Wizards of the Coast CCP 1

Wizards of the Coast: Crisis Communication plan Matthew Daoust National University COM 360, June 2018 Wizards of the Coast CCP 2

This paper provides a crisis plan overview for the company, Wizards of the Coast, LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, INC. Wizards of the Coast is mostly an autonomous operation, having its own game divisions, only deferring to Hasbro for legal and financial advice or direction. Wizards of the

Coast is a company that produces more complex games than the more traditional ones produced by the parent company, and they sell these products worldwide. Their stakeholders span at least 15 countries, speaking at least 11 languages. Since they hold events all over the world attended by hundreds or thousands of people, the biggest risk is a crisis at one of these events, followed by a digital information leak through one of their digital products. They have their own media channels on both YouTube and

Twitch, and many, many channels on both platforms, as well as others means there are many media outlets and stakeholders that would need to be kept in the loop for any crisis communications.

Wizards of the Coast began in the early 1990s, is a burgeoning game company, and did not really take off until they introduced Richard Garfield’s Magic: The Gathering collectible trading card game. Magic: The Gathering is widely considered the first collectible trading card game. Today, they are owned by Hasbro, Inc. and have the very recognizable Dungeons & Dragons brand. They also have some digital products based upon those two lines, as well as some based upon their other game lines under the Avalon Hill board game line. Avalon Hill does reinvention of familiar titles, like Risk, as well as advanced board games all their own. Far and away the Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The

Gathering lines have been their cash cows. Dungeons & Dragons is produced in eight languages

(Anonymous, Mar. 21 2017), and Magic: The Gathering is produced in 11 languages (Anonymous,

June 29, 2018).

They have 18 offices in 13 countries, and is headquartered just outside of Seattle, Washington.

They have more than 600 employees, and host gaming conventions and competitive tournaments with thousands of attendees at least once a month. They have a strong online presence, with websites that are easy to navigate. However, their websites are not very informative most of the time. One digital game Wizards of the Coast CCP 3 of Magic: The Gathering (MTG), called Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO) is also its own cash cow, has a meter on the Wizards of the Coast (WotC) main page stating whether the server is up or not.

It is an exact replica of the paper trading card game with cards from the beginning of MTG, with its own economic trading system putting a real world value on those digital cards. Their communication, whether email, chat, or telephone is pretty rapid, if not always friendly. The executive structure is minimal, with just a president and chief executive officer (plus two product line directors and one vice president of digital games)(Wizards.com), and is usually supported by other executives from Hasbro.

Stakeholder Analysis

Wizards of the Coast, LLC Executive Management (Bloomberg.com)

• Chief Executive Officer: Greg Leeds

• President: Chris Cocks

• Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons: Liz Schuh

• Vice President of Digital Games: Randy Buehler

• Director of Digital Games for Magic: Worth Wollpert

These are the direct executives in charge, and need to be in front of anything that can happen.

The CEO and the president should be on any crisis team, with both of them picking, or at least helping to pick the rest of the team.

Hasbro, INC Executive Management (Hasbro.com)

• Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer: Brian D. Goldner

• President: John A. Frascotti

• Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer: Deborah M. Thomas

• Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer: Duncan J. Billing

• Executive Vice President and Director of Global Operations: Tom Courtney

• Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer: Stephen Davis Wizards of the Coast CCP 4

• Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary: Tarrant Sibley

• Executive Vice President and Chief Global Human Resources Officer: Dolph Johnson

• Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer: Wiebe Tinga

These are the primary stockholders of Hasbro, INC, and Hasbro is a very recognizable brand that could be harmed by any negative press by its subsidiary. Depending upon the crisis, any one of these people could be placed upon the crisis team, but most likely Chief Legal Officer Tarrant Sibley would always be included to circumvent any legal issues that could arise, as well as Dolph Johnson since human resources will always be needed in a crisis to help manage employees’ needs.

WotC has over 600 employees, and offers 40-60 events yearly at public venues all over the world with hundreds, and occasionally, thousands of people attending. So not only is the customer a stakeholder, so are the hundreds of support personnel at these venues, and the dozens of vendors selling support merchandise. They could easily have a natural disaster or crisis at any one of these events.

Especially since they hold specifically planned, heavily attended events at Las Vegas and Seattle every year around the same time. Often these events are Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour events which are wholly funded by WotC as a marketing tool, but that makes the pro players stakeholders as well. Also, they operate offices in 15 different countries and sell products in 11 different languages with a chance to offend many different groups with an errant mistanslation or unforeseen, offensive image hidden in the artwork of each game produced for their marketplace. This makes anyone who may be exposed to their products in these countries as stakeholders, too. An outside PR firm that specializes should be used if the crisis is large enough. There should always be a leading member of IT (which both companies have in abundance) in each of the crisis teams as they can help efficiently disseminate information as well as help overcome any technological problem that might arise (Poldak, Sep. 2002).

The game and comic book stores and retailers who carry these games are also stakeholders. Any lapse in production due to crisis could affect their bottom line. Wizards of the Coast CCP 5

The final set of stakeholders are the various media outlets, which are mostly online outlets.

There are many streamers who use many of the games both physical and digital as streaming fodder.

There are numerous people who review the products. There are even those who cover live events, and the MTG Pro Tour is covered by play by play in the “featured match area” by commentators paid by

WotC. These people not only often make money off their endeavors, they are frequently very attached to the products they stream about. Most of these stakeholders are found on YouTube or Twitch.

However, this does not preclude the mainstream media outlets as stakeholders either, but their interest would only be in catastrophic events or an event that caused intense outrage or was uniquely newsworthy.

Risk & Issues Assessment

First and foremost, the greatest risk WotC has is an incident happening at one of their events.

There are yearly events in Seattle and Las Vegas that are attended by thousands, and any terrorist, active shooter, natural disaster, or outbreak of disease or infection could be catastrophic for WotC and everyone there. There are also events nearly every weekend, sometimes two events on the same weekend all over the world with hundreds, if not thousands in attendance. This could be an easy target for anyone, especially an unstable fan of one of the games. However, the most likely event would be a natural disaster, so each event should have a plan and a training in the event of whatever most likely natural disaster might happen for that area. This policy should apply to all 18 of the offices worldwide.

While not large there is still potential to have a crisis, natural or not, at any office.

The second greatest risk would be the online aspect of MTGO, since it is, in essence, a digital reproduction of the paper card game. This means that players can trade cards, buy new packs, go to trade “bots” and purchase rare cards that were printed 22 years ago, and join real time tournaments all with credit card purchases of MTGO “tickets.” Therefore they have each customer’s credit card information as well as the personal information that goes with that. This means that a digital leak could Wizards of the Coast CCP 6 happen at any time, putting customers’ credit and bank accounts at risk, as well as the potential loss of an individual’s digital card collection that could be tens of thousands of dollars. This is most likely the reason there is a Director of Digital Games for Magic, and Worth Wollpert should be the lead on any crisis team if and when this occurs.

The third greatest risk is in printing and distribution. There are many levels to this risk. The most common risk is counterfeited products, but this is always a risk for any company that produces a desirable product, and damages from this are generally quite low. The greatest risk in this category is an inflammatory or offensive image in the art work getting past editing and being printed then distributed.

This is not a new phenomenon, and has ranged from provocative imagery (Baird, 2017) to an outright racist depiction (Vorthos, 2015). The art department tries to correspond with liaisons in the cultures where products are distributed in order to circumvent any incidents, but does not always succeed

(Baird, 2017). WotC tries to make ethical judgments based upon each culture’s different values and customs (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2015, p. 173). For example, it is tough to censor all the depictions of skeletons in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and MTG as there is a magic and fantasy aspect to those games and appear frequently. But, these images are customarily not shown in Chinese culture, so the

Chinese printings of these creatures are different (Baird, 2017). These mistakes can easily happen in the printed word when translating to foreign languages. Understanding the imagery considered special or taboo in each culture helps prevent mistakes in translating (Bo, 2014). If offensive materials do manage to make it through distribution, a crisis team will be set into motion to recall and replace the products as well as address any concerns the public has. There will be a “responsibility and accountability” response to these situations to try to maintain the goodwill of any culture that plays WotC games

(Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2015, p. 175-176).

The least likely risk, yet one that still exists, is one of the members of the Pro Tour, or any staff member for that matter, being abusive, or doing something unethical or illegal. This is a problem any Wizards of the Coast CCP 7 organization can have, and in the event of one of these the chief legal officer should take the lead on the crisis team.

Media Analysis

Most of the media that concerns itself with WotC products is internet based. Their games are considered niche products, outside of mainstream popularity. This is not to say WotC’s products are not popular, because there is a huge, loyal following for both Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons &

Dragons. Thus there are streaming personalities all over the world. There is a media team paid by WotC to cover the MTG Pro Tour events that happen quarterly, which airs on MTG’s own Twitch channel then gets archived to their YouTube channel afterwards. They also use this channel to announce events and show highlights.

There are lots of other websites, podcasts, and streaming platforms where people review products, stream while playing for fun, stream local tournaments, or tell stories about the games they have played. They are important media outlets for WotC brands, because they are customers who spend money as well as advertisers that does not cost money.

Comic book and game stores are also outlets of information dissemination. So they should be considered to be media stakeholders as well as regular stakeholders. Often customers first see or learn of the product here, as these stores usually get the products a little bit before the large retailers do.

Standard media services like TV and radio could be important media outlets if the crisis warrants it. Traditionally mainstream media has not been kind to the Dungeons & Dragons brand. Still, keeping them in the loop by disseminating press releases will help maintain good relations.

There are both printed industry publications and hobby publications which would be good media outlets, but their audience is not as large as it used to be. Plus, there is usually an online equivalent to any print publication, industry or otherwise. Since these publications are influence generators, they too bear some stakeholder status. Wizards of the Coast CCP 8

Crisis Communication Plan Overview & Summary

Prepare for a crisis before it occurs through training sessions, and designate media spokespeople beyond the executive staff in the event of an absent-party mid crisis. Emphasize not being too certain in communications amid the crisis, but be honest and take responsibility if WotC is clearly at fault.

• Spokesperson: CEO Greg Leeds or President Chris Cocks.

◦ Legal Spokesperson: Chief Legal Officer of Hasbro, INC Tarrant Sibely.

• Create a crisis response list for generic situations as well as make sure alternate spokespeople

have standardized key messages for values and motivations: for example “We always put the

safety and well being of customers and employees at the forefront of any situation.”

• List key media outlets for first contact during a crisis as well as emergency personnel numbers

for each location.

• Outline a situational analysis checklist, such as but not limited to:

◦ What is happening, and what will likely happen?

◦ Who should also be on crisis team?

◦ List most to least affected stakeholders.

• List secondary media outlets for second contact, and contact first contact outlets.

• Contact secondary outlets.

• Keep updating frequently.

(Colorado Nonprofit Association)

Wizards of the Coast, LLC is a subsidiary of Hasbro, INC and it produces more advanced, niche based games outside the more popular games the parent company does. They have offices and events all over the world thus making their stakeholders vast and varied. Similarly, their media outlets are also represented by all levels of society. Their biggest risks are the large events they hold or a breach of security in one of their digital products. They have over 600 employees, but a small executive structure, Wizards of the Coast CCP 9 so sometimes specialty communications are handled or composed at the parent company. While they are a niche company, their communications are open and honest, as well as being proactive instead of reactive. Wizards of the Coast CCP 10

Works Cited

Anonymous. (2017, Mar. 21). Announcing Localized D&D Fifth Edition Products. Retrieved from http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/localization Anonymous. (2018, June 29). Printed Languages [for Magic: The Gathering]. Retrieved from https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Printed_languages Baird, S. (2017, Oct. 16). 15 Magic: The Gathering Cards That Needed

To Be Censored. ScreenRant.com Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/magic-the-gathering- cards-needed-to-be-censored/ Bloomberg.com. Company Overview of Wizards of the Coast, LLC.

Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp? privcapId=691515 Bo, T. (2014). A Study on Advertisement Translation Based on the Theory of Eco-

translatology. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 5(3), 708-713.

Colorado Nonprofit Association. Crisis Communication Plan Nonprofit

Toolkit. Hasbro, Inc. Executive Management. Retrieved from https://investor.hasbro.com/corporate-governance/management Podolak, A. (Sep. 2002). Crisis management series: Creating crisis management teams. Risk Management, 49(9), 54. Ulmer, R. R., Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2015). Effective Crisis

Communication: Moving From Crisis to Opportunity (3rd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Vorthos, M. (2015, Mar. 31). Top 11 Controversial Artists. Gatheringmagic.com. Retrieved from http://www.gatheringmagic.com/mikelinnemann-040115- top-11-controversial-artists/

Wizards.com. Company [About Us]. Retrieved from https://company.wizards.com/content/company