’re not a primary focus of combat. I like the scale and variety of combat in DOS2 better overall, however. All the BG3 combat, outside a handful of battles, felt trivial and anti-climactic.

> I think the environmental effects were fun, but in longer or large battles, too much of the emphasis became on managing them.

Oh, I see what you mean there. Yeah, I agree, the environmental effects were SO powerful they often occluded the usefulness of other skills. I'm glad they toned it down a bit in BG3.

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

#140

Post by ramesh31 »

dathinab wrote: post #111
ramesh31 wrote: post #83

Can't new MtG sets literally be generated perfectly with AI now? Might be behind a lot of this. Looks like the layoffs were pretty heavy on the art department: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/18ij198/list_of_kn... Reminds me of the transition from classical animation to CGI. It used to take teams of hundreds of animators to make a film simply because of the sheer amount of work to be done. Whole career path…

> Can't new MtG sets literally be generated perfectly with AI now? no not quite you can generate cards sure but for a set to work you need more then just random generated cards especially if you want it to go well or if you want to continue to have success with crossovers where the choices of mechanics should synagize not just with the set in general but with the lore from the cross over, something mtg somewhat manag…

Point in general is that the workload is massively reduced no matter what. You no longer need teams of people manipulating Illustrator files. It's just a single artist fine tuning a generated image.
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