Honestly, the sheer scope of these layoffs are starting to look like the way game companies have started doing layoffs after releasing a big title in order to pump up their quarterly earnings reports.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Damn, Mike Mearls got laid off. He’s been there since 3e, was one of the leads on 4e and then he was one of the leads in developing 5e. Though he’d moved away from game design in recent years. He’d released his own system under the 3e ogl called Iron Heroes which was really fun.
Wasn’t he involved in some controversy a while back? I had thought he was already gone, or at least on his way out the door.
And Dan Dillon, another game designer whose name is in a lot of 5e books.
Yeah. Between Dan, Amy, and a few others, it seems like a lot of these people were the “faces” of D&D and not just the folks working behind the scenes. I never would have expected it.
It has been clear for a while now that the developers long abandoned the idea of integrating their own 5e content (forget the sorry state of homebrewing) into this website in favour of working on the VTT. The general sentiment is that they no longer care about the current state of this site and have been banking their updates for when 5.5e and VTT get released.
Damn, Mike Mearls got laid off. He’s been there since 3e, was one of the leads on 4e and then he was one of the leads in developing 5e. Though he’d moved away from game design in recent years. He’d released his own system under the 3e ogl called Iron Heroes which was really fun.
Wasn’t he involved in some controversy a while back? I had thought he was already gone, or at least on his way out the door.
And Dan Dillon, another game designer whose name is in a lot of 5e books.
Yeah. Between Dan, Amy, and a few others, it seems like a lot of these people were the “faces” of D&D and not just the folks working behind the scenes. I never would have expected it.
Yeah. There was something involving Mearls a few years ago. They moved him to less public-facing roles and out of game design. I don’t really remember the details. Pretty sure he’s actually been working on MtG for a bit.
Damn, Mike Mearls got laid off. He’s been there since 3e, was one of the leads on 4e and then he was one of the leads in developing 5e. Though he’d moved away from game design in recent years. He’d released his own system under the 3e ogl called Iron Heroes which was really fun.
Wasn’t he involved in some controversy a while back? I had thought he was already gone, or at least on his way out the door.
And Dan Dillon, another game designer whose name is in a lot of 5e books.
Yeah. Between Dan, Amy, and a few others, it seems like a lot of these people were the “faces” of D&D and not just the folks working behind the scenes. I never would have expected it.
Yeah. There was something involving Mearls a few years ago. They moved him to less public-facing roles and out of game design. I don’t really remember the details. Pretty sure he’s actually been working on MtG for a bit.
they complain that very little work has been done recently.
Aside from the VTTs you mean? Both of them?
Many will get little to no use from those tools for various reasons, but many would benefit from patches to bug reports as old as the site, regardless of who currenyly owns the site. Who wants to buy in to a system that is more focused on marketing to new customers than providing fixes to complaints that are years old and hundreds of forum pages deep?
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CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
they complain that very little work has been done recently.
Aside from the VTTs you mean? Both of them?
Many will get little to no use from those tools for various reasons, but many would benefit from patches to bug reports as old as the site, regardless of who currenyly owns the site. Who wants to buy in to a system that is more focused on marketing to new customers than providing fixes to complaints that are years old and hundreds of forum pages deep?
Investors, who then provide the capital to keep the system going.
they complain that very little work has been done recently.
Aside from the VTTs you mean? Both of them?
Many will get little to no use from those tools for various reasons, but many would benefit from patches to bug reports as old as the site, regardless of who currenyly owns the site. Who wants to buy in to a system that is more focused on marketing to new customers than providing fixes to complaints that are years old and hundreds of forum pages deep?
Investors, who then provide the capital to keep the system going.
I mean, we'll see when the VTT rolls out. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if it flops.
I feel so sorry for the new people coming in, realizing the site has problems with reports and feature requests dating four years or so back.
You make it sound like DnDBeyond has issues galore. For my group, we use it regularly and haven't identified any issues at all. It works great. I am aware of a few issues it has, but those are generally options only a few use.
My only issue with DnDBeyond is the lack of DM support. To be fair, however, there has been some work lately with that.
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C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Since Hasbro couldn't screw up the 3rd parties and thus players in the end by changing the OGL so that they can collect the money for purchasing DnDBeyond, did this lead them to instead dropping this on their employee by getting rid of their salary and at the same time maybe employee who may have defended the OGL?
I'd be curious....and curious to see if the fan base should show again their discontent on a product that has always been profitable for them...
I feel so sorry for the new people coming in, realizing the site has problems with reports and feature requests dating four years or so back.
You make it sound like DnDBeyond has issues galore. For my group, we use it regularly and haven't identified any issues at all. It works great. I am aware of a few issues it has, but those are generally options only a few use.
My only issue with DnDBeyond is the lack of DM support. To be fair, however, there has been some work lately with that.
Things clearly aren’t getting support, though. The devs keep starting new projects without fixing, updating, or improving on the old ones. When was the last time the encounter builder was updated? I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure it’s been in beta for years. And that’s just one example.
Since Hasbro couldn't screw up the 3rd parties and thus players in the end by changing the OGL so that they can collect the money for purchasing DnDBeyond, did this lead them to instead dropping this on their employee by getting rid of their salary and at the same time maybe employee who defended the OGL?
I doubt it. Habro wasn’t losing any meaningful amount of money to the old OGL — their actions there were more preemptive than anything else.
I'd be curious....and curious to see if the fan base should show again our discontent on a product that has always been profitable for them...
The OGL controversy was pretty unique, and they were still in initial phases when they decided the backlash wasn’t worth it. I doubt that type of boycott can be replicated again.
So, how do we think Hasbro's recent layoffs (read article here) is going to affect D&D?
Man, I couldn't even hazard a guess. But as a player who is heavily invested in D&D Beyond, I hope things turn around at WotC/Hasbro and that the '24 rollouts are a huge success.
Look at page 7-10 of their recent earnings call to see that Wizards is the one bright spot for them lately. It is currently supporting the rest of the divisions. Only real risk to Wizards is the distraction the lagging of the other divisions takes attention away from making wizards more productive.
I really wish that Wizards had been able to spin off from Hasbro as was proposed back in 2022. This will only hurt DnD and arguably Magic the Gathering as well.
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Honestly, the sheer scope of these layoffs are starting to look like the way game companies have started doing layoffs after releasing a big title in order to pump up their quarterly earnings reports.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Yeah. Between Dan, Amy, and a few others, it seems like a lot of these people were the “faces” of D&D and not just the folks working behind the scenes. I never would have expected it.
Terra Lubridia archive:
The Bloody Barnacle | The Gut | The Athene Crusader | The Jewel of Atlantis
It has been clear for a while now that the developers long abandoned the idea of integrating their own 5e content (forget the sorry state of homebrewing) into this website in favour of working on the VTT. The general sentiment is that they no longer care about the current state of this site and have been banking their updates for when 5.5e and VTT get released.
Free Content: [Basic Rules],
[Phandelver],[Frozen Sick],[Acquisitions Inc.],[Vecna Dossier],[Radiant Citadel], [Spelljammer],[Dragonlance], [Prisoner 13],[Minecraft],[Star Forge], [Baldur’s Gate], [Lightning Keep], [Stormwreck Isle], [Pinebrook], [Caverns of Tsojcanth], [The Lost Horn], [Elemental Evil].Free Dice: [Frostmaiden],
[Flourishing], [Sanguine],[Themberchaud], [Baldur's Gate 3], [Lego].Yeah. There was something involving Mearls a few years ago. They moved him to less public-facing roles and out of game design. I don’t really remember the details. Pretty sure he’s actually been working on MtG for a bit.
Cool, thanks.
Terra Lubridia archive:
The Bloody Barnacle | The Gut | The Athene Crusader | The Jewel of Atlantis
Many will get little to no use from those tools for various reasons, but many would benefit from patches to bug reports as old as the site, regardless of who currenyly owns the site. Who wants to buy in to a system that is more focused on marketing to new customers than providing fixes to complaints that are years old and hundreds of forum pages deep?
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
Investors, who then provide the capital to keep the system going.
I mean, we'll see when the VTT rolls out. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if it flops.
Dan worked on the only books I cared about, damn.
I feel so sorry for the new people coming in, realizing the site has problems with reports and feature requests dating four years or so back.
You make it sound like DnDBeyond has issues galore. For my group, we use it regularly and haven't identified any issues at all. It works great. I am aware of a few issues it has, but those are generally options only a few use.
My only issue with DnDBeyond is the lack of DM support. To be fair, however, there has been some work lately with that.
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
According to an article in The Gamer, almost the entire D&D team that greenlit Baldur's Gate 3 is gone now.
https://www.thegamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-lead-dd-team-first-meetings-laid-off/?utm_campaign=TrueAnthem-TG&utm_medium=Social-Distribution&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0UoH1ZG8u_EQsGydYNxJh8a3YG34jjb1YnZ2ZH817L7Tgwvg-UYhQzABs
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I have a question
Since Hasbro couldn't screw up the 3rd parties and thus players in the end by changing the OGL so that they can collect the money for purchasing DnDBeyond, did this lead them to instead dropping this on their employee by getting rid of their salary and at the same time maybe employee who may have defended the OGL?
I'd be curious....and curious to see if the fan base should show again their discontent on a product that has always been profitable for them...
Things clearly aren’t getting support, though. The devs keep starting new projects without fixing, updating, or improving on the old ones. When was the last time the encounter builder was updated? I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure it’s been in beta for years. And that’s just one example.
Terra Lubridia archive:
The Bloody Barnacle | The Gut | The Athene Crusader | The Jewel of Atlantis
I doubt it. Habro wasn’t losing any meaningful amount of money to the old OGL — their actions there were more preemptive than anything else.
The OGL controversy was pretty unique, and they were still in initial phases when they decided the backlash wasn’t worth it. I doubt that type of boycott can be replicated again.
Terra Lubridia archive:
The Bloody Barnacle | The Gut | The Athene Crusader | The Jewel of Atlantis
Well i don't know... i mean they we're expecting to get a big amount of money out of this
Boy, you've been active, joined 2 months ago and about 20 posts per day!
Lol, the first few days were crazy . . .
This is my second account on the site, though. So I’ve been around a lot longer than it looks.
Terra Lubridia archive:
The Bloody Barnacle | The Gut | The Athene Crusader | The Jewel of Atlantis
Man, I couldn't even hazard a guess. But as a player who is heavily invested in D&D Beyond, I hope things turn around at WotC/Hasbro and that the '24 rollouts are a huge success.
Neutral Good
Characters in active campaigns:
Rowan Wood elf, 10 Circle of Stars Druid
Wyll Forest Gnome, 4 Divination Wizard
Look at page 7-10 of their recent earnings call to see that Wizards is the one bright spot for them lately. It is currently supporting the rest of the divisions. Only real risk to Wizards is the distraction the lagging of the other divisions takes attention away from making wizards more productive.
https://investor.hasbro.com/static-files/a2a2197c-0a07-49c8-8506-34ccf3bee347
I really wish that Wizards had been able to spin off from Hasbro as was proposed back in 2022. This will only hurt DnD and arguably Magic the Gathering as well.