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8 months ago ::
Oct 19, 2012 - 12:14PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2007
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Hola WotC,
I don't post here very often but I wanted to tell whoever that the latest Dragon is much more like what I expect from the company and it is a much more mature approach to digital media.
Dragon
1. It's a magazine again. I want to collect it. I want to read it on my digital reader, etc.
2. It doesn't read like a bunch of blog articles and product announcements stuffed together.
3. It's better quality again, well-themed, interesting material, quality art, and decent length.
Kudos and good on ya.
Dungeon
For Dungeon magazine, I want adventures that are not just fun for the party but also interesting to read. The adventure module is, within itself, a literary form. Weird but true. Read B2 or S1 and you're entertained. In the 4E modules the adventures sacrificed readability for playability with a format that was tone deaf and terribly boring to read. Reading these ahead of time was a real slog.
In addition, the Dungeon magazines and 4E books began to produce cheap tile-based cartography that looked like total junk. It really lowered the perceived standard of quality. It's the mapping equivalent of phoning it in. Your team has largely stepped away from that practice and the current maps are looking good again. (Good on you for moving back to traditional cartography.)
For Dungeon, give me 4-6 adventures that are fun for the DM to read in a magazine I want to collect and read on my digital whatever and you got yourself my brand loyalty back. (Create a browsable adventure index so I can scout for an adventure for my crew easily by level or setting.)
Digital Media
The digital compilation of magazines is a good move. Build on that to become a mature digital player like Marvel Comics, the NY Times, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, (or even Playboy). Get me a digital archive of the old Basic, 1E, 2E, 3E, & 4E content available in a reader-friendly ways and you're going beyond rebuilding the brand to innovating. Do this and you win.
Presenting your old content as media makes your digital presentation a powerhouse that no other RPG company can possibly match. You've got almost 40 years of top-tier talent wasting away or pirated. It does nothing for you if you cannot market and monetize it as media via the current subscription model. Get me my infinite library as a usable tool with a subscription and I'm yours for life.
Create a community rating system so we can browse the library and recommend media to each other. How many stars do I rate B2? Who has written reviews of this content? Who are the top trending authors in the media library? "People that liked G1 also enjoyed this re-invention of the Giants series by Chris Perkins rated at 5 stars... would you like to see them?" You want digital versions of the maps with and without markers... here they are. Want the adventure art? Here it is. You can use our content in your own tools for your game.
Suddenly, you're a resource for every D&D player who ever lived regardless of the version they play becuase you've got the well-organized massive media library with a crowd-sourced rating system.
Enable 3rd-party tool users like Maptools, Fantasy Grounds, and PCGen. Let them take the hits developing the tools and you provide the media to enable the community while focusing on a few key tools. (Character generator, Monster builder, and compendium with a standardized exporter are the obvious choices.)
That is how a mature digital media company operates. Your days of paper books are numbered. Mature and thrive. We want you to succeed. Be awesome.
~P.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 19, 2012 - 12:38PM
#2
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- VCL Emeritus
- The Inquisitor
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Howdy Puck,
I have moved this thread to the D&D Insider forum where it is more on-topic.
Thanks.
Quentin Small
WotC Online Community Coordinator
All around helpful simian
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8 months ago ::
Oct 19, 2012 - 1:17PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2007
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No worries,
I want to present critical feedback in a positive way. I'm an original redbox D&D vet and I've played every edition so far.
No BS, but fair, and positive I hope.
~P.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 19, 2012 - 4:13PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Aug 12, 2008
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Hola WotC,
I don't post here very often but I wanted to tell whoever that the latest Dragon is much more like what I expect from the company and it is a much more mature approach to digital media.
Dragon
1. It's a magazine again. I want to collect it. I want to read it on my digital reader, etc.
2. It doesn't read like a bunch of blog articles and product announcements stuffed together.
3. It's better quality again, well-themed, interesting material, quality art, and decent length.
Kudos and good on ya.
Dungeon
For Dungeon magazine, I want adventures...
Digital Media
The digital compilation of magazines is a good move. Build on that to...
Fully agree.
I expect the "Get me a digital archive of the old Basic, 1E, 2E, 3E, & 4E content available in a reader-friendly ways" will be the tricky bit. What format do WotC use?
I prefer PDF due to the ability to work across all devices with minimal fuss. Also the ability to organise them by simply putting them into folders is a must when a collection starts getting into the hundreds.
I suppose we will find out next year what the choosen format will be. I just hope it is something sensible that isn't hampered by a focus on security rather than utility.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 19, 2012 - 5:11PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Nov 30, 2010
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Hola WotC,
3. It's better quality again, well-themed, interesting material, quality art, and decent length.
except it is not, is as short as it used to be when they stopped releasing the coopilation of all the articles at the end of the month, we still got 34 pages dragon magazine per month, instead of the +100 pages from 2 years ago. The reason they decided to stop releasing coopilated dragon/dungeon magazine was because they wanted to be a inconvenience for pirates, it didn't worked...pirates just wired together the articles to form a magazine anyway...the other reason for them to stop releasing the coopilated magazine was because they didn't had enough content to justify releasing it the monthly PDF...they still don't have enough content for it...but common sense is not something that the ones in charge of the brand have anymore, after Mearls took over and Heinsoo jumped ship
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8 months ago ::
Oct 19, 2012 - 10:54PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jul 18, 2009
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the only thing i liked about the issue was that it was small. 2MB. that and the art work. other that that i wasn't really happy about it. the magazine didn't really feel like Dragon as much as some articles should have been in Dungeon instead. This isnt considering the number of pages is less than a third of what was agreed upon. The articles are a hit or miss for me as they feel a bit too genera. - things that may or may not be useful in a campaign. Sometimes they read as though one would have to really divert one's games in order to incorporate them - or too generic that they might be useful for a DnD Next game in the far off future.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 20, 2012 - 11:09AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2007
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the magazine didn't really feel like Dragon as much as some articles should have been in Dungeon instead. This isnt considering the number of pages is less than a third of what was agreed upon.
First, I'm not really interested in changing hearts and minds on the internet. That's not my gig and I think most internet discussion is pointless. I'm talking straight at Perkins, the moderators, and the other WotC staff.
Historically Dragon had articles that appealed to both players and DMs while Dungeon was just meat and potatoes adventures. This isn't ancient history either. One of the very best Dragon articles was the write-up of Saint Kargoth and the other death knights of Oerth (Dragon #290, 2001). That's DM stuff through and through and if you haven't seen it, you can probably get it from Paizo's site. (It's some pretty scary stuff dude and it gives me screen-monkey goosebumps.)
My personal preference would be to go back to the previous model:
- Dragon = Articles for players & DMs
- Dungeon = 4-6 Adventures
I don't get to make the decision so I just sorta toss that out there. Second, you're not going to hear me argue that Dungeon and Dragon mags didn't suffer when they moved online. (We might debate that it was actually a 'plummet' rather than a 'move'.) Paizo was doing great work. The Adventure Path concept was hot. Unfortunately, the move online produced some of the problems I discussed earlier and, without a dedicated staff to produce the mags, they really degraded into blog++. So why am I saying nice things when they're shorter and less good than they used to be and I still want them to get better? Because I like the new direction and I want them to keep heading this way. I personally try to send good feedback when I see a positive change. I see potential for more, sure, but I'm not a troll and the rest of the interwebz can make up their own minds as they like without me concerning myself with it. ~P.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 20, 2012 - 4:36PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jun 21, 2008
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Hola WotC,
I don't post here very often but I wanted to tell whoever that the latest Dragon is much more like what I expect from the company and it is a much more mature approach to digital media.
Dragon
1. It's a magazine again. I want to collect it. I want to read it on my digital reader, etc.
2. It doesn't read like a bunch of blog articles and product announcements stuffed together.
3. It's better quality again, well-themed, interesting material, quality art, and decent length.
Kudos and good on ya.
Dungeon
For Dungeon magazine, I want adventures that are not just fun for the party but also interesting to read. The adventure module is, within itself, a literary form. Weird but true. Read B2 or S1 and you're entertained. In the 4E modules the adventures sacrificed readability for playability with a format that was tone deaf and terribly boring to read. Reading these ahead of time was a real slog.
In addition, the Dungeon magazines and 4E books began to produce cheap tile-based cartography that looked like total junk. It really lowered the perceived standard of quality. It's the mapping equivalent of phoning it in. Your team has largely stepped away from that practice and the current maps are looking good again. (Good on you for moving back to traditional cartography.)
For Dungeon, give me 4-6 adventures that are fun for the DM to read in a magazine I want to collect and read on my digital whatever and you got yourself my brand loyalty back. (Create a browsable adventure index so I can scout for an adventure for my crew easily by level or setting.)
Perhaps I am missing the point, but I don't see what your comments on good theme and lengh have to do with the format (i.e. full digital download vs downloading individual articles). It has more to do with the desire of Wizards to create high quality compelling work and sourcing the people necessary to do so. If articles feel more cohesive it might be because you can't really pick and choose content the way you were able to with individual files.
Compare Dragon 412 and Dungeon 203 (June 2012). Really tight theme across both magazines, well delivered and plenty of content (maybe not quite the 4-6 high quality adventures you're gunning for) but still under the individual article format.
Dragon for that month still had 37 pages. This months Dragon is still only 34 pages so I don't get where your approval of the length comes from.
I prefer the approach of having staggered articles combined at the end of the month into a full magazine for reasons many people have echoed across this forum recently.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 20, 2012 - 4:59PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2007
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Dragon for that month still had 37 pages. This months Dragon is still only 34 pages so I don't get where your approval of the length comes from.
Strangely, my approval comes from my personal opinions. I'm not sure why what I think or my thought process should bother you since opinions are, by definition, personally derived. In balance on the other hand, you can think whatever pleases you best without my approval.
~P.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 20, 2012 - 5:29PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Nov 30, 2010
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i miss the days where the dragon magazine had this many articles: wizards.com/dnd/TOC.aspx?x=dnd/4new/drto...
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