M. Cook left WotC

[Cam_Neely]

"Last week I decided that I would leave my contract position with Wizards of the Coast. I am no longer working on Dungeons & Dragons, although I may provide occasional consultation in the future. My decision is one based on differences of opinion with the company. " ~Monte Cook
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?montejournal

This is as 5 is reaching what I am guessing the end of the middle stage of its development, with friends and family testing

Thoughts?

[Missing_Minds]

thoughts... first comic books industry, now maybe gaming table top industry?

[Cyr]

Interesting. I wonder if this is something about game development decisions or more business related.

[Diyon]

Interesting. I wonder if this is something about game development decisions or more business related.

That would be nice to know.

[Jaid314]

in all probability, he's either not allowed to say, or would be strongly ill-advised to say.

[Cam_Neely]

Last week I decided that I would leave my contract position with Wizards of the Coast. I am no longer working on Dungeons & Dragons, although I may provide occasional consultation in the future. My decision is one based on differences of opinion with the company. However, I want to take this time to stress that my differences were not with my fellow designers, Rob Schwalb and Bruce Cordell. I enjoyed every moment of working with them over the past year. I have faith that they'll create a fun game. I'm rooting for them.

Due to my non-disclosure agreement, as well as a desire to keep things on a professional level, I have no intention of going into further detail at this time. (Mostly, I just hate drama, and would rather talk about more interesting things.)

As for what I'll be turning to next, I hope you'll stay tuned. I plan on having an interesting announcement in that regard in the near future.

Sorry, should have included this all in the OP. Seems both Non-disclosure as well as professionalism. My guess a good dose of 'its a small industry, dont **** people off'.

@Cyr: my though would be development, as opposed to business. Most likely a combination of business side pushing on development side to do 'that thing all the kids are into these days' or something like that.

Interesting announcement? New D20 game? Joining Pazio (I HOPE!)? Joining Dancing with the stars?

[Drakos]

This isn't the first time Monty has broaken ties with WotC over differences of opinion. He has a strong sense of the direction the game should go which doesn't always coincide with WotC's vision.

It's a shame because I really like his work. I don't care for all his ideas, but for the most part I like his ideas.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Maybe his WotC contract prevented him from working on other fantasy related stuff, or whatever he had "cooked" up and therein lay the conflict.

[Schmoe]

This isn't the first time Monty has broaken ties with WotC over differences of opinion. He has a strong sense of the direction the game should go which doesn't always coincide with WotC's vision.

It's a shame because I really like his work. I don't care for all his ideas, but for the most part I like his ideas.

Yeah, it is a shame. Monte's involvement was the most exciting thing about 5e for me. Of course I'm also a huge fan of Bruce Cordell, so I'm not giving up hope just yet.