There is essentially no one left in the book publishing division.

Does that make Williams the one turning off the lights on her way out the door?  In a way, that's actually good news. 

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 17, 2024, 11:43:55 PMWotC betting it all on becoming a video game while the AAA video game industry is crashing is going to be something to behold.

I'll drink to that!

I think it's a shame she's gone. There is so much left to burn down.

I want that field nice and fertile for us to move in on.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 17, 2024, 11:43:55 PMWotC betting it all on becoming a video game while the AAA video game industry is crashing is going to be something to behold.

The true irony is that the D&D game from Larian helped trigger that collapse.

WotC - Failure is the Only Option

The AI has determined that C.Williams' services are no longer required.

Quote from: Chris24601 on April 18, 2024, 10:49:03 AM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 17, 2024, 11:43:55 PMWotC betting it all on becoming a video game while the AAA video game industry is crashing is going to be something to behold.

The true irony is that the D&D game from Larian helped trigger that collapse.

WotC - Failure is the Only Option

Eh, not sure about that, the collapse was already under way IMHO. But it might have accelerated it.

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on April 17, 2024, 02:45:45 PMMy question is a bit more on the business side. How long can Hasbro use the D&D ip before WOTC gets entirely gutted? And will the upcoming VTT lead to further layoffs?

wotc has been gutting itself without Hasborgs help. Hasbro used to reign in wotc's stupid to a degree once they figured out just how destructive wotc can be. But round 5e's release that started to change.

When it comes to video games, I don't think the general position of the industry is a good marker of what's to come.  Larian, who doesn't ascribe to any DEI nonsense publicly and whose "woke content" is just the ramifications of allowing an incredibly huge number of things to play out under the player's control, made a magnificent game- the best CRPG ever by almost every metric and one of the top hundred video games in history.  At the time, they pointed out that it could be used as a tabletop sim with the right mods perhaps (granted with the slightly different ruleset, but it's like 97% 5e).

What does WotC do with this incredible gift, this hugely profitable beast?  Well, we see Larian saying that they aren't gonna make any DLC and that Baldur's Gate 3 is being turned over to Wizards of the Coast and they are working on a different project.  Which means that WotC wanted to burn down the license, take everything that Larian did that was wildly popular, and somehow assume they'd be able to be a good controller of this.

But clearly they won't.  They lack the technical capacity, they axed everyone who worked with Larian on it, and clearly they didn't offer Larian the terms needed to begin immediately working on BG4, which would take years and blow away BG3.  They fucked up massively.

Yes, but she is still there for another 8 Days.  How much damage can an evil wench do in 8 Days, when she knows she's leaving anyway?

Quote from: Man at Arms on April 18, 2024, 02:25:00 PMYes, but she is still there for another 8 Days.  How much damage can an evil wench do in 8 Days, when she knows she's leaving anyway?

Not much damage.  She is most likely locked out of email and had her personal affects mailed to her home.  The higher the employee, the more important it is to remove all of their access to the network when they are being fired.

Quote from: Chris24601 on April 18, 2024, 10:49:03 AM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 17, 2024, 11:43:55 PMWotC betting it all on becoming a video game while the AAA video game industry is crashing is going to be something to behold.

The true irony is that the D&D game from Larian helped trigger that collapse.

WotC - Failure is the Only Option

"Victory has defeated you."
-Bane