D&D 5E How would you improve Dragon+, WotC's Online Magazine?

[MichaelSomething]

I think you joke, but I do think there are a ton of people who have not heard of Matt Mercer, but have heard of D&D and want to try it, but don't know how, or where to start. I know, because this was my experience as a teenager in Connecticut, where I knew no one in my friends or family who played. I thought D&D was a board game, but the name Dungeons and Dragons sounded fun and I wanted to play it.

Question: When were you a teenager???

 

[Parmandur]

I've got a degree in marketing, and I can tell you that these are all important things for your marketing branch to do. But if you got money, they shouldn't be the only things you do.

Here is an ad from Warhammer 40,000... remember, this is not an ad for miniatures (which they also do a lot of) this is for a rules book. It takes a little art (reused from the book with a little movement), some voice-over, and bam pretty decent ad.


I see no reason why D&D doesn't send these out on YouTube and social channels, targeting the same (or similar) audience they send ads of Magic the Gathering to. I understand they've had enormous success so far, but this type of targeting can only improve sales. It's honestly leaving money on the table, and I can only assume that the WotC team hasn't bothered because they're getting double-digit growth anyway.

It is a bit odd, now that you point it out, but with Beyond they have Fandom paying for their advertising.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Question: When were you a teenager???

2000s... I'm quite young for this forum...

I don't know when I first heard the words D&D, but the first time I actually understood what the game was, I watched an episode of Community... the one canceled from Netflix!

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

I bought a box of used DRAGON magazines and flipped through them. From what I read, what Dragon+ is missing is ads. Something every page. Constant advertisements. For DnD, game stores, other RPGs, minis and other random biz that threw money at TSR.

Yeah, Wizards could hire freelancers to knock out some quick untested rules content and slap together some adventures. But unless people are working for exposure Wizards would have to charge for the magazine. Having links to dmsguild.com feels like the exact same content, but the rules are all in one place. And you get to choose what you buy rather than a subscription box of crap ya don't want or need.

So much of the rest of the magazine is redundant. Sage Advice. That's Twitter now folks. And the forums. Also Twitter. Random advice articles. Reddit, Facebook and blog posts. Dragon Mirth. Let me direct ya'll to the half-millions of DnD webcomics.
Don't need to pay monthly for that.

 

[Parmandur]

2000s... I'm quite young for this forum...

I don't know when I first heard the words D&D, but the first time I actually understood what the game was, I watched an episode of Community... the one canceled from Netflix!

It's funny, but I actually learned about D&D from...print magazines. Specifically, PC Gamer had a ton of TSR and WotC ads in the 90's when I was a subscriber.

 

[Parmandur]

I bought a box of used DRAGON magazines and flipped through them. From what I read, what Dragon+ is missing is ads. Something every page. Constant advertisements. For DnD, game stores, other RPGs, minis and other random biz that threw money at TSR.

Yeah, Wizards could hire freelancers to knock out some quick untested rules content and slap together some adventures. But unless people are working for exposure Wizards would have to charge for the magazine. Having links to dmsguild.com feels like the exact same content, but the rules are all in one place. And you get to choose what you buy rather than a subscription box of crap ya don't want or need.

So much of the rest of the magazine is redundant. Sage Advice. That's Twitter now folks. And the forums. Also Twitter. Random advice articles. Reddit, Facebook and blog posts. Dragon Mirth. Let me direct ya'll to the half-millions of DnD webcomics.
Don't need to pay monthly for that.

You are right, but I miss magazines.

 

[Zaukrie]

I bought a box of used DRAGON magazines and flipped through them. From what I read, what Dragon+ is missing is ads. Something every page. Constant advertisements. For DnD, game stores, other RPGs, minis and other random biz that threw money at TSR.

Yeah, Wizards could hire freelancers to knock out some quick untested rules content and slap together some adventures. But unless people are working for exposure Wizards would have to charge for the magazine. Having links to dmsguild.com feels like the exact same content, but the rules are all in one place. And you get to choose what you buy rather than a subscription box of crap ya don't want or need.

So much of the rest of the magazine is redundant. Sage Advice. That's Twitter now folks. And the forums. Also Twitter. Random advice articles. Reddit, Facebook and blog posts. Dragon Mirth. Let me direct ya'll to the half-millions of DnD webcomics.
Don't need to pay monthly for that.

While I don't disagree..... It was nice having them in one place.

 

[Kodiak3D]

I haven't read all the responses, so I apologize if this has been brought up already...

I think WotC could really benefit from looking at Pathfinder in this regard. The monthly release of a Pathfinder Companion (or any of their other monthly releases) was a really great idea and has had some really interesting material in it over the years.

Produce something like that, put it on the DM's Guild with a POD option. That's my $0.02