Monte Cook's new Dungeonaday.com?

[tankschmidt]

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind charging for access to an "old school" megadungeon. I mean, we already have several bloggers giving it away for free.

There's Greyhawk Grognard's Castle of the Mad Archmage: Greyhawk Grognard: Castle of the Mad Archmage February Release Now Available!

There's Sham's Dismal Depths:
Sham's Grog 'n Blog: The Dismal Depths in PDF

And there's Amityville Mike's Stonehell:
The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope: Stonehell: Monster Dorm

Or I can flip through my Fight On magazine (located at Fight On! magazine - Home Page) and use the Darkness Beneath.

I just don't understand where Monte thinks the market for this product is going to come from.

 

[catsclaw227]

I'm not talking about personal value vs. product value. I'm talking about cars ;-) You can buy a new car for $10.000 or $100.000, both are cars, both run on gas, and both can achieve the maximum speed your allowed to drive. I'm talking about buying a Volvo vs. buying a Porche.

<snippy, snip>

Your also comparing purely digital publications with printed publications, so outside of DM day your paying $21 a pdf for that $30 book.

<snip, snip>

If you think it's to expensive, it's not for you.

I hear ya. I think your car analogy, while strong on it's own merit, doesn't really have anything to do with the phrase "Something is worth as much as you value it." Something is worth what the market bears.

And it's not too expensive for me, I'm just looking to find comparisons to similar products online. As far as I know, there's currently only one other monthly subscription service (that isn't a periodical like KQ or something) that is offering content on a regular basis throughout that month.

And three $21 PDF's totalling over 850 pages (3x288pgs) is still a lower price than an $84/yr subscription. Monte would need to produce 3 1/2 pages of content a day to keep up page-wise - assuming 48 weeks a year/5 days a week (gotta have vacations and holidays). Not impossible, surely, and he may do even more, but that's a harried pace!

And my DDI subscription cost me only $60 for a year.

As for folks that are saying: "Oh, but Monte must get at least a 1000 subscribers at $7 a month, he's getting rich". Not only Monte is getting that money, he also has a good editor that doesn't really work for free, he needs to pay his cartographer and illustrators. He also needs to pay for the website and someone that keeps it up. Suddenly that $7000 doesn't seem that much when a couple of people are going to be paid by it...

I thought this too. There's a lot more going on than just him and $7K/mon. This thing won't be produced in a vacuum!

 

[catsclaw227]

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind charging for access to an "old school" megadungeon. I mean, we already have several bloggers giving it away for free.

There's Greyhawk Grognard's Castle of the Mad Archmage: Greyhawk Grognard: Castle of the Mad Archmage February Release Now Available!

There's Sham's Dismal Depths:
Sham's Grog 'n Blog: The Dismal Depths in PDF

And there's Amityville Mike's Stonehell:
The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope: Stonehell: Monster Dorm

Or I can flip through my Fight On magazine (located at Fight On! magazine - Home Page) and use the Darkness Beneath.

I just don't understand where Monte thinks the market for this product is going to come from.

I hope I don't put my foot in my mouth here, because I don't know who these bloggers are, but....

"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

We're talking about Monte Cook, here. He can charge for his dungeon. I can't.

 

[JohnRTroy]

I buy products first and foremost for the authors, not because the ingredients are "old school".

By that logic of "giving it away for free", it's like saying because there's are local soft drinks that are cheaper or cereals that are generic that nobody will buy Coca-Cola or Kellogg's brands.

Monte is a popular author, one of the big guys who ended up like Gary Gygax, having fans of him as an individual author. While this endeavor might not be as profitable as his books, it's a worthy experiment. Remember, this is the guy who started with PDF only publishing and it turned out so popular he sold hardbacks, AND the guy who sold us Ptolus, a book that turned out to be widely popular even with its high price tag.

 

[Nellisir]

Never mind. Just not a worthwhile comment. :/

 

[Baron Opal]

As for folks that are saying: "Oh, but Monte must get at least a 1000 subscribers at $7 a month, he's getting rich". Not only Monte is getting that money, he also has a good editor that doesn't really work for free, he needs to pay his cartographer and illustrators. He also needs to pay for the website and someone that keeps it up. Suddenly that $7000 doesn't seem that much when a couple of people are going to be paid by it...

Quite true.

The concept is something I read on a musician's blog a while ago. An artist, of whatever stripe, needs 1000 true fans to be financially independant. The definition of a true fan is someone who will pay you $100 per year for your products. If you can pull in $100,000 per year gross you should be able to support yourself full time on your art taking into consideration taxes, production costs, shipping costs, advertising, &c. Plus, tastes change so you have to garner new true fans as you will be loosing old ones.

It is definatly not the same as $100k take-home. It is about making enough that your art can support you without the distraction of a "day job". I think Monte has a good shot at it, especially considering how relatively limited his advertising is.

 

[Monte At Home]

Limited advertising? Haven't you seen this:

Seriously, though, thanks for you interest, guys, and I hope you'll check it out when the site launches next week. There will be lots of free content for you to preview before becoming a member, a few different subscription plans, and maybe even a few fun surprises.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

And THAT is one reason it is better value than DDI.

Monte actually communicates with and cares about his fans.

I am SO there.

 

[catsclaw227]

And THAT is one reason it is better value than DDI.

Monte actually communicates with and cares about his fans.

I am SO there.

I am likely going to subscribe, now that he has mentioned different subscription options. I'll be doing 4e conversion though.

And FYI.... the WOTC crew come on and talk about the articles and content from DDI fairly often. Note: Mouseferatu, while not a WOTC employee, writes a lot of the DDI material and he is a very active poster.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

There's always renewing one's community supporter subscription to ENWorld instead if one isn't interested. (I think I need to do that actually.) I'm sure that despite the discussion, those interested will find value for their money.