Wizards of the Coast (WotC) Sending Pinkertons thugs to some guys house??

[Kalidor]

​

I don't know if you follow the drama with WotC. Given their year of one bad move after another I don't see how you can't.

So apparently some YouTuber ordered a bunch of cards from a set and he got sent the wrong set and did an unboxing on his channel. There were cards that aren't released yet so everything he posted was spoilers.

Well, it seems while most normal companies would email or call the guy, WotC felt like it was a good move to send a mercenary security team of "private investigatos" to the guy's house, bully his wife and makes threats of fines and jailtime if he didn't turn over the cards.

I try really hard to divest WotC from their parent company, Hasbro, since Hasbro has been a very important part of our hobby - and when Brian Goldner was still with us, a very reputable and ethical company.

But I don't know how they can let WotC go unchecked like this over and over again to the point where every ounce of good will has been burned to the ground.



What are your thoughts on all this? It's not directly related to Transformers so do you even care?

Here are some sources:

Wizards Of The Coast Raids YouTuber’s House To Take Back Magic: The Gathering Cards [Update]

A Magic: The Gathering YouTuber found Pinkerton agents at his front door on Saturday morning

kotaku.com

Wizards Of The Coast Sends Pinkertons To YouTuber's House For Magic Cards

After unreleased Magic cards leaked online, franchise owner Wizards of the Coast sent private detectives to repossess them from a content creator.

www.gamespot.com

And here's another update from the YouTuber who says when he wasn't home the Pinkertons thugs were harassing his elderly neighbors

 

[Dekafox]

For those not familiar with the Pinkertons, did you know there's an actual law preventing the US government from employing any of them for anything?

This was due to the violent ways they used for strikebreaking.

Homestead strike - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And they even threw bombs into people's homes in other cases:

Documentary: Conspiracy Behind Deadly Explosion at Jesse James Farm

KEARNEY, Mo. (AP) _ An explosion that killed Jesse James' half-brother and maimed his mother was part of a plot by security men to kill the outlaw, a new film alleges. For a century, the blast had been considered an accident. The documentary, ''The Life and Death of Jesse James,'' blames...

apnews.com

 

[Kalidor]

Apparently the guy who heads WotC's "investigation department" is a former Pinkerton

 

[Kalidor]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-m-klimek-4222a011/

 

[MEDdMI]

So he didn't even get the cards on purpose? Yikes. This is definitely overkill. I haven't gotten any MTG cards lately, and this certainly doesn't help.

 

[Pocket]

I heard people bringing up the Pinkertons lately, and I assumed it was like... metaphorical? Like "the modern-day equivalent of the Pinkertons"? But no, apparently the actual OG thugs-for-hire organization is still in business and still being employed to do jive that even American police won't stoop to.

Good lord, imagine if swatters ever found out.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

What are your thoughts on all this? It's not directly related to Transformers so do you even care?

I mean, it doesn't make me want to purchase Transformers more, that's for sure.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I still like Hasbro. It's an almost unfathomably broad company and most of it doesn't give us stories like this. But this CEO needs to go, and WOTC needs to be burned to the ground. Move the brands somewhere else for now, but the personnel need to go. Just assume the cultural rot in there is not fixable and start completely over.

In the meantime, this guy needs to lawyer up.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

I've been saying WoTC had.. internal problems for a while now. They will happily sabatoge other projects, just to keep making MTG looking better.

 

[Ungnome]

I would have told them to bugger off and if they insisted had them arrested for trespassing. They didn't have a warrant and even if they did, they AREN'T government agents. I'm sure some lawyer would just love the opportunity to sue said organization.

 

[The Predaking]

Yeah, it is like everything WOTC does these days is trying to get negative press.

I too would have told them to pound sand and if they didn't leave then they would be arrested for trespassing, menacing with a deadly weapon. But hey, I am old guy that doesn't like bullies and fake wannabe cops.

 

[MEDdMI]

If these guys are operating outside the law, and notorious for intimidation... They might not care what happens to you until the police arrive. If you have a large group all claiming you hit first... and they probably know to destroy/confiscate any recording devices.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

They can't do anything if you stay in your home and don't open the door.

 

[Dekafox]

I don't know about that... depends on how closely the current iteration cleaves to their historical roots - see the Jesse James bomb incident mentioned earlier for one example. it comes down to what the current Pinkertons are willing to do and what they think they can get away with.

 

[Daith]

I get WotC being pissed about someone leaking product hey weren't set to reveal for another couple weeks, but this reaction was just wrong on so many levels. The Pinkertons
is an organization that should have been dissolved decades ago.

But there are things that the YouTubers story that seems a tad suspicious but not outside the realm of impossibility. I find it hard to believe that what ever distributor made the supposed flub like this. Similar titles or not, they should have different product codes and I can't imagine they ship out boxes to stores without scanning them out first. Even if it isn't the guys fault for getting this instead of the normal March of the Machine set, I smell BS that the seller he got it from didn't realize these were products that weren't set to be out yet.

Personally while I'm not for WotC's reaction at all, I think dude was stupid posting his video in the first place. If he realized he had gotten product like this before he was supposed to before WotC had even started spoiling it themselves, he was inviting himself to some trouble. And with all he posted it was a good majority of the set this time around. This set is only 50 unique cards, not counting alternate treatments. Guy posted at least 3/5ths of the set. There goes a good portion of promotion and collaboration with other Youtubers they had planned to drip feed the spoilers over the spoiler week. But WotC could have handled this so much better. Instead of drip feeding it they could have advanced plans as best they could, worked with the youtuber in a civil way to take down and return the product, and played it that despite the player bases complaints that they are putting out so much, that we are too eager to get hold of it.

But Devils advocate, dude did let us know how mid this set was really going to be. Why this wasn't just added into the set before stinks of WotC higher ups trying to continue to milk the fanbase. There is nearly a new Magic set release almost monthly for the rest of the year going forward. And it's getting to be much too much. Part of the reveals also looks like there might be a big shift as a certain card type with a lot of the certain characters are shifted to another. While it's not confirmed yet, there has been rumors of a certain card type being phased out and the spoilers did lean that way. And I'm certain there are going to be some angry fans about this and WotC didn't get their chance to PR spin it their own way. And I imagine that is going to chafe some people there, but who gives a jive. WotC has lied out their ass about multiple things for years now.

 

[Patch]

Anyone surprised that the Pinkertons are still around apparently missed this happening the past couple years:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1404268062258434053

 

[MEDdMI]

Yeaaaah, recently heard about that too.

Right before this mess dropped, I played a mystery game full of detectives. One is a Pinkerton descendant trying to restore honor to her family name...

 

[Caldwin]

I don't know about whatever state this this guy lives in, but try that jive in a state with castle law and a homeowner who knows it...

 

[Pocket]

How much you want to bet the Pinkertons refuse to even operate in any of those states?

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Or they'd just bring more thugs and say they were "provoked".