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."

 

[LesserThan]

They will have had faulty books in 1e and 2e as well. We just didn't have the internet to make that visible to us.

They did? WotC, which you oddly cut out of my post, had problems with 1e and 2e?

Surprise, WotC did not make 1e or 2e books, they just added the WotC logo to existing books.

Hey, I can play your game of twisting facts and others peoples words to make someone look dumb since you first replied to my "Vulcan logic" post.

How do YOU like it when the shoe is on the other foot buddy?

Since it is mechanically impossible in the software, take this as, "You are blocked", official notice. Therefore any personal non-administration replies you make to me are against the websites rules.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, and stop twisting things around to start arguements over things people NEVER said or claimed.

FYI, internet existed during 2e as well. Learn some history. It just was not "broadband", and TSR did not have first run batches of every book messed up like WotC did when 3.0 came out and changed everything about the books. TSR had less "growing pains" in the book printing because they did NOT change 50% of the process/materials for every book like WotC is want to do. Go back and check FidoNet logs and BBSs from the 80s when 1e and 2e were out.

 

[Parmandur]

But what was the intent? To mask the lighter content, to try a heavier stock for aesthetic appeal, or perhaps both?

Oh, they were pretty clear it was about the anesthetics and feel when reading.

 

[Parmandur]

there were no discussions beforehand, as the article says “She informed Hasbro of her plans on April 15” and they just started looking for a successor

Thwt was her formal notice as reported to the SEC. She may have had informal discussions with her peers in the weeks or months leading up to the formal notice, depending on the cause.

 

[mamba]

At the C level there is a formal process yes.
That doesn't mean that zero of her peers and leadership knew of her thoughts and or intentions.

it still means it came as a surprise or they would not be scrambling to find a replacement now

 

[SteveC]

it still means it came as a surprise or they would not be scrambling to find a replacement now

I think this is the takeaway. This is not the norm for a situation like this because it creates instability. Now we don't know what's really going on behind the scenes, maybe this has been discussed for a long while now. I just have no idea why you'd choose this particular way to handle it. I'm sure the truth will come out but this is either a bombshell that Williams dropped or some really bad transition management.

 

[Umbran]

Since it is mechanically impossible in the software, take this as, "You are blocked", official notice. Therefore any personal non-administration replies you make to me are against the websites rules.

Mod Note:
You have been warned about your attitude towards your fellow posters, and how you had worn through the goodwill we generally extend to new folks.

We hope you find a place to discuss games that is more appropriate for your particular mode of conversation. Good gaming to you, and goodbye.

 

[michaeljpastor]

That's probably true. Their font size went up quite a bit which is something I mentioned in my Planescape review. Compared to the value of Eberron, we're paying 20% more for half the material these days.

WOTC's been coy about the core books saying things like they're going to be larger than any others but then giving page counts that are about the same as the existing core books. They're describing a lot more material but not how they're going to cram it into the same books.

We'll see what we get in the end. Good thing is that there are three other alternative 5es to enjoy if we don't like this one.

It also seems like they're going to include more art (or at least bigger art, such as full page splash pages for each class), also decreasing actual "column inches" of text.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Thwt was her formal notice as reported to the SEC. She may have had informal discussions with her peers in the weeks or months leading up to the formal notice, depending on the cause.

I think that's unlikely. The first rule of quitting your job is to say nothing to anyone at work until you hand in your resignation. If your employer suspects you're thinking about leaving they're going to start looking for a replacement, which might not be ideal for you if you eventually decide you prefer to stay in the job for now.

 

[michaeljpastor]

What's really sad is there was a lot of old Spelljammer material they could have used. They could have updated the factions and religions, referenced Inhuman Wars in some manner (if only in the sense of there being living weapons and giant traps left behind by people who fought in it), or had a planet/system generator. Maybe some of that was in the adventure; I dunno. But it could have been in the main book.

Same with Planescape. In fact, the excellent Manual of the Planes (a new one) was released on DMSGuild soon after and was a much bigger bang for its buck in both quality and quantity.

 

[Staffan]

Surprise, WotC did not make 1e or 2e books, they just added the WotC logo to existing books.

I know LesserThan can't respond, but I do feel I need to correct some facts.

Wizards bought TSR in 1997. 3e came out in 2000. That's three years of publishing 2e as Wizards of the Coast, and some of those books were definitely written under Wizards management. I'm pretty sure the re-release of Greyhawk was a Wizards initiative, and the Scarlet Brotherhood sourcebook had a monk class included as part of "Here's a 3e thing you can include in your 2e campaign Right Now!" marketing. I'm also pretty sure TSR would not have published Die Vecna Die as a world-ending module you could use to end your 2e campaign and switch to 3e.

FYI, internet existed during 2e as well. Learn some history. It just was not "broadband", and TSR did not have first run batches of every book messed up like WotC did when 3.0 came out and changed everything about the books.

I don't know how Wizards QA stacks up against TSR's, but I'm pretty sure Wizards never published a book with the word "dawizard" in it.