Dragon/WotC conspiracy article

[SteelSilvershield]

It's interesting to me that so many people who know so little about D&D and the d20 industry write so many articles about it

oh hoh. Good one...

Patently untrue. I have every single issue of the Nintendo magazine, Nintendo Power and it has never covered games for other systems. The closest it ever came to that was having a small section on arcade games, but that was deep-sixed back around the start of the '90's.

Right, but it covers all the games made and sold by OTHER companies such as Capcom. They pay royalties to Nintendo. Dragon covers a single company. Nintendo Power covers a platform. RRRRT, ah Nintendo Power is put out by Nintendo. But it does cover the products of other companies. I can see the likeness. They probably don't talk bad about any Nintendo games?

Some try, and just have trouble getting them published.

Silven Crossroads is always looking for writers who are willing to speak their mind. If you want to write about D&D/d20, you'll have to put up with me and the pay ain't great. Silven Crossroads is a community website that is nurtured by volunteers such as myself. There are other sections to Silven such as the Silven Trumpeter our free monthly PDF magazine that is general to RPGs, and our CRPG and our Other RPG sections. Here's Silven Crossroads' Application Page if you're interested.

-Bradford Ferguson, conspiracy theorist

 

[diaglo]

With all this talk, I am curious if there is an independent magazine out there that objectively discusses the gaming industry.

OD&Dities by Richard Tongue. aka Methuslah

edit: link: http://www.tongue.fsnet.co.uk/

 

[Qwillion]

Dungeon and Dragon

Welll Steel I told you so!

Though Steel does make one valid point, I can buy Dragon at a number of non-gaming stores now. Dragon could be the outreach magazine that a new player picks up.

will that new player know that Dragon Magazine is a house organ.

Personally, I do not think it matters, most of learn to play dnd through grass roots efforts. (A freind introduced us and explained it all too us.) To me the article gets the "Well Duh" response because of this, Yet step back and take a look from outside the industry, would you really know?

Dragon and Dungeon are the flagship magazines, every one in the industry reads them, they are the most influentual publications within the industry. Monte Cook, you have said as much on your own website, in your advice on breaking in the industry. If you want to be in this industry, you best be published in these magazines. So how much influence do these magazines have when theu publish an open gaming article like Monte Cook's Dragon magic or The Prestige Races from Oathbound?

I think the answer here is to request that Piazo take the risk on the Polyhedren d20 magazine on its own. For years I have heard people decry that Dungeon could survive as a monthly book and it has done so. I believe the same holds true for the Polyhedren.

In this area I believe that both Piazo, the industry and the game would benifit.

A Silven Writer.

 

[jeffh]

Patently untrue. I have every single issue of the Nintendo magazine, Nintendo Power and it has never covered games for other systems. The closest it ever came to that was having a small section on arcade games, but that was deep-sixed back around the start of the '90's.

It may not cover games for other systems but that was not the claim. The claim was that it covers games made by other companies besides Nintendo, which it certainly did last time I checked. The equivalent would be Dragon sticking to D20 but freely publishing articles for D20 Modern, M&M, popular third-party fantasy products like Book of the Righteous, etc. (Which I don't think is such a bad idea, come to that, but certainly isn't the current situation.) As it is, articles that so much as mention non-WotC D20 products are fairly unusual.

 

[johnsemlak]

With all this talk, I am curious if there is an independent magazine out there that objectively discusses the gaming industry.

Closest thing I can think of is the EN World Player's Journal.

 

[der_kluge]

I think the main difference between something like Dragon and something like Nintendo Power, or White Dwarf is that in the latter two, it's OBVIOUS that they are vehicles of advertising for their respective companies.

Dragon USED to have articles on other RPGs. It runs ads of other companies. It has the appearance of being an unbiased, third party publication.

I am naive in my belief that I might get my next issue of Dragon, and find thoughtful, insightful articles about the industry itself, or about d20 publications, or reviews, or something that's not just more useless feats and classes.

This is why I won't be renewing my subscription when it comes up.

 

[King of Old School]

The thing is, the idea that newbies might be fooled by the non-explicit nature of the Paizo-Wizards link is incompatible with the argument that people might think this because Dragon used to have non-D&D, non-TSR articles. If you're old enough to remember such articles in Dragon, you're too old to think that Dragon is anything but a house organ. Full stop.

KoOS

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

OD&Dities by Richard Tongue. aka Methuslah

edit: link: http://www.tongue.fsnet.co.uk/

Thanks!

 

[Greatwyrm]

I am naive in my belief that I might get my next issue of Dragon, and find thoughtful, insightful articles about the industry itself, or about d20 publications, or reviews, or something that's not just more useless feats and classes.

This is why I won't be renewing my subscription when it comes up.

Well, I think you may have subscribed to the wrong magazine. If you want industry articles, third party d20 news, and something besides D&D rules, Dungeon would probably serve you better.

 

[Alzrius]

The equivalent would be Dragon sticking to D20 but freely publishing articles for D20 Modern, M&M, popular third-party fantasy products like Book of the Righteous, etc. (Which I don't think is such a bad idea, come to that, but certainly isn't the current situation.) As it is, articles that so much as mention non-WotC D20 products are fairly unusual.

I think the equivalent would be more along the lines of Dragon reviewing or generally having articles relating to D&D products written by freelancers and purchased/commissioned by WotC. I admittedly misunderstood the Nintendo Power comment before, but the situation is pretty much the same - those games are all licensed by (and in use for) Nintendo, the same way that someone not working for WotC can write products for them.