Inside Wyrmwood Gaming's Narcissistic Funhouse

March 29, 2023 12:34 PM

While Wyrmwood Gaming wants to convince audiences that it’s just a cool bunch of goofballs doing their best, there’s rot at the company extending deep into the heartwood of its structure. TW: sexual assault, sexual harassment
posted by Kitteh (21 comments total)

Christ, what assholes (the management, not the workers). Maybe they can get out of the woodworking business and into manufacturing red flags because they are apparently very good at that.
posted by axiom at 1:30 PM on March 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

This has been a topic for discussion in circles that enjoy Critical Role: Wyrmwood sponsored a lot of their giveaway gifts so many episodes of "Talks Machina" (the usually weekly post-game discussion that used to follow all the game sessions pre-pandemic) have a whole segment with the cast lovingly describing the finish and craftsmanship of Wyrmwood products. And they're all still on YouTube.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 1:41 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah Wormwood's stuff is gorgeous but the Youtube series always baffled me. I've watched it sometimes because I enjoy the woodworking bits but anytime its something related to the functioning of the company, even edited, I'm like. "Why on earth would you publish this? You look so bad!"
posted by Wretch729 at 2:25 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm not quite sure how to reconcile the numerous multithousand dollar game table companies with a months long backlog with the equally numerous allegations of mismanagement. As best I can tell, "insanely profitable" is a great place to be if you are a bad manager. Side note: this also means you probably shouldn't take any management lessons from Google, Apple, Bank of America, or any other massive profitable institution.

Given the ebb and flow these shops go through, I'm gonna say the BoardGameTables.com crew was at least smart enough to buy a good domain they can flip when their founder inevitably flames out.
posted by pwnguin at 3:58 PM on March 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

"Why on earth would you publish this? You look so bad!"

I vaguely get the impression that people got burned by Geek Chic and Wyrmwood decided "webcams showing people working" would be a commitment device to show they weren't taking Kickstarter money and running. Had no idea they were running a "reality show" but it seems like once you go down the path, getting off that train is hard. The only thing worse than publishing stuff that makes you look bad is stopping because you need to do even worse things.
posted by pwnguin at 4:08 PM on March 29, 2023

Every small manufacturer I have personal knowledge of is exactly the same way. Welding shops with no fire protection and a roof so leaky there was standing water where the workers had to stand and weld. Executives who boasted to guests on shop tours about what geniuses they were for not buying any parts that weren't for already-paid-for finished goods, and when his genius inventory system shut down production, he just sent all the workers home with no pay. Family businesses where the boss would bring sex workers into his office over lunchtime after parading them through the production shop to make sure everyone knew. It's toxic masculinity all the way down.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:12 PM on March 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

I've said this elsewhere but also want to say it here:

Remember when - during BLM initial protests - they put up a video 'encouraging' thier POC and LGBTQIA staff to say on camera how 'Politics and business don't mix so that's why Wyrmwood hasn't made any BLM public stance" ?

Cause I remember.

That was some truly insidious, and controlling behavior.
posted by Faintdreams at 4:13 PM on March 29, 2023 [13 favorites]

If I remember right, Wyrmwood also had some pretty shitty work practices that led to OSHA getting called on them as well.
posted by Carillon at 4:13 PM on March 29, 2023

Every time I read something about these guys it gets worse. (Pretty sure this is not the first article I've read about them, or if it is, it's been substantially updated.)

And I keep feeling guilty because I keep thinking I bought some of their stuff but it's another company (Elderwood Academy) whose dice boxes I bought on Kickstarter.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 4:15 PM on March 29, 2023

I read the entire thing, and sounds like this place should have been sued out of existence by many of its former employees, along with open investigations by OSHA and Labor, and some of its management in a jail cell pending trial.
posted by meowzilla at 4:17 PM on March 29, 2023

>Politics and business don't mix...

I guess at a certain level of failing upwards the beard protects against irony.. sigh.

And yes, OSHA is mentioned repeatedly and that they have a file on this company. But apparently there's only so much they can do, since none of this seems to actually shut down the company or anything. And Republicans want to remove even more regulations and protections.


Funny how many businesses that are 'family' are at best a small step away from a cult.
posted by Jacen at 4:26 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've followed their YouTube because I liked the idea that there was this group of nerds who were passionate about woodworking and gaming and built a successful manufacturing business in America doing what they loved. They heavily market this image of a welcoming nerdy workplace where everyone can be themselves. In the videos, there were way more women and NBs and people of color and LGBTQ folk than I'd expect to see in a shop like that. It's part of what allows Wyrmwood to charge such a premium.

For the past few years, if you were watching closely, you could see the cracks around the edges in the way they present themselves. Doug rants about workplace safety, having to provide employees with health insurance, or casually drops an ethnic slur. Bobby's on screen behavior borders on sexual harassment. They repeatedly bully one of the Amish men and claim it's ok because he's in on it. All on screen. All in what they chose to show us about themselves. Like they saw nothing wrong with what they did.

But Wyrmwood is more than just Doug and Bobby, and I hope for better days for all the Wyrmwood employees who tried to make it a better place.
posted by Gable Oak at 8:51 PM on March 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

This has been a topic for discussion in circles that enjoy Critical Role: Wyrmwood sponsored a lot of their giveaway gifts so many episodes of "Talks Machina"

Happy to see that most of that discussion is not the usual CR fan kneejerk defensive response of rejecting anything critical associated with CR.

I did find one beautiful comment talking about how these are just "allegators" and that CR fans just go along with the "statuesque" 🤣😂

Also saw a recently posted tutorial on how to remove the Wormwood logo from your gear which is, I suppose, what happens if the stuff you bought from an exposed-as-dodgy company is really expensive.
posted by Zumbador at 9:11 PM on March 29, 2023

aw man, realized this sounded familiar because I picked up a vaporwave dice set from their collaboration with Dispel & it's actually super pretty, why cannot people who make nice things just fuckin be cool
posted by taquito sunrise at 3:08 AM on March 30, 2023

If you missed it, here's Karen Wang from Dispel's statement announcing she won't be working with them going forward. She still seems cool!
posted by Gable Oak at 7:50 AM on March 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've watched it sometimes because I enjoy the woodworking bits...

I watched a few of their videos for the same reason, but there was one where it was 100% clear that the dickhead in charge was, in fact, a dickhead and I stopped. Didn't realize it was this bad, though. Sucks for the regular folks involved.
posted by that's candlepin at 1:21 PM on March 30, 2023

So, are any bespoke gaming furniture craftspeople above board? Where do I spend my bespoke gaming furniture money now?
posted by m@f at 4:49 PM on March 30, 2023

I think a regular old cabinetmaker can probably knock up a table or whatever to your specifications.
posted by Harald74 at 4:56 AM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah, there's enough of the various appurtenances (card holders, cup holders, etc.) out there that any competent professional woodworker can crank one of these out.
posted by Etrigan at 12:56 PM on March 31, 2023

Boardgamegeek has this list of game table manufacturers, many of which I'd never heard of before. Maybe unknown is better than "known bad behavior."
posted by Gable Oak at 4:19 AM on April 1, 2023

A 13-page pdf rebuttal to the Codega article from Wyrmwood tweeted out on the evening of March 31. It's mostly bland legalese, which I guess means someone convinced them to actually talk to their lawyers instead of posting crap like that original video. It's still, unsurprisingly, pretty shitty.
posted by HeroZero at 7:45 AM on April 1, 2023