DRAGON+ Now Available For Ratings

I must admit, I don't personally get some of the reactions to DRAGON+, the mobile app from WotC which launched in April. It's described as "...your official mobile source for all-things Dungeons & Dragons. This free app for iPhone or iPad has everything you want to know about D&D in one easy place. In addition to ongoing up-to-the minute news updates, every second month you’ll enjoy a new issue of Dragon+ showcasing what’s new in Dungeons & Dragons – from backstory and world information to discussions about what’s coming next with the creators and developers of your favorite D&D products." I think it does pretty much exactly what is says it'll do; it's not a content platform, it's one of those "brand news" apps which every company has these days. Perfectly normal. I think it's the name which is causing issues, because - being named after a magazine which published gaming content - people were disappointed that this wasn't that. I'm not personally interested in it, but I don't resent its existence. It's not really designed for folks who are up to date with the latest morsel or tweet from the D&D team.

Anyhow, I know that many people disagree (some pretty strongly) with my take on the apps, so the first two issues are available on iOS and Android now, and both can be commented on and rated in the reviews section here on EN World. Enjoy! Feel free to rate each issue as it comes out, and leave comments.

​

 

[MartyW]

I just posted a review with a comparison of table of contents from the first issue of DRAGON+ and Dragon #354. Pretty glaring difference.

Heck, one could take this even further. Compare Dragon+ with literally the worst issue one might find over in its entire 300+ issue history and you'd probably find more usable 5e content in that issue than in all of Dragon+.

 

[Shasarak]

I like the Dragon+ app, but it is no Dragon Magazine.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Well, #$%* me with a sharp spoon. Wizards went an updated the Basic PDF rules this week.

AND IT WASN'T EVEN MENTIONED IN DRAGON+... What the hell is wrong with their social media team that this wasn't all over the Dragon+ feed?

Instead we get pictures of "Snowball". (sigh)



EDIT: Ahh... now I see why. The edits were so minor that it barely deserves mention.

Hey Wizards -- How about adding the spells from HotDQ/RoT/Elemental Evil player PDFs? How about adding in the monsters too? Seriously, what are you guys doing over there all day?

Jury duty!

 

[delericho]

It's the name, but it's not just the name. When WotC put the magazines on hiatus, they promised that they would return. And, fair play to them, Dragon+ represents the fulfillment of that promise... sort of.

But what that means is that Dragon+ is the end of hope. As long as there was nothing there, there remained the hope that we'd be getting Dragon back (indeed, even the faintest of hopes that we might get it back in print). Now that Dragon+ exists, that's it - we're not getting 'our' Dragon magazine back, in any form.

 

[Morrus]

But what that means is that Dragon+ is the end of hope. As long as there was nothing there, there remained the hope that we'd be getting Dragon back (indeed, even the faintest of hopes that we might get it back in print). Now that Dragon+ exists, that's it - we're not getting 'our' Dragon magazine back, in any form.

I don't see that it means that at all. It totally works as a sort of "addendum" to Dragon. You could have Dragon, and as an app, there's also Dragon+.

 

[delericho]

I don't see that it means that at all. It totally works as a sort of "addendum" to Dragon. You could have Dragon, and as an app, there's also Dragon+.

It's not impossible. But when they've just introduced a periodical called Dragon+ that, as Quickleaf notes, they've explicitly described as a descendent of Dragon, and which they say they hope will one day include player and DM content, that says to me that they're not also working on a periodical called Dragon.

 

[aramis erak]

That's the basic theory, yep. It's targeted at a specific market segment not currently getting any D&D info; it's a growing segment, and it's very normal for a company to target it in exactly this way.

Honestly, it'd be dumb not to do this. Assuming people will visit your website is very 2012.

It would be a lot better if they included game useable content in it - perhaps even the best of the Expeditions modules...

It also would be better if the app actually worked properly on my Samsung tablet.

It's not impossible. But when they've just introduced a periodical called Dragon+ that, as Quickleaf notes, they've explicitly described as a descendent of Dragon, and which they say they hope will one day include player and DM content, that says to me that they're not also working on a periodical called Dragon.

Well, if they don't add real content soon... It certainly lowers satisfaction and hope to see it botched.

 

[delericho]

Well, if they don't add real content soon... It certainly lowers satisfaction and hope to see it botched.

As I said in the other thread, at this point I'd actually rather they didn't start putting that material in Dragon+. I'm fine with them reserving that for the UA and other columns on their website. Then Dragon+ can quite happily continue as their monthly advertisement, and I can quite happily ignore it.

And with Morrus' handy UA index, it's now dead easy to find all those columns.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

There are always going to be people who complain there's not enough salt in their free lunch. Afaic, until you pay for it, why complain?

To contrast: if a man hands you a plate of free food, then dumps a salt shaker on it, I think you can complain a little bit.

But that said, I totally see what Dragon+ is doing, it just happens to not be what we want it to do (which is provide actual gaming content the way Dragon used to). In fact, what they are offering now is indeed priced right (free) but I was ready to pay actual cash for Dragon magazines with actual gaming articles and content.

 

[I'm A Banana]

And for folks claiming detractors of DRAGON+ are getting too hung up on the name, it's not mainly about the name. Let me remind you that Matt Chapman and Chris Perkins draw direct comparisons between Dragon magazine and DRAGON+ in no uncertain terms in the very first issue.
...
I'm not disputing DRAGON+ does what they set out to (i.e. a functioning newsstand app). But to equate it in any way to the old Dragon magazines is way off the mark.

Seems to show that Chris Perkins things that the main point of Dragon magazine was news and previews for D&D, and that Matt Champan thinks "the next level" of "the traditional magazine format" is basically advertising.

I think there is ample room to disagree with both of those.

Well, if they don't add real content soon... It certainly lowers satisfaction and hope to see it botched.

They could make this little thing really valuable without necessarily cramming game rule options into it. They're already doing interviews with the creators - those can be much less puff-piece-y and much more meaty, drilling down to particular design decisions or interesting new things they're doing. They could talk about D&D products like the audience is an expert on them while advertising for their upcoming whatever - talking about maybe why videogames are a good fit, how this is going to be different this time, whatever they've got going on with Pendleton Ward, some idea of how the next adventure is going to be Alice in Wonderland inspired, art previews, character previews, etc., etc. There's ways to add some dimension to your advertainment so people don't feel like its a waste of time. Good advertainment is welcome, embraced, enthusiastically. It's not like D&D fans don't want to see new D&D products that advertise to the D&D fanbase.

It's entirely possible that even in the world of advertainment, this is not very good advertainment (though it may be entirely functional, and that might be all that WotC hopes from it).