Magazine Survey from WotC

[Scribble]

Doesn't this cut both ways?

Since they've been in business for close to 20 year (or more I don't have the exact date they started) I'm pretty sure the onus is on the person trying to say they are NOT a successful company- wouldn't you think?

 

[Mengu]

You know those restaurant surveys you get from say Taco Bell or vehicle purchase surveys from VW? You get to fill out the survey and give them feedback because you have eaten there recently, or purchased a vehicle recently. You don't get to fill it out because you ate at Taco Bell 6 months ago. You don't get to fill it out because you might buy a car 4 months from now. It's a consumer survey. It's meant for the current consumers.

And no I'm not a survey analyst. But I am married to one.

 

[Sunseeker]

On non subscribers: You're not paying for it, and you have no desire to do so, so you don't get a say. I'm certain they'd appreciate an e-mail saying "i'd read if you did X", but skewing their poll with a bunch of "I never read it ever" just will make them cancel it.

On pirates: you're not paying for it and you never will. no matter what they do you won't buy it. They, and I, don't care what you think.

On the poll: I told them I'm a regular reader, but as I read them from the same website, I don't see the necessity for 2 magazines. That said, I told them some of their articles were rather dry and a few were beginning to be just plain bad. Also: I love art, the more the merrier!

 

[Mirtek]

why do people feel the quality is lacking, and what about these recent articles is actually a problem?

Note that the following is not based on an actual page count, but simply on how the development feels like:

Old:
A class acts article was 10 pages, with 2 pages fluff and 8 pages game rules

Change to shorter article length:
Shorter but more article meant that a class acts article was 5 pages with 1 page of fluff and four pages of game rules. But we now got twice as many class acts per month

Recent development:
Class acts are still 5 pages, but now they consist of 4 pages of fluff and only one page of game rules and also we get less of them


The old ratio meant that when there was an article about your class, you had a good chance to like/use at least one of the many new rule items that were included. With the new ratio you can look really forward for the upcomming class acts about your class and after reading 4 pages about history of Nerath or whatever you see two lonely feats none of which happen to be of interest to you. Sure, the nothing of interest for you could have happened before too, but with 4 powers and 5 feats it was just more likely to find at least one thing amog them to add to your character

 

[Solvarn]

Readers only

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 sure the overall feedback is better too since the people subscribing are satsified with the scraps they are being fed.

 

[Solvarn]

On non subscribers: You're not paying for it, and you have no desire to do so, so you don't get a say. I'm certain they'd appreciate an e-mail saying "i'd read if you did X", but skewing their poll with a bunch of "I never read it ever" just will make them cancel it.

I certainly hope you're able to read this from the H. M. S. Fanboy.

I disagree with the entire premise of your statement. There are plenty of people out there that would pay even more than current subscription prices for a more functional character builder (or one that is as functional as the one we had three months ago) and quality online publishing.

There are ways to make these things happen, but they require talent, vision, and an ability to outsource work to talented people that don't need to be concerned that after you fix it they will steal it right back (here's looking at you Paizo). In theory I'd love to work at Wizards of the Coast, but as I'm sure the people soon to be laid off this month can attest, winters are stressful at WotC and it's just not my scene.

 

[I'm A Banana]

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

Give it time. There's paperwork and hurdles to clear and the CB debacle happened juuuust before the Thanksgiving break/Holiday break/Xmas Layoffs. I wouldn't expect any direct reaction to this most recent round of sub-breaking until about February at the earliest.

I mean, people have been grousing about the declining content in the mags since about the summer at least, and now they have a survey up.

Besides, they might already know (or think they know) why subs lapsed, and have no need of a survey for it. I mean, clearly, the new CB was no home run.

 

[Ryujin]

I certainly hope you're able to read this from the H. M. S. Fanboy.

I disagree with the entire premise of your statement. There are plenty of people out there that would pay even more than current subscription prices for a more functional character builder (or one that is as functional as the one we had three months ago) and quality online publishing.

There are ways to make these things happen, but they require talent, vision, and an ability to outsource work to talented people that don't need to be concerned that after you fix it they will steal it right back (here's looking at you Paizo). In theory I'd love to work at Wizards of the Coast, but as I'm sure the people soon to be laid off this month can attest, winters are stressful at WotC and it's just not my scene.

As others have already said, such a survey is generally conducted in order to answer a specific question. It isn't like a census, in which they try to gather as much information as is humanly possible. I've already postulated one reason for the questionnaire. Let me put forth a second; customer retention.

If they are looking into customer retention, then the opinions of non customers are immaterial. When they want to know what non customers are thinking, then they'll put a general survey up on the home page.

 

[I'm A Banana]

If they are looking into customer retention, then the opinions of non customers are immaterial. When they want to know what non customers are thinking, then they'll put a general survey up on the home page.

It's totally possible that some manager with his head up his bum thought that unifying the mags was the most brilliant thing since Credit Default Swaps and, what with everyone jumping ship after the CB, were like:

"Hold up a second. Lets see what our always-vocal and often-unpredictable Unpleasable Fan Base thinks of the idea on the whole. Lets limit it to paying customers who might stop paying, since our customers seem to follow through on that threat more often than Blizzard customers, and we don't want to loose anyone else by making a dumb decision without thinking it through first."

FWIW, I don't have an inherent problem with unifying the mags (though reduced content grates on me, I'm not sure why, with electronic delivery, they'd reduce content just because they combined the mags), but if a wealth of subscribers think differently, they might just decide not to do it.

(the above is Random Speculation entirely and is in no way a meaningful guess at what they might actually be thinking)

 

[Artoomis]

Comics!

I put in a bid to have at least one comic strip, just like the print magazine used to have.