I'm okay with going with individual articles rather than compiled zines, but it does seem to be an odd choice since it can't take very long to make those compiled zines. I can't imagine they're gaining much from this, but eh...maybe... (and that does cast that previous poll in a new light!).
It will allow them more flexibility on their weekly schedule. They don't have to worry about integrating articles into a whole. If they miss an article out, they don't have to go and reformat their compilation.
I may not like the weekly "schedule," and I use that term loosely, but the more WotC realizes that ezines are
not magazines, the better off their digital initiatives will be.
I agree. Not having a compiled version of the magazine articles is a bit... jarring. It makes me wonder, how long will it be until they stop referring to the articles as being from Dragon or Dungeon altogether?
That would be a very sad day.
There's a good reason to keep the magazine titles - a clear demarcation between content meant for players and that meant for DMs. They're titles that have long since entered shorthand for determining the content of the articles. Plus, nostalgia keeps the old players happy.
It confuses me that they've dropped 3 player-targeted books and yet kept one that's distinctly DM-targeted (shadowfel), and with a restricted audience at that.
Might it just be that their new policy on vetting DDI content is leaving them without the rules-junkies to vet rule heavy books? That would explain shadowfell staying because it's liable to be almost entirely fluff, whereas the class compendium and mordenkainen's would both need some heavy rules work.
My guess, and this is
only a guess, and an optimistic one at that:
My supposition is despite the grousing by people here (including myself), WotC is starting to realize that DDI is actually a viable business strategy. The subscription model tends to provide more stable income than one-off payments, which includes books. Of course, there are many more players than DMs, so the obvious business strategy is to drive players to DDI in order to take advantage of the stability.
So, like many others, I think that the canceled player books will eventually be converted to digital offerings, as a way of driving players to the website. However, you have to have a hook to get players going there - that would be
Heroes of Shadow. I would not in the least be surprised to see references to, if not a whole ad for, DDI. It also likely provides a test point for book sales; what are the numbers like right now, should we consider more/less books, format changes, whatever. They still want a feel for the book market.
On the other hand, DM-flavored books (IMO) gain little from the move to DDI. Since they have less people buying them, it might be worth it to leave them as books; many of the DMs are probably DDI subscribers anyway. It's basically an added little bit of income from the small portion of their consumers that run the game. Note that Heroes of Shadow was moved to hardcover, but the others weren't - less overhead cost for printing a product that will make less money.
Looking at the long term, I
suspect that if there's a future edition (of any type), that the online offerings will be a much bigger draw. In the same way 4E incorporates stuff WotC learned from 3E, a future edition would certainly incorporate everything has learned about digital offerings from teh start.
