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Lord Rad
Great Reader
United Kingdom
2080 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Dec 2005 : 08:52:17
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Word on the street is that WotC have laid over a dozen people off 
Rumor has it that one of these people is Peter Archer! Which really surprised me. Isn't he head of the book department or something? 
Don't know who else is involved in the redundancies. Thoughts go out to them.
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Lord Rad
"What? No, I wasn't reading your module. I was just looking at the pictures"
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SiriusBlack
Great Reader
USA
5517 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2005 : 12:56:35
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ENWorld's Main page has the following information for those wishing details:
quote:
Gaming Report has an article about changes to key staff positions today at Wizards of the Coast. Some of the Wizards of the Coast Staff affected by this change and are no longer with Wizards are Cornelius Lee, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Wizards of the Coast, Joe Hauck, Vice-President of Marketing for Wizards of the Coast, Peter Archer, Director of Book Publishing for Wizards of the Coast, Mike Elliott, Director of Design and Lead designer of Hecatomb for Wizards of the Coast and Charles Ryan, Dungeons & Dragons Brand Manager.
Charles Ryan has posted here on EN World's messageboards:
Hello, everybody.
Just thought I'd stop by and confirm what you've already heard. Today was my last day with Wizards of the Coast. Although I will still be active on these boards and in the D&D community, I am no longer a spokesman for D&D or WotC.
Please don't be too hasty to draw conclusions about the health of D&D from this turn of events. Wizards of the Coast is a large company with a dozen or so brands and major business operations on every continent. The company operates very much as a team, and in that environment, a single brand can be affected by the fortunes of other brands, even when it's doing well.
I'm sad to no longer be involved professionally with D&D. I'm very proud of my accomplishments during my tenure as Brand Manager (and as a member of the R&D team before that). This has been a very exciting two years for the D&D brand, and though I'm sorry not to continue participating in D&D's future, I'm honored to have had the opportunity that I did to lead D&D's fortunes during two very exciting years.
My wife and I are expecting our second child soon, and I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with my family over the next few weeks. I don't yet know where I'll go from there, but I can tell you this: I will always be a diehard gamer and an outspoken fan of D&D!
__________________
Charles Ryan
Just another gamer
Here's a link to Gaming Report's article which also features comments from James Lowder detailing some others involved in this WOTC action. |
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Mystery_Man
Senior Scribe
USA
455 Posts |
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Winterfox
Senior Scribe
895 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2005 : 13:54:09
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quote:
Originally posted by Mystery_Man
Merry Christmas, you're fired.  
I know I shouldn't, but that sentence made me giggle. |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2005 : 14:42:05
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When I saw this topic I was really wondering what was going on, since they have been recruiting designers on their site, but seeing as how this was the heads of a lot of departments, that throws this back into the, "the brand may be doing well but not as well as we want it to," category that calls forth the axe for a lot of management types. This is the type of thing we may never really know what has gone on before, since it could be based on all sorts of internal goals and targets.
At my job, one of the managers was fired about 9 months ago because while all of our goals were being met, we weren't improving on the schedule that had been laid out for the year, and he proceedures were considered too cumbersome and they fired him sure that they would be able to streamline a lot of processces. For about six months we fiddled with how to do this, where to store this, how long to run this or that, and now we are right back to doing things exactly the way that this guy did things, since we can't find another way to run productively.
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Crennen FaerieBane
Master of Realmslore
USA
1378 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2005 : 14:44:40
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Well, it's pretty hard not to draw a conclusion. Lay offs in any form are a sign of reorg'ing, which may not always be a good thing, for brand or fan.
C-Fb
P.s. - And Winterfox, it's because you have a cold heart.  (That was a joke) |
Still rockin' the Fey'ri style. |
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Dargoth
Great Reader
Australia
4607 Posts |
Posted - 03 Dec 2005 : 06:35:59
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quote:
Originally posted by CrennenFaerieBane
P.s. - And Winterfox, it's because you have a cold heart. (That was a joke)
and a pretty appalling PUN |
“I am the King of Rome, and above grammar”
Emperor Sigismund
"Its good to be the King!"
Mel Brooks |
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Crennen FaerieBane
Master of Realmslore
USA
1378 Posts |
Posted - 03 Dec 2005 : 15:22:15
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Thanks, Dargoth!!  |
Still rockin' the Fey'ri style. |
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Winterfox
Senior Scribe
895 Posts |
Posted - 03 Dec 2005 : 17:59:42
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| Lol! I didn't even get the pun until Dargoth pointed it out. |
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Kianna
Learned Scribe
USA
155 Posts |
Posted - 03 Dec 2005 : 22:49:54
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| Weren't they doing layoffs a few months ago too? That's either a sign of things going down...or some major reorganizing. |
Huzzah! |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 04 Dec 2005 : 02:52:19
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| Actually, a couple of years ago they layed off a lot of designers. They just started hiring more in house designers, but this time the layoff are all management types . . . |
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scererar
Master of Realmslore
USA
1618 Posts |
Posted - 04 Dec 2005 : 05:32:03
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| I deal with people on a daily basis, who have lost thier jobs, and I can never figure out why companies can't wait... until hmmm lets see jan 1st to lay people off from work. Scererar raises his glass to all of the staff.... thanks for all of your work and imaginations. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 04 Dec 2005 : 06:26:26
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quote:
Originally posted by scererar
I deal with people on a daily basis, who have lost thier jobs, and I can never figure out why companies can't wait... until hmmm lets see jan 1st to lay people off from work. Scererar raises his glass to all of the staff.... thanks for all of your work and imaginations.
There's a large local company that gets a lot of defense contracts. They were notorious for always announcing layoffs in December... It got to be something of a local joke, at least to those of us who didn't work there. They've not done that routine for the last few years, but one expression about that place remains: "Newly hired, newly fired."
I once lost a job the week of Christmas. It was very rough on me. Not only did I lose benefits I would have otherwise gotten and have to scramble to cover the last of my shopping, but I was also upset at the reason I was fired: my manager found out I'd rather find a new job than keep working for him. So he decided to make up an excuse for firing me and move up my timetable for leaving.
My sympathies go out to the WotC people who are now unemployed. I hope this doesn't affect their holidays too drastically. |
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I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
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Crennen FaerieBane
Master of Realmslore
USA
1378 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2005 : 00:53:55
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Good call, Wooly - I hope all the WotC staff that were unfortunately laid off can still find a safe and happy holiday!
C-Fb |
Still rockin' the Fey'ri style. |
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Topic |
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WotC layoff more staff
