D&D is now in (exceedingly awesome) commercial form

[Stormonu]

If I'm not mistaken, those numbers should be available somewhere. IIRC, any periodical sent US second class mail was required once a year to publish the break-down of how many issues were being printed and where they were going to, how many to subscribers, how many to shops, how many were given away, etc. I can't find it on the Dragon Magazine CDs, though I don't know that I'm looking in the right places.

I remember seeing those blurbs as well; seem to recall they came up once yearly, but I can't remember which month (seems like it would be December, January, June or July).

 

[Orius]

It looks like there's another new ad. Or at least I guess it's new, I haven't seen it before on Hulu. It's similar in style to the first ad, but the art looks like it's early 2e (I'm not looking for it on YouTube, so screencaps):

I'm almost certain this is from the Wizard's Handbook.

This has got to be from Spelljammer. It's being chased by a bunch of ships that are probably neogi vessels.

And that hobgoblin is from a full page black and white illo that was in at least the Complete Book of Humanoids, but I think it was recycled a few times in the 90s.

 

[buddhafrog]

Who can find a link to this ad? It shouldn't be difficult but my 15 min search rolled a critical failure. XP rewards guaranteed.

 

[Nikosandros]

I haven't seen the new ad, but it seems that the material is taken form the same fan video that was used for the first ad.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUOSsQlV2Qw&feature=related]YouTube - D&D World of Adventure[/ame]

 

[avin]

HAHAHA, just watched this... what's the point? Appealing some heavy metal fans over Wotc?

Horrible. Horrible.

 

[Orius]

I haven't seen the new ad, but it seems that the material is taken form the same fan video that was used for the first ad.

Yup, looks like WotC is using pieces of the contest winner for their ads. This one is basically 1:17 - 1:37, 2:05 - 2:34 of the original. Not quite that long, but that's where the segments come from.

Lots of art from the 2e Complete Handbook series there too. I recognized pieces from Fighter's, Bard's, and Ranger's in addition to what I mentioned above.

I wonder if the first ad was designed to grab the attention of 1e/BECMI players, while this one is aimed towards people like me who started with 2e?

 

[Keefe the Thief]

HAHAHA, just watched this... what's the point? Appealing some heavy metal fans over Wotc?

Horrible. Horrible.

In the 80s, D&D and heavy metal were like butter and bread, IMHO. God, i'd really forgotten how METAL it was. Sad that this influence has diminished so much.

Still, the videos need more Bolt Thrower.

EDIT: and those two guys at the start with the cheesy clothing: aren't they from that incredibly terrrible boardgame full-motion movie ad TSR produced? Anybody remember what that was called? God, it approached the Mystara CD products in brain-killing cheese.