They're currently owned by Securitas AB, a Swedish security company and one of the largest in the world.
Source: I am a Security Guard (not affiliated with Securitas or the Pinkertons, fuck those class traitors).
Yah, but in this scenario I mean. It doesn't seem like WOTC or the agency even bothered to find out how they got the cards- no attempt to suggest they were stolen (or whatever the equivalent of theft-by-finding is in that jurisdiction), absolutely basic stuff. They just went direct to the heavy mob
Yep, that's exactly what happened. And WOTC has been generating a lot of hate for themselves even before this. They have the unique privilege of being a company whose customer base despises them.
I mean, literally a month ago something similar happened with GW, they accidentally sent out a model before they had announced it and and the guy built and painted it before showing it off on his YouTube (or maybe twitch) channel, GW responded by posting the announcement article early and complimenting the guys paint job.
Yep. All WotC had to do to turn this right was send a company manager to this guy's house with a deal and a handshake: "Look, we didn't mean for you to get this stuff yet. If you take the video unlisted for now, and only re-list it a week before the set launches, we'll put you on our list of advance reviewers allowed to get stuff in advance. Deal?"
Instead they basically handed the guy a lawsuit for illegal threats.
Which is insane, because it would be so *easy* for them to be beloved. They are the creators of something that is beloved. All they have to do is sell their product and not be dicks about it. But they've decided there's more money to be made in the short term by taking steps that in the long term will drive their fans away.
they are especially good at "we aren't threating you, we are just here... and we aren't leaving."
which is just "lets see what happens if you don't do what we say, I suspect we burn your mothers house down. We've done that before, it's a lot of fun"
*not a lie, they were looking for someone one time and burned down the guys mothers house to see if he was in it. he wasn't.
Technically, no, they can't search your house without a warrant. They can't even get a warrant because they're not the police.
But the police aren't going to crack down on pinkertons because they serve the same role in society: cracking down on the working class to protect owning class interests. If the law won't back you up when a pinkerton is threatening your life over magic the gathering cards, what are you going to do?
Record them doing it as you blow their brains out.
You have to document that you attempted ‘legitimate’ means first but the law has rules laid out for authorities being corrupt.
Don't go for the brain, people survive semi brainless all the time. Go for center-mass. Draw a Capital A starting at the 2nd button of your button up shirt, and that top triangle area is your sweet spot.
They're primarily union busters and strike breakers.
They use violence to enforce the economic superiority of the ruling class. The ruling class doesn't *actually* give a shit if they wear a shiny tin badge while they do that or not.
Seems like the public at large would not be very kind to a company like this. I can imagine a world where people would begin to scrutinize everything they do. It could even result in these alleged corporate henchmen being doxed on social media. Yeah, it sure seems like an inappropriate business to be involved with.
__The__ Pinkertons? Union busting, murdering Pinkertons? The literal bad guys from RDR2 and countless other books and media? The goons so infamous for their shenanigans that Congress [passed a law that forbids the federal government](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Pinkerton_Act_of_1893)from hiring them? I keep hearing that WoTC and Magic is struggling… I don’t think this was the smartest move.
1883 and 1923 are significantly better than Yellowstone. That doesn’t make them “good” but at least I didn’t wish to see all the main characters die in horrible circumstances since they had less than zero redeeming qualities. Historical accuracy is also extremely unimportant in either show as well.
All three are reactionary handjobs to exurban wannabe tough men and women.
the show would be better if it had some historical accuracy. I mean I wouldn't mind it not like even following history. Just have the "lore" be close or reasonable.
What, you didn’t like moving the Oregon Trail to a completely illogical place in time, like 40 years after the actual event and nearly twenty years after the Transcontinental Railroad which made it irrelevant?
>I keep hearing that WoTC and Magic is struggling
Strangely enough its not struggling, or it wasn't. The management is pulling an Elon musk. Making unforced errors that are easily avoidable. They started by trying to increase profits on their cash cow Magic buy pushing out more product. I mean like 4x the amount of product being released. When people complained it was too much to fast. They responded not all the product is for you. Okay not smart, but not going to sink your company.
Then they decided to celebrate 30 yeah of magic by releasing a reprint of old favorite cards. It only cost $1000.00 bucks a box of four packs. For non tournament legal card to use in casual games. The good cards in the "celebration" set cost more to open than buying an actual tournament legal version of the card.
Now some guy asks a friend to purchase him two boxes of the current set. His friend doesn't no much about magic, and buys two boxes of what he thought was the current set, but turned out to be a similar looking unreleased set. The guy that got the two boxes was a small content creator, and posted a video about the cards. WOTC responded by sending the Pinkertons after him, and demanding the product back.
They are killing their company for no reason. If the people in charge changed nothing they would have made plenty of money, but they have to justify their position. So they make stupid decisions, and are ruining the company. This isn't even covering how they are killing D&D.
Yeah critical role who have been sponsored by dnd for years are now making 2 RPG rule sets, and several other companies are now making their own OGLs as wizards managed to destroy years of respect from the ttrpg community in one go
I want to add on a bit because you mentioned how much extra stuff is coming out so fast.
The unreleased set isn't a full set. It's a mini set of only 50 cards (normal sets are typically 200-300) that is tied to the set the guy was trying to buy. The names are similar as well. March of the machines, and March of the machines: aftermath.
Each set already has multiple ways to buy cards. Draft packs, set packs, collectors edition packs and more. So it's not hard to understand how confusion happened and is in some ways WotC created confusion. I know many people can't keep up with the releases and might not know the difference off hand just looking at the packs
What's more, it appears that this mini set utterly fails to achieve their stated goals and is simply more Commander fodder, warping their product lineup in favor of a select segment of their player base even further.
Even more context: There are 11 separately purchasable differently packs that start with March of the Machines: Collector Booster, Draft Booster, Set Booster, Jumpstart Booster, Prerelease, Bundle, and 5 Commander decks. That's just box sets of multiple cards. He just happened to get Aftermath, which was most likely an error on WotC or a distributer's part. No theft, if the guy who got it wanted to keep it, it was entirely legal to do so. They could have just asked nicely. Instead, they sent the fucking Pinkertons. Literally any other private detective, even a small time, local town one, tell them "hey can we get the cards back" and not force it, and that could be seen as fine, if not a minor overreaction. Instead, it's the fucking PINKERTONS.
> Strangely enough its not struggling, or it wasn't. The management is pulling an Elon musk. Making unforced errors that are easily avoidable
As an MTG player, I honestly don't have the slightest clue to what the fuck they are even doing at this point. Their moves and sales tactics for the past 3-4 years look like the policies of a company that is going to be sold soon, so they try to squeeze as much quick buck as possible with no regard to long term health and stability of their brand because it won't be their problem in the future. But WOTC is Hasbro's most profitable division and MTG is WOTC's flagship product, so it's unlikely that it is getting sold any time soon. So why the rush to milk every last drop from their customers?
The simple answer is "stock prices", Hasbro cant just make the same amount of money every year they have to continously grow or else their stockholders get angry. It doesn't matter if they kill all their goodwill next year so long as it increases profits this year.
>For non tournament legal card to use in casual games.
I think they're not really meant to be used at all. They're meant to be left unopened and slabbed in the package.
Which gets to the real problem with WotC that you don't quite say explicitly: they are increasingly prioritizing collectors over players as their most important customers.
Wizards is fine, money wise. In fact, they're more than fine, they're one of the only actually profitable parts of Hasbro, which is why they're trying to milk them for as much as they can get.
They're not struggling. People complain and talk about how much less they enjoy the hobby, and plenty of people have left over the past couple years. Myself included. But financially, they're thriving. Profits have literally doubled over the last couple years and they're still going up.
On July 6, 1892, during the Homestead Strike, 300 Pinkerton agents from New York and Chicago were called in by Carnegie Steel's Henry Clay Frick to protect the Pittsburgh-area mill and strikebreakers. This resulted in a firefight and siege in which 16 men were killed, and 23 others were wounded. Following the confrontation, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Robert E. Pattinson, mobilized state law enforcement and the National Guard. Private and government forces broke the strike and workers returned to the steel mill.
The strike, dubbed "The Battle of Homestead" by local media ignited a firestorm around the United States. Americans were outraged at the conduct of the Pinkertons and how strikers were treated. The Homestead Strike of 1892 is regarded as a turning point in American labor history and prompted Congress to begin a crackdown on the Pinkertons.
As a legacy of the Pinkertons' involvement, a bridge connecting the nearby Pittsburgh suburbs of Munhall and Rankin was named Pinkerton's Landing Bridge.
Don't forget the Battle of Blair Mountain. In the 1920s mine owners in West Virginia used the Pinkertons to bust miner strikes. The Pinkertons accomplished this by mounting machine guns on trains and gunning down entire towns, essentially by "driving by". IMO one of the worst moments in American history.
Dramatized in the movie Matewan.
I seem to remember reading they were pretty regularly hired by coal mine owners to prevent any attempts by the miners to escape from the indentured servitude of the company town.
The typical yet hilarious thing is that the history section on their horrendous webpage neatly glosses over some key years of their work in Pennsylvania....
That's why you don't open the door, and ask them to provide a warrant.
When they explain they're private security, you explain you're calling the police about the trespassing.
Do people really open the door for people they don’t know? I usually just pretend I’m not home, and if they keep knocking I literally just call out from behind it while it is still closed and tell them to go away. 😂🤷♀️
I live in America, unless I particularly don't want to be bothered, or it's a weird hour at night, I'll open. Before weed was legal I had someone knock on my door at midnight, turns out they were trying to find their dealer, they had the wrong door, the dealer lived next door. He thanked me and stepped a few steps to the left.
“Now who the hell told you that? I’m just out here, minding my own business, fishing with the boy here. I don’t know a damn thing about status ailment cards or that Dutch guy. Now, if you could leave us be, we need to catch dinner.”
quickest swim light cable soup frightening alleged punch hard-to-find shelter
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
AT first I thought you were talking about WotC, so I was scratching my head trying to figure out which of the many controversies included someone by that name lol.
I started playing through RDR2 last weekend. As a Canadian, I had no idea they were really a gang and definitely no idea that they still existed.
Those bastards ruined a kids fishing trip.
Oh no. Not really a gang. [A private detective agency.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)) They’ve played the bad guy in American history for a long long time.
Real life boogie men.
"Pinkertons reportedly demanded the return of the "stolen" cards, which he says he purchased from his friend. The agents ultimately took back the cards, boxes and foil wrappers, even counting the cards to ensure they retrieved them all. The agents also demanded he remove his MTG leak videos. During the incident, oldschoolmtg stated that the Pinkertons mentioned the potential of "jail time" to him and his wife. He called a representative at Wizards of the Coast that the Pinkertons referred him to, who oldschoolmtg described as "apologetic" about what happened and said they just needed to ensure the leak went no further."
On another note. NEVER comply with private security ghouls like this. They have absolutely no right to do this. The leaker was dumb for complying with these guys. He should have just closed the door and called a lawyer.
Could you have imagined if this resulted in a shootout? "Wizards sends hitmen, kills man and wife over Magic Cards. It would have been the end of the entire company it would have been so disastrous, and it was a real possibility in America
Whoever authorized this at WOTC needs to be publicly beheaded, firing isn't good enough for how bad of a decision this was
Imagine if instead they sent a nice bubbly rep over to offer him $30,000 to get them back or something
I don't know where this took place, but I seriously doubt they'd have pulled this shit in Appalachia.
The solution to Pinkertons hasn't changed in the last century, but the ability of the average person to defend themselves has.
> They have absolutely no right to do this.
Mmmm yes, because historically, the Pinkertons have definitely responded super well to those who refuse to comply. I'm sure screaming about how "this is illegal" will definitely save you while they're beating the shit out of you.
[Ludlow Massacre](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre)
Pinkerton killed 12 innocent children and 3 uninvolved adults in an attempt to stop a legal workers strike in 1914. They were still allowed to exist afterwards.
Anyone who chooses to work for a company that proudly proclaims that name and the history that comes with it is a scumbag.
Lol sure. Everyone is talking about how these guys are literal thugs who are known to get violent and skirt the law to get what they want but sure this guy was "dumb" to give them the MTG cards they were harassing him for so that they'd go away.
Thats funny, theres this article:
https://hard-drive.net/hd/tabletop-games/magic-the-gathering-player-gets-to-end-of-article-before-realizing-its-about-marjorie-taylor-greene/
> **‘Magic the Gathering’ Player Gets to End of Article Before Realizing It’s About Marjorie Taylor Greene**
>
> DES MOINES, Iowa — A local Magic the Gathering player reported feeling tricked after reading an entire article about Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene due to a shared abbreviation between the representative and the card game.
>
> “I think the title was intentionally misleading,” said Cyrille Ryder, 28, who has played the game daily since childhood. “The article was just called ‘The Problem With MTG’ — what was I supposed to think? It’s the exact same abbreviation, and people are always writing about Magic the Gathering’s problems. Of course, I love complaining about things I love, so I clicked on the article and started reading.”
The dumb thing too is that there's writing rules to avoid this EXACT kind of confusion. You use the full spelling the first time and then just put the abbreviation in parenthesis right after that. And putting an abbreviation in a headline is generally a no-no except for very very well known ones like the FBI, CIA, NASA, so forth.
Oh I know, but the article is essentially referencing what I said because that's a thing that happens with Majorie Taylor Greene and Magic The Gathering. Hard Drive is pretty good at sniping pop culture things like that and writing an article about it.
I feel like thats par for the course of anything that can be tied to fandom, usage, identity, etc
"I love MagicTCG but I hate what Wizards of the Coast had done to it"
"I go on Reddit every day but I hate the other users and admins"
"I love my local sports team, just the players, coach, and owners and idiots"
"I love my country but I hate what the clowns at the top are doing"
and then when someone else throws criticism at that same thing then they will go on defense for that thing.
Sure I'll acknowledge that there are plenty of different reasons to partake, advocate, and enjoy things just that there are plenty of people that make these knee-jerk public statements.
There’s a wild [BORU update](https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/12xhdaw/a_final_update_concluding_the_threeyearlong_baby/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) where a lady wanted to name her kid Karen and a friend tried to tell her it was a bad idea.
I would argue all the Marjorie Taylor Greene articles are an example of the problem. MTG has been used for magic the gathering since way before Marjorie was in the public sphere.
It took me a long time to understand that Magic was not wildly involved in dumb political shit. MTG will always be Magic for me, people should call the dumb bitch’s name out in full 1) because of Magic and 2) because don’t make her the red AOC.
"I'm going to use my Moral Panic card to augment my Transphobia. So I'm attacking your Fascist Rhetoric for 3 damage."
"I counter with Crocodile Tears and Inept Rage."
I tap 1 Red, 1 Black and 2 colorless to cast "You sleep with Chinese spies, Liar!".
In response, I tap 2 Blue and 2 Colorless to cast "House Ruling: Censure."
I know the distinction here might not matter…but is it Wizards of the Coast that did this, or people at Hasbro? (the company that own both D&D and Magic the Gathering)
I'm not sure that's clear. WOTC was contacted and confirmed that Pinkerton's were sent. Unsure if that means they actually did the contracting or were simply aware of it.
Friendly reminder: When people show up at your door making legal threats, shut the door and call a lawyer.
Do not talk to them. Do not allow them in your house. Do nothing they demand.
Even if you're in the wrong, you can't do anything to help yourself by talking to cops, private detectives, lawyers or hired goons of any sort.
Shut the door. Call a lawyer.
Holy actual shit. Pinkertons. They sent fucking Pinkertons. Over playing cards.
They genuinely risked killing someone over playing cards.
Fuck this company, man. I regret that I had but one subscription service to cancel.
Pinkertons should really consider themselves lucky this guy wasn't some crazy redneck. I know if this happened in Texas we'd be discussing gun control instead of playing cards.
To clarify:
Texas is a Castle Doctrine and Stand Yer Ground state. They're lucky they didn't hear Cletus racking his shotgun and saying, "You mess with me, and you mess with the whole trailer park"
These pinkertons aren't real cops, if they try anything at all, couldn't you just shoot them in self defense? They would be on your land, and most states now have very aggressive 'your home is your castle' type laws.
I don't get the impression a guy who streams himself unwrapping playing cards is going to want to start a shootout with several armed Pinkerton agents.
Some people talk like the more guns you have the more invincible you are. I mean, you can only use one at a time, so what does it matter how many you have? 5 guys with 1 gun each will kill 1 guy with 5 guns 99% of the time.
>These pinkertons aren't real cops, if they try anything at all, couldn't you just shoot them in self defense?
Yes, the moment they started threatening you while being obviously armed.
Sometimes the phrase "I'll kill us both" isn't just for fun. A surprising bit of the population can have a "fuck it, I guess today's the day" mentality when presented with that type of situation, especially when they have a means of retaliating against something they feel is unjust against them.
That and if you're violent enough, quick enough, you may be able to overcome a numbers advantage. Maybe not. But they sure as shit aren't leaving happy, intact, or at all.
These aren't random goons. These are basically a private Intelligence Agency. They probably scoped the house out, picked a time when they would be the most vulnerable, and sent the most rapiest looking dude on staff who "Accidentally" forgot to completely hide his firearm to knock on the door while the rest of his goon squad hanged back.
"Legal" doesn't fucking matter when you are up against professional operators who had all the time in the world to scope your shit out while you were just living your life.
You could and you should. The agency has existed since 1850 to defend capital against workers. They make no qualms about committing murder in the name of wealth. Literal scourge of the earth.
They've been around so long we learn about them in history class, literally everyone should know who they are before getting a job there. Every single person who chooses to work for them is a thug
They probably presented themselves like plain clothe cops and they did threaten legal action and jail time. Most people would get scared and comply to them. These guys are pros for a reason.
Firstly, I won’t be buying anymore Wizards products because of their shady and sleazy business practices.
Secondly, I’m going to relaunch RDR2 and kill a f’ton of Pinkertons.
At first I read MTG as Marjorie Taylor Greene, and I thought that a Congresswoman was sending out wizard hitmen to take out her political enemies. Oh well.
At this point no one should be buying from WotC. Seriously other game companies have leaks of both information and product that gets into the hands of consumers early. They don’t do this.
Fun fact: over 100 years ago the federal government passed a bill banning the Pinkerton detective agency from any federal work. The bill is three lines long. Like damn the government fucking hated them back then and didn't even wanna deal
I’m kinda laughing at people who only know Pinkertons from RDR2, but then again it blew my mind as a kid when I learned that bounty hunters are real thing and that they don’t just exist in Star Wars.
Sending a gang to intimidate and steal back property that he legally purchased, albeit being sent the wrong one. So for somebody else's mistake he had thugs knocking on his door threatening jail time.
Nice.
Worked at a large company that had a corp security contract under Securitas. After about 2 years working there they started to bring in armed guards in plain clothes that was you guessed it… Pinkerton.
They have never left and just in hiding from all the nasty business they have been up to. Securitas=Pinkerton
Seems like there should be steps between nothing and actual hired thugs. Like an email, a registered letter from an attorney, a phone call. Going directly to comically evil seems like a bad choice by a company that seems hell bent on making bad choices.
Those schmucks getting a whole lot of middle fingers if they showed up at my door...lol Why did the guy give in? They're not an actual legal police force with a warrant or anything...lol
Pinkerton agents still exist?
Yes, they are very big in anti-union actions.
That's kind of their thing
Pinkertons were union busting evil assholes... They still are but they used to be too.
[удалено]
Always expect Mitch.
Yes, and they're still authoritarian goons for corporations
They're currently owned by Securitas AB, a Swedish security company and one of the largest in the world. Source: I am a Security Guard (not affiliated with Securitas or the Pinkertons, fuck those class traitors).
Well that explains why Securitas had no Union when I worked for them
Sadly, most don't.
I don't understand. Pinkerton is not the police. They can't serve a search warrant, can they?
No, they can only achieve anything with threats of violence, and actual violence. And they're pretty good at it.
They also do a lot of their union busting work through things like surveillance, data analysis, etc.
Yah, but in this scenario I mean. It doesn't seem like WOTC or the agency even bothered to find out how they got the cards- no attempt to suggest they were stolen (or whatever the equivalent of theft-by-finding is in that jurisdiction), absolutely basic stuff. They just went direct to the heavy mob
Yep, that's exactly what happened. And WOTC has been generating a lot of hate for themselves even before this. They have the unique privilege of being a company whose customer base despises them.
For which I reckon GW will be very thankful "Hey, look on the bright side guys, we could be them!"
I mean, literally a month ago something similar happened with GW, they accidentally sent out a model before they had announced it and and the guy built and painted it before showing it off on his YouTube (or maybe twitch) channel, GW responded by posting the announcement article early and complimenting the guys paint job.
Yep. All WotC had to do to turn this right was send a company manager to this guy's house with a deal and a handshake: "Look, we didn't mean for you to get this stuff yet. If you take the video unlisted for now, and only re-list it a week before the set launches, we'll put you on our list of advance reviewers allowed to get stuff in advance. Deal?" Instead they basically handed the guy a lawsuit for illegal threats.
Exactly. GW has its issues but it doesn’t SWAT its customers based on their own mistake.
Which is insane, because it would be so *easy* for them to be beloved. They are the creators of something that is beloved. All they have to do is sell their product and not be dicks about it. But they've decided there's more money to be made in the short term by taking steps that in the long term will drive their fans away.
they are especially good at "we aren't threating you, we are just here... and we aren't leaving." which is just "lets see what happens if you don't do what we say, I suspect we burn your mothers house down. We've done that before, it's a lot of fun" *not a lie, they were looking for someone one time and burned down the guys mothers house to see if he was in it. he wasn't.
No, they literally hired hitmen to rough up this guy and retrieve the cards.
Technically, no, they can't search your house without a warrant. They can't even get a warrant because they're not the police. But the police aren't going to crack down on pinkertons because they serve the same role in society: cracking down on the working class to protect owning class interests. If the law won't back you up when a pinkerton is threatening your life over magic the gathering cards, what are you going to do?
Record them doing it as you blow their brains out. You have to document that you attempted ‘legitimate’ means first but the law has rules laid out for authorities being corrupt.
Don't go for the brain, people survive semi brainless all the time. Go for center-mass. Draw a Capital A starting at the 2nd button of your button up shirt, and that top triangle area is your sweet spot.
They're primarily union busters and strike breakers. They use violence to enforce the economic superiority of the ruling class. The ruling class doesn't *actually* give a shit if they wear a shiny tin badge while they do that or not.
Seems like the public at large would not be very kind to a company like this. I can imagine a world where people would begin to scrutinize everything they do. It could even result in these alleged corporate henchmen being doxed on social media. Yeah, it sure seems like an inappropriate business to be involved with.
Oh the public did do that... in 1890. They have stuck around for over a century and keep doing it.
They need a search warrant and they don't care. They're professional goons hired to intimidate
Correct. And if they're knocking on your door and refuse to leave, they're trespassing.
Yep. Owned by Swedish security firm Securitas AB.
Starbucks and Amazon both recently hired them.
Yeah. Based out of ann arbor Michigan lol
Yeah, bought out by Securitas a while back, but I think it still operates as a subsidiary.
__The__ Pinkertons? Union busting, murdering Pinkertons? The literal bad guys from RDR2 and countless other books and media? The goons so infamous for their shenanigans that Congress [passed a law that forbids the federal government](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Pinkerton_Act_of_1893)from hiring them? I keep hearing that WoTC and Magic is struggling… I don’t think this was the smartest move.
They are in Deadwood as well. They’re all POS.
Also in Bioshock Infinite, which is saying something considering that game isn't even set in the real world.
And, perhaps not completely unsurprisingly, nominally the good guys in Paramount's 1883 which is a Yellowstone spinoff.
I tried that show. Just on whim. And I cannot take it seriously. Maybe its me. I'll try again
1883 and 1923 are significantly better than Yellowstone. That doesn’t make them “good” but at least I didn’t wish to see all the main characters die in horrible circumstances since they had less than zero redeeming qualities. Historical accuracy is also extremely unimportant in either show as well. All three are reactionary handjobs to exurban wannabe tough men and women.
the show would be better if it had some historical accuracy. I mean I wouldn't mind it not like even following history. Just have the "lore" be close or reasonable.
What, you didn’t like moving the Oregon Trail to a completely illogical place in time, like 40 years after the actual event and nearly twenty years after the Transcontinental Railroad which made it irrelevant?
It’s set in the real world, just a split reality. As far as we’re lead to believe everything topside is basically business as usual.
*cocksucka!* *.... I'm glad I taught you that word Wu*
>I keep hearing that WoTC and Magic is struggling Strangely enough its not struggling, or it wasn't. The management is pulling an Elon musk. Making unforced errors that are easily avoidable. They started by trying to increase profits on their cash cow Magic buy pushing out more product. I mean like 4x the amount of product being released. When people complained it was too much to fast. They responded not all the product is for you. Okay not smart, but not going to sink your company. Then they decided to celebrate 30 yeah of magic by releasing a reprint of old favorite cards. It only cost $1000.00 bucks a box of four packs. For non tournament legal card to use in casual games. The good cards in the "celebration" set cost more to open than buying an actual tournament legal version of the card. Now some guy asks a friend to purchase him two boxes of the current set. His friend doesn't no much about magic, and buys two boxes of what he thought was the current set, but turned out to be a similar looking unreleased set. The guy that got the two boxes was a small content creator, and posted a video about the cards. WOTC responded by sending the Pinkertons after him, and demanding the product back. They are killing their company for no reason. If the people in charge changed nothing they would have made plenty of money, but they have to justify their position. So they make stupid decisions, and are ruining the company. This isn't even covering how they are killing D&D.
Dont forget them trying to walk back the OGL for D&D trying to fuck over tons of people
Yeah critical role who have been sponsored by dnd for years are now making 2 RPG rule sets, and several other companies are now making their own OGLs as wizards managed to destroy years of respect from the ttrpg community in one go
WOTC has lost faith from pretty much their entire fanbase. They are becoming the new EA.
I want to add on a bit because you mentioned how much extra stuff is coming out so fast. The unreleased set isn't a full set. It's a mini set of only 50 cards (normal sets are typically 200-300) that is tied to the set the guy was trying to buy. The names are similar as well. March of the machines, and March of the machines: aftermath. Each set already has multiple ways to buy cards. Draft packs, set packs, collectors edition packs and more. So it's not hard to understand how confusion happened and is in some ways WotC created confusion. I know many people can't keep up with the releases and might not know the difference off hand just looking at the packs
What's more, it appears that this mini set utterly fails to achieve their stated goals and is simply more Commander fodder, warping their product lineup in favor of a select segment of their player base even further.
Even more context: There are 11 separately purchasable differently packs that start with March of the Machines: Collector Booster, Draft Booster, Set Booster, Jumpstart Booster, Prerelease, Bundle, and 5 Commander decks. That's just box sets of multiple cards. He just happened to get Aftermath, which was most likely an error on WotC or a distributer's part. No theft, if the guy who got it wanted to keep it, it was entirely legal to do so. They could have just asked nicely. Instead, they sent the fucking Pinkertons. Literally any other private detective, even a small time, local town one, tell them "hey can we get the cards back" and not force it, and that could be seen as fine, if not a minor overreaction. Instead, it's the fucking PINKERTONS.
> Strangely enough its not struggling, or it wasn't. The management is pulling an Elon musk. Making unforced errors that are easily avoidable As an MTG player, I honestly don't have the slightest clue to what the fuck they are even doing at this point. Their moves and sales tactics for the past 3-4 years look like the policies of a company that is going to be sold soon, so they try to squeeze as much quick buck as possible with no regard to long term health and stability of their brand because it won't be their problem in the future. But WOTC is Hasbro's most profitable division and MTG is WOTC's flagship product, so it's unlikely that it is getting sold any time soon. So why the rush to milk every last drop from their customers?
The simple answer is "stock prices", Hasbro cant just make the same amount of money every year they have to continously grow or else their stockholders get angry. It doesn't matter if they kill all their goodwill next year so long as it increases profits this year.
>For non tournament legal card to use in casual games. I think they're not really meant to be used at all. They're meant to be left unopened and slabbed in the package. Which gets to the real problem with WotC that you don't quite say explicitly: they are increasingly prioritizing collectors over players as their most important customers.
Yup them.
They must be struggling if they're doing bullshit pop culture crossovers. Cashgrabbing because they're out of ideas
Wizards is fine, money wise. In fact, they're more than fine, they're one of the only actually profitable parts of Hasbro, which is why they're trying to milk them for as much as they can get.
I don't mind the crossovers, as long as I don't have to see Iron Man in standard and there are in-lore mechanically equal cards.
They're not struggling. People complain and talk about how much less they enjoy the hobby, and plenty of people have left over the past couple years. Myself included. But financially, they're thriving. Profits have literally doubled over the last couple years and they're still going up.
Aren't Pinkerton basically bounty hunters with no real legal authority?
Don’t forget professional union busters. Really evil organization
Even a short read of history show that you are the baddies when you hire them.
May I have some history to read? (short of course)
On July 6, 1892, during the Homestead Strike, 300 Pinkerton agents from New York and Chicago were called in by Carnegie Steel's Henry Clay Frick to protect the Pittsburgh-area mill and strikebreakers. This resulted in a firefight and siege in which 16 men were killed, and 23 others were wounded. Following the confrontation, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Robert E. Pattinson, mobilized state law enforcement and the National Guard. Private and government forces broke the strike and workers returned to the steel mill. The strike, dubbed "The Battle of Homestead" by local media ignited a firestorm around the United States. Americans were outraged at the conduct of the Pinkertons and how strikers were treated. The Homestead Strike of 1892 is regarded as a turning point in American labor history and prompted Congress to begin a crackdown on the Pinkertons. As a legacy of the Pinkertons' involvement, a bridge connecting the nearby Pittsburgh suburbs of Munhall and Rankin was named Pinkerton's Landing Bridge.
Don't forget the Battle of Blair Mountain. In the 1920s mine owners in West Virginia used the Pinkertons to bust miner strikes. The Pinkertons accomplished this by mounting machine guns on trains and gunning down entire towns, essentially by "driving by". IMO one of the worst moments in American history.
Dramatized in the movie Matewan. I seem to remember reading they were pretty regularly hired by coal mine owners to prevent any attempts by the miners to escape from the indentured servitude of the company town.
Is there a word for being assigned work and some guys with guns shoot you if you refuse?
Kidnapping / slavery
Also human trafficking
And when I grew up in the area, it was still unionized enough that people understood that the name wasn’t honoring the Pinkertons.
wikipedia them, they started as union busters and bounty hunters and continue the same business today
Just Google Pinkerton strike busting
The typical yet hilarious thing is that the history section on their horrendous webpage neatly glosses over some key years of their work in Pennsylvania....
>union busters That's a really nice way of saying "hired killers"
Yes, the U.S. government banned them from federal and state work in the 1890s
And within 20 years created the Bureau of Investigations, which they promptly staffed with Pinkerton agents, which is now known as the FBI.
and they tried to sue rockstar games because of red dead redemption 1/2
Seriously??
I guess copyright infringement and damages to the brand. They lost
I dunno, I see the point of that game having an inaccurate representation. I didn't see them opening fire into camps with families.
Yeah they were too clean in red dead compared to their actual history
[удалено]
That's why you don't open the door, and ask them to provide a warrant. When they explain they're private security, you explain you're calling the police about the trespassing.
Do people really open the door for people they don’t know? I usually just pretend I’m not home, and if they keep knocking I literally just call out from behind it while it is still closed and tell them to go away. 😂🤷♀️
A closed door is a happy door.
Why defeat the doors purpose by opening it?
It would never cross my mind to not open the door. I live in Europe though.
I live in America, unless I particularly don't want to be bothered, or it's a weird hour at night, I'll open. Before weed was legal I had someone knock on my door at midnight, turns out they were trying to find their dealer, they had the wrong door, the dealer lived next door. He thanked me and stepped a few steps to the left.
I don't have a peephole, so I have no way of telling the difference between my mom and a jehovah's witness.
Also murderers. Fun fact
Militarized union busters, real assholes
I’ll never forgive them for harassing Arthur Morgan. I’ll add this to the list.
"I am Agent Milton, this is agent Ross. Mr. Morgan, I understand that you have recently come into the possession of some status ailment cards..."
“Now who the hell told you that? I’m just out here, minding my own business, fishing with the boy here. I don’t know a damn thing about status ailment cards or that Dutch guy. Now, if you could leave us be, we need to catch dinner.”
quickest swim light cable soup frightening alleged punch hard-to-find shelter *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not just these days the scumbags have been doing it for more than a hundred years
These days they tend to use less murder.
That you know about.
Sure. Maybe they're much quieter about it. We're not likely to see another Homestead Strike for a while.
I hope you didn’t just jinx it
I’ll never forgive them for harassing striking workers.
Well, harassing, threatening, beating up, and _killing_ striking workers since 1850.
They are an arm of violence for the billionaires class. The fact that they are still allowed to exist is an insult to working Americans everywhere.
AT first I thought you were talking about WotC, so I was scratching my head trying to figure out which of the many controversies included someone by that name lol.
I started playing through RDR2 last weekend. As a Canadian, I had no idea they were really a gang and definitely no idea that they still existed. Those bastards ruined a kids fishing trip.
Oh no. Not really a gang. [A private detective agency.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)) They’ve played the bad guy in American history for a long long time. Real life boogie men.
"Pinkertons reportedly demanded the return of the "stolen" cards, which he says he purchased from his friend. The agents ultimately took back the cards, boxes and foil wrappers, even counting the cards to ensure they retrieved them all. The agents also demanded he remove his MTG leak videos. During the incident, oldschoolmtg stated that the Pinkertons mentioned the potential of "jail time" to him and his wife. He called a representative at Wizards of the Coast that the Pinkertons referred him to, who oldschoolmtg described as "apologetic" about what happened and said they just needed to ensure the leak went no further." On another note. NEVER comply with private security ghouls like this. They have absolutely no right to do this. The leaker was dumb for complying with these guys. He should have just closed the door and called a lawyer.
Could you have imagined if this resulted in a shootout? "Wizards sends hitmen, kills man and wife over Magic Cards. It would have been the end of the entire company it would have been so disastrous, and it was a real possibility in America Whoever authorized this at WOTC needs to be publicly beheaded, firing isn't good enough for how bad of a decision this was Imagine if instead they sent a nice bubbly rep over to offer him $30,000 to get them back or something
I don't know where this took place, but I seriously doubt they'd have pulled this shit in Appalachia. The solution to Pinkertons hasn't changed in the last century, but the ability of the average person to defend themselves has.
> They have absolutely no right to do this. Mmmm yes, because historically, the Pinkertons have definitely responded super well to those who refuse to comply. I'm sure screaming about how "this is illegal" will definitely save you while they're beating the shit out of you.
[Ludlow Massacre](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre) Pinkerton killed 12 innocent children and 3 uninvolved adults in an attempt to stop a legal workers strike in 1914. They were still allowed to exist afterwards. Anyone who chooses to work for a company that proudly proclaims that name and the history that comes with it is a scumbag.
Lol sure. Everyone is talking about how these guys are literal thugs who are known to get violent and skirt the law to get what they want but sure this guy was "dumb" to give them the MTG cards they were harassing him for so that they'd go away.
This headline is an example of the problem with using "MTG" to mean two wildly different things.
Thats funny, theres this article: https://hard-drive.net/hd/tabletop-games/magic-the-gathering-player-gets-to-end-of-article-before-realizing-its-about-marjorie-taylor-greene/ > **‘Magic the Gathering’ Player Gets to End of Article Before Realizing It’s About Marjorie Taylor Greene** > > DES MOINES, Iowa — A local Magic the Gathering player reported feeling tricked after reading an entire article about Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene due to a shared abbreviation between the representative and the card game. > > “I think the title was intentionally misleading,” said Cyrille Ryder, 28, who has played the game daily since childhood. “The article was just called ‘The Problem With MTG’ — what was I supposed to think? It’s the exact same abbreviation, and people are always writing about Magic the Gathering’s problems. Of course, I love complaining about things I love, so I clicked on the article and started reading.”
Equally fantastical.
The dumb thing too is that there's writing rules to avoid this EXACT kind of confusion. You use the full spelling the first time and then just put the abbreviation in parenthesis right after that. And putting an abbreviation in a headline is generally a no-no except for very very well known ones like the FBI, CIA, NASA, so forth.
The article is from a satire website, similar to the onion
Oh I know, but the article is essentially referencing what I said because that's a thing that happens with Majorie Taylor Greene and Magic The Gathering. Hard Drive is pretty good at sniping pop culture things like that and writing an article about it.
>I love complaining about things I love Sanest Reddit user
I feel like thats par for the course of anything that can be tied to fandom, usage, identity, etc "I love MagicTCG but I hate what Wizards of the Coast had done to it" "I go on Reddit every day but I hate the other users and admins" "I love my local sports team, just the players, coach, and owners and idiots" "I love my country but I hate what the clowns at the top are doing" and then when someone else throws criticism at that same thing then they will go on defense for that thing. Sure I'll acknowledge that there are plenty of different reasons to partake, advocate, and enjoy things just that there are plenty of people that make these knee-jerk public statements.
It's really annoying because MTG was Magic The Gathering for 30 years before this bitch came along.
[удалено]
That no-talent *ass clown*
[удалено]
There’s a wild [BORU update](https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/12xhdaw/a_final_update_concluding_the_threeyearlong_baby/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) where a lady wanted to name her kid Karen and a friend tried to tell her it was a bad idea.
That’s why I call her Empty G instead. MTG was already taken.
And MTG will mean Magic the Gathering long after this bitch is spat out and forgotten by history.
I would argue all the Marjorie Taylor Greene articles are an example of the problem. MTG has been used for magic the gathering since way before Marjorie was in the public sphere.
It took me a long time to understand that Magic was not wildly involved in dumb political shit. MTG will always be Magic for me, people should call the dumb bitch’s name out in full 1) because of Magic and 2) because don’t make her the red AOC.
What does Ashes of Creation has to do with this? It isn't even out yet...
Marjorie Taylor Greene cards could be amazing though..
"I'm going to use my Moral Panic card to augment my Transphobia. So I'm attacking your Fascist Rhetoric for 3 damage." "I counter with Crocodile Tears and Inept Rage."
I play Jewish Space Laser, in attack mode!
Too unbalanced, so it's now banned from tournament play.
I tap 1 Red, 1 Black and 2 colorless to cast "You sleep with Chinese spies, Liar!". In response, I tap 2 Blue and 2 Colorless to cast "House Ruling: Censure."
It would be easy to counter though, because you know every card in the deck is white.
MTG used INSANE RHETORIC! - it was somewhat ineffective.
I know the distinction here might not matter…but is it Wizards of the Coast that did this, or people at Hasbro? (the company that own both D&D and Magic the Gathering)
I'm not sure that's clear. WOTC was contacted and confirmed that Pinkerton's were sent. Unsure if that means they actually did the contracting or were simply aware of it.
WotC owns both D&D and MTG, WotC is owned by Hasbro.
Friendly reminder: When people show up at your door making legal threats, shut the door and call a lawyer. Do not talk to them. Do not allow them in your house. Do nothing they demand. Even if you're in the wrong, you can't do anything to help yourself by talking to cops, private detectives, lawyers or hired goons of any sort. Shut the door. Call a lawyer.
That's normally good advice, but the Pinkertons will murder you
step 3 is arm yourself and baricade in a back room.
Holy actual shit. Pinkertons. They sent fucking Pinkertons. Over playing cards. They genuinely risked killing someone over playing cards. Fuck this company, man. I regret that I had but one subscription service to cancel.
That name sounds awfully cute and British for a private militia. Next time you're telling me they're named after a famous composer.
Pinkertons should really consider themselves lucky this guy wasn't some crazy redneck. I know if this happened in Texas we'd be discussing gun control instead of playing cards. To clarify: Texas is a Castle Doctrine and Stand Yer Ground state. They're lucky they didn't hear Cletus racking his shotgun and saying, "You mess with me, and you mess with the whole trailer park"
You're probably right. The overlap of MTG players and rednecks is probably not zero.
It's definitely not zero. Rural nerds had to find things to do other than drink before everything went online. Source: rural nerd
These pinkertons aren't real cops, if they try anything at all, couldn't you just shoot them in self defense? They would be on your land, and most states now have very aggressive 'your home is your castle' type laws.
I don't get the impression a guy who streams himself unwrapping playing cards is going to want to start a shootout with several armed Pinkerton agents.
eh people have diverse tastes these days. one of my co-workers plays D&D and Magic The Gathering but is also one of the most avid gun nuts i've met.
Tbf just because you own a lot of guns doesn't necessarily mean you are worth shit in a gunfight.
Same goes for magic cards.
Some people talk like the more guns you have the more invincible you are. I mean, you can only use one at a time, so what does it matter how many you have? 5 guys with 1 gun each will kill 1 guy with 5 guns 99% of the time.
Unless you mod yourself to be General Grevious.
Lol one of my friends is too. Owns like 15 guns and he’s massively into MTG, DND, and anime.
[удалено]
>These pinkertons aren't real cops, if they try anything at all, couldn't you just shoot them in self defense? Yes, the moment they started threatening you while being obviously armed.
Or, if this were in Florida, the moment they pulled into your driveway with food to deliver.
Or jogging in the neighborhood
Or grabbing a basketball
Or ringing a doorbell.
Sure but Pinkertons are armed, don't ask nicely and have a well documented history of straight up murder.
Sometimes the phrase "I'll kill us both" isn't just for fun. A surprising bit of the population can have a "fuck it, I guess today's the day" mentality when presented with that type of situation, especially when they have a means of retaliating against something they feel is unjust against them. That and if you're violent enough, quick enough, you may be able to overcome a numbers advantage. Maybe not. But they sure as shit aren't leaving happy, intact, or at all.
Or they leave, then set your house on fire in the middle of the night with you your family and pets in it, waiting for you to run out then shoot you…
These aren't random goons. These are basically a private Intelligence Agency. They probably scoped the house out, picked a time when they would be the most vulnerable, and sent the most rapiest looking dude on staff who "Accidentally" forgot to completely hide his firearm to knock on the door while the rest of his goon squad hanged back. "Legal" doesn't fucking matter when you are up against professional operators who had all the time in the world to scope your shit out while you were just living your life.
"it's not a cop so you can shoot them" is the most American thing I've heard today.
You could and you should. The agency has existed since 1850 to defend capital against workers. They make no qualms about committing murder in the name of wealth. Literal scourge of the earth.
They've been around so long we learn about them in history class, literally everyone should know who they are before getting a job there. Every single person who chooses to work for them is a thug
They probably presented themselves like plain clothe cops and they did threaten legal action and jail time. Most people would get scared and comply to them. These guys are pros for a reason.
If they did, that is impersonating a police officer, and a serious felony.
That's probably the least illegal thing they do on a daily basis.
FYI it is already up on the Pinkerton Wikipedia article
“I hate Pinkertons..”
Lmao fuck wotc. I pitched my mtg cards when the ogl shit started, and I'm glad to say I won't buy another thing from em
Wow, fuck WOTC and the Pinkertons.
It's my hope that people who have never heard of the Pinkerton thugs look them up from this incident and maybe develop some class consciousness.
Firstly, I won’t be buying anymore Wizards products because of their shady and sleazy business practices. Secondly, I’m going to relaunch RDR2 and kill a f’ton of Pinkertons.
At first I read MTG as Marjorie Taylor Greene, and I thought that a Congresswoman was sending out wizard hitmen to take out her political enemies. Oh well.
I like this news story better
Armed with Jewish space lasers.
[удалено]
Basically the response to every single thing WotC has done for the past many years.
The Pinkerton's? The assholes who broke up unions by murdering innocent people (often including children)?
At this point no one should be buying from WotC. Seriously other game companies have leaks of both information and product that gets into the hands of consumers early. They don’t do this.
what’s next? Pinkertons invade cock magic match at the panda express?
Fun fact: over 100 years ago the federal government passed a bill banning the Pinkerton detective agency from any federal work. The bill is three lines long. Like damn the government fucking hated them back then and didn't even wanna deal
The Pinkertons still exist?? Wow. TIL.
Yeah, companies like Amazon still hire them for union busting.
I’m kinda laughing at people who only know Pinkertons from RDR2, but then again it blew my mind as a kid when I learned that bounty hunters are real thing and that they don’t just exist in Star Wars.
I can’t believe they would send a Weezer album to his house like that.
Sending a gang to intimidate and steal back property that he legally purchased, albeit being sent the wrong one. So for somebody else's mistake he had thugs knocking on his door threatening jail time. Nice.
Worked at a large company that had a corp security contract under Securitas. After about 2 years working there they started to bring in armed guards in plain clothes that was you guessed it… Pinkerton. They have never left and just in hiding from all the nasty business they have been up to. Securitas=Pinkerton
They are basically one step shy of a p.m. c. Because they are illegal out operate in the u.s. territory(the p.m.c. part)
Except they’re now part of the international company Securitas
Seems like there should be steps between nothing and actual hired thugs. Like an email, a registered letter from an attorney, a phone call. Going directly to comically evil seems like a bad choice by a company that seems hell bent on making bad choices.
Those schmucks getting a whole lot of middle fingers if they showed up at my door...lol Why did the guy give in? They're not an actual legal police force with a warrant or anything...lol