WotC WotC President Cynthia Williams Resigns

Cynthia Williams, who has been president of Wizards of the Coast for the last two years, will be leaving the company at the end of the month, according to an SEC filing dated April 15th. Hasbro is already looking for somebody to step into the role.

Williams worked for Microsoft on the Gaming Ecosystem Commercial Team before joining WotC two years ago, stepping into the role that then-president Chris Cocks vacated when he was promoted to CEO of Hasbro in February 2022.

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On April 15, 2024, Cynthia Williams, President of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming, informed the Company of her resignation from the Company effective April 26, 2024. The Company is conducting a process to identify her successor, looking at both internal and external candidates.

According to Rascal News, WotC responded with a comment: "We’re excited for Cynthia to take the next step in her career and grateful for the contributions she has made in her more than two years at Wizards and Hasbro. We wish her the absolute best in her next endeavor. We have started the search for our next President of Wizards of the Coast and hope to have a successor in place soon."

 

[SteveC]

What if "where it was" isn't really where we want it? After all, one person's "balkanization" is another's "diversity of design possibilities".

Who exactly is the "we" here? Among publishers, there's no consensus as some publishers have taken it as an opportunity to spin things off, or do something earlier that they had been planning on doing eventually.

What I do see is small OGL publishers were severely impacted by this. I'd say they would be the most likely ones to want a "do over" on the whole process. It resulted in a lot of sleepless nights out there for the little guy.

When I'm talking about what I want I try and be clear that it's my opinion alone, or say what others have told me. There's truly no 100% consensus on this issue, as this thread is showing. I don't know as there's any clear consensus at all as to what the larger gaming community wants. I think that, with some outliers, the only consensus that's close to being accurate is that this was a dreadful mistake by WotC. And there are people in this thread who disagree with that.

 

[mamba]

Oh it was clearly NOT her idea, as the time to structure OGL 1.1 would have been more than when she began at WotC.

Feb 2022 - Jan 2023.

11 months would have been to short to have that developed, so it was her predecessor, former WotC lead and current Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks idea, but she towed the company line.

that is my theory too

 

[mamba]

There are other OGL-based games out there, and other small companies (smaller than Kobold Press and Paizo) who support them. Being able to put 5E products on DDB doesn't do anything for them, and neither does a CC-BY-4.0 release of the 5.1 SRD. They don't have the staff or resources to make a brand new game, and don't want to anyway; why are their concerns not part of the conversation?

for them a 3.x SRD in CC won’t make a difference either.

To me there is only one answer for them, with the SRD in CC there is no point in revoking the OGL any more, from that perspective having the 3.x SRDs in it might matter, even if due to licensing restrictions they cannot actually use that SRD

 

[Parmandur]

Some people on this forum openly wish for WotC's failure. That they will never, ever, forgive them and take every opportunity to bring it up and remind everyone how terrible WotC is no matter how tangential it is to the thread topic. So yes, I do consider it demonization and holding a grudge. Were people right to be upset at the time? Not my call because honestly I don't really have any skin in the game on that one but I can understand why they were. But still this upset, bringing it up at every opportunity a year and a half after the idea was hatched? Yeah, I call that demonization and holding a grudge. It feels like latching on to an excuse to trash the company.

If I had a friend (or neighbor) that made a mistake and ran over my petunias last year, but they paid to fix the fence? Yes I would forgive them. No, I would not bring it up again, even during an argument. It's not good for your mental health or relationships to continuously bring up past mistakes. Of course, once again, I don't trust corporations in the first place so it's kind of apples and oranges.

Really, I don't see any of that in this thread.

Apropos of nothing, have you heard the Good Word of the Ignore feature on the forum?

 

[Parmandur]

She was WotC President, at the end of the day it was her final say, if she was against it, it would not have happened, it was not just her invovlement in the dicussion, it is that the final decision on trying to do the OGL was hers, he chose it, there is not getting around it, hers is not a passive role, hers is the final decision as President of WotC.

I mean, sure, she was at the very least on team This is a Good Plan. But, by the very same token, she does deserve some credit for being willing to make the embarrassing decision to listen and back down.

I doubt the OGL mess had anything to do with her departure, as it was over a year ago and Chris Cocks has just been on NPR stating that there is literally no lasting impact for WotC from that. This is way more likely to be personal issue or professional opportunity.

 

[mamba]

I doubt the OGL mess had anything to do with her departure, as it was over a year ago

agreed, the timing is not right and the two weeks notice is too short, that latter really makes it feel like there is a personal issue

and Chris Cocks has just been on NPR stating that there is literally no lasting impact for WotC from that.

I would not read too much into that… yes, sales did not just fall off a cliff, but they have no way of knowing whether there is a 10% drop in sales because the adventure did not hit the mark, people are waiting for the new core books, or the OGL did have a negative impact

 

[Oofta]

Really, I don't see any of that in this thread.

Apropos of nothing, have you heard the Good Word of the Ignore feature on the forum?

If I ignored everybody I occasionally disagreed with, not sure I'd have anything to read. Even my own posts because I'm sure at some point I've said some pretty dumbass things.

 

[Umbran]

There is a reason 90% of the fan base, both MtG and D&D side seems happy about this online.

Oh, gosh. Don't tell us that you are using the self-selected, algorithm-boosted reactions you see online as evidence of anything, especially a point that happens to align with your preferred view of the matter. Please. Look for better support than that.

 

[Umbran]

Who exactly is the "we" here?

There is no exact we. There is only recognition that the past was hardly flawless, and that we should think twice before holding WotC beholden to drive specifically towards that past.

 

[Parmandur]

I would not read too much into that… yes, sales did not just fall off a cliff, but they have no way of knowing whether there is a 10% drop in sales because the adventure did not hit the mark, people are waiting for the new core books, or the OGL did have a negative impact

They have all sorts of customer data, I see no reason to believe they are wrong to not believe there is any longterm brand effect.