Dearest WoTC,

[Colonel_Coo]

Dearest Wizards of the Coast,

Thank you for the recent staff additions to help manage, maintain and build the on-line community.

I write to you today to ask for clarity about certain aspects of those new positions.

First off: What position did Justin Webb hold? Did that position morph into Gamer Zero: I see Gamer Zero post on other links like Gleemax.

Secondly: Currently, as a publically traded company, what keeps you from posting on the web-portal here the same information that is provided to your distributors?

III: With the move to 3" hexes, will the previous scenarios be released in 3" maps version for download and printing?

[Y2UAsk]

Since Bob and others are out today, I'll answer what I can -- which isn't much.

Justin was the editor on the early AAM sets. He took a job with a different company last year.

Being publicly traded has nothing to do with what WotC tells its distributors. Those decisions are made by the marketing dept. Anyone who's worked with marketing people can testify that they don't think like normal people. I don't pretend to understand their black art. Sometimes it produces results, but how or why is beyond me.

Bob would need to answer the third question. If I were in his shoes, the answer would be, "not many." I suspect his approach will be to move forward with new scenarios, with the possible exception of the top few, such as Betio. But it's his budget and his call.

Steve

[Colonel_Coo]

Since Bob and others are out today, I'll answer what I can -- which isn't much.

Justin was the editor on the early AAM sets. He took a job with a different company last year.

. . .

Steve

thanks for the quick reply.

But did Jusstins job disappear, get realigned (losing duties to the Gamer Zero position) or morph into the Gamer Zero position?

the natural follow up on Marketing is "MARKET ON THE WEB!". You can pass that along if you'd like.

[M2A0]

Since Bob and others are out today, I'll answer what I can -- which isn't much.

Justin was the editor on the early AAM sets. He took a job with a different company last year.

Being publicly traded has nothing to do with what WotC tells its distributors. Those decisions are made by the marketing dept. Anyone who's worked with marketing people can testify that they don't think like normal people. I don't pretend to understand their black art. Sometimes it produces results, but how or why is beyond me.

Bob would need to answer the third question. If I were in his shoes, the answer would be, "not many." I suspect his approach will be to move forward with new scenarios, with the possible exception of the top few, such as Betio. But it's his budget and his call.

Steve

I can chime in for a little more shedding of light upon the black arts of marketing. WotC generally supplies its core hobby distributors with solicitations of upcoming product 3-4 months before release. This is so that distributors have plenty of time to solicit retail stores for preorders. Honestly the solicitation doesn't have much information on it that is applicable to the end consumers. It generally is full of information on case dimensions, weights, etc....

To be clearer, the solicitation does not have any information concerning scale change. That info was passed from a WotC sales rep to a retail store owner. (They need info just like you guys do, think of it as a chain of command, who needs to know first) There is no conspiracy to pull a fast one on our customers. The marketing towards the end consumer generally doesn't start until 6-8 weeks before release. FYI, 1939-1945 is now releasing on October 26th. Normally you would not expect to see web previews until late August/early September, (though I'm sure the current uproar will garner some sort of preview far earlier than planned).

As far as Justin = Mike questions go. Mike's position did not exist until recently, there is no correlation between the two positions.

I want to be clear here, I'm chiming in to give a little more information to the curious. I will not participate in answering any questions on subjects that have moved beyond the realm of "having perspective" on the issues.

[Jesse_James]

III: With the move to 3" hexes, will the previous scenarios be released in 3" maps version for download and printing?


When printing you can change the size of the map. I increased mine (when I use to play for a short period) to 3" (2 was not enough) Just increase the print to 24000 DPI and that prevents the quality of the print from suffering.

[Gamer_Zer0]

But did Jusstins job disappear, get realigned (losing duties to the Gamer Zero position) or morph into the Gamer Zero position?


Justin worked on A&AM, where as I work for the Community Management team that supports all of WotC's products. I don't know the details of what Justin did, but there is a long history at WotC of folks in Brand and R&D coming out onto the forums to interact with the community. These folks don't do this as part of their job, but usually on their own personal time because they care about the product and the commmunity, and they are already burdened with full-time work.

The job of myself and the others on the Community Management team is to make it *our* full-time jobs to interact with the community and focus on providing information from WotC to our customers, and from our customers back to the decision makers inside Wizards.

[Colonel_Coo]

Justin worked on A&AM, where as I work for the Community Management team that supports all of WotC's products. I don't know the details of what Justin did, but there is a long history at WotC of folks in Brand and R&D coming out onto the forums to interact with the community. These folks don't do this as part of their job, but usually on their own personal time because they care about the product and the commmunity, and they are already burdened with full-time work.

The job of myself and the others on the Community Management team is to make it *our* full-time jobs to interact with the community and focus on providing information from WotC to our customers, and from our customers back to the decision makers inside Wizards.

Okay, thanks for the clarity.

Hear is a suggestion. When trying to create buzz with the distributors to let them know what is coming, you might try and post it on the web a day or two later. We live in a highly communicative society.

[Y2UAsk]

But did Jusstins job disappear, get realigned (losing duties to the Gamer Zero position) or morph into the Gamer Zero position? Justin's job didn't disappear. He just got an attractive offer from another company and decided to make the jump. I believe that Cal Moore is handling the editing on AAM these days (among many other editing duties).

Steve

[Tripwire]

To throw in my 2 cents, I have made some pretty cranky statements on these forums regarding "corporate duplicity", "corporate greed", "capitalist exploiters", etc., but I also know the people at WotC that reply on these forums are just regular joes doing thier jobs and they don't deserve to be shot, as is sometimes the case with the poor messengers.
Sorry for all those unfortunate rantings.
"This is not madness, this is Sparta!"

[Gamer_Zer0]

To throw in my 2 cents, I have made some pretty cranky statements on these forums regarding "corporate duplicity", "corporate greed", "capitalist exploiters", etc., but I also know the people at WotC that reply on these forums are just regular joes doing thier jobs and they don't deserve to be shot, as is sometimes the case with the poor messengers.

This is a good point and very true, with the exception of me. Since my job *is* to be out here interacting with you all, don't feel sorry for me and feel free to do all the shooting in my direction that you wish! =)

[Colonel_Coo]

This is a good point and very true, with the exception of me. Since my job *is* to be out here interacting with you all, don't feel sorry for me and feel free to do all the shooting in my direction that you wish! =)

"Splat"


"Alex,
What is the sound Poo flinging monkeys make?"

Correct for $400.

[horacus]

When printing you can change the size of the map. I increased mine (when I use to play for a short period) to 3" (2 was not enough) Just increase the print to 24000 DPI and that prevents the quality of the print from suffering.

I like you're signature.

[Tom_Weasle]

This is a good point and very true, with the exception of me. Since my job *is* to be out here interacting with you all, don't feel sorry for me and feel free to do all the shooting in my direction that you wish! =)

Well, I officially don't have the worst job in the world anymore ;)