He probably means that someone with as key a position in the D&D brand hasn't even thought to stop by the #1 D&D fan website to say "hi" and introduce themselves. To be fair, it's always taken a little while for this to happen - the Rouse didn't show up here until after a similar thread way back in the day.
Correctamundo!
Granted, it is a little difficult to do in terms of marketing. Such a forray into a zone like ENWorld by WotC managment where one does not control the delete key means that one's ability to control the message and tenor of the discussion is not what it otherwise would be. It can be dismissed as counter-productive, I suppose.
But as for
driving traffic to ENWorld? Well... I don't visit DDI or Wizard's site very much other than for Star Wars gaming - which is about to come to an end too.
Moreover, the age and experience of the posters on the Wizards' site skews much younger than here - and the
signal to noise ratio is pretty low on the Wizards' forums. So - I'm just not going there, thanks. It's not about driving traffic away or bringing it to them. As far as I can see, It's about getting your message out or not. Period. It's not as if they can communicate with us via print advertisements or columns in
Dragon now, is it?
If the marketing and fan outreach efforts of WotC are aimed at preaching to the converted - okay. If their efforts are instead about expanding the reach of their product lines and marketing to eyeballs they don't own a few times a day already? Than they ought to try and do so here, imo.
I do remember back about three years ago when the Internet EXPLODED after the cancellation of
Dungeon and
Dragon mags, that Russ expressed dismay at the emotional reaction of many here on ENWorld. There was much moderating of the posts for fear of offending WotC staff and mangement. The official word from the Guvnor was that was done so that the lines of communication between WotC and ENWorld would remain open and ENWorld would not be perceived as "hostile ground" to WotC's staff.
Not saying it was wrong of Russ to do that. I think it was wise. That said, to be blunt - it appears not to have worked.
Over the nearly three years since, with every edition war thread and the continued
Vanishing Act which WotC staff have pulled vis-a-vis ENWorld, it would appear that those lines of communication are pretty much closed anyways - for better or worse.
But when it comes to Paizo? They post here -
all the time. My guess is that if I posted a thread in the Pathfinder section of ENWorld mentioning Erik Mona's or Lisa Stevens' name in the thread topic (or not, for that matter) I'd probably get a reply in 48 hours or less.
That's a pretty profound difference in dealing with the Internet fan base, I think. I'm not talking about editions or game systems or anything like that at all. This is NOT an invitation to engage in an edition war. It's a comparison of the PR style of two companes; that's it and
that's all.
It's not as if Paizo's own message boards are slow - they most assuredly are not. But it is curious that one company seems to take the time to keep ENWorld on the radar - and the other appears not to. (Appearances, mind you. I still expect many people at WotC read and monitors ENWorld even if they don't post here in an official capacity).
Ah well. Let's see where this thread goes, shall we?
