'Dungeons & Dragons' fights for its future

[xechnao]

IMO even an annual subscription is still grossly overpriced. But this is not the only problem with it: it is if you trust the functionality and the lasting of this functionality for a year. It does not equally compare with the 15$ a month versus the sacrifice of a larger sum of money to get a discount in the long turn and be sure that you will be enjoying the same product and the same service though: you cant trust them at this point with what they have done with it till now.

 

[mattcolville]

Well, to be fair, "D&D is doing Pretty Much the Same as it has for the past 5 years" is not exactly a catchy headline. The story does need a bit of a slant.

Yes, but "D&D is obsolete because now there's WoW" is not journalism. No more so than the average thread in this forum is.

 

[Erik Mona]

But that's not really what the article says, either.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Yes, but "D&D is obsolete because now there's WoW" is not journalism. No more so than the average thread in this forum is.

Right...

...but since the article doesn't say anything NEAR that...

...where are you getting that?

 

[Aristotle]

It's not horrible but I dislike any comparison of online games to tabletop games, or any inferrence that one is replacing the other. I do both and so do most of the gamers I know. They are two different experiences and I wouldn't want to stop doing either.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It's not horrible but I dislike any comparison of online games to tabletop games, or any inferrence that one is replacing the other. I do both and so do most of the gamers I know. They are two different experiences and I wouldn't want to stop doing either.

But if, like (I'm guessing) most Americans, if you didn't have time for both?

You have a job.

You have a workout regimen.

You go out on the weekends.

You have kids who need you to pick them up/drop them off/go to their recitals, soccer games, etc.

If you only have so much time in a week for "gaming," what eats up that time?

The DDI's use of the internet to remove the barrier of distance is one way to make D&D easier, more accessible, and to give people something to do together.

A lot like WoW can gather people in different cities to go on a raid.

 

[Hussar]

Immolate - A very excellent post. Well done you.

IMO even an annual subscription is still grossly overpriced. But this is not the only problem with it: it is if you trust the functionality and the lasting of this functionality for a year. It does not equally compare with the 15$ a month versus the sacrifice of a larger sum of money to get a discount in the long turn and be sure that you will be enjoying the same product and the same service though: you cant trust them at this point with what they have done with it till now.

Let's not forget a few things with the subscription price though. You are getting Dungeon AND Dragon in there as well. That, right there, would be 10 or 15 bucks a month in print. The VTT is an added element, not the only element.

Look at another way - does you WOW subscription give you 200 pages of magazines to go with it?

 

[xechnao]

Immolate - A very excellent post. Well done you.



Let's not forget a few things with the subscription price though. You are getting Dungeon AND Dragon in there as well. That, right there, would be 10 or 15 bucks a month in print. The VTT is an added element, not the only element.

Look at another way - does you WOW subscription give you 200 pages of magazines to go with it?

I was not talking about the VTT but rather the whole package. How can we trust at this point that we will get a 2000 pages a year worth of "dungeon" and "dragon" that Paizo had been making so far -and rather even more since there would be no physical value (just online info)?
Are they going to hire new people? If so why haven't they done so far? I am not sure I can trust this plan working out as it should be at this point. Perhaps they are trying the "give less" method of promoting DDI but which is exactly the contrary of 3e marketing philosophy -at least on startup. So is this how their customers really go active right now or is it due to a lack of organization?
What do you think it is?

 

[Faraer]

Yes, but "D&D is obsolete because now there's WoW" is not journalism.

Repeating the 'geek' prejudice as a fact certainly isn't.

 

[Hussar]

I was not talking about the VTT but rather the whole package. How can we trust at this point that we will get a 2000 pages a year worth of "dungeon" and "dragon" that Paizo had been making so far -and rather even more since there would be no physical value (just online info)?
Are they going to hire new people? If so why haven't they done so far? I am not sure I can trust this plan working out as it should be at this point. Perhaps they are trying the "give less" method of promoting DDI but which is exactly the contrary of 3e marketing philosophy -at least on startup. So is this how their customers really go active right now or is it due to a lack of organization?
What do you think it is?

Dungeon Issue 153=4 modules 200+ pages
Dungeon Issue 152=3 modules 150 pages
Dungeon Issue 151=1 module 94 pages

Not counting articles, Dungeon's page count hasn't dropped at all from the time Paizo was doing it. Note, Paizo was doing monthly and WOTC is doing bimonthly. So, exactly how are they "giving less"?

Let's look on the Dragon side of things too:

Dragon 360=75 pages

Dunno about the other two since they haven't been compiled yet. Kinda like how we waited several months for the free supplements from Paizo. But, again, 75 pages is pretty much exactly the same page count we got from Dragon, when you start knocking out pages for comics and advertising.

Now, I'll admit that Dragon has been disappointing. It's been pretty light on the ground since they're bi-monthly (or more) and haven't been doing a whole lot of material. But, since Dungeon's been pretty much on the ball, I don't think Dragon will be too far behind.

Maybe I'm just over optimistic, but, considering these are free, I'm not going to bitch a whole lot about them. I get told to shut up when I complain about the Paizo web-enhancements, so, I guess I should just shut up here too.