Dragon #361 and Dungeon #152 news

[Hussar]

Thanks for the links. I don't like affiliations but like the background information. (Always found the affilations were just another bit to track for my own preferences.)

Some interesting art but I don't know if it's just I'm too used to the mag or what but the one column format isn't doing it for me.

Yeah, but, two column format doesn't work on a computer. I'm so glad they've gone to one column. I just crank up the zoom on Firefox to about 300%, sit down on the couch, click the scroll wheel on the mouse and let it slide slowly up the screen by itself. Makes reading really comfortable.

But, I will give Uzzy the point. They really haven't taken advantage of the medium yet. Right now, it's a magazine that's on the internet. Hopefully, in the future, it'll become an internet magazine. There should be comment links at the bottom of each article for instance, same as you find on any newspaper. There should be a print button that only prints the text. The article should be entirely hyperlinked to every possible thing - pictures, SRD stats if possible, other related articles, etc. And that's just the start.

Here's hoping they get that going soon.

 

[Shazman]

The fact is they killed two fantastic magazines that have been icons of the hobby for 30 plus years. They replaced them with an electronic pile of garbage that is nothing more than the free adventures and articles they used to have with the magazines names slapped on them and some truly horrible editorial articles and drivel by Shelly M. It's not even worth reading for free, and they will start charging for them when 4E is released. WotC no longer has the right to receive any support of their products from me.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

Sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays...

 

[Shazman]

No, I'm just still ticked off at what they did to the magazines. I don't think I'll ever stop being ticked off about it. Oh well, at least there's still Kobold Quarterly and Pathfinder.

 

[PoeticJustice]

No, I'm just still ticked off at what they did to the magazines. I don't think I'll ever stop being ticked off about it. Oh well, at least there's still Kobold Quarterly and Pathfinder.

This sentiment, I think, is the one the community should get behind. 4E or no, Wotc let me down by not renewing Paizo's contract and then putting their own offerings on the back burner. I'm beginning to look at other publishers for content and at this point I'm probably going to finish college playing 3.5 and then take a long break from D&D.

 

[MadMaxim]

What I don't like about all this digital stuff is the fact that I have to spend entire ink-cartridges on printing the articles. That's why I prefer dead-tree magazines. I know you can print text-only versions, but nothing beats a good colorful layout on an article whether it's monster ecology or demonomicon articles. I know they've mentioned that they'll make compendiums, but really... If that's just going to be a print-version of the stuff that I can print myself without any sort of layout I'm not impressed. You may not have to pay the same for two magazines, but I think the price will even out once you start adding the printing costs.

I'm used to reading a whole lot of text on a screen every day (EN World is a good example), but sometimes it's just not worth the power consumption to turn on the computer just to read a magazine. I'm very slightly optimistic about the whole initiative, but I'm still very much on the fence about it.

 

[Scribble]

What I don't like about all this digital stuff is the fact that I have to spend entire ink-cartridges on printing the articles. That's why I prefer dead-tree magazines. I know you can print text-only versions, but nothing beats a good colorful layout on an article whether it's monster ecology or demonomicon articles. I know they've mentioned that they'll make compendiums, but really... If that's just going to be a print-version of the stuff that I can print myself without any sort of layout I'm not impressed. You may not have to pay the same for two magazines, but I think the price will even out once you start adding the printing costs.

I'm used to reading a whole lot of text on a screen every day (EN World is a good example), but sometimes it's just not worth the power consumption to turn on the computer just to read a magazine. I'm very slightly optimistic about the whole initiative, but I'm still very much on the fence about it.

But again, I think the problem here is that you're thinking about the magazines in the wrong way...

You're seeing the magazine to be just an attempted recreation of the print magazine in a digital format. But I'm guessing thats not what it is.

Dragon/Dungeon are part of the DDI as a whole. They're a section of the DDI, and I'm guessing designed to be used in conjunction with the other parts.

Right now, yes, they're just using it to offer up articles. But I'm guessing only because the other parts of the DDI can't go online yet. (They need 4e to be released or near release to work.)

In the future I bet you'll see rules from Dragon/Dungeon automatically (or with the click of a button) integrating into the character/encounter generators or the Virtual Table.

The idea is the articles aren't just for reading. They're for USING in your game.

See an adventure you like in dungeon? Play it with a group of other DDIers right then and there.

Dragon/Dungeon are a steady content update source for the tools offered by DDI.

 

[Desdichado]

It appears Dragon & Dungeon are losing the quality and focus that come from being the product of a dedicated team. Now they are someone's extra duty.

How so? I think the content is just as focused, and just as high quality as ever.

I'm not real excited about the delivery method, but even it has it's ups and downs. I like the online gallery of all the images, for instance. Once the full pdfs are out, I'll be perfectly happy.

 

[MadMaxim]

But again, I think the problem here is that you're thinking about the magazines in the wrong way...

You're seeing the magazine to be just an attempted recreation of the print magazine in a digital format. But I'm guessing thats not what it is.

Dragon/Dungeon are part of the DDI as a whole. They're a section of the DDI, and I'm guessing designed to be used in conjunction with the other parts.

Right now, yes, they're just using it to offer up articles. But I'm guessing only because the other parts of the DDI can't go online yet. (They need 4e to be released or near release to work.)

In the future I bet you'll see rules from Dragon/Dungeon automatically (or with the click of a button) integrating into the character/encounter generators or the Virtual Table.

The idea is the articles aren't just for reading. They're for USING in your game.

See an adventure you like in dungeon? Play it with a group of other DDIers right then and there.

Dragon/Dungeon are a steady content update source for the tools offered by DDI.

So I basically have to change the way I view Dragon and Dungeon because I expect them to be somewhat similar in content and layout to how they were in print? That doesn't sound entirely logical to me. Isn't the entire point of the Digital Initiative that you can pick and choose whatever you want and still add some more to your games?

 

[Bagpuss]

Isn't the entire point of the Digital Initiative that you can pick and choose whatever you want and still add some more to your games?

There is no evidence of a tiered pricing structure for the D&D Insider content yet, so it's just as (if not more) likely that you pay one price and get the lot, if you use it or not.

But certainly even if they introduce a tiered structure Dragon and Dungeon are likely to feature content that will be usable with the Gametable, character generator and other parts of the site.