If I were in charge of WotC, one of the first things I'd do is bring back the TSR division, and put them in charge of Old School D&D, including 1st edition, 2nd edition, BECMI, and even original D&D. I'd also look at bringing back Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, if it's feasible to do that. I mean, White Dwarf is still selling in game stores, so... One thing I'd love to do is re-do the 1st edition DMG and PHB, and better organize them, but keep the black and white art, to keep the costs down. Maybe do the same for 2nd edition and BECMI, and maybe Original D&D too... maybe. I think they'd sell well, but maybe I'm just being silly here, and they wouldn't sell at all.
I'm sad to say that more WotC news is met in me with little more than apathy. However, the world of Greyhawk is theiving at my table, and that pleases me.
When you first said 'People Officer', I could not help but think of 'How to Serve Man' from the Twilight Zone. Glad to see WotC has not learned anything. At least we will know what we are going to receive in the future.
Ah, an MMO guy, so it's a pretty safe bet we're in for more of every character being a sword swinging, spell lobbing, item crafting, super-charged jack-of-all-trades that re-spawns back in town after every death then, eh? I guess they be working on figuring out a way to monetize a TTRPG clan system.... I don't mind making computers more useful for doing TTRPG stuff. I do think it'll lead to more ways of monetizing a sense of obligation to other players, so they don't have to depend on actual good will toward the company.
@@harbl99 At first read, the image of whale milking just cracked me up...then I thought it might just be something I use in a questing arc. Thanks for both results!
It really is time to shift all loyalty to the historical product and not the current publisher. They are poor custodians and terrible writers and there are hundreds of credible valid alternatives to HASBRO-RPG. There is just no excuse to be uncritical witless consumers of corporate slop that doesn't respect original author intent and poisons the shared secondary worlds of millions of people going back 60 years to the real origins of Dungeons and Dragons in Minnesota.
Monopoly GO made loads of money. But table top Monopoly still exists and offers a variety of skinned version. Hasbro doesn't want to sacrifice one medium for the growth of another. They want all the products to make all the money. Whether that is wise or feasible is another question.
Any creative work will be directed primarily at the vtt. The new president will get that out the door in some form ASAP based on his background and mission. And not too long the printed content will go away completely and content will just be available as a PDF if it's available at all outside of the table top. Not too long after that Hasbro will sell the brand unless the video game version of D&D is a smashing success. Probably everything creative will be outsourced. They may even outsource the vtt to finish it. Alternatively, he may just steal enough talent from Blizzard to finish it.
just so you are aware, CHRO and HR Director are two different positions in a company and are both in Wotc. Emily Hanson is the HR Director. they both are part of the same HR department.
They are definitely going to move it into digital. The books will be a luxury, or novelty. They want everyone on D&D beyond at the least and in the VTT spending money on microtransactions hopefully. Due to their choices of how to behave however they will do so without my money.
Right I’m not going to do a pay to play type of game. Not sure I will move from 5e. Yes WotC will continue to try to get more electronic based imho. So much for old white guys leaving Thanks for the news.
They can hire Duh-Wayne 'The Sockpuppet' Johnson as CEO and it wouldn't matter to me. I'm all set with D&D and Magic. I'm just here to watch the dumpster fire with popcorn in hand,
Yep. I've bought all the D&D I'm going to. I have enough to run 5e for years, and that's not even getting into the other RPGs I have. I've been playing since 1983... and 5th Edition is the last Dungeons and Dragons game I'll ever buy.
Given the history and focus of Wotc as of late, truthfully I am not optimistic about that we will see any positive changes at Wotc in the near future. Mind you I do understand many at Blizzard are fans of old school tabletop games (remember seeing pictures of RPG books in office as inspiration material) so I hope the new guy is willing to at least provide some positive push at WOTC away from a total digital model. Still not sure if he capable of making the changes I need to see to come back as a customer.
One thing that might be coming is a new MMORPG using a certain world with planes it it, it's a more on the horizon thing, that and more crpgs. When it comes to books, they give far to little out to actually build the brands or campaign settings of dungeons and dragons, they think less is more, you have to give out a lot more books to build your digital universe as well, if not the whole franchise goes stale. I as you don't know what wizards will do, but if they don't change anything, meaning hireing both new talent combined with the old masters of dungeons and dragons that still are alive, they will go bankrupt sooner rather than later. If you make products for people to just collect books, that's not going to be the answer, as I said you need to build a brand by making a lot more and much better quality from wizards of the coast to start earning money on everything, you can't just rest on your laurels.
I think, given his comfort zone and empirical evidence of new leader behavior, who he puts under him on the TTRPG side will matter more. His head will be on the computer game side.
Yeah, the guy in charge of Warcraft expansions like Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth, and [shudder] _Shadowlands_ is now going to run D&D. Seems like a logical choice, hire someone with a record of failure and franchise decline to handle the twilight years of Dungeons and Dragons.
I'd be mortified, but I've had a soft ban on WotC for years now, and it's turned into a hard ban over the past 2 years. Nothing I can say or do because Hasbro will never get a single penny in revenue from me.. I'll play old school, OSR, or something else completely. I'm so over WotC D&D
This is looks like continued commitment to the video game monetization model Cynthia Williams promises to bring. Now they have someone with more direct experience milking an electronic property for every possible penny. Anyway, I don’t see any change of direction here. Not that I have a dog in the fight, anyway. Even if the social and political pollution from WotC/Hasbro weren’t prohibitive for me, the game design is just too loose at this point. The indie market is producing better games left and right. Whether you want old-school approaches or innovations on the modern representation, too many people are doing D&D better than WotC.
Ohh nooo, WOTC doses what they said they would do, what a surprise. Ohh no another video game guy! It's like they want to turn D&D into a video game where you pay for DLC? oh wait they do... This changes nothing, at best he actually acres enough to make the digital conversion more atractive
Hight is a video game developer, he doesn't have anything else on his resume. Pronouns in profile as well to tell you his political allegiance. That alone means we are going to have a crappy guy. Its possible he played some D&D at blizzard, which he joined in Nov 2011. Keep in mind Activision bought Blizzard in 2008, so there were some differences in mgmt. It's highly likely the guy is a corporate drone who will suck an IP dry and destroy it the same way he did Warcraft chasing fans away by chasing the lowest common denominator and microtransactions.
I don't think the new social norm of telling his gender pronouns (especially in corporate environment) has any bearing on his ability to do well with WotC. However, his affiliation with Blizzard screams more horrible decisions to come. I believe in their eyes, he is a shoe in fir the digital side of D&D. I wish they would hire an actual life long avid fan and consumer of the hobby. Edit: I despise the direction of Blizzard as well as D&D.
So are you taking issue with him being on "the left", or just that he uses personal pronouns? If your issue is just with him using personal pronouns, then I agree with you, as no one has personal pronouns. It's silly, but if you think being on the left makes you a nut, and that being on the right makes you a normal rational person, then you're delusional, as there are many on both sides who are normal and rational, as well as insane and irrational.
WOW exec. Thats exactly the wrong person to be in charge. DnD is not a game. Its an operating system on which games are played. Hiring a microsoft exec was the right decision, she simply did not understand what she was selling.
In Gambia there's a saying for situations like this: "It's just old wine in a new bottle."
If I were in charge of WotC, one of the first things I'd do is bring back the TSR division, and put them in charge of Old School D&D, including 1st edition, 2nd edition, BECMI, and even original D&D. I'd also look at bringing back Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, if it's feasible to do that. I mean, White Dwarf is still selling in game stores, so...
One thing I'd love to do is re-do the 1st edition DMG and PHB, and better organize them, but keep the black and white art, to keep the costs down. Maybe do the same for 2nd edition and BECMI, and maybe Original D&D too... maybe.
I think they'd sell well, but maybe I'm just being silly here, and they wouldn't sell at all.
Yes pc stuff for D&D has been around forever. I have the DMs assistant for the Commodore 64.
Those two apps are great.
Did you say you wanted MOAR DIGITILIZATION?
HERE, HAVE SOME!
"People Officer"? What? For some reason this strikes me as being very 1984 or Brave New World.
Yeah, very creepy.
I always found “Human Resources” to be pretty chilling.
@steelmongoose4956
True enough.
It's really a "political officer." Just like in the old CCCP.
My personal favourite PR-friendly term for HR is 'Human Capital Management'. :)
I'm sad to say that more WotC news is met in me with little more than apathy. However, the world of Greyhawk is theiving at my table, and that pleases me.
For me, it’s just about watching the world burn.
@@steelmongoose4956 Funny, a Vecnite cleric in my setting said the same thing. Hmmm ...
When you first said 'People Officer', I could not help but think of 'How to Serve Man' from the Twilight Zone.
Glad to see WotC has not learned anything. At least we will know what we are going to receive in the future.
Ah, an MMO guy, so it's a pretty safe bet we're in for more of every character being a sword swinging, spell lobbing, item crafting, super-charged jack-of-all-trades that re-spawns back in town after every death then, eh? I guess they be working on figuring out a way to monetize a TTRPG clan system....
I don't mind making computers more useful for doing TTRPG stuff. I do think it'll lead to more ways of monetizing a sense of obligation to other players, so they don't have to depend on actual good will toward the company.
Yep, same direction, only this guy seems to have more direct experience at killing the game for quick profit.
He's an expert in (checks notes) subscription monetization and whale milking.
@@harbl99 At first read, the image of whale milking just cracked me up...then I thought it might just be something I use in a questing arc. Thanks for both results!
It really is time to shift all loyalty to the historical product and not the current publisher. They are poor custodians and terrible writers and there are hundreds of credible valid alternatives to HASBRO-RPG. There is just no excuse to be uncritical witless consumers of corporate slop that doesn't respect original author intent and poisons the shared secondary worlds of millions of people going back 60 years to the real origins of Dungeons and Dragons in Minnesota.
Monopoly GO made loads of money. But table top Monopoly still exists and offers a variety of skinned version. Hasbro doesn't want to sacrifice one medium for the growth of another. They want all the products to make all the money. Whether that is wise or feasible is another question.
Well said, well done.
Any creative work will be directed primarily at the vtt. The new president will get that out the door in some form ASAP based on his background and mission. And not too long the printed content will go away completely and content will just be available as a PDF if it's available at all outside of the table top. Not too long after that Hasbro will sell the brand unless the video game version of D&D is a smashing success. Probably everything creative will be outsourced. They may even outsource the vtt to finish it. Alternatively, he may just steal enough talent from Blizzard to finish it.
just so you are aware, CHRO and HR Director are two different positions in a company and are both in Wotc. Emily Hanson is the HR Director. they both are part of the same HR department.
They are definitely going to move it into digital. The books will be a luxury, or novelty. They want everyone on D&D beyond at the least and in the VTT spending money on microtransactions hopefully. Due to their choices of how to behave however they will do so without my money.
Right I’m not going to do a pay to play type of game. Not sure I will move from 5e.
Yes WotC will continue to try to get more electronic based imho.
So much for old white guys leaving
Thanks for the news.
They can hire Duh-Wayne 'The Sockpuppet' Johnson as CEO and it wouldn't matter to me. I'm all set with D&D and Magic. I'm just here to watch the dumpster fire with popcorn in hand,
Yep. I've bought all the D&D I'm going to. I have enough to run 5e for years, and that's not even getting into the other RPGs I have. I've been playing since 1983... and 5th Edition is the last Dungeons and Dragons game I'll ever buy.
Given the history and focus of Wotc as of late, truthfully I am not optimistic about that we will see any positive changes at Wotc in the near future.
Mind you I do understand many at Blizzard are fans of old school tabletop games (remember seeing pictures of RPG books in office as inspiration material) so I hope the new guy is willing to at least provide some positive push at WOTC away from a total digital model.
Still not sure if he capable of making the changes I need to see to come back as a customer.
New boss? Oh, he's from Blizzard. Never mind. They haven't learned anything.
One thing that might be coming is a new MMORPG using a certain world with planes it it, it's a more on the horizon thing, that and more crpgs.
When it comes to books, they give far to little out to actually build the brands or campaign settings of dungeons and dragons, they think less is more, you have to give out a lot more books to build your digital universe as well, if not the whole franchise goes stale.
I as you don't know what wizards will do, but if they don't change anything, meaning hireing both new talent combined with the old masters of dungeons and dragons that still are alive, they will go bankrupt sooner rather than later.
If you make products for people to just collect books, that's not going to be the answer, as I said you need to build a brand by making a lot more and much better quality from wizards of the coast to start earning money on everything, you can't just rest on your laurels.
I think, given his comfort zone and empirical evidence of new leader behavior, who he puts under him on the TTRPG side will matter more. His head will be on the computer game side.
Which is the whole point.
Yeah, the guy in charge of Warcraft expansions like Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth, and [shudder] _Shadowlands_ is now going to run D&D. Seems like a logical choice, hire someone with a record of failure and franchise decline to handle the twilight years of Dungeons and Dragons.
yeah this isn't good news.
I'd be mortified, but I've had a soft ban on WotC for years now, and it's turned into a hard ban over the past 2 years. Nothing I can say or do because Hasbro will never get a single penny in revenue from me.. I'll play old school, OSR, or something else completely. I'm so over WotC D&D
I totally agree with you on this one.
This is looks like continued commitment to the video game monetization model Cynthia Williams promises to bring. Now they have someone with more direct experience milking an electronic property for every possible penny. Anyway, I don’t see any change of direction here.
Not that I have a dog in the fight, anyway. Even if the social and political pollution from WotC/Hasbro weren’t prohibitive for me, the game design is just too loose at this point. The indie market is producing better games left and right. Whether you want old-school approaches or innovations on the modern representation, too many people are doing D&D better than WotC.
Ohh nooo, WOTC doses what they said they would do, what a surprise. Ohh no another video game guy! It's like they want to turn D&D into a video game where you pay for DLC?
oh wait they do...
This changes nothing, at best he actually acres enough to make the digital conversion more atractive
Hight is a video game developer, he doesn't have anything else on his resume. Pronouns in profile as well to tell you his political allegiance. That alone means we are going to have a crappy guy. Its possible he played some D&D at blizzard, which he joined in Nov 2011. Keep in mind Activision bought Blizzard in 2008, so there were some differences in mgmt. It's highly likely the guy is a corporate drone who will suck an IP dry and destroy it the same way he did Warcraft chasing fans away by chasing the lowest common denominator and microtransactions.
I don't think the new social norm of telling his gender pronouns (especially in corporate environment) has any bearing on his ability to do well with WotC.
However, his affiliation with Blizzard screams more horrible decisions to come. I believe in their eyes, he is a shoe in fir the digital side of D&D.
I wish they would hire an actual life long avid fan and consumer of the hobby.
Edit: I despise the direction of Blizzard as well as D&D.
So are you taking issue with him being on "the left", or just that he uses personal pronouns? If your issue is just with him using personal pronouns, then I agree with you, as no one has personal pronouns. It's silly, but if you think being on the left makes you a nut, and that being on the right makes you a normal rational person, then you're delusional, as there are many on both sides who are normal and rational, as well as insane and irrational.
WOW exec. Thats exactly the wrong person to be in charge.
DnD is not a game. Its an operating system on which games are played. Hiring a microsoft exec was the right decision, she simply did not understand what she was selling.