Dungeon and dragon WOTC forums

[helium3]

Mind you, this left the door open for other people to do magazines.

It did suck that the print versions were canceled. Though, if they did the DDI right it could actually be better for Freelancers, as more eyeballs would actually see their material.

It certainly did leave the door open, though. I actually think that people are seriously underestimating just how many doors they're potentially leaving open.

 

[Incenjucar]

A little honesty will buy a lot of grace.

"Well, we bit of a bit much. We're having trouble juggling it all right now. Please be patient and after we get 4e launched we'll be able to give the 'magazines' and DDI more attention, as they deserve."

Instead we get, "Every thing's fine. We have everything under control. Going just how we want it to." Even when it's obvious that it's simply not the case.

When has the last time the owners of D&D didn't have a terrible case of foot-in-mouth disease?

 

[Khairn]

When has the last time the owners of D&D didn't have a terrible case of foot-in-mouth disease?

Good point. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't ask them to improve. Or that we shouldn't get irritated when they decide not to reply.

 

[kennew142]

"Better Living Through Alchemy"
"Quadruple Wielding: Cool, or AWESOME?"
"There's More Than One Way: 101 Cat-Skinning Related Feats"

I did say most, not all.

I've found a lot of good articles in dragon over the years. I have every issue up to the present. I bought the CD when it came out, but I had been collecting from issue #49.

I always loved the Ed Greenwood FR articles, Midkemia, Voyages of the Princess Ark, Monster Ecologies, etc.... The list is really endless. I found fewer articles to be useful to me as time went on. Most of the rules mechanics were not things that suited my games, either due to flavor, lack of need or the fact that the rules were somewhat less well play-tested than I would have liked.

This has nothing to do with Paizo, whom I believe did a pretty good job. The fact is that crunch has edged out flavorful articles with increasing frequency over the years. This may be due to an increased desire for crunch on behalf of the readers of the magazine. For whatever reason, I have found the magazine to be less useful as the years have gone by.

I've used articles that introduce new alchemical items or monsters. I've loved the articles that delve into published campaign worlds. But I still haven't allowed any of the prestige classes, feats, etc... into any of my campaigns. There were too many mechanics that appeared to be overpowered, or so underpowered as to be worthless. I never felt the desire to playtest them myself.

This has been my love-hate relationship with Dragon from the beginning.

Dungeon OTOH has been almost universally interesting. I did some checking since my last post. I've purchased every single issue of Dungeon, but I've only ever run seven scenarios from the entire run. I've been inspired to run scenarios based on what I've read much more often.

I am sad to see the Print magazines go, but I find pdf copies to be more useful. I haven't been wowed by the content of DDI so far, but I'm still not finding it inferior to what I had before. If there were a lot articles with 3e mechanics in them, I probably wouldn't even read them. I am only interested in the 4e preview material, and information that is edition free. I sure wish there was more of it, but I've found more interesting articles since the 4e announcement than in the previous several years of the print magazine.

 

[Incenjucar]

Good point. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't ask them to improve. Or that we shouldn't get irritated when they decide not to reply.

I think the issue is that there has never been anyone who has worked deeply enough for D&D who has enough power and respect who is really really good at this aspect of things.

At this rate, I don't think things can improve until there is some kind of merger with another group that already has the appropriate qualities, because I don't think anyone who is a deep member of the D&D crew can JUDGE such a thing so as to find it.

We are asking the colorblind to assemble a rainbow.

 

[Khairn]

We are asking the colorblind to assemble a rainbow.

I just don't see it that way. I see it as asking a company that is apparently focused on understanding what their customers want, to actually communicate more than just what they want us to know. I don't think its that hard to respond to the questions that have been asked. With the years of planning that have already gone into 4E, finding someone who can interact with their customers seems kind of a no-brainer.

 

[Incenjucar]

From what I can see, the options are "Incapable" or "Unwilling."

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming "Incapable."

I don't see them stabbing themselves in the foot on purpose.