Would you pay for so-called Online "Dungeon/Dragon" content from WotC?

[Ghendar]

Because I will have my bookshelves full of other games like HERO, Paranoia, and the previous versions of D&D that are *gasp* still perfectly usable.

Right on brutha!!

I think it's time I sat down and read my C&C players book.

 

[bento]

I'm probably going to go offline for a few days because I'm getting tired of all the hate.

Rather than be constructive and throwing out ideas of what could be coming down the pike from WoTC, many of you are hating just because WoTC is trying something different.

Yes they are doing it to make money, but by making money they are also extending the lifeblood of our hobby. You can't make tons of money on intellectual property and kill it at the same time. If the new paid content is well done and brings in more people, the hobby survives.

For those of you who say when your buying a Dungeon/Dragon magazine from the FLGS that you're supporting their business, well your not. Magazines have a very low profit margin. If you really wanted to help out your FLGS you'd plunk down the $25 to $40 for a new hard cover. Instead I'm sure many of you are slinking over to Amazon because they have great deals.

Me, I'm going to wait and see what comes out from WoTC. I already have high hopes for Paizo's new directions. Online content is the reason I've probably stayed interested in RPGs for the past several years, as I can always look forward to something new coming along without feeling tied to going to a physical retail outlet. Did that with comics for 20+ years and it gets tiring to always make the trip on Tuesdays/Thursdays to get new product. Browsing through the WoTC, Paizo, RPGNow, ENWorld and Reaper web sites is something I can do from the comfort of my home.

 

[sjmiller]

I am not sure how I would vote on this. To be honest, it's not that I dislike the idea of online pay content, I am sure lots of people will like it. I just prefer to have printed material over online material. I could care less if they do this or not. I have purchased Dragon and Dungeon magazines sparingly as of late, mainly due to a lack of interest in the content. Since I would not be able to page through the electronic version before buying, I doubt I would buy it. So I guess my answer is: No, I would not buy it, but I am not opposed to it.

 

[Lordgrae]

Your poll doesn't provide an option for me. "Yes, but I don't think WotC will do a good job, or as good a job"

I'll pay for the material even if its worse. Your poll only allows me to imply WotC will do a better job.

 

[delericho]

No. I spend too much time in front of a PC already, due to work and being here. I don't use online content. Heck, I still haven't read any of the "War of the Burning Sky" modules, despite having had them for months.

There is one thing that would tempt me to subscribe to this Digital Initiative: if Wizards are able to provide a virtual tabletop that is a quantum leap beyond the current state of the art, and if I can find a game at a moment's notice at any time of the day or night with ten minutes notice, then I would subscribe. But, frankly, I doubt they'll get the VT working at all, never mind well.

 

[EricNoah]

This isn't as clear and simple as Dungeon and Dragon going online or PDF. It's about the current people behind those magazines not having any input, and it's about WotC's poor track record with electronic gaming tools. It's also about unknown factors, like whether I will have to pay for "everything" in order to get the one or two things I really want. And whether they will be asking me to pay for things I previously got for free, or could easily get elsewhere (oodles of good ideas from the gaming community). It's also about the possibility that for them the most valuable content will be their closed content, and that as more D&D stuff is published, a smaller and smaller percentage of it will be usable by third-party publishers who are doing a quality job but simply can't use the new material for legal reasons. Someone's likely to make the decision that closed content is more valuable than open, which does not bode well for an open 4th edition.

Gonna wait and see, but I voted that I don't think WotC will hit a homer with this one.

 

[Arnwyn]

What I find most amusing is that I am 100% positive that MANY of the people who are saying "NO!", "NEVER!", "I DON'T PAY FOR ELECTRONS" and so forth will be right in line to sign up if the right amount of perks are offered at the right price.

And you can take that to the bank, high-horse or no.

Oh sure, that's absolutely true. But what you just blathered here was "everybody has a price". Neither deep nor insightful.

The people saying "NO! NEVER! I DON'T PAY FOR ELECTRONS", however, have likely already done a quick 'n' dirty scenario analysis in their head based on already existing models - which is why they said what they did.

Hell, I said (extremely loosely paraphrasing) "I DON'T PAY FOR ELECTRONS", and if WotC turns around and offers fully downloadable efficiently-made fast-printing electronic versions of Dungeon, Dragon, and a massive and exhaustive character generator for $2/month, I'd change my tune and subscribe. I'm also not holding my breath.

 

[tek2way]

I'm probably going to go offline for a few days because I'm getting tired of all the hate.

Rather than be constructive and throwing out ideas of what could be coming down the pike from WoTC, many of you are hating just because WoTC is trying something different.

Yes they are doing it to make money, but by making money they are also extending the lifeblood of our hobby. You can't make tons of money on intellectual property and kill it at the same time. If the new paid content is well done and brings in more people, the hobby survives.

For those of you who say when your buying a Dungeon/Dragon magazine from the FLGS that you're supporting their business, well your not. Magazines have a very low profit margin. If you really wanted to help out your FLGS you'd plunk down the $25 to $40 for a new hard cover. Instead I'm sure many of you are slinking over to Amazon because they have great deals.

Me, I'm going to wait and see what comes out from WoTC. I already have high hopes for Paizo's new directions. Online content is the reason I've probably stayed interested in RPGs for the past several years, as I can always look forward to something new coming along without feeling tied to going to a physical retail outlet. Did that with comics for 20+ years and it gets tiring to always make the trip on Tuesdays/Thursdays to get new product. Browsing through the WoTC, Paizo, RPGNow, ENWorld and Reaper web sites is something I can do from the comfort of my home.

Bento,

No hate here. I am a collector. Packrat, more accurately. I have every issue of every Dragon and Dungeon magazine I have ever bought (and it goes back several years). When I need an adventure, I might dig out that old issue of Dungeon from the 2e days, and look into adapting it. I cannot do that with web content (because web content changes or, if archived on CD, can become corrupt. I cannot afford the ink to print out an e-zine monthly). That's aside from the fun of taking my magazines with me to work. Reading them there, it's more likely that someone will ask me about it, which allows me the chance to explain our hobby to someone whose only previous exposure was that abyssmal movie or MMO.

One bit about the FLGS thing, too. Dungeon & Dragon are the only two subscriptions I have there (it's a comic store). The thing is, though, that despite it being cheaper via Amazon, I ONLY buy my game books from that FLGS, too. (But I've been going to that store for 14 years, so one could say I have a clear bias in him staying open.. )


Also,

I found myself thinking something interesting this morning on my way to said job. I consistently see comments that we net-capable RPG fans are a small percentage of all of those who play RPGs. Even if half of all those who say "no e-zines for me" and all of the ones who say "gimme the e-zine" subscribe, would there really be enough to truly justify it? Of all of the people I know who game (not just my current groups), I do not know anyone of them who check sites like this, let alone pay for premium content on one. I'm just tossing this out there as food for thought. Feel free to prove me wrong.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Yes. I think Wizards will do a good job, I like their current site, and see a ton of potential in the concept of a post-magazine online hub for D&D. At the very least, I will give it a shot.

If it's just an 'e-zine' with the content from Dungeon and Dragon, I'll probably drop it in time (unless it's really, really cheap) because I don't feel, when all's said and done, that I get a ton out of that content. Since my subscription ran out, I've pretty much bought Dragon when it had a Creature Collection in it, and I don't make much use of modules.

 

[Felon]

I'm probably going to go offline for a few days because I'm getting tired of all the hate.

Rather than be constructive and throwing out ideas of what could be coming down the pike from WoTC, many of you are hating just because WoTC is trying something different.

The anger directed towards WotC at the moment is quite clearly not "just because WotC is trying something different".

Try something different all you like, but deciding to "coax" people into adopting change by depriving them of options is never going to be a tactic that garners much respect.

This isn't the gradual death of vinyl records we're talking about. We're not talking abut closing down some outmoded, unpopular, dying venue here. According to Paizo staff, subscriptions were rising with every year. This was a relatively healthy limb WotC lopped off so that you'd buy their nifty new cyber-prosthetic. WotC realized that some fans might choose to buy a magazine rather than subscribe to the digital initiative. Instead of rising to the challenge of winning those fans over, instead of patiently waiting for the obsolesence of the printed medium to set in, Wizards took a shortcut. They pulled the plug on the magazine in order to take the choice out of the equation.

Obviously, businesses exist to make money. Unfortunately, folks who preached that little fact often misinterpret it as a vindication of anything a business does in search of a profit. Sorry, but consumers are quite correct to object vocally to being taken for granted or exploited; pleading economic darwinism doesn't make it all better.

Instead I'm sure many of you are slinking over to Amazon because they have great deals.

Well, I'm glad your own attitude is so constructive a free of vituperation. Gotta love hypocrites.