Dragon 410 and Dungeon 201

[Nemesis Destiny]

Is it wrong that I thought the ToC for these looked better on April 1st?
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Table of Contents (Dragon #410 Table of Contents)
vs
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Table of Contents (Dragon #410 Table of Contents)

and
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Table of Contents (Dungeon #201 Table of Contents)
vs
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Table of Contents (Dungeon #201 Table of Contents)

In general, I've noticed that the content has started thinning out and/or dropping in quality lately. Since, oh, January or so. I wonder why that might be?

Don't get me wrong, the Against The Giants conversion was pretty good, and we've had the odd half-decent theme here and there, but on the whole it just feels like the mags aren't firing on all cylinders. I'd like to know what happened to the other Sentinel builds that have been rumoured. More variants for other classes like the ones released for Knights (the teleporting one and the staff fighter) would be nice. I remember seeing an article in the ToC for last August with an injury or crit deck or a something of the sort. I was really pumped about that one, before it got pulled at the last second. And several months ago, we received maps in the zip file for Dungeon's gallery to an article we never got - one about a tie-in location for BoVD.

I find this even more disappointing because all the 5e talk is not filling me with confidence that it will be a game I like. I'll reserve my final judgement at least until I get a chance to playtest it, but in the meantime, how about properly supporting the edition we still use?

/rant

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

You're not the only one. The April Fools TOC looked great.

In general, I've noticed that the content has started thinning out and/or dropping in quality lately. Since, oh, January or so. I wonder why that might be?

Aside from 5e: because WotC fired Steve Winter. There was a similar decline before he took over. (And again I'm tempted to cancel my DDI sub.)

 

[davethegame]

My article was in both TOCs, so I guess that says... something?

 

[Zaran]

It was a dark time when the Imperial WotC disbanded the Magazine Senate and the online magazines were formed to keep us in line. With no magazine structure to speak of they do not have to keep the content up. I mean, why should they offer content to help support 4e when they are too busy with 5e? They drop their DDI content whenever they switch gears.

In my opinion, because DDI is a paid service, I think it should be given a much higher priority than what they do. The sad thing is I keep my account so that I have access to the compendium. I use it all the time for my online games.

 

[Zaukrie]

I agree that as a paid service ddi should get more content.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

 

[Pour]

More than any other edition of the game, and this is just a hypothesis here, I wonder if the fluxuating quality/quantity of the magazine has bred a lot more DIY independence from the wider audience. I just don't believe the majority of DMs are using even half the Dungeon adventures, not really, so much as lifting pieces- and even then, how many aren't even downloading the PDFs? I bet it's a fair number. And when it comes to Dragon, I suspect the vast majority are utilizing its offerings via the Character Builder and Compendium, not the articles themselves.

The anemic condition has forced, perhaps, a sizable chunk of the 4e population to simply create their own stuff. Truthfully, there's bloggers and posters on this very forum I consider to have a greater 4e system mastery than the current design team anyway, and I've always preferred my creative ideas to most others. With an edition which so readily serves reflavoring, homebrewing, and transparency, maybe they created something that doesn't much need them. I mean I don't NEED the content, I just WANT it very much.

This kind of goes back to the idea that what I'm really paying for is the CB and Compendium, which by far are what I use the most. Still, that doesn't mean Dungeon and Dragon should be in the state they're in, not with the physical product schedule non-existent like it is. 4e has a short enough lifespan without being neglected the rest of the year into 2013.