From: Alan Kohler <[hawkwind gm] at [my-deja.com]>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: A letter from Peter Adkison
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 17:38:21 GMT

This showed up on WebRPG, posted by a "Roland." FWIW:

(Begin quote)

This is an e-mail I received from Peter Adkison (who I keep in e-mail
contact with). This should end the rumors.

-Roland



Please feel free to forward the following email to anyone who you'd
like, or post it on any discussion group you'd like. It's my internal
post at WotC to all the employees and sums it up pretty well:

Greetings friends,

As of January 1st 2001 I will no longer be an employee of Wizards of
the Coast/Hasbro.

No,I'm not getting fired or layed off. I'm leaving voluntarily.

I'm sure many of you will want to know why. Well, I don't think that
the core of my reasoning is any more complicated than this. When you
start a company and run it as CEO for many years you think of it as
your own. Yes there are other shareholders and a board of directors you
answer to, but your vote is always the biggest vote. Then you sell the
company and you go along trying to make the best of the situation,
telling yourself that you still have the same responsibilities as
before, plus a vote in something even bigger. That works for a while
until something happens that you object to and in spite of your best
efforts you find yourself powerless to stop it. At that point you
are forced to accept the fact that the company is no longer yours, that
you no longer carry the biggest vote, and that can be difficult to
take. I'm not naive. I always knew intellectually this was the case,
but to think you understand something and then actually experience it
are two different things.

I have several thoughts I want to leave you with.

First do not by any means feel sorry for me. I made the choice to sell
and if I had it all to do over again I'd make the same decision. I
fulfilled many amazing dreams through this company. I made a lot of
people a lot of money. I feel very good about that. And although I
didn't design many of our games, I know that I contributed
significantly to many of them, not just by starting this company and
running it well but also as a CEO who is a gamer at heart and
made for an effective sounding board with our R&D department. In
particular I'm very proud of having written Wizards of the Coast's
first product, The Primal Order; the role I played in the publication
and development of Magic: The Gathering; the acquisition and subsequent
turnaround to profitability of TSR; and the 3rdEdition of Dungeons &
Dragons, a game I've loved since 1978.

I feel particularly privileged to have worked with so many amazing
people. Richard, Jim, Skaff, Jot, Vince, Monika, Jesper, the list goes
on and on and I can't hope to list everyone. Truly the hardest thing
about leaving is leaving the companionship I have with so many people
who are here.

Whatwill I do next? Hard to say. Many people dream of having the means
to not work,travel around, goof off, etc. Most people don't get to do
that until they are perhaps too old to enjoy it; I'll get to try it in
my 30s (barely)! I'll stayin touch and send pictures of me rock
climbing and snow boarding in exotic places! You'll also see me around
here from time to time I suspect. I have acouple of D&D campaigns I
intend to keep running whenever I'm in town. Eventually I'm sure I'll
want to work again. I'll go crazy not being productive. And some sort
of change will do me good. I have an amazing resume thanks to Wizards
of the Coast and I hope to leverage that by either running or starting
another company someday. I have some truly incredible opportunities
ahead, and no one can take away the incredible accomplishments I
can now list on my resume.

I want all of you to understand that I still strongly, adamantly,
passionately believe that this is a very magical place. What we are
doing is producing amazing games, bringing joy to millions of gamers
around the world. Our customers are a tough crowd. They love to bitch.
But don't let that fool you.I've found that deep down inside most of
them hold us in very high respect and are truly amazed by the games we
make. And at least within the Hobby Game segment, as long as we make
money Hasbro is not likely to interfere with the way we do business.
And I hope you'll all be proud of being part of Hasbro too. Hasbro is a
great company that's produced many toys and games that we've grownup
with, like Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, and so on. If I were someone else
and I were offered a job here at Hasbro I would be ecstatic at the
opportunity to work for such a great company and with so many great
people.

Finally I want to put in a good word for Vince, Al Verrecchia, and Alan
Hassenfeld. I'm leaving you in very good hands. Effective January 1st,
Vince will be CEO of Wizards of the Coast. Vince has been COO of this
company for several years now and I know better than anyone else that
he's fully capable of leading this company through the rough waters
ahead. Vince is also a hobbyist at heart and understands our business
very well. He's also an inspirational leader; I know,I used to work for
him at Boeing and that's why I hired him in the first place. He's also
a great friend and I hope you'll support him in the times ahead.
Regarding Al and Alan, in spite of some differences of opinion on a
couple of business issues, I have the utmost respect for both of them.
Both are men of integrity, are hard workers, have the best interests of
the company at heart,and they've never mislead me or played bullshit
political games with us. These are incredible attributes to find in the
people at the top.

Well,this has dragged on long enough. I'll be around until Christmas
break, so feel free to stop by and say hi/goodbye if you like (but only
if you promise not to cry I'm trying to keep positive!).

It's been truly an honor to serve with you all.

Peter D. Adkison
Founder& CEO, Wizards of the Coast
December14, 2000

(end quote)
--
Alan D. Kohler - http://members.tripod.com/~hawk_wind/homepage.html
"Look into my face and you will know I am a man possessed by DEMONS!
Polite demons... demons that would open a door for a lady carrying too
many parcels... but demons nonetheless!" - from KITH



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