Are you bothering to read DUNGEON anymore? (and level index)

[Dice4Hire]

I'm sorry you haven't liked what you've seen, but the notion that they're "throwaways" that somehow weren't "good enough" for the print version is nonsense.

I am not really convinced. First the lack of actual adventures, the lack of an AP, or even a consitent release schedule all points to the magazine being on the bottom of the priority stack.

Death from apathy seems a reasonable supposition.

 

[Shemeska]

Not really. The DDI format and interface are awkward and difficult to read. The complete lack of response to queries doesn't help either.

 

[Bagpuss]

I don't enjoy non-interactive reading* large blocks of text on a computer screen (who does?), and unless I need a particular adventure I'm not going to waste paper printing it out. I've downloaded some to check the levels they are for and found they weren't suitable.

Since they haven't bothered putting what levels the adventure is for on the download page, after countless requests and even after the editor admitted it was stupid not to, I've not even bothered downloading the latest adventures.

WotC have seriously dropped the ball with Dragon and Dungeon, they asked for feedback, and then promptly ignored virtually all the feedback in the forums, that's not the best way to connect with your readership.


* interactive stuff like forums are okay

 

[Jack Colby]

I haven't looked at them. Dungeon and Dragon are pretty useless to me as electronic content rather than magazines I can pick up at the bookstore and read at my leisure in a comfortable place.

 

[Bagpuss]

I'm sorry you haven't liked what you've seen, but the notion that they're "throwaways" that somehow weren't "good enough" for the print version is nonsense.

It's not the content that I consider "throwaway" to me it's the attitude of WotC to the online magazine format. The actual adventures seem to be to the standard I'd expect from Dungeon over the years. It stuff like the following that makes it clear WotC don't value the magazines or their reputation.

a) No regular columns.
b) No clear editor, or person solely responsible for the publication of the magazines
c) No regular release schedule.
d) Failure to meet promised content
e) Missed release dates.
f) Failure to fix admitted faults.
g) Failure to respond to feedback.
h) Poor organisation of content.
i) Failure to deliver promised PDF compilations.

There are probably more things, content isn't bad but delivery is terrible.

 

[Ethalias]

You don't have an option for - I only now read Dungeon BECAUSE it is online.

Amen to that! I would love to read them as print mags but those of us outside the US have never had that luxury.. I just print anything I want to read away from my PC.

Although I can't compare the content to the old print versions, some of it I like, and some of it I don't. I do, however, share the frustration with the delivery. What's the point in "teasing" us with what's coming up if it never arrives?

 

[Jan van Leyden]

It just goes to my digital trash pile; downloaded und shoved to a folder to be forgotten about.

Reading a PDF of more than, say, two pages is nothing I'd like to do in my free time. And printing the stuff for easier reading - resulting in piles of unbound sheets of paper - isn't any better.

Frankly speaking, Dungeon is still a print magazine. The page layout in portrait style is only fit to be printed. WotC embraces the digital world, but still produces for the printer's world.

Either give me a printed magazin or a file prepared for screen usage, but not such a unfit compromise.

---
Huldvoll

Jan van Leyden

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It's not the content that I consider "throwaway" to me it's the attitude of WotC to the online magazine format. The actual adventures seem to be to the standard I'd expect from Dungeon over the years. It stuff like the following that makes it clear WotC don't value the magazines or their reputation.

a) No regular columns.
b) No clear editor, or person solely responsible for the publication of the magazines
c) No regular release schedule.
d) Failure to meet promised content
e) Missed release dates.
f) Failure to fix admitted faults.
g) Failure to respond to feedback.
h) Poor organisation of content.
i) Failure to deliver promised PDF compilations.

There are probably more things, content isn't bad but delivery is terrible.

I hope this will improve with the actual 4E release. It might be better not to count on it, but it would be better for WotC if it did...

 

[Dice4Hire]

Agreed. With what I have sen of Dungeon, Dragon, and DDI in general (i.e. virtually nothing) why would anyone pay for the content at the rate of 10 bucks or more a month?

WOTC has had eight months so far to prove that the ten bucks is a good deal, but who would pay 80 dollars for what has been put up since August?

 

[Khairn]

It's not the content that I consider "throwaway" to me it's the attitude of WotC to the online magazine format. The actual adventures seem to be to the standard I'd expect from Dungeon over the years. It stuff like the following that makes it clear WotC don't value the magazines or their reputation.

a) No regular columns.
b) No clear editor, or person solely responsible for the publication of the magazines
c) No regular release schedule.
d) Failure to meet promised content
e) Missed release dates.
f) Failure to fix admitted faults.
g) Failure to respond to feedback.
h) Poor organisation of content.
i) Failure to deliver promised PDF compilations.

There are probably more things, content isn't bad but delivery is terrible.

Agreed.

To date, WotC has proven they are unable to publish an e-zine that would attract my interest in any way. There have been a couple of good adventures (Ari's being one of them), but truth be told, both e-Drag and e-Dun have seriously underwhelmed me since WotC has taken responsibility for them.

Actually, the only positive about either e-zine is that they are currently free.