D&D General Dragon+ Content Going Away -- Whoops, It's Gone!

WotC's online ezine, Dragon+, ended a few months ago. Until now the existing issues were still accessible, but as of today, November 15th, WotC announced that "Dragon+ will be removed from app stores on or around November 15th, and dragonmag.com will be redirected and its content will no longer be available".

If you wanted to save any of the content, do it quick, because it goes away today!

[Edit -- and the content is now gone].

Update for Dragon+ Users

Earlier this year we announced that thelatestissue of Dragon+ would be its last. Here's how to stayinformed on coming D&D products, get tips, and more.

www.dndbeyond.com

Earlier this year we announced that the current issue of Dragon+ will be its last. Dragon+ will be removed from app stores on or around November 15th, and dragonmag.com will be redirected and its content will no longer be available.

 

[Vincent55]

Can you give an example? I've bought one book this year, Monsters of the Multiverse. While I don't use them, the hardcover adventures aren't shrinking in play length. Their production schedule hasn't changed.

I'm unhappy that adventures they gave away for free are now pay-for-access. But those aren't a major fraction of the D&D budget. So what's changed to go from hundreds of hours per $ to fractions of a minute per $?

You're missing the point, the thing is before long only the online content will be the only way to get it from official sources and it will be like microtransactions are in online games. As i stated somewhere else, it is more money in renting the info online that makes people dependent on the tools online and charges for them. Sure it may be some more time with POD and hard-cover collectable books, but the push is for the online stuff really. The ease of creating a character without really reading what or how to do it, i tried to get some of this new generation to roll and make characters the old way and they ju7st seemed lost if their face was not on their phones with D&Dbeyond. Hardcovers will end up being a collectable thing with alternative covers or specialized content and you might end up having to collect more than one to get it all or just pay online to use the online resources. This is why i will no longer support D&D beyond or any future incarnations of the game, I have all the books i need and most of them are 3rd party books that are far better.

 

[Vincent55]

Watch the recent trends. We're seeing them look for more ways to monetize and removing more of the free support. They're trying to do a virtual tabletop where they can charge you for virtual minis. This is the new direction.

Exactly, like the way online games are doing, this is what i am getting at

 

[Vincent55]

That might be the case for you, but it’s definitely not my group’s experience. My group has spent way less on 5E than we did on 3.5E and we’re having just as much fun now with our games as we were a decade ago.

True, but notice fewer books and material support and more push to online usage it will not happen overnight but in small leaps like them gaining d&d beyond and then next eliminating older content than building and online table top world. It will be their down fall.

 

[dave2008]

This is the great thing about my print Dragon and Dungeon collection -- I just checked and they haven't been deleted.

Mine have been - flooded basement destroyed a whole box of them!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

We see in this a major drawback to content that's not really ours...that is, stuff we access via streaming or logins is really not ours. Kindle books, online music, this...if it's not on your HD alone, or your record shelf, or your bookcase, it's not yours and you can't truly control when you can access it - or if at all - or what the content will be if you do access it.

I prefer traditional ownership. You write it; I'll buy it. If you want to go back on what you wrote, tough...I bought it and can keep it.

(stops typing and puts on vinyl)

Yep, they can cancel Dragon, but my Dragon Magazines are still sitting where I left them on my bookshelf. It’s also why I prefer to buy CDs and DVDs and rip them to my computer, then add them to my media server, rather than rely on Spotify l, Netflix or the like. If I own the media, it can’t be taken from me when something gets cancelled.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Watch the recent trends. We're seeing them look for more ways to monetize and removing more of the free support. They're trying to do a virtual tabletop where they can charge you for virtual minis. This is the new direction.

And yet my hardcover books and physical minis from my fortnightly in person game are completely unaffected.

Virtual tabletops are great for when you can’t game in person, but my group couldn’t wait to get back to gathering around the same table. A couple even sat out until we could do so as they just didn’t enjoy the online experience.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

True, but notice fewer books and material support and more push to online usage it will not happen overnight but in small leaps like them gaining d&d beyond and then next eliminating older content than building and online table top world. It will be their down fall.

The fewer books was to extend the longevity of the edition. It costs a lot of money to come up with a new edition and WotC would rather keep the current one chugging along slowly with minimal salaried staff and make their money from their IP, rather than churning out book after book.

 

[Blue]

You're missing the point, the thing is before long only the online content will be the only way to get it from official sources and it will be like microtransactions are in online games.

I haven't heard that they plan on stopping selling physical books like they are now. That's non-online, non-microtransactions. Please can you provide some links to this change?

As i stated somewhere else, it is more money in renting the info online that makes people dependent on the tools online and charges for them. Sure it may be some more time with POD and hard-cover collectable books, but the push is for the online stuff really. The ease of creating a character without really reading what or how to do it, i tried to get some of this new generation to roll and make characters the old way and they ju7st seemed lost if their face was not on their phones with D&Dbeyond. Hardcovers will end up being a collectable thing with alternative covers or specialized content and you might end up having to collect more than one to get it all or just pay online to use the online resources. This is why i will no longer support D&D beyond or any future incarnations of the game, I have all the books i need and most of them are 3rd party books that are far better.

This is conjecture. Sure, they want to get money, and DnDBeyond is already doing this - for the people who are doing it online. But there hasn't been any indication that they are going to do away with the current, lucrative, physical sales, or turn them into alternate cover collectors editions only. And without that, there's still the exact same market there was before that is an alternative to what you are postulating.

 

[Oofta]

Good grief. Of course WOTC wants to make money. That's what companies do. It's how they pay the salaries of people who write the books, how they pay for their servers that host the (as yet to be revealed VTT), pay for the electricity to keep the lights on.

If and when they release a VTT, no one is going to force you to use it. We have no idea what the pricing structure will be, how it will work, what it will charge for. Other VTTs will still exist if it's too expensive, there will still be competition. Your physical books will not suddenly refuse to open unless you put a quarter in the slot. D&D remains one of the cheapest hobbies you can have and has given me more entertainment per dollar than most forms of entertainment. Except for good ol' dirt of course.

This probably could have been handled better, but is it any surprise that having bought DndBeyond that they're moving all of their web presence to that site?

 

[Nikosandros]

And dropped like hot potatoes.

But otherwise I don't disagree.

I'm aware of the problem with lack of re-publication rights when they made the Dragon Archive, but what were the problems with the AD&D 2e rules CD?