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<blockquote data-quote="RyanD" data-source="post: 3812461" data-attributes="member: 3312">One thing I think people mis-remember is how powerful the internet was in 1999.&nbsp; We had data that showed that a small number, perhaps less than 30% of the market &quot;used the world-wide web&quot; in 1998.&nbsp; Eric's site was like a megaphone:&nbsp; there just weren't that many places to get D&amp;D content, so eventually a huge percentage of the on-line audience migrated to it.&nbsp; That allowed us to use it for leverage.&nbsp; We could get info out to Eric, and then it would propagate rapidly to a large percentage of the internet-connected D&amp;D player community.But we couldn't just rely on the internet.&nbsp; We still had to spend a lot of time on print media, especially DRAGON magazine.&nbsp; A whole lot of people reading Dragon didn't use the web, or if they did, they used it sporadically for shopping, not for &quot;reading about D&amp;D&quot;.This time 'round, ENWorld is important, but not critical.&nbsp; There are hundreds of places to reach gamers on the web.&nbsp; WotC, for its part, wants to make Gleexmax/D&amp;D On-Line a premiere part of that system.&nbsp; So now there's a conflict of interest.&nbsp; If WotC pushed content out to the internet at large, it devalues content it wants to put on its own site.&nbsp; Whereas my team had some small battles with DRAGON about what we were &quot;leaking&quot;, everyone knew that there were still clear divisions in the on-line vs. print audience.&nbsp; Today, those lines are gone.You can't put that lightening back in the bottle; each new generation needs to evolve its own success strategy.Ryan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="RyanD, post: 3812461, member: 3312"] One thing I think people mis-remember is how powerful the internet was in 1999. We had data that showed that a small number, perhaps less than 30% of the market "used the world-wide web" in 1998. Eric's site was like a megaphone: there just weren't that many places to get D&D content, so eventually a huge percentage of the on-line audience migrated to it. That allowed us to use it for leverage. We could get info out to Eric, and then it would propagate rapidly to a large percentage of the internet-connected D&D player community. But we couldn't just rely on the internet. We still had to spend a lot of time on print media, especially DRAGON magazine. A whole lot of people reading Dragon didn't use the web, or if they did, they used it sporadically for shopping, not for "reading about D&D". This time 'round, ENWorld is important, but not critical. There are hundreds of places to reach gamers on the web. WotC, for its part, wants to make Gleexmax/D&D On-Line a premiere part of that system. So now there's a conflict of interest. If WotC pushed content out to the internet at large, it devalues content it wants to put on its own site. Whereas my team had some small battles with DRAGON about what we were "leaking", everyone knew that there were still clear divisions in the on-line vs. print audience. Today, those lines are gone. You can't put that lightening back in the bottle; each new generation needs to evolve its own success strategy. Ryan [/QUOTE]

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