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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 8:23PM
#31
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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If WoTC can't justify the expense of compiling the articles I would like to see them give Paizo back the job.
I can say, the act of compiling the PDFs into one file, isn't that hard or time consuming, at best, 5 minutes, worth of work for any one person.
How much work to get that up on the website, I can't say. But in my job, I've had to take many PDFs, and combine them into one file, and it's so easy. There is a combine PDFs option in Acrobat, which once you have all your files selected, you can make sure they are in the order you want them to combine, and click ok.
So I'm not sure why they feel not taking all the articles for that month, and combining them into one file can't happen.
It's frustating to see the answers they made up and then read you Dane.
Not because not all their Paying customers don't consume or use a service they pay for means they can take the service away from other Paying customers who use or consume this service.
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 11:02PM
#32
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I'm very disappointed. First, the print mags were canceled. Digital formats are okay (they are what they are) but I much prefer print. If I wanna handle and read a hard copy, I have to print it out myself. As far as I'm concerned, a loss of service. But, I learned to live with it, I moved on.
Having the various articles compiled was another service, now that's gone. If the articles are ever to be compiled, I'll need to do the work. Then (as always) if I want a hard copy for any reason, I'll need to print things out myself.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not above doing this all myself; I've done it before and maybe I'll do it again in the future. More and more though, I feel like I'm getting less and less service out of my subscription. Less value, less enjoyment.
That's how I feel about this. When it comes time to re-new in April, that's what I'm gonna remember. Do I really want to spend my hard-earned money on a product that was once print (but is now digital)? is a product that used to be put together for me (but is now patchwork) really worth it? Do I want this? No, not at all.
I'm a huge fan of D&D but I can no longer call myself a fan of Dragon/Dungeon (they lie in ruins now). More than just disappointing, it makes me sad. I was a long-time, loyal reader of the magazines.
/\ Art
/\ Art
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 12:09AM
#33
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2009
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I'm also in the camp of people who, during the month, might download an article several times to read and re-read it, and then at the end of the month download the compilation for my personal archive.
The nebulousness of article updates is a point of concern for me. What notification mechanism will be used to tell subscribers that an article has been updated? A robust channel of communication for this needs to be established otherwise I'll have to revisit all of the articles I found most interesting or useful on a regular basis, wasting more of my time than looking for an updated version in the compilation at the end of the month.
This is the latest in a rapid series of degradations in the service quality for DDI, and while there are some promised future improvements (eg the online monster builder and the VTT), those aren't part of the subscription now and can't offset the reduced depth of magazine content and the reduced support for the available digital tools.
Tibis
Refugee of many worlds
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 12:23AM
#34
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2005
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These magazines are a legacy to the game, spanning decades. It was a huge disservice to take them out of print and offer digital only (which increased the ease of piracy), and now to dissolve the magazines altogether into a bunch of articles. I refer to my downloaded (legitimately!!!) magazines on a daily basis. Has WotC forgotten that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts?
I turned off my auto-renew last week because I was really dissatisfied with how the DDI suite has been going since around August of 2010. I should lose my DDI icon sometime this week. After receiving the news about the magazines, I have great satisfaction in knowing that they will not be receiving another cent from me for their "online services." I will continue to peruse their printed material at the bookstore, and will make my purchasing decisions on a case-by-case basis, but they will no longer receive a monthly stipend from me.
Although the magazines weren't 100% of my activity in DDI, I would estimate that they held close to 90% of my interest. I will revise my subscription decision if they do go back to a compilation, or even better, back to print, but not before then. They had it relatively easy with me - maintain the current course. Unfortunately they weren't able to achieve that.
Mike Mearls regarding feedback for D&D Next: "The big thing is to avoid snark and an overly antagonistic attitude. We're human, and it's easy to tune out someone who comes across as a crank."
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 12:37AM
#35
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Date Joined:
Jul 25, 2003
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Okay, this move pisses me off. I think that the complitations are extremely valuable and getting rid of them is a terrible mistake. However, rather than bitch and moan I have an alteranative solution:
I'll do the final layout for free. If you don't have the time to do it, well, I'll take up the torch and do your job for you. I won't charge you a bloody dime, either. Because I know for a fact that I could do the job in about 2 hours one evening.
And I'm not just blowing smoke. I've worked on a good half-dozen ENnine nominated books. I've done just about every layout job for Paradigm Concepts for about 6-7 years now. The job isn't hard, it's valuable, and I'm volunteering to do it.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 12:54AM
#36
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Date Joined:
Sep 28, 2007
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Like most opinions voiced here, I am also disappointed by this. I usually read Dungeon/Dragon while I'm at work. Since the D&D website is behind the firewall, I download the compiled magazine, and upload it to Google documents so that I can access it. I would be very much in favor of a zip file, or a way to select a number of files, and have them download in one shot.
The question I have in regards to all of the changes being made is this. What is Wizards doing with this extra time and resources? I understand the need to streamline and make the operation more efficient, but while they are doing that, the quality of the product is also declining.
What I mean is, the articles are going through the full R&D process, just like the books do, so that by default should reduce the amount of mistakes and need for errata right there. Now by eliminating the end of month compilation, they will just make the changes directly to the article.
On a separate note, how will we be notified of a change to an article? If I've downloaded an article, and then it receives an errata, will there be some notification system? Perhaps an "Updated" tag or something.
Now the content of Dragon/Dungeon has been on the decline for a while now (as evidenced by numerous threads, and general feedback about the articles as they are released). We have a CB that is less functional than its predecessor (released to combat piracy). A moderately functional Monster Builder, that is going to be replaced with an online Beta version that will probably, like the CB, be less functional than its offline counterpart (if that's even possible). A Compendium that doesn't include everything that's been released, and a VT that won't be ready for general use for at least a year. Oh yeah, and then there is the Suite of tools "NOW WITH ONLINE FORMAT!!" that will be coming out "SOON", which is the same response we've been getting for a year and a half.
I really would like to hear a more candid response from Bill and others as to what the actual plan is to improve the D&D product (sort of like what Trevor has been doing with DDi), and not some heavily moderated sales pitch. (Piracy?! Who are you? Lars Ulrich? and when did we travel back in time to 2000?)
Will there be more adventures released? Will the campaign worlds see more support, both in adventure form, and fluff articles that provide more specific information on a region/city/area? Will we see an increase in support for classes/races that need it (Seeker, Runepriest, etc)?
That is what I'm hoping (and most like a false one) for in the future.
Ramius
I strive for the freedom from expectations so many enjoy here; I fear I have a long journey to that level of spiritual creaminess.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 1:26AM
#37
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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Fail. Hard.
I look at the individual articles online, several times sometimes, to see what they're like, for comment and critique, and to suggest alterations. I don't download them, permanently.
Then I download the compiled article, ONCE, and read it on my computer, infinitely.
At least, that's what I do when I have a subscription, and this is going a long way to persuade me not to freaking bother ever again.
Way to screw up interpreting your data. Face it, this isn't going to be a magazine any more. It's going to be a website masquerading as a magazine. Just go the whole hog and change the format properly, don't do it by halves.
Yuck.
As I stated in the article thread about this month's Ampersand, I have the strong suspicion that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the stated reasons, and everything to do with making it more awkward for the pirates to post rips of the PDFs on file sharing sites.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 1:32AM
#38
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Date Joined:
Mar 20, 2001
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Can someone tell me how to contact customer services, (since the Email Us thing doesn't work) I need to ask for a refund for my remaining subscription. They have just found the straw that broke the camels back.
I'm curious how they got this data, since I download the complied issue once and keep it on my hard disk. Individual articles I will download several times as I read them in the browser. Hence it will always look like I download individual articles more than the complied issue.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 2:34AM
#39
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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Or, another potential real reason: it's to stop people having such an easy time of subscribing once every few months and picking up the back issues they've missed.
Improving the quality and quantity of the content will make people more willing to pay for it. Making it more difficult to use will make them less willing to pay for it. Jeez.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 2:41AM
#40
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Date Joined:
Oct 10, 2005
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Why do they constantly make changes that will only drive away customer instead of making their offerings more interesting?
I mean who will be happy about NOT having compilations anymore?
The Articles were always nice to quench my curiosity and to have something new to brighten my day. But I never took them seriously until I had the finaly PDF. First because the PDF is the finished Version, second I can much better read them, third they felt like a Magazine and last but not least they were easier to store and search than using the Website.
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