Emirikol said:
You make a good point about 'articles' in DUngeon. Perhaps they should focus on more 'chart&quick-flip' sorts of articles instead of a bunch of filler. It's been clear forever that DM's don't like to have to sort through 'filler' to run a scenario, the same is probably true of any type of 'DM-Aide' articles. It will be interesting to see how this whole deal turns out. Will the articles be useful like DMG-style 'helper-applications' or will they be 10 page articles on the ecology of the Flumph (sorry Roger Moore) which are like trying to convert "DUNE" to a role-playing game
Material that would help put together quick adventures would be great to see. Articles have to be brilliant, or focused, to appeal to me any longer. I mean, if I am looking for DM advice, I can just as easily turn here and have a Q/A session. Anything that can be quickly and easily "unbolted" and re-used in a game is good. Yes, almost anything can be "unbolted" from an existing adventure. However, ease of use is the key. Sometimes it can simply be an issue of page formatting, which might not be easy to implement.
On a side note, I liked some of the Ecology articles. Not all of them, but some of them. I also like articles that mix storytelling with game info. I still have my cardboard cutout of a Deck of Many Things from Dragon (what was it, issue 148 or so?). The accompanying article was fun to read. (I also have my issue of Dungeon that came out at the same time with a Deck of Many Things. but, when choosing between color or B/W, I wanted to use color.) On the other hand, some of the Ecology articles were, well, unnecessary.
Emirikol said:
"The Best of" concept is a bad one. If you really want people paying for more of something they already have, have them pay for the SAME ADVENTURES a second time. I'd rather just have them put a 'list' on their website allowing people to VOTE on what adventures were the best (graded according to several criteria and then averaged of course...). Hey, these 5 adventures were the best according to 89 people that say so. Here are the issues, here is the 'back issue order form if you don't already have them... Grading the adventures is something that I did on my Complete Dungeon Index according to what the "Readers" wrote in the Forum/Jail-Mail sections. They had talked about it before, but were expecting people to just write-in. Well, simple 'polls' with 5 or so criteria and an average will be the best way.
Game on!
jh
The "Best of" are not geared to appeal to the long-time subscribers. Not unless those articles are so useful that you need them in a quick reference. The "Best of" issues were geared toward the people that are recent additions to the hobby/magazine.
Therein lies the problem. It is an even smaller market than the existing subscriber base. I suspect it is difficult to justify the "Best of" anthology when you know that even fewer people will pick it up than for a regular issue. But, years ago, it was one way that Dragon might have won new subscribers. Nowadays, putting some of the "Best of" content on the website might be much more effective at bringing in new subscribers.
As for a listing of articles point to issues, it is a good idea, to a point. The issues with the best articles are probably the ones with the least backstock as it is. So, it might be a good way for Paizo to eliminate some of the backstock (which is what a company needs to do), but once you have done that the polls now point at articles that you can't buy issues for. You can't very well pull the poll and still keep it as "Best Articles", and you risk creating a level of frustration that might not be helpful.
It would be far better to have a listing of the articles with a brief description for each magazine. Heck, contact one of the people that has compiled these things here on the web/EN World and ask them to use their existing compilation. Heck, offer them a subscription to keep it updated. Post it on the Paizo site and make that the definitive reference for information about the magazine.
One of the problems, as I see it, is that many of us would love to see more trickle out content in the same way that we see small updates to the WotC site. But, Paizo is a smaller company and I suspect they run much tighter and leaner, with a monthly publication schedule. While people that loved Polyhedron would love to see a semi-monthly publication of a minigame, can Paizo realistically put one out? For Free? And would you be willing to fork over money for a mini-game, sight unseen, if they put it as a purchasable option on the site?
Paizo is trying to keep the company healthy. Right now, they are approaching that in the best way they can. Hopefully, these changes will help bring in more customers. As I have said earlier in the thread, I am probably not the core demographic for them right now. It would be great if they could appeal to me and cater to market demands, but that doesn't look to be the case. I don't begrudge that to them because I recognize that my tastes might not reflect what a majority of customers want. My tastes will change, market demands will change, the magazines will change.
D), make playtest files available to subscribers and hold discussions thereon.
