Gleemax is Dead

[StreamOfTheSky]

Le Roi Gleemax est mort, vive le roi Gleemax!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

That sucks, Ari.

Getting a novel finished is a far cry from publishing RPG material, of any scope.

I feel for you, and wish you well with your novels.

 

[SteveC]

My initial reaction to this news was tempered by seeing Dark Knight recently. To paraphrase Alfred, I don't very much feel like saying "I told you so, but I bloody well did!"

I didn't like Gleemax at all, but it's failure, so close on the heels of the launch of 4E does not speak well for WotC's situation. Combine that with what Ari said about their novel policy (as an asside: as one aspiring fiction writer to another, Ari, you have my complete and utter sympathy) means we may be in for some lean times for our favorite game.

My smpathies for everyone involved.

--Steve

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

Please read the whole of the thread, the forums aren't closing just the blogs.

You're right, I stand corrected. Still, the whole 'encompass' thing with the backing of the biggest RPG company was an interesting idea.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

here's a couple of sites that didn't devote millions on development and have done a much better job of building general gaming communities-

http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/index.php
http://rpgbomb.com/

Or, you know, www.enworld.org

 

[Baumi]

Wow the attitude on Enworld drops from month to month

You really shouldn't kick someone when he is already down, let's not forget that there were some people behind that Project with big hopes and a concept that would have help us Gamers and that for FREE!

While I didn't like the design/status of the Beta, it still was a great Idea to see an "official" Site that would have made meeting other gamers in your Region much simpler.

I know that there are several Sites out there that try this, but whenever I used any of this (including the ENworld 'Gamers seeking Gamers' Forum or the equvalent on rpg.net) I didn't get any answers and couldn't get any recent data about groups from my City (and Vienna has MANY players). A Site from WOTC with this special interest at heart could help us to find new groups or players which is in my opinion very important for the state of the hobby.

The other things like Campaignsites for everyone, blogs etc. would also helped those without Tech-Knowledge.

And while everyone (with the Knowledge) could make a Site like that Gleemax should have been, no one will reach as many gamers than WOTC would have reached.

ENWorld could be a good contender and I really hope that they will get features like that someday, but I have to admit that I get more and more frustrated about the once so friendly community.

 

[DaveMage]

O
Now, honestly, I haven't stopped by since the first horrible ugliness that was Gleemax, but when I did it was so awful looking, clunky, slow, and just plain "ugly" in every sense a website can be ugly that I doubt much of that improved.

And the good news is, those who were helping make Gleemax the way it was will now be working on the DDI!

 

[Chowder]

I'm pleased that WotC has decided to shut Gleemax down. It would seem that WotC was working on multiple on-line initiatives (DDI, Gleemax, D&D website) simultaneously and doing very badly on all of them. If I were inclined to be charitable, I would ascribe most of this failure to the fact that they spread themselves too thin, in which case things should improve if they focus on fewer efforts.

However, I'm not inclined to be charitable. I found the Gleemax brain mascot to be juvenile, the aesthetics awful, the organization atrocious, and the stability lacking. As other posters have indicated, it's not clear that moving the people responsible for that website to DDI is really what needs to be done. I think, really, some or all of those folks need to be replaced with people who have demonstrated that they can prepare first-class websites. One could argue that this would be expensive, but I'm pretty sure it won't be as expensive as having the existing team put together a DDI offering that's on the same quality level as Gleemax and having that DDI offering flop.

-Chowder

 

[Terramotus]

ENworld 1
Gleemax 0

Picking one post out of many with the same sentiment to respond to...

I don't understand this. Would you be posting this same thing if rpg.net went under, or if Giant in the Playground were closing its forums? Is it just offensive to you that someone would operate a forum with profit as a motive? If you're at all a fan of WotC's current products, this probably doesn't bode well. And if you're not a fan... why invest so much interest? I don't play Rifts, but I don't wish the company misfortune. In the scheme of things, Hasbro is far from a bad corporate citizen.

If you're feeling defensive about ENWorld, don't. Gleemax was never really a competitor, IMO. People will go to whatever forums they feel most comfortable in, and which has an atmosphere that they get the most out of. ENWorld has good moderation, and in the past has been mostly about enjoying the games, which is why I'm here. Gleemax offered something different from that (though poorly). On the other hand, IMO the increasing anti-WotC bias here is almost bad enough to drive me away. I come here looking to talk about games, not play Nerd Politics or see people throw bombs at a company whose products I enjoy.

On that note, I find it a bit unbecoming that two members with Staff titles here expressed such obvious joy at Gleemax's demise.

I come to bury Gleemax, not to praise it.

Let's put that quote in context. In Antony and Cleopatra, Marc Antony was saying that to calm his audience by saying that, but then proceeded to do exactly what he said he wasn't there to do, in order to gain support. Because while a lot of people hated what Caesar did to the Republic, they loved him too.

Final Note: Hopefully this will be a good thing in the long run, and we'll see DDI perform better with the additional developers.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Man thats bad, I don't care that Gleemax is gone on a personal level...I never used it and got all my online DnD info and discussion here. But it is still sad to see something from the hobby go, many people spend/spent a lot of effort on it.

Hopefully we will see the other online aspects of DnD come better and faster (maybe more time spent proof readinQ )

But I am really saddened by the loss of novels and other bits that are not DnD or Magic. I pass my best wishes to all those effected and hope other avenues open up.

Also what is meant by core DnD books? No more FR drizzt-a-thon novels etc. Or is FR, Eberron and then whatever comes next core enough for some love?