New Issue of Dragon+

Issue 4 of DRAGON+ is here! DRAGON+is an app from WotC available on iOS and Android devices (find it in the respective app stores). This issue contains Duergar information from Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, a free Adventurer's League module, and more - plus tons of information on the various videogame projects for WotC.

Editor's Letter from Matt Chapman - "Matt Chapman gets tearfully nostalgic for old D&D videogames, overly excited for new D&D videogames, and a little bit scared by a newcomer known as Belaphoss, Devourer of Hope and Dread General of the Gibbering Hords. Gulp."

Discovering the Gold Box - "As Goog Old Games dusts off thirteen classic D&D titles, the original staff who worked on them and the videogame designers and producers they inspired share their favorite memories."

Winning Races: Duergar - "An in-depth look at these dark reflections of the more traditional Forgotten Realms dwarves."

Travel Talk - "Things get a little crazy when our intrepid reporter Melissande Calador dares to descend into the Underdark."

Imagining the Ampersand - "Lars Larsen, design engineer at LZX Industries, on creating a high-tech interpretation of the Dungeons & Dragons Ampersand."

Neverwinter Strongholds - "John Hopler, senior content designer at Cryptic Studios, shares the secrets to a successful PVP siege campaign in the free-to-play MMORPG."

Demononicon of Iggwilv: Belaphoss - "Everything you ever wanted to know about Sword Coast Legends' main baddie Belpahoss but were too petrified to ask."

Fiction: The Thweem - "A peace-loving Underdark inhabitant gets a brush with madness in D&D writer Adam Lee's short story."

Interview: Jay Turner - "The narrative director of Sword Coast Legends offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at the CRPG."

Video & Audio Highlights - "Canadian rocker Matthew Good talks about his love of the world of Greyhawk and charity fundraising scores a critical hit with Extra Life 2015."

Beyond the Board: Dice Masters - "Dungeons & Dragons Dice Masters draws upon classic D&D elements to bring a fantasy touch to this dice building game."

Gauntlet Gophers - "Tavis Maiden's exclusive comic strip for DRAGON+ proves there are all kinds of crazy in the Underdark."

D&D Adventurers League - "Download the official D&D Adventurer's League module Shackles of Blood and investigate a string of disappearances in the Hillsfar region."


[h=4]Original Post[/h]
Not sure if this had been posted already, but the newest issue of Dragon+ is rolling out. Just downloaded mine a few minutes ago.

View attachment 71167

 

[darjr]

Folks, WotC pretty much has admitted defeat with the announcement of an upcoming web option. I wish folks wouldn't fight over it.

 

[shadowmane]

There will always be that 40%. That's why you have to keep legacy stuff around for so long.

 

[Hussar]

Providing a phone app is a great idea. It just shouldn't have been their first target.

If 2/3rds of people have smart phones, and that doesn't count anyone with a tablet mind you, why wouldn't it be their first target?

 

[EthanSental]

If 2/3rds of people have smart phones, and that doesn't count anyone with a tablet mind you, why wouldn't it be their first target?

I'd probably go with home computer/laptop web browser that they are working on as the first choice, smart phone app a close second based on if we are looking at what's in people's homes. Granted some of the home pcs and possibly laptops might be dated as we've seen in this thread.

 

[delericho]

If 2/3rds of people have smart phones, and that doesn't count anyone with a tablet mind you, why wouldn't it be their first target?

If the underlying material is actually HTML (or PDF in the case of the adventures), it would seem that browsers would be an easier first target, since those don't even require the development of that smart phone app.

WotC, obviously, think differently though. And they have the only vote that matters.

 

[delericho]

According to your figures, the 2006 subscriber numbers were up 47% from the historical low point of 1999

As I said, they were still doing well. But the trend was downwards, and markedly so.

and if you throw into the mix the increased number of players that a new edition brings in then there is no evidence to support the suggestion that Paizo would have chosen to stop producing Magazines based on subscriber numbers.

There's no way to know how things would have played out had the license been renewed - personally, I think it's very likely 4e would have done much, much better than it did. (Indeed, I think that non-renewal was WotC's single worst D&D-related mistake in the whole time they've owned it, turning their biggest cheerleader into their strongest competitor.)

But the last eight years have been absolutely brutal for the magazine industry, and it's fanciful to suggest that Dragon would have been immune to that. We can't be sure it would have failed in that time (of course not!), but given what we've seen in the magazine industry, and given that Dragon's numbers were already trending down, the odds don't appear to be in their favour.

 

[Shasarak]

As I said, they were still doing well. But the trend was downwards, and markedly so.



There's no way to know how things would have played out had the license been renewed - personally, I think it's very likely 4e would have done much, much better than it did. (Indeed, I think that non-renewal was WotC's single worst D&D-related mistake in the whole time they've owned it, turning their biggest cheerleader into their strongest competitor.)

But the last eight years have been absolutely brutal for the magazine industry, and it's fanciful to suggest that Dragon would have been immune to that. We can't be sure it would have failed in that time (of course not!), but given what we've seen in the magazine industry, and given that Dragon's numbers were already trending down, the odds don't appear to be in their favour.

Well sure if your target is 100,000 sales per release then you are never going to make a DnD magazine work.

But the En5ider has shown that it is possible to produce at least the content of a magazine on much fewer then 100,000 subscribers.

 

[delericho]

Well sure if your target is 100,000 sales per release then you are never going to make a DnD magazine work.

I would assume Paizo's threshold would be considerably lower than that. Nonetheless there is a minimum number of subscribers that are absolutely essential for a magazine of that sort to be viable, and it's not unreasonable to suggest that it might not have survived the dark days of 2012 on its way to the new dawn of 2014.

But the En5ider has shown that it is possible to produce at least the content of a magazine on much fewer then 100,000 subscribers.

I thought we were talking about print magazines? The economics of digital-only distribution are vastly different.

 

[CapnZapp]

Hasbro isn't interested in merely doing a profit, they do things that yield a LARGE profit.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

If 2/3rds of people have smart phones, and that doesn't count anyone with a tablet mind you, why wouldn't it be their first target?

Because people with Android or iOS devices are a subset of people with web browsers. So you start by building a web app, which has the broadest availability, then you build platform specific apps to enhance the experience where it makes sense.

The app is free, the content is free, and neither depends on the features of a mobile device. So why target it first?