Magazine Survey from WotC

[Balesir]

I'm not even going to try to guess the "purpose" of this survey, but I actually agree that surveys on the content of the magazines is something that only subscribers should have access to reply to, and I say that as a recent unsubscriber. Feedback is not a priviledge that pirates deserve.

On the other hand, parts of the survey (from what I read here) are not about content, they are about the vector and format for delivery of the magazines. That is a topic that, from a purely business data validity point of view, they should really be asking about beyond the subscriber base. That the current subscribers will be at least fairly happy with the current methods of delivery and format is a bit of a "duh", I think.

 

[MrMyth]

I don't care about two magazines, I care about quantity and quality of articles. Where are the new writers and voices? Where are the interesting articles like we got in the beginning of the on-line magazines? Where are the deity, archfey, demonicon articles? Where is the advice on playing the game (the great articles by Ray, Monte, and others in print and even online)? Just awful quality (and don't get me started on the lack of adventures).

You know, I've seen a lot of these complaints of late, and I'm not so sure I agree with them. My biggest issues, quality wise, have been the lack of editing of some specific content (usually fixed in the compilations). But in terms of genuinely good articles, there actually has been (at least in my opinion) an improvement in recent months.

The major weakness is the lack of any game-changers that really knock it out of the part, of which there were a decent number early on. (Domains of Dread, Codex of Betrayal, the Gladiator articles, etc.) That said, some of the recent stuff has come close - the Ecology of the Scarecrow article in November was absolutely fantastic.

Overall, the article in the last few months have had a great focus on flavor and most of the discussion of seen on the actual articles is pretty positive. But I keep seeing comments about how weak the overall quality of the magazines has become, and I'm wondering what is the actual cause. Even the adventures seem to improving - the most recent one, Lord of the White Field, seems to have been exactly what people have been asking for.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with anyone who is concerned about the quality of the magazines. But my suggestion would be that specifics might be more useful. Simply saying one is upset over the quality doesn't much help - why do people feel the quality is lacking, and what about these recent articles is actually a problem?

Edit: And, just to clarify, I wasn't specifically objecting to the above post (which actually does a good job of listing specific concerns, including ones that I tend to agree with!) but more the general 'lack of quality' comments that seem to be showing up everywhere of late.

 

[Scribble]

Reading between the lines, this survey strikes me as a rather transparent attempt to justify pulling ALL content back to server-side. Print on demand? I can do that with the current PDF files. Read online? I can do that with the current PDF files, or download them for off-line reading, printing, even use Acrobat Pro to make notes on the Dungeon adventures, if I choose to make my own alterations. HTML documents? No thanks; PDF is working fine. iPad app? I don't have one, but it strikes me that I've seen "Acrobat Reader for iPad" as an available download.

Or to just see if people reading the magazines actually like the format or not.

 

[Aegeri]

Even the adventures seem to improving - the most recent one, Lord of the White Field, seems to have been exactly what people have been asking for.

It isn't about publishing the odd good adventure and let's be perfectly clear that Lord of the White Field is fantastic. This is an unusual event though and what we absolutely 100% need is consistency and variation. We need more adventures like Lord of the White Field, less crappy delves and we need variety in levels. I think there are so many heroic tier adventures, unless you're planning on going from 1-5 constantly and no further, you will have more than enough material to run that kind of game for a while.

It's time we see some quality paragon and epic adventures.

 

[Ryujin]

Or to just see if people reading the magazines actually like the format or not.

As I stated elsewhere, recent actions by Wizards have eliminated any trust I have for them

 

[Holy Bovine]

And "Of Course" no one who is not currently a subscriber/reader was never and will never be one.

Makes perfect sense.

I find this amusing since you yourself have said, repeatedly on these boards, that you have never been and never will be a subscriber. It does make me wonder how you would know so much about the current state of Dragon and Dungeon though...


ANyways - I answered that I would kind of like to see Dragon become a player-only resource and Dungeon a DM-only resource. It has always been the logical break for myself (and indeed was how the mags were almost 100% for a long time). I want more story/"fluff" articles and an elimination of the "Delve" format of adventures which is contributing to the shallowness and blandness of Dungeon.

 

[Scribble]

As I stated elsewhere, recent actions by Wizards have eliminated any trust I have for them

For me it's not about trust, or lack of trust- it's just about looking for the simplest answer, rather then reading whatever I'm looking to read between the lines.

 

[Nymrohd]

I and as it seems many others recently allowed our subscriptions to lapse. Wizards have made no attempt to survey me or ask why I stopped my subscription. And I was not a subscriber who just went for one month every few, I had an active subscription from DDI launch till this month. As someone with a degree in marketing I am appalled. However much I might like their product I am increasingly pessimistic on this tiny subindustry surviving when the marketing effort is atrocious. I understand that perhaps their projections make growth pessimistc but how they do not take even the most basic of efforts on customer retention? I know myself to be a person with very high brand loyalty and have invested in my relation with this specific product. I buy pretty much everything not because I expect high product value; l do but it is immaterial, I buy to finance them as a customer. You really need to suck not to be able to retain a customer like that.

 

[Scribble]

I and as it seems many others recently allowed our subscriptions to lapse. Wizards have made no attempt to survey me or ask why I stopped my subscription. And I was not a subscriber who just went for one month every few, I had an active subscription from DDI launch till this month. As someone with a degree in marketing I am appalled. However much I might like their product I am increasingly pessimistic on this tiny subindustry surviving when the marketing effort is atrocious. I understand that perhaps their projections make growth pessimistc but how they do not take even the most basic of efforts on customer retention? I know myself to be a person with very high brand loyalty and have invested in my relation with this specific product. I buy pretty much everything not because I expect high product value; l do but it is immaterial, I buy to finance them as a customer. You really need to suck not to be able to retain a customer like that.

Could simply be that despite the noise on the web, the amount of dropped subscriptions is within the norm.

Or, they anticipated a number of increased drops when they released the online CB, and figure the answers will in large part be "bring back the old cb!!!"

 

[pauljathome]

It's a survey for readers of Dungeon and Dragon. Of *course* it's subscriber only. I'm sure if you have opinions there are feedback addresses to which you can send emails.

I'm formerly a reader of Dungeon and Dragon.

And I'm a potential reader of Dungeon and Dragon.

And while I'd actually be willing to answer a survey as this means that there
is a chance that my opinion would be heard I'm most certainly not going to find a feedback address in order to send an opinion that would almost certainly be ignored.

As I said, asking only subscribers strongly implies that they only care about
keeping existing customers and do not want to gain new customers.