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WotC's Peter Adkison shares his thoughts

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Peter D. Adkison

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Dec 11, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/11/95
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Obviously the events transpiring at WotC have raised a lot of questions.
I've forwarded some comments to customer service to pass along to the
Internet, but that's just not as much fun as diving in personally. So,
here I am, ready to talk to you directly about what the heck's happening
here at WotC these days.

Warning: some of this you may have seen before. I've been writing
mini-essays in different places since last week, and this is to some
extent a compilation of all I've written so far. Pardon the length; I
thought it worth being comprehensive.

* We are finding new homes for our current roleplaying game lines. That
includes SLA Industries, Ars Magica, and Everway. Our number one goal
will be to find each of these lines a good home. If you would like to
make a proposal please contact Lisa Stevens here at WotC; she's handling
the transition. Our number one criteria in making a decision will be our
confidence level in whether or not the company taking over the line will
really focus on it and deliver. The goal is to *improve* the situation
for people who are fans of the games by turning the games over to
companies that will really focus on them, instead of treating them like
unwanted stepchildren, which unfortunately was often how the games were
treated here. Some of the options we're considering include creating a
spin-off company or funding a new company composed of many of the games'
former staff.

* We won't be focusing on table games in 1996. We are not dropping them,
but we're also not going to be investing in them heavily. Before the cuts
we had one person in this department and that's where we still are. The
decision we made was *not* to hire another four people to build that into
a department that publishes a steady stream of table games. We'll
continue to maintain RoboRally, Armed and Dangerous (the RoboRally
expansion), and The Great Dalmuti. I'm sure we'll ramp this area up later
on down the road, but right now Richard Garfield and his crew are more
interested in doing R&D work on trading card games, tournaments, leagues,
and a couple of new ideas.

* We did lay off a number of people. Some of them were associated with
our roleplaying lines, but most of them were part of general overhead
areas that had grown out of control. Many of the people laid off told me
they thought it was the most humane layoff they'd ever seen a company
perform. Our severance package included five to eight weeks of salary
(two weeks is typical) plus continuation of medical benefits through
January. We're also investing heavily in outplacement programs and
classes in topics like How to Write a Resume and Dressing for Success.
Timing the layoff to coincide with the release of 1995 profit sharing also
helped maximize the amount of in-pocket cash each person would have. We
didn't purposely wait until December to do this; we just didn't figure out
that these kinds of cuts were necessary until we were going over our
budgets for next year. One lesson we've learned from this is what many
other companies have already figured out: it's probably better to do
annual budgeting in the spring or summer rather than at the end of the
year. We'll definitely consider such a change as a result of this.

* Magic and Vampire are still doing fine. This isn't a sign that we're
going out of business or anything like that. We expect 1996 to be a great
year.

* We are not getting ready to sell the company. I love this company and
I'm still here doing what I love and founded this company to do--publish
games. We have from time to time considered taking the company public,
and we might do so in the future. But that's been an ongoing question for
some time and our recent decisions had little, if anything, to do with
that.

* Focus. The main problem at WotC has been the inability to focus on a
few things and do them really well. This is something that's very
difficult to explain; in fact it took me several years to figure this
out. I had for a long time thought (naively) that as a company grows it
would be easy to expand its number of product lines to include all the
cool ideas WotC staff could come up with. It turns out it's a *lot* more
difficult than I thought it would be to fund fifteen or twenty businesses
(we were looking at all sorts of things that you probably didn't even know
about, like educational games, art publications, software, etc.). I was
warned this would be a problem. I ignored the warnings and overextended
the company anyway. I take full responsibility for the results.

* Picking priorities. So if you find yourself in a position where you're
doing twenty things and you think you should cut it back to five, how do
you pick? You pick based on what you think you can do really well, and
whether or not others are already doing it really well. We dropped RPGs
because at the end of the day I don't think we've ever done anything so
astoundingly good that nobody else could have done it as well or better.
We have lost money on every single roleplaying product we've produced and
there are other companies that consistently produce more popular RPGs.
Now, I don't think that sales and profit have to drive all our decisions.
But RPGs aren't even breaking even for us! As much as I love RPGs, after
five years of throwing money into it I eventually started to question
whether or not love is enough. Again, our priority in this case will be
to find the RPGs a good home. In the past we sold off one RPG line to a
company that didn't do anything with it, so we're a little wary this time
around. We probably won't move at lightning speed on this issue, but that
will be because we're really going to try and find a good home for each
and every one of our current RPGs.

* Values and business. Something people keep saying to me is that we've
lost our values and that we're putting business above values. I don't
believe that's true. I think values and business go hand in hand and
should support each other. I think the worst mistake a company can do is
put one above the other. A company that puts business above values will
never consider the human element (except in a manipulative/marketing
sense) and is doomed to fail in the long run as it pursues profit. These
companies have no soul. On the other hand, a company that puts values
above business can find itself out of business as it does things that are
nice but lose money. What you need is both held in equal measure. I have
always felt this way, btw. When I was managing WotC as a five-person
basement volunteer group it was always our goal to eventually run a good
business too. For us to continue doing RPGs directly would be putting our
personal love of RPGs as a genre above business judgment.

* Mixing TCGs and RPGs. One of the problems is that organizationally I
don't think TCGs and RPGs really mix well. They require a very different
attitude and approach. The people who love one don't often care for the
other and vice versa. This may not be true throughout the gaming
community in general, but it's been the case here at WotC particularly
among the design staffs. Since Magic came out there have been essentially
two cliques at WotC, with very little overlap. It's been creating stress
in the organization and has made us a bit dysfunctional. I think this
move will let us focus on what we've done our best at, and pass the rest
on to someone else.

* Some have asked why we did this right before the next edition of Ars
Magica was printed. The answer is out of respect for its new owner,
whoever that may be. The new owner of Ars Magica will probably
immediately want to develop a new edition of the game. If we've just
published a new edition, that makes it awkward for them because they
essentially have to live with all the changes we've just made. As it is
we can hand them over a product that was just about ready for press and
they can either publish it as is or revise it to suit their needs. We
will provide them with all our materials, including electronic copies of
text files, graphics we've done, art, and so on, assuming they're willing
to take on associated contracts. We may even end up funding the next
printing. Everything's possible. We will find a group of dedicated
people who can focus on the product instead of pushing it to the back
burner whenever Magic, which we affectionately call the
eight-hundred-pound gorilla, gets in trouble and things slam into crisis
mode.

* I honestly think this will be an improvement for you, the customer.
What do you want most? Isn't it to see the best support possible for the
games you love? Do you really think WotC has been doing a great job at
supporting these games? We certainly haven't fulfilled my dreams in this
area. Magic has a tendency to absorb much of our attention here, so
everything else gets stepped on. I hate the fact that it's that way, but
my attempts to fix that have failed. Neglecting Magic for the sake of
RPGs would be really stupid, particularly since it's Magic money that's
been funding the RPGs anyway--remember, the RPGs have been losing money
for us. Also, regardless of what you may think of Magic personally, most
people admit that it's a great game built on a truly innovative concept.
We've never done anything quite that groundbreaking with RPGs. God, the
fates, karma, Ishtar, or [insert cosmic force of your choice] gave us this
wonderful gift called Magic and my belief system says that someday we'll
be judged on what we did with that gift. Magic deserves our full support.

[Deep breath]

I think that covers most of the issues. I'm sure there's more I could say
but that should serve as a good jumpoff point for discussion.

I don't expect everyone to suddenly jump up and down with glee and say,
"Oh, I get it. Way to go, WotC!" We screwed up in a lot of ways.
Again. We overextended and now we need to pull back a bit and focus. I
hate it and I know some of you will hate it too. But I really believe the
mistakes happened over the last couple of years in the form of rapid
growth and overexpansion--mistakes that a more experienced janitor (er,
president) probably would have caught. Last week we paid the penalties
for these mistakes.

Please try to understand that we're not a bunch of corporate yo-yos who
don't give a shit about gaming. We love games, on the job and off. I'm
the janitor (aka president/CEO) and I play games a lot. I played
RoboRally Saturday with Richard and some guests. I'm in the office Magic
league. I still play AD&D with my wife from time to time. Basically I'm
a Joe Blow gamer who just happened to land in an amazing situation. I do
have a responsibility to try to run this place as a good business; it's
not a commune. A lot of people--you all included--depend on me to do a
good job. I'm not expecting sympathy, but this is a tough job, and I
don't always know what to do. I've made many mistakes--some pretty
collossal--and I'm sure I'll make more. But this time I really think I'm
doing the right thing. I may be wrong, and I'll always have to live with
the burden of what happened last week; the question "what if?"will always
linger and keep me up at nights. But that's my job, so I'll deal with it.

I know one thing for sure: I'd have a lot harder time living with myself
if I *didn't* do what I thought was best for *everyone* concerned,
including the fans of our RPG lines.

Mavra!
(Peter D. Adkison)
Janitor (president, etc.), Wizards of the Coast

Dave Howell

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
to
A couple of addendums to Peter's post.

1. The severance has been really good. You don't get things like
medical coverage and stuff until you've been with the company three
months, which is perfectly sensible policy. However, a good friend of
mine would have hit "three months" on Monday, the day after she was
laid off. She gets medical anyway.

2. Do NOT make the mistake of thinking "Wizards was losing money on
RPGs" = "RPGs lose money!" Because Magic was so big, the entire
corporation was distorted to what made creation of Deckmaster more
efficient. This had horrible side-effects on the ability to do RPGs
well. The rapid growth had resulted in quite a bit of bureaucratic
sludge, and I'm not sure that Wizards could have fixed this
satisfactorily without torturing the RPGs for at least another year.
Of course, I could be wrong. We'll never know.


--
Dave "Snark" Howell
sn...@wizards.com
not presently affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Andrew Rilstone

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
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In article <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220>

ma...@wizards.com "Peter D. Adkison" writes:

> January. We're also investing heavily in outplacement programs and
> classes in topics like How to Write a Resume and Dressing for Success.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Well, I'm sure not going to be the first person to say "suits".

--

Andrew Rilstone and...@aslan.demon.co.uk
*********************************************************************
"We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
We castrate, and bid the geldings be fruitful."
C.S Lewis
*********************************************************************

JenJingu

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
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In <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220> ma...@wizards.com (Peter D. Adkison) writes:

First off, I want to just say "fair play to you" Peter. It takes some
balls to come on here and say what you think rather thyan leave it up to
the PR people.

Re: The RPGs

It is good to see that you are trying to keep the games going by farming
them out to other people, but at the same time it leaves people
wondering why is it that you need to farm them out in the first place.
It strikes meas odd that a company like yours has thus far failed in
making a profit or at least cutting even on the rpg front.' Butt then en
if you consider the facts , it's not too odd after all.

Ars Magica hasn't gotten to it's fourth ed yet, nor been given enough
advertising. Everway is just too over produced and too tired a concept
(psycho roleplaying has been done already to death), SLA Industries is,
I think, the least supported game in recent history, but with a lot of
lavish ads for the same thing over and over again.

The reason that WotC hasn't managed to get any profits out of their
RPG's is precisely because they haven't spent the time thatthey do have
to work on them efficiently in any way, shape or form. The impression I
have gotten from the last twelve months looking at the WotC roleplaying
division is that it's just too bloody lax and that's the main reason
that it's paying in spades. Or not depending on your sense of metaphor
:)

Re: The people. I still contend that it would have been better to give
these people some sort of notice of their being let go. Sevrance
packages aside (which I think are very good btw) It still is not a very
good thing to do. These people should have been told that they would
have to move house soon and find other jobs etc. It's not heartless, but
I think it was a little hasty.



>* Magic and Vampire are still doing fine. This isn't a sign that we're
>going out of business or anything like that. We expect 1996 to be a great
>year.

Now this statement is one that I , quite frankly, have a little
difficulty in believing because of the place that I work and the
knowledge that I know from other people that work in the area. It is
small, I admit, butthe general consensus here is that many of the
populace are becoming jaded with Magic. Now, many of them are taking it
up again but the rates of thre jaded compared to the rates of the new
people is closely beginning to come together and teh jaded will start to
pass the newbies, if the current wisdom holds true.
This isn't bad. It's just simple fact. I think that, to me if WotC needs
to make cutbacks and has expanded too fast for it's own good then it is
telling us that all is not quite as rosy in Magic land as we and they
would all like to believe.

I'm not saying that they are failing but they are certainly having to
"focus" and take stock for a reason.

>* Focus. The main problem at WotC has been the inability to focus on a
>few things and do them really well. This is something that's very
>difficult to explain; in fact it took me several years to figure this
>out.

t's not that difficult to figure out. But I imagine it is quite
difficult to come to terms with and understand that this is the way
things work.

Personally, it strikes me as odd that you choose to ditch some of your
design staff right at the time when you are probably going to need them
most to get new products up and running. What it sounds like, to me, is
that you basically have a terrible case of bad communication, Peter and
a big problem in actually getting products up, out and running. Ars
Magica 4th ed should have been out six months ago. SLA should have had
six sourcebooks out for it by now. But they don't. And it's not as if
you don't (didn't ) have the manpower to begin with.

--
--JenJingu-(was once Mithrandir)-(RL: Tadhg Kelly)-jod...@alf2.tcd.ie--

If Mailing me, or replying me, make sure that at least one copy is going
to my full address. Our mailer is screwed up like that. Ciao :-)

Robin D. Laws

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
to
In article <4ak4id$n...@larry.cc.emory.edu>,
is...@larry.cc.emory.edu (Nicole Bryan) wrote:
>Dave Howell (sn...@wizards.com) wrote:
>: A couple of addendums to Peter's post.

>
>: 1. The severance has been really good. You don't get things like
>: medical coverage and stuff until you've been with the company three
>: months, which is perfectly sensible policy. However, a good friend of
>: mine would have hit "three months" on Monday, the day after she was
>: laid off. She gets medical anyway.
>
>I know, wow, gee willickers, what a great thing they've done for these
>people! And to listen to the net, you'd think they'd been fired at
>Christmas or something!
>
>I'm still waiting to see the posts from the folks directly affected in
>which they brag about this windfall...

Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?

As Homer J. Simpson might say, "Mmmm, shoe leather."

Take care >>> Robin


Ragecom

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
to
>>Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?<<

If the guy Tucker was responding to was just canned, it's not explicit in
his post. He says "not currently affiliated with WOTC" or something to
that effect, but I took that to mean he wasn't just schlepping for them,
not that he was just fired and DARNED happy about it! If he was just
fired, and IS DARNED happy about it, more power to him, he's obviously a
resilient sort.

Tim Byrd
Not currently affiliated with WOTC...

Canticle

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
to
> In article <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220>
> ma...@wizards.com "Peter D. Adkison" writes:

> > January. We're also investing heavily in outplacement programs and
> > classes in topics like How to Write a Resume and Dressing for Success.

Amusing anectdote concerning dressing for success...

I was hired the day I met the CEO of the Aratar Management Corps at
Campaign Outfitters (the grand opening of their new location).

I was dressed in black jeans, black military boots, a black shirt
with a big spider web on the front, and was wearing a heavily graffitied
Canadian military issue combat jacket. Never mind the fact I was smoking
a Djarum at the time as well.

Oh, I do so love the place I work for...

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
{}Jeff Franzmann {} Turning to go {}
{}Internet Representative {} Heard you call out my name {}
{}Campaign Outfitters {} Like a bird in a cage {}
{}Winnipeg, Manitoba {} Spreading its wings to fly {}
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
Campaign Outfitters Home Page & Orders:http://www.aratar.mb.ca/aratar
Opinions expressed above are mine, and may not reflect those of my employer.
GothCode1.1 GoSS+ T3(4) B11Bk@ c1z++ P1(3,4) M++ a22 n---- b+:- H5'7" g m--#
w++ r+ D+ h+P(3,4) s9 k++ R+ Ssy LcaMB+


Bryan J. Maloney

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
to
In article <4akknq$fvc...@net5c.io.org>, r...@io.org (Robin D. Laws) wrote:

> In article <4ak4id$n...@larry.cc.emory.edu>,
> is...@larry.cc.emory.edu (Nicole Bryan) wrote:
> >Dave Howell (sn...@wizards.com) wrote:
> >: A couple of addendums to Peter's post.
> >
> >: 1. The severance has been really good. You don't get things like
> >: medical coverage and stuff until you've been with the company three
> >: months, which is perfectly sensible policy. However, a good friend of
> >: mine would have hit "three months" on Monday, the day after she was
> >: laid off. She gets medical anyway.
> >
> >I know, wow, gee willickers, what a great thing they've done for these
> >people! And to listen to the net, you'd think they'd been fired at
> >Christmas or something!
> >
> >I'm still waiting to see the posts from the folks directly affected in
> >which they brag about this windfall...
>

> Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?
>

> As Homer J. Simpson might say, "Mmmm, shoe leather."


Robin, Dave doesn't work for Wizards of the Coast, he's a stockholder.
Would you like catsup or chutney with your Adidas?

Nicole Bryan

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Dec 12, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/12/95
to
Dave Howell (sn...@wizards.com) wrote:
: A couple of addendums to Peter's post.

: 1. The severance has been really good. You don't get things like
: medical coverage and stuff until you've been with the company three
: months, which is perfectly sensible policy. However, a good friend of
: mine would have hit "three months" on Monday, the day after she was
: laid off. She gets medical anyway.

I know, wow, gee willickers, what a great thing they've done for these
people! And to listen to the net, you'd think they'd been fired at
Christmas or something!

I'm still waiting to see the posts from the folks directly affected in
which they brag about this windfall...

Tucker
(using Nicole's account)

Luc Maillet

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Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
Dave Howell wrote:
> 2. Do NOT make the mistake of thinking "Wizards was losing money on
> RPGs" = "RPGs lose money!" Because Magic was so big, the entire
> corporation was distorted to what made creation of Deckmaster more
> efficient. This had horrible side-effects on the ability to do RPGs
> well. The rapid growth had resulted in quite a bit of bureaucratic
> sludge, and I'm not sure that Wizards could have fixed this
> satisfactorily without torturing the RPGs for at least another year.
> Of course, I could be wrong. We'll never know.

Compare that to "We regret we could not give RPGs adequate support".

Looks more like "We decided not to give RPGs adequate support because
it got in the way of CCG support".

Come one, Dave, everyone is free to make his own choices. But he should
accept responsibility for them, for instance by giving credits when
credits are due.

--

/ _
(__(/(
(E-mail : Luc.M...@supaero.fr)

Bryan J. Maloney

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Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.951213162645.8050C-100000@ccserv>, Brian
Phillips <phil...@cc.nccu.edu.tw> wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Bryan J. Maloney wrote:
>
> > Robin, Dave doesn't work for Wizards of the Coast, he's a stockholder.
> > Would you like catsup or chutney with your Adidas?
>

> I thought he just lost his job with all the others. He also has stock
> (since before WotC became GiantKorp they paid him in stock for some work
> when cash was low. At least that's the impression I got.


Nope, he's not an employee, nor was he an employee last month.

Brian Phillips

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Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to

On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Bryan J. Maloney wrote:

> Robin, Dave doesn't work for Wizards of the Coast, he's a stockholder.
> Would you like catsup or chutney with your Adidas?

I thought he just lost his job with all the others. He also has stock
(since before WotC became GiantKorp they paid him in stock for some work
when cash was low. At least that's the impression I got.

One can still hold stock in a company and be laid off. Heck you can
even be related to a company bigwig and loose your job.

Peace,
Brian David Phillips [Meiguo Langren Zai Taibei]
phil...@cc.nccu.edu.tw [An American Werewolf in Taipei]

"Sa niao shi jue bu yao chui kou shao."
- Mao Tsu-Hsi (after Hagbard Celine)

Bertil Jonell

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Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
In article <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220>,

Peter D. Adkison <ma...@wizards.com> wrote:
>Obviously the events transpiring at WotC have raised a lot of questions.
>I've forwarded some comments to customer service to pass along to the
>Internet, but that's just not as much fun as diving in personally. So,
>here I am, ready to talk to you directly about what the heck's happening
>here at WotC these days.

Can you imagine how much trouble you'd have saved yourself (around 75%
of it) if you had done this *BEFORE* the original announcement instead of
several days after?

>(Peter D. Adkison)

-bertil-
--
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
exercise for your kill-file."

John Nephew/Atlas Games

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Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
Peter,

Thanks for a very coherent and reasonable explanation of the events at
WotC. I don't envy your position, but I have a lot of respect for the
guts you have in doing what you believe to be the best for your company
and your products...and going out to defend those actions.

-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games
(who knows his own time before the net.inquisition will come sooner or later)

Charles Ryan

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Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
In article <bjm10-13129...@potato.cit.cornell.edu>
bj...@cornell.edu (Bryan J. Maloney) writes:
>> On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Bryan J. Maloney wrote:
>>
>>> Robin, Dave doesn't work for Wizards of the Coast, he's a stockholder.

[...]

> Nope, he's not an employee, nor was he an employee last month.

He was an employee. He stated specifically in one post that of those laid
off, he was the employee with the longest time in at WotC. He later
described when PA visited his department (fiction, I think) and told all
five members that they were losing their job, and went on to state that he
was the only one in that department who's position was "even vaguely like
game design" (my paraphrase). I understand that Dave worked for the WotC
since late 1993, being one of the first batch of people employed when WotC
began its rapid growth after the release of M:tG.

Charles Ryan
Chameleon Eclectic
c...@bev.net
http://skynet.bevc.blacksburg.va.us/cee

Jose Garcia

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Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
In article <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220>, ma...@wizards.com

(Peter D. Adkison) wrote:
> whether or not love is enough. Again, our priority in this case will be
> to find the RPGs a good home. In the past we sold off one RPG line to a
> company that didn't do anything with it, so we're a little wary this time

To be more accurate, Tal was canceled outright. After this happened, we
made an offer to the creator/owner of Tal, Steve Sechi, for Daedalus to
become the new publisher. WotC wasn't really involved in this process.
Their press release announcing that Tal had been canceled stated that we
were taking on Tal and that was correct--but it wasn't due to an effort by
WotC. We caught wind of Tal's cancellation prior to the official
announcement, and thought it would be a good idea to take on the
production of Tal. We then made the offer to Steve; since Steve owned it,
he was the one who made the decision, not WotC.

It has taken us a lot longer to get Tal up and running that I'd hoped,
but the same fate has befallen my own RPG, Nexus. Producing the Shadowfist
TCG, setting up Daedalus as a full-time enterprise, and relocating from
Canada to the U.S. consumed all of our meagre resources for a long time.

However, now that we're up and running for real, work on Tal has
resumed. We are filling orders from distributors for the existing
products, and expect to have our first Tal book and a new edition of the
basic game out in '96.

Daedalus has tripled in size (from 2 people to 7) and we're now in a
much better position to do a top notch job on Talislanta than we ever were
before. I hope that Talislanta fans will find the new edition to be worth
the wait.

Jose Garcia
Shadowfist Co-Designer
jga...@halcyon.com

Shadowfist FAQ available at http://www.halcyon.com/rev/faq.html

Kirby Krueger

unread,
Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
In article <bjm10-12129...@potato.cit.cornell.edu>,

Bryan J. Maloney <bj...@cornell.edu> wrote:
>In article <4akknq$fvc...@net5c.io.org>, r...@io.org (Robin D. Laws) wrote:
>
>> In article <4ak4id$n...@larry.cc.emory.edu>,
>> is...@larry.cc.emory.edu (Nicole Bryan) wrote:
>> Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?
>>
>> As Homer J. Simpson might say, "Mmmm, shoe leather."
>
>
>Robin, Dave doesn't work for Wizards of the Coast, he's a stockholder.
>Would you like catsup or chutney with your Adidas?

Do you know the same Dave Howell I do? Tall, skinny guy, with a good
sense of humor? He's been with WotC since before the big Magic Boom - I
remember him in November '93, telling me how happy he was to be able to
pay rent and eat at the same time for a change. He was the original
Wizards net-rep on gg-l, the Garfield Games list back when it would
generate an amazing 60 messages about Magic a day. He's a stockholder
because he's been a WotC employee for a long time. He's a fun, smart
guy, though, and I'm sure he'll land on his feet.
--
Kirby Krueger, kir...@peak.org
<*> "Most .sigs this small can't open their own jump gate."

David Dunham

unread,
Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
In article <4an67b$f...@nyheter.chalmers.se>, d9be...@dtek.chalmers.se
(Bertil Jonell) wrote:

> Peter D. Adkison <ma...@wizards.com> wrote:

> >Obviously the events transpiring at WotC have raised a lot of questions.
> >I've forwarded some comments to customer service to pass along to the
> >Internet, but that's just not as much fun as diving in personally. So,
> >here I am, ready to talk to you directly about what the heck's happening
> >here at WotC these days.
>

> Can you imagine how much trouble you'd have saved yourself (around 75%
> of it) if you had done this *BEFORE* the original announcement instead of
> several days after?

Maybe he was being available to his company and trying to help out the
people being laid off, not to the hecklers on the Net?

David Dunham Pensee Corporation dun...@pensee.com
Voice/Fax: 206 783 7404 http://www.pensee.com/dunham/
"I say we should listen to the customers and give them what they want."
"What they want is better products for free." --Scott Adams

Nick Eden

unread,
Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to
Andrew Rilstone <And...@aslan.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>In article <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220>
> ma...@wizards.com "Peter D. Adkison" writes:
>

>> January. We're also investing heavily in outplacement programs and
>> classes in topics like How to Write a Resume and Dressing for Success.

> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Well, I'm sure not going to be the first person to say "suits".
>
>--
>

Well yours was the first post to arrive on my server.


Peter D. Adkison

unread,
Dec 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/13/95
to

> In article <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220>
> ma...@wizards.com "Peter D. Adkison" writes:
>

> > January. We're also investing heavily in outplacement programs and
> > classes in topics like How to Write a Resume and Dressing for Success.

> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Well, I'm sure not going to be the first person to say "suits".

It's because we're NOT suits that people leaving WotC REALLY need this
class as they try and re-enter the real world. We have no dress code here
and I think some former employees may actually be in for a shock when they
find out that not all companies appreciate the typical bat-caver attire.
:-)

Stay on target,
Mav

Jose Garcia

unread,
Dec 14, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/14/95
to
In article <bjm10-12129...@potato.cit.cornell.edu>,

bj...@cornell.edu (Bryan J. Maloney) wrote:

> In article <4akknq$fvc...@net5c.io.org>, r...@io.org (Robin D. Laws) wrote:
>
> > In article <4ak4id$n...@larry.cc.emory.edu>,
> > is...@larry.cc.emory.edu (Nicole Bryan) wrote:
> > >Dave Howell (sn...@wizards.com) wrote:
> > >: A couple of addendums to Peter's post.
> > >
> > >: 1. The severance has been really good. You don't get things like
> > >: medical coverage and stuff until you've been with the company three
> > >: months, which is perfectly sensible policy. However, a good friend of
> > >: mine would have hit "three months" on Monday, the day after she was
> > >: laid off. She gets medical anyway.
> > >
> > >I know, wow, gee willickers, what a great thing they've done for these
> > >people! And to listen to the net, you'd think they'd been fired at
> > >Christmas or something!
> > >
> > >I'm still waiting to see the posts from the folks directly affected in
> > >which they brag about this windfall...
> >
> > Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?
> >
> > As Homer J. Simpson might say, "Mmmm, shoe leather."
>
>
> Robin, Dave doesn't work for Wizards of the Coast, he's a stockholder.
> Would you like catsup or chutney with your Adidas?

He may be a shareholder but he was employed by Wotc as well.

Dave Howell

unread,
Dec 14, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/14/95
to
Robin D. Laws (r...@io.org) wrote:
: In article <4ak4id$n...@larry.cc.emory.edu>,
: is...@larry.cc.emory.edu (Nicole Bryan) wrote:
: >Dave Howell (sn...@wizards.com) wrote:
: >: A couple of addendums to Peter's post.

<sappy nice stuff deleted>

: >I know, wow, gee willickers, what a great thing they've done for these

: >people! And to listen to the net, you'd think they'd been fired at
: >Christmas or something!
: >
: >I'm still waiting to see the posts from the folks directly affected in
: >which they brag about this windfall...

: Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?

: As Homer J. Simpson might say, "Mmmm, shoe leather."

:) x 7

Although I wouldn't exactly call it "bragging." :)

--
Dave "Snark" Howell
sn...@wizards.com
not presently affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

and who did indeed post a pretty pointless post, but who feels rather
grouchy these days and doesn't care what you think, so there

Peter D. Adkison

unread,
Dec 14, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/14/95
to
In article <DJHFy...@news.tcd.ie>, jodo...@tcd.ie (JenJingu) wrote:

> Personally, it strikes me as odd that you choose to ditch some of your
> design staff right at the time when you are probably going to need them
> most to get new products up and running.

Actually most of the design staff was retained. Jonathan Tweet was in
RPGs, true, but he was picked up by R&D within 24 hours of the
announcement to cut RPGs. I don't think our design staff was seriously
affected.

Stay on target,
Mav

Bertil Jonell

unread,
Dec 15, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/15/95
to
In article <dunham-1312...@feather.pensee.com>,

David Dunham <dun...@pensee.com> wrote:
>In article <4an67b$f...@nyheter.chalmers.se>, d9be...@dtek.chalmers.se
>(Bertil Jonell) wrote:
>> Can you imagine how much trouble you'd have saved yourself (around 75%
>> of it) if you had done this *BEFORE* the original announcement instead of
>> several days after?
>
>Maybe he was being available to his company and trying to help out the
>people being laid off, not to the hecklers on the Net?

I hope you're not in Pensee Corporation's PR-division.



>David Dunham Pensee Corporation dun...@pensee.com

-bertil-

Michael Halse

unread,
Dec 15, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/15/95
to
Dave Howell wrote:
> Because Magic was so big, the entire
> corporation was distorted to what made creation of Deckmaster more
> efficient. This had horrible side-effects on the ability to do RPGs
> well. The rapid growth had resulted in quite a bit of bureaucratic
> sludge, and I'm not sure that Wizards could have fixed this
> satisfactorily without torturing the RPGs for at least another year.
> Of course, I could be wrong. We'll never know.
> Dave,

Couldn't WotC have restructured the rpg division as a subcompany of
WotC and "insulate" it from the CCG main trunk? And I don't understand
how WotC could really expect to make money on ArM4 if they didn't sell
it.

Just about everyone else, :)

ArM4 and probably all of the other rpg lines will find homes with a
company that will be able to focus on those rpgs. Like all public
announcements, the WotC one wasn't perfect and couldn't detail every
little reason why this was done or that was done to the net.satisfaction
of everyone. It seems that the severance pay was quite good and that it
wasn't a pleasant thing for WotC to let anyone go. Let's all just take
a breath here and calm down a bit and wait for the announcement of WotCs
rpgs new homes, or actively solicit companies to think about taking
them.

Best of luck to all the victims of the rpg move.

Mike

Dave Howell

unread,
Dec 15, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/15/95
to
Bryan J. Maloney (bj...@cornell.edu) wrote:
: > >I'm still waiting to see the posts from the folks directly affected in
: > >which they brag about this windfall...
: >
: > Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?
: >
: > As Homer J. Simpson might say, "Mmmm, shoe leather."


: Robin, Dave doesn't work for Wizards of the Coast, he's a stockholder.

: Would you like catsup or chutney with your Adidas?

Bryan, I urge you to be careful which way you point that bottle of
catsup. You're right, I don't work for Wizards. Any more. I was an
employee from August of '93 until this month, and am thus the most senior
employee to be out of work. I was the production manager for the first
Magic cards, invented "NetReps" and was thus the first cyberspace
liaison, and founded the Book Publishing division.

I'm wearing Reeboks at the moment. What are you having for dinner? :)

Jose Garcia

unread,
Dec 17, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/17/95
to
In article <30D12F...@online.dct.com>, Michael Halse
<mha...@online.dct.com> wrote:

> Dave Howell wrote:
> > Because Magic was so big, the entire
> > corporation was distorted to what made creation of Deckmaster more
> > efficient. This had horrible side-effects on the ability to do RPGs
> > well. The rapid growth had resulted in quite a bit of bureaucratic
> > sludge, and I'm not sure that Wizards could have fixed this
> > satisfactorily without torturing the RPGs for at least another year.
> > Of course, I could be wrong. We'll never know.
> > Dave,
>
> Couldn't WotC have restructured the rpg division as a subcompany of
> WotC and "insulate" it from the CCG main trunk? And I don't understand
> how WotC could really expect to make money on ArM4 if they didn't sell
> it.

I think that was attempted when Alter Ego was created, then later
again with the formation of the Rogue team. In any case these departments
weren't truly independent they had to share editors and production people
with other departments (editing and production are departments in their
own right and their resources were allocated out to various product
lines).

Of course I didn't work at Wotc but we're both in Seattle and many of
my friends are Wotc employees so I'm very familiar with how Wotc runs but
I'm not the Horse's Mouth.

Bruce Baugh

unread,
Dec 18, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/18/95
to
In article <4anjtn$m...@anarchy.io.com>,
at...@io.com (John Nephew/Atlas Games) wrote:

:(who knows his own time before the net.inquisition will come sooner or later)

<impatient tapping of foot>

Confound it, John, if you _do_ expect the net.inquisition, the whole sketch is
ruined. You'll rue the day.


bru...@teleport.com - <*> - http://www.teleport.com/~bruceab/index.html
List Manager, Christlib, where Christian & libertarian concerns hang out
Science fiction readers: Preview S.M. Stirling's DRAKON and WORD OF NIGHT
(the new Marid Audran novel by George Alec Effin ger) at my home page.

Bruce Baugh

unread,
Dec 18, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/18/95
to
In article <dunham-1312...@feather.pensee.com>,
dun...@pensee.com (David Dunham) wrote:

:Maybe he was being available to his company and trying to help out the


:people being laid off, not to the hecklers on the Net?

Shutting down entire departments without providing, according to the accounts
here, _any_ prior notice that changes might be coming? Three days' notice?
Notice given, in at least some cases, by people unknown to those affect? (This
last wouldn't be remarkable at many business WotC's size, but there's a
culture there that's somewhat different.) Not wildly available, I'd say.

The interesting thing is that all _my_ complaints, at least, are trivially
avoidable.

Larry Smith

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Dec 18, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/18/95
to

In article <818780...@aslan.demon.co.uk>, Andrew Rilstone <And...@aslan.demon.co.uk> writes:
>In article <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220>
> ma...@wizards.com "Peter D. Adkison" writes:

>> January. We're also investing heavily in outplacement programs and
>> classes in topics like How to Write a Resume and Dressing for Success.

>Well, I'm sure not going to be the first person to say "suits".

Yeah, you were. =)

--
| .-. .---..---. .---. .-..-. |"In general, the art of government consists |
| | |__ | | || |-< | |-< > / | in taking as much money as possible from |
| `----'`-^-'`-'`-'`-'`-' `-' | one ... citizen ... to give to the other." |
| My opinion alone, every word. | - Voltaire, "Money" (1764). |

Bruce Baugh

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Dec 18, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/18/95
to
In article <jgarcia-1712...@blv-pm11-ip21.halcyon.com>,
jga...@halcyon.com (Jose Garcia) wrote:

:I'm not the Horse's Mouth.

That'd be an Ascended oracle of some sort, yes?

Dave Howell

unread,
Dec 19, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/19/95
to
Ragecom (rag...@aol.com) wrote:
: >>Um, like the person you're replying to, for example?<<

: If the guy Tucker was responding to was just canned, it's not explicit in
: his post.

This is true.

: He says "not currently affiliated with WOTC" or something to
: that effect, but I took that to mean he wasn't just schlepping for them,
: not that he was just fired and DARNED happy about it!

Well, the fact that the address was sn...@wizards.com was supposed to be
a clue, but actually, the whole thing was targeted more at the people who
still remember me. Which in retrospect is not many, since it's been well
over a year since I was actually whizzing about *frp much.

: If he was just
: fired, and IS DARNED happy about it, more power to him, he's obviously a
: resilient sort.

Resilient? Yea. Darned happy? "I don't think I'd go quite that far," he
said, with characteristic understatement.

: Tim Byrd

--
Dave "Snark" Howell
sn...@wizards.com
not presently affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

formerly a happy little Book Publishing@Wizards kind of guy.

Dave Howell

unread,
Dec 21, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/21/95
to
Bruce Baugh (bru...@teleport.com) wrote:
: In article <4anjtn$m...@anarchy.io.com>,

: at...@io.com (John Nephew/Atlas Games) wrote:

: :(who knows his own time before the net.inquisition will come sooner or later)

: Confound it, John, if you _do_ expect the net.inquisition, the whole sketch is

: ruined. You'll rue the day.

Don't worry about it, Bruce. After all, no matter what he claims...

"NOBODY expects the net.inquisition!"

--
Dave "Snark" Howell
sn...@wizards.com
not presently affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

and who apparently thinks "Spanish" is spelled en ee tee.

Gentleman Loser

unread,
Dec 23, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/23/95
to
jodo...@tcd.ie (JenJingu) wrote:

>In <mavra-11129...@199.238.209.220> ma...@wizards.com (Peter D. Adkison) writes:

>First off, I want to just say "fair play to you" Peter. It takes some
>balls to come on here and say what you think rather thyan leave it up to
>the PR people.

He had to come here to cover the fact that his PR paeople made a huge
balls up of the whole thing. Get this, one day i'm being asked if i'd
like to write some stuff for a forthcoming games suppliment, the next
day the plugs are pulled on the whole RPG dept.

Heck, if you can't make money on RPG's then just wait until the CCG
market bubble bursts, you'll come scurrying back with your tale
between your legs. And the current fans of CCG's aren't going to be
too happy when you wipe out the value of their collections are they
Peter! You'll be re-printing all those rare cards when money gets
tight. Why not come onto the SLA mailing list for a real discussion,
rather than hiding away here on usenet?

regards
gentloser
NO MORE BLOODY CARD GAMES, I HAD ENOUGH WITH POKER!

Anthony Ragan

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Dec 23, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/23/95
to
gent...@tcp.co.uk (Gentleman Loser) screamed into the Void:

> Why not come onto the SLA mailing list for a real discussion,
>rather than hiding away here on usenet?

You know, that's the first time I've ever seen anyone describe Usenet
as a place to hide.
****
--Anthony
Snotling in Chief, Staadtholder van Marienburg
Iris...@ix.netcom.com (primary)
Iris...@aol.com (Secondary)
ara...@library.ucla.edu (Work)

Karen J. Cravens

unread,
Dec 24, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/24/95
to
In article <30dc40e3...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,

iris...@ix.netcom.com (Anthony Ragan) wrote:
>gent...@tcp.co.uk (Gentleman Loser) screamed into the Void:
>
>> Why not come onto the SLA mailing list for a real discussion,
>>rather than hiding away here on usenet?
>
>You know, that's the first time I've ever seen anyone describe Usenet
>as a place to hide.

That was my first thought, too... especially as compared to a
mailing list. He must be a BBS user.


Silver
--........................................................................
Half the secret of getting along with people is consideration of
their views; the other half is tolerance in one's own views.
-- Daniel Frohman

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