Interview with Scott Rouse, Chris Perkins & Bill Slavicsek

[Pyske]

We simply want to announce our specific plans at a time that maximizes impact (that's a lot of marketing speak for "we want to make our plans known when people are most open to hearing them").

Seems to me that the "traditional" release date for this sort of thing is GenCon, with a couple months of hype leadup to the event. That would seem to fit the timeline that we're talking about for the end of the magazines.

It also seems to me that publishers as big as WotC have learned not to promise specific release dates until they have the material pretty much in hand. I'm going to assume that's their timeframe, until I hear otherwise.

 

[TheYeti1775]

:\ I submit this is an unfair assumption. Not revealing our plans should not be taken to mean we are floundering. We simply want to announce our specific plans at a time that maximizes impact (that's a lot of marketing speak for "we want to make our plans known when people are most open to hearing them").

LL,
I think most reading this thread are very open to hearing them. When you do the Corpspeak to most of us it will smell like a just fertilized field.

Though I do feel his remarks probably could have been worded a little better, there is a feeling of 'lack of direction' currently. The internet/email leaves alot to be desired to read a person and what they intend to say.

The quickest way to alieve alot of the angst would probably be an 'unofficial' bullet list of things that are going to be incorporated.
Something like:
- Class Acts
- Sage Advice
- FR World
- Greyhawk
- Ebberon

I bet you would get less 'flak' that way, though a few more pointed questions in those areas you do list. Perhaps a bi-weekly update (i.e. PR) on the D.I. (Please get a better name for it.) Let us know something a definite or simple polls of preference.

Thanks for posting, it is encouraging to know that they are 'paying attention' now (vice when you all just lurked).

Yeti

 

[Sigma]

:\ I submit this is an unfair assumption. Not revealing our plans should not be taken to mean we are floundering. We simply want to announce our specific plans at a time that maximizes impact (that's a lot of marketing speak for "we want to make our plans known when people are most open to hearing them").

I submit that you did a pretty poor job of communicating any plans to indicate that you are not, in fact, floundering.

I'm a regular on the Paizo boards, and have spent the past week or two defending WotC. End of the day, I figure that you know what you're doing and that what you're doing is generally very cool. But this "interview" made me very angry. It made it sound like you don't have a plan, you're just now getting around to soliciting our input (without any indication that you will actually listen to said input), and, most importantly, completely failed to make any case that your new DI offers value that the magazines somehow lacked.

I appreciate the need to time announcements, but you're in damage control land now. The cat is out of the bag, and it's up to you whether you continue dodging our questions and frustrating your fans or providing us with some indication that you do actually have a plan and it is actually worth the loss of these publications.

 

[DaveMage]

We are listening (but not in a Big Brother way!) so do please continue sharing your thoughts here.

I hope you (and the other staffers) will stick around and (hopefully) be able to have discussions on issues that are not so contentious as this one.

Your appearence here is appreciated (even though it might not always seem so in the current climate).

Thanks.

 

[Jdvn1]

:\ I submit this is an unfair assumption. Not revealing our plans should not be taken to mean we are floundering.

I agree with you that it's an unfair assumption, but we don't have a lot of information to go on. But, what we want, you can't give because the time to discussion DI isn't today, apparently.

I'm sure you understand the loss of the two magazines are significant. High emotions can lead to unfair assumptions. Unfortunately, there's little that can be done about it, though a little more tact by some posters would be nice...
(Hey guys, they're trying! What do you expect?)

 

[lurkinglidda]

I submit that you did a pretty poor job of communicating any plans to indicate that you are not, in fact, floundering.

I appreciate the need to time announcements, but you're in damage control land now. The cat is out of the bag, and it's up to you whether you continue dodging our questions and frustrating your fans or providing us with some indication that you do actually have a plan and it is actually worth the loss of these publications.

Point taken. To heart. We're sorta in a no-win situation right now. We do have a plan...we just aren't at liberty to reveal the details yet. That's an unacceptable answer, I'm totally aware, but we just can't talk details in, er..., detail just yet.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

:\ I submit this is an unfair assumption. Not revealing our plans should not be taken to mean we are floundering. We simply want to announce our specific plans at a time that maximizes impact (that's a lot of marketing speak for "we want to make our plans known when people are most open to hearing them").

I agree, but to that end, I'm wondering if we can get some clarification.

I am not a computer tech person or web design person, but I have a background in project management. Most of the classes I took were dominated by people in the IT industry, so I picked up a little from them. To me the DI sounds like it will be more ambitious than just slapping a bunch of text articles onto a web page and then having an e-commerce solution to access it. Unless I'm wrong and that is all it will be, I sincerely hope you are past the planning stage and are well into the design stage. I am concerned that, if things are really as unsettled as they appear, the idea of providing this content shortly after the end of Dragon and Dungeon is unrealistic. I think the last thing the DI needs is significant delays in roll-out, or a hasty effort to get it out, resulting in a lower quality product.

So,a couple of questions for Scott or someone else in the know, if you don't mind:

Are there parts of the DI intended to replace the print magazaines that are past the planning stages?

Are you at the point where you know certain content will be included and someone is actually working on that content, along with designs for pages to deliver that content?

Is the plan for a phased roll-out where some content will be ready to go up shortly after the last publications of the magazines, but additional features added as time goes along, or are you going for the big, initial roll out with pretty much everything you plan on right away?

I would like to see this effort succeed. I think, with good planning and execution the potential is there to have something of great value, but with the amount of skepticism that is already out there, you can't afford a half-baked effort. You know what they say about first impressions.

Last question: are there plans for a free trial period?

 

[Maggan]

you're just now getting around to soliciting our input

It is my belief that they have gathered input from us before the announcement, through polls and questionaires and stuff like that.

The DI will be in constant development content wise, so even if our input does not register at launch, they can still use it to add to the site later.

/M

 

[grrtigger]

Point taken. To heart. We're sorta in a no-win situation right now. We do have a plan...we just aren't at liberty to reveal the details yet. That's an unacceptable answer, I'm totally aware, but we just can't talk details in, er..., detail just yet.

Disappointing, of course, but I do think it helps quite a lot that we're now seeing official WotC representation on the boards here and elsewhere. Just feeling like we're being listened to by TPTB and that our concerns are being considered goes a long way, at least for me.

I think a lot of the initial furor was less over the announcement of the change and more about how vague any future plans sound at this point, with all of it spun a little tighter by the fact that it took several days to start getting any kind of answer to our questions and concerns.

Thanks for showing up here! It can't be easy seeing all of the criticism and not being able to respond (just yet) with much substance.

Well, at least you can feel secure that many of us are passionate about the hobby

Edit: I think one thing that would be immensely helpful is if you (meaning the general you) could give us a definite idea of when we can expect more concrete info. Right now it's just "we can't say anything right now" which is, well ... sigh.

 

[Jdvn1]

you're just now getting around to soliciting our input

Except for, y'know, the survey they did six months ago. I don't know if they've done anything else other than that, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was other (sneakier) stuff I just didn't notice or see.

(without any indication that you will actually listen to said input)

Asking for input is usually an indication that they're going to listen to input.

If they ask for input, you'll think they don't know what they're doing. If they don't ask for input, they risk not giving you exactly what consumers want. So, they have to be mind-readers. Bring in the Telepaths!