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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:11PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jun 22, 2007
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Hey all. As you may have noticed by now ( check out Bill's Ampersand article),The Dragon/Dungeon compilations we did at the end of Decmeber will be our last. I’m here to give you a little bit more information about the change. So why did we decide to do this? It takes a lot of time to compile and reformat the articles for the end of month rollups and, unfortunately, the amount of downloads we’ve been seeing hasn’t been enough to justify the time it takes to put them together. By cutting that out of the equation, we free up more time to focus on other aspects of the D&D website. We’re not cutting back on content, we’re just eliminating an option that goes largely unused. What does this mean for article updates? We will continue providing rules updates. However, rather than make the compilations the place where folks get errata, we’re going to update the individual articles whenever errata is called for. The goal is to eliminate confusion. We will no longer have two different versions of an article on our site — the compiled version with errata and the uncompiled version without errata. If an article needs errata, we’ll update the article and let folks know. That’s about all I’ve got on those compilations – if you have any other questions just drop them in here and I’ll do my best to answer what I can.
Trevor Kidd
Community Manager
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:19PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jan 18, 2010
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Disappointed - I suspect you all would have seen an uptick in the downloads of the PDF's, as tablets like the iPad are becoming good at treating PDF's like books. For example, I download the compilations and read the PDF's on my iPad using GoodReader or iBooks - and it looks fantastic! I hope you all revisit this again in the future. Having to use a web browser to consume the articles is going to be a step down in value that I get as a subscriber.
One other idea would be to publish the compilations in an epub format and make it available to subscribers.
thanks
-Scott
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:22PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Sep 21, 2008
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Ugh. Getting copies of the magazines in complete form was one of my favorite ways of reading the magazine. I absolutely hate logging on to download individual articles.
I guess I can compile my own magazines, taking the articles each month and just using Acrobat to bind them together? Meh. I thoughts that what we were paying you guys for. If I wanted to write my own magazine, I would just do it. If you guys don't think you're getting payed enough to compile a magazien into an actual magazine, well, charge more.
Having a library of magazines on my computer or on my bookshelf was one of my favorite things. You have no idea how much I flip through those PDFs once I have them downloaded; I'm constantly designing D&D adventures or looking for inspiration, so rather than log on and reread the individual articles, I open the actual magazine PDFs. I don't read the compilations every day, but I do read the compilations every day that I'm designing adventures.
Maybe I'm unusual. But I think that if I had a subscription? The amount of time I would spend reading and enjoying Dragon and Dungeon just took an extremely rapid plummet.
Of course, I'm not an insider right now, and don't intend on being so until the magazine/CB quality goes up + I get some money... but since this represents a sudden drop in the quality of the magazine (in that, it's no longer a magazine...) I guess that's just a little later i'll be waiting for the CB to gain some quality? One day, when it meets the offline builder I still have installed on my computer, I'll consider it.
* * * *
All in all, I think it was a poor decision. Perhaps it saves Wizards some time at the end of each month, but honestly? I think it's a lazy decision, and it will negatively impact my decision when and if to resubscribe. The magazine was something I was paying good money for (until recently), and I'm disappointed that Wizards no longer sees it prudent to actually give me my happy little compilations at the end of each month. A better decision would have been to raise the price of D&DI so that you can afford the time each month to do your compilations.
Maybe it's just me? But meh, that's my vote, and since I'm not a subscriber, it has twice the value since unlike constant subscribers, I'm actually going to vote with my wallet.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:24PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jan 17, 2009
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...that's my vote, and since I'm not a subscriber, it has twice the value since unlike constant subscribers, I'm actually going to vote with my wallet.
...and this is where you lost all credability in your statements.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:28PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Sep 21, 2008
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...that's my vote, and since I'm not a subscriber, it has twice the value since unlike constant subscribers, I'm actually going to vote with my wallet.
...and this is where you lost all credability in your statements.
Really? That doesn't make any sense.
You've already bought a subscription. Wizards could literally just stop putting out product, not give you a refund, and they would make exactly the same amount of money from you as if they kept up the good work.
Me? I haven't payed them yet. I'm eager to, I want to, I just don't have the money right now to. Between you and me, Wizards is more actively seeking my yet-to-be-payed subscription than your already-paid subscription.
My intentions were to pay them as soon as I had the money in the bank. Now I'm going to wait longer, possibly until next summer or even next fall. That's money they have lost as a result of this decision.
That's what speaking with your wallet means. It doesn't mean "I already paid, therefore my opinion matters!" no. The opposite is true. As most video game companies could tell you, once you pay? They don't care about your opinion at all. It's the people who have yet to pay but might who matter.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:33PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Oct 30, 2008
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I'm a bit disappointed as well. Though I can see the logic. I certainly haven't been downloading the compilations lately (I will now before they get taken down, I guess).
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:36PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Sep 21, 2008
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Here's an idea: since Wizards doesn't want to compile mags anymore, someone should start a Wizards community group (for insiders only!), and each month someone compiles the magazine themselves and distributes it amongst the group.
Not strictly legal since, even if it's redistributing to people who own the content, it's still redistributing... except, like, that's a product that I was (hypothetically) paying for, so, I'm going to get it one way or another...
Wizards might not believe I was paying for them to compile the magazines, but I certainly considered that part of the money dropped each month over the last two years, and had I been a subscriber this year I would consider it part of the money I dropped this year.
At least they should lower the price, if they're canceling so many books and decreasing the number of services they're providing...
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:44PM
#8
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I'm a little disapointed by this. I typically downloaded any articles I found interesting during the week, read them, and deleted them. I always downloaded the compilation at the end of the month so I could have something convenient and compact for my digital library. I understand this makes it easier on your end, and it doesn't affect most subscribers(I guess I'm an outlier), but it still seems like it shifts the work over to my end.
I'm more concerned with the apparent lack of articles this week; I understand that there're changes being made on your end and it will take some time to iron the wrinkles out, but no articles for several days in a row and then news that my preffered method for saving articles is gone has made me a little edgy.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:49PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 18, 2008
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I'm a bit disappointed by the fact that compilations will no longer be offered, but I understand it from a logistics/manpower standpoint. Could we get a small compromise in perhaps offering a zip of all the articles from an "issue" offered at the end of the month?
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 3:50PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Sep 21, 2008
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I'm a little disapointed by this. I typically downloaded any articles I found interesting during the week, read them, and deleted them. I always downloaded the compilation at the end of the month so I could have something convenient and compact for my digital library. I understand this makes it easier on your end, and it doesn't affect most subscribers(I guess I'm an outlier), but it still seems like it shifts the work over to my end.
I'm more concerned with the apparent lack of articles this week; I understand that there're changes being made on your end and it will take some time to iron the wrinkles out, but no articles for several days in a row and then news that my preffered method for saving articles is gone has made me a little edgy.
Heh, you have 1 post... at least this is making insiders register on the forums XD But yeah, I agree: It's making me a LOT more edgy about subscribing or even assuring people on the forums/real life that D&DI is a good investment... much less assuring myself it's a good investment... "Edgy" is a good word for my attitude about Wizard's decision-making ability as of late.
You know, I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theories weaved by some people on these forums, about D&D ending or Wizards being the devil or anything. But I'd have to agree with them on one thing: Wizards seems Hell-bent on (unintentionally) removing every single thing about D&DI that I liked.
First they came for the Character Builder, making a less functional product... then they came for the Monster Builder, leaving it buggy and broken... then they came for the products, removing ones I was looking forward to... then they came for the magazines, removing one of the features I really liked, the compiled issue I could add proudly to my digital library and Kindle each month.
The only good I've seen Wizards do lately is announce the Virtual Tabletop beta, and publish Essentials (which I think is a fantastic, very nostalgic line of goods; I hope they enhance it with more stuff in the future). Everything else? Well... as I mentioned, even if I had the money to resubscribe, last year at this time I would have immediately done so without a second thought, but this year? ...well, Wizards, you've made me think twice.
Try putting out a press release with good news... heh.
I'm a bit disappointed by the fact that compilations will no longer be offered, but I understand it from a logistics/manpower standpoint. Could we get a small compromise in perhaps offering a zip of all the articles from an "issue" offered at the end of the month?
This wouldn't be a bad compromise. Actually, what I'd much rather prefer? They just do the compilations quick-and-dirty. Offer it on an obscure sub-link, not the main page (because that'd bad PR), but let me simply click a button and it downloads a PDF with the articles slapped together. No page numbers, table of contents, or smooth transitions necessary--basically, this takes 10 minutes to do (I could do it at home! just download articles, hit 'import multiple files' in Acrobat, and bam, cheap compilation), and would be infinitely superior to not having an option (1 Option / 0 Options = div 0 error, so the limit as x->0 is infinite. Infinitely superior =P)
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