Important: Please Read! Changes Are Coming!

[DaveMage]

I do, too. I feel better about it.

I would think so - since EN World pays you, right?

 

[grodog]

At the same time, I can't help but feel that it takes away a bit of the "community" feel of the site (whether or not that is the case or not, that's just how I feel).

I can't really explain why I have that feeling either, I just do.

Like Ari, this change doesn't bother me at all either, but I can understand where you coming from Olaf.

Let's not kid ourselves. The amount of effort that Morrus has put into this site for years is practically worthy of nomination for sainthood. Lots of people work a lot less hard for actual pay. The fact that the site's lasted this long is nothing short of a minor miracle, and the chances that a site this massive and complex could go on indefinitely without somehow paying its owner for his time were exactly zero. Sooner or later, real life--be it finances or simple emotional burnout--were going to kill ENWorld; it was just a matter of time.

And for that reason among many, I'm happy for Russ to make this transition from a freebie model to a business model successfully. When Eric was ready to shut the site down 8-9 years ago, he had burned out on it (as I recall): it was just too much to manage. That Russ has kept the site going for so long, in the face of such financial uncertainty is a testament to his love for the site!

If the site can actually pay Morrus a living wage, even a small one, it's frankly got a much greater life expectancy than it ever had before.

I'll second that, which is why I think it's so important to be able to start out on the right foot, and to communicate clearly how this whole change-over is going to work: I want the site to be successful, and for that to happen, Russ has to be able to make it work on his end, too.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I would think so - since EN World pays you, right?

A little bit, for my semi-monthly column, but not enough that it's going to influence my take on this issue one way or the other. Honestly, I wasn't even thinking of that when I posted; I was responding as a fan.

(Which reminds me, though, I do need to do another column in the very near future. I think I'm behind...)

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I urge you not to name the subscription tiers after 4e tiers. I for one will be really offended if you do this. I'm not kidding.

I'll second this. I won't personally be offended, but it will be completely understandable if many, many people take something like this as an endorsement of 4E as the "official" game of EN World.

Frankly, that's what I'm worried about on learning that the site is for-profit now. (Yes, it was news to me, too, and I visit the site several times a day.) It may already be visible in the forum restructuring, although I allow for the possibility of selective perception there.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I urge you not to name the subscription tiers after 4e tiers. I for one will be really offended if you do this. I'm not kidding.

I'll second this.

I third this. I think the $3 subscription option should be called the Giant Mutant Fire Clam Tier and the $6 subscription option should be called the Flying Grizzly Bear WFLB Tier. That would be a lot less silly than naming them after 4E level tiers.

 

[Rel]

I third this. I think the $3 subscription option should be called the Giant Mutant Fire Clam Tier and the $6 subscription option should be called the Flying Grizzly Bear WFLB Tier. That would be a lot less silly than naming them after 4E level tiers.

I feel like we could anger more people going with Heroic Edition Warrior, Paragon Sandboxer and Epic Grognard as the tiers.

 

[Nonei]

I'll second this. I won't personally be offended, but it will be completely understandable if many, many people take something like this as an endorsement of 4E as the "official" game of EN World.

QFT. One of the reasons I switched to Enworld from the WOTC forums (and signed up as a community supporter) was the discussion here of more than D&D. It would be a shame if newer people got the implication that Enworld also thinks that 4e is the RPG to play.

I have nothing against 4e, personally, but it is not what I play, and I like to learn about other brands of RPGs as well. The names of the pricing tiers, of course, are a small piece of the whole - but they are a very visible piece.

 

[Relique du Madde]

I feel like we could anger more people going with Heroic Edition Warrior, Paragon Sandboxer and Epic Grognard as the tiers.

Why not just go with Copper, Silver, Gold, Electrum, Platinum, Diamond, Gold-Pressed Latimuum, then Unobtainium?

 

[Nifft]

Why not just go with Copper, Silver, Gold, Electrum, Platinum, Diamond, Gold-Pressed Latimuum, then Unobtainium?

Skip all those others.

Just have "Registered" (non-paying), "Supporter" ($3), and "Electrum Supporter" ($more). If you need one more tier, you could use Mithral, but it's less amusing than Electrum.

Electrum is awesome.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Herobizkit]

As a random aside, I'm not terribly pleased with 3e stuff being lumped into the new "D&D legacy" catch-all category. 3e is still extremely in the market, and products are still being produced for it (though they are not "official" WotC stuff, the larger percentage of non-4e converts still play it).

As a suggestion, I'd like to see a way for the PbP folks to be able to keep track of their characters and IC/OOC threads outside of thread subscriptions. Normally, people do so in their sigs, but if the "free" sigs are being removed, such support would still be an asset worth paying the $3 sub fee to me.