At what Cover Price do you Drop?

[GwydapLlew]

Have you looked at Dragon and Dungeon lately? I ask because I don't think the criticism you've levelled is really fair at all at the present time (although it certainly has been at times in the past).

I'm glad you got there before i did, delericho!

I consider Dragon to be incredibly useful for the price I pay. NB: I am a subscriber.

I have found that picking up the occasional issue from my FLGS reduces the value of the magazine. Why? Because the value (IMO) of Dragon is in the access to the varied articles spread over time. I may not need rules on archery (awesome article, btw) for this campaign, but I guarantee that one of my games will have an archer character who will use every piece of information in that article. The first Dragon I purchased in the Paizo era was for Urban Adventures - I didn't use anything from that article until I started running Shackled City, and then I used all of it.

The kind of articles that you can find in Dragon "fill in the cracks;" most of them are too detailed or specific to flesh out an entire chapter or book, but still provide useful information for a DM or a player. The value is in the library of issues, not in the specific content of any one magazine.

 

[Glyfair]

but I just thought I'd mention I'd switch completely to PDF if I could. Paizo could reduce their print costs (replacing with bandwidth costs.)

Not necessarily (at least per issue). If Paizo switches to a dual PDF/print production system they would likely lose subscribers from the print version to the PDF version. That would mean higher costs per issue because they lose some of the savings for printing at a high volume. They couldn't go PDF only, because there is a large majority who aren't interested in the PDF version.

Given this, it's quite possible that switching to a dual PDF/print production system could mean the death of Dragon & Dungeon. That's if the price hike for the print version drives even more customers away (in fact, the theme of this thread is high prices driving away customers).

It seems to be assumed that switching to a dual format gives you the best of both worlds. In fact, it's possible that switching to dual format would be moving a slightly profitable product to two non-profitable formats.

 

[GwydapLlew]

but I just thought I'd mention I'd switch completely to PDF if I could. Paizo could reduce their print costs (replacing with bandwidth costs.)

And they would have to renegotiate almost all aspects of their licensing of Dungeon and Dragon with Wizards of the Coast.

And disrupt their business model.

And lose readers.

 

[Shade]

At what cover price does Dragon go from being something you may pick up on the stands occassionally to something you either subscribe to because it's so much cheaper or completely drop?

When my wife says so.

In all seriousness, though, I subscribe to both magazines. I've subscribed to Dragon for a long, long time. The increase in cover prices of Dungeon (and the advent of the adventure paths) drove me to subscribe to Dungeon. If the subsription prices were to go up, I'd more likely cut back on my purchases of hardcover D&D books before considering canceling either subscription. As it is, I feel like I get far more bang for my gaming buck from both magazines than I do from most of the hardcover books. In the past year, only the Fiendish Codex can compete with the Paizo magazines in terms of my personal satisfaction.

 

[mcrow]

I don't dungeon or dragon magazines. There is just too much stuff in each issue that I won't use to be paying $8 for them. It's even to expensive for the subscriber price.

 

[pawsplay]

$8.50 is about right for a glossy full size magazine. Anything more than that needs to be double sized or full of porn, or both.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

After the switch from 3.0 to 3.5, I stopped buying Dragon and Dungeon for awhile.

Now that I've switched to 3.5, I pick up an issue now and then, but usually when they're on clearance at my FLGS. The MSRP is too high in my opinion (moreso for Dragon than Dungeon), and I'm not quite ready to commit to another subscription due to my (possibly irrational) fear of another edition coming out in the next year or two.

Timeliness of content is another big factor, which is why I generally prefer Dungeon over Dragon. Dragon's previews of upcoming books are useless to me because I already have that information as soon as it hits the net... the same with reviews of video games and the like.

 

[Xyanthon]

I have to say that I'm liking both Dungeon and Dragon a whole lot right now and have renewed a subscription that I let lapse 3 years ago. I understand the niche market and the cost factors involved to some extent but I think as the magazine currently stands, I'd be hesitant to pick up a newstand issue if it were over $8. However, if there was a broader range of content covering a broader range of games and interests like Dragon did back in the 1980's with minigames, other d20 variants, industry happenings, support for OOP titles, and the like, I'd consider paying more. Of course, this is solely my opinion.

 

[mhensley]

Actually, at the moment, pretty much any price is too high to pay for Dragon. I can sit down in the bookstore with it and consume all of the content thats interesting to me in about 5 minutes . Most of that time is spent reading the comics and looking at the ads. The articles are usually of no interest to me anymore. I only used to buy the issues with DM advice on worldbuilding and such. Now all of that, what there is, is in Dungeon.

 

[Greg K]

It is long past the price that I am willing to pay.

Typically, the only articles that have interested me are Demonomicon and Core Beliefs. On rare instances, I might find an article other than the two mentioned or part of a Class Acts to be useful. Surprisingly, in the recent Halloween issue, I found two useful articles in addition to Core Beliefs. With so little content (if any) I find useful in a typical single issue, I can't justify paying the current cover price for individual issues. Furthermore, since many issues don't interest me, a subscription is not worth it as I will either need to store several "worthless" issues or toss them.