Gleemax Cheesewax

[jimgoings]

I posted on Dragon Avenue in detail about the design of Gleemax and how I think it's a sign of things to come for Wizards forthcoming online offerings. I have very low expectations. I can only hope that someone is working behind the scenes and will unveil something very awesome when 4th edition is released. I fear another 3.0 character generator fiasco.

What do you guys think? Will Wizards be able to pull off bringing D&D to the digital era? Given that their print products are generally high quality, I am starting to think that their web stuff is farmed out to the lowest bidding contractor or something.

 

[wedgeski]

Given what I've seen so far, here are my expectations for the quality of the DI at release:

- Gleemax. I think this will be excellent. The idea of an integrated social network and marketplace with a focus on gaming *in general*, not just WotC games and not just D&D, will be a winner. The design is okay, it just needs a lot of spit and polish and some simple usability changes, but I'm enjoying Gleemax already and there's plenty of time to finish it off. At this stage harping on about fonts and color schemes seems pointless... I'm sure the designers have bigger fish to fry for the moment.

- Digital Dungeon/Dragon. I don't think this will ever win over the crowd who were left with a bitter taste in their mouths after the print magazines were canceled, but the actual content seems to be on a par with the print era. Hopefully the layouts become a bit more imaginative and a real effort is made to make the downloadable PDF's feature-rich... otherwise, this already seems on track, with good article variety, good writing, good usability, and great art.

- Virtual tabletop. I have low expectations for this. The announcement presentation would have been fine if there was still 2 years to go 'til release, but there's only a few months, and unless they were showing off something that was already a year old -- and why would they? -- then I can't see it blowing anyone's socks off. I'm sure it will be servicable, but it won't be the revelation that I think it needs to be to encourage people to use it.

- Character generator. The demo looked fine. I think this will possibly be the sleeper hit of the DI, as long as the art is good and the graphics are up-to-date, as long as it's easily integrated into every other part of the DI, and as long as it 'just works' with new material.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

Jim --

"Gleemax" is apparently a card from a parody Magic set; it's a brain in a jar that secretly runs the MTG R&D division. Why they chose that particular inside joke as opposed to any other one is a mystery, but it pretty much covers the name, logo, and green-water aspects of the site's design. They're not as random as your... review/essay/thing? suggests.

 

[Bagpuss]

Have to agree with Jim, they really should not have launched at this stage. Forget the graphics the basic utility and navigation of the site is pretty terrible.

Take the calender for example, some dates are highlighted in green, to see what they are about I need to click on them. So say I click on 20th October, a little thing pops up saying "Grand Prix - Brisbane" in a "nice" green underlined font, it looks like a hyperlink, perhaps if I click it, it will tell me more about this event, but when I move my mouse over the bloody thing disappears.

So how can I find out about this Grand Prix event? I know I'll use the search feature on the top right.

Grand Prix <enter>

Hmm dialogue box pops up.

htttp://www.gleemax.com/ says

Your Search can only contain alphabetic,
numeric, and * (wildcard) characters.

What?

Grand <enter>

That works.

Prix <enter>

That works.

Grand Prix <enter>

Nope.

That's right their search engine can't even cope with a space.

 

[Merkuri]

"Gleemax" is apparently a card from a parody Magic set; it's a brain in a jar that secretly runs the MTG R&D division.

The "Gleemax" inside joke existed before the M:TG card. The card was just homage to that joke, as is the site design.

I think what's at the Gleemax site now is just a hint of what's to come. It's a very early "alpha" release (which usually is only reserved for inside testing... "beta" is usually when programs are released to the public), so by default it's already broken and poorly designed. I can't say whether I like it or not yet because it's only barely working, but I've tried it and given plenty of feedback, and plan to keep trying it and giving more feedback.

I'm not really excited about anything else Wizards is coming out with on the electronic front. I have a feeling their game table is going to be all flash/sparkle and no substance. I'd rather have something with tools I can use, like Maptool or OpenRPG, than something that looks and acts like a real, unintelligent table. I already use OpenRPG, and I haven't seen anything yet from Wizard's game table that makes me want to switch. I was kinda disappointed, actually, to see how much they planned on closely representing a real table.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

I dont want this, but I see the DI being a huge finacial mistake in the next few years.

 

[jimgoings]

Thanks for the update about the inside joke... I had no idea. The theme sorta makes sense, but I think my comments in my "editorial" are still valid as many people won't have a clue what it means.

My overall point is that you wouldn't release a book before it was ready, but do that for a website. It's absolutely silly to slap an "alpha" sticker on it as an excuse for it's present state.

Moving the designer blogs there is also nuts as it's *very* difficult to read due to the small font size. Ugh. I guess I should download the stylish plugin for FF so I can adjust the font size for that site myself.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Moving the designer blogs there is also nuts as it's *very* difficult to read due to the small font size. Ugh. I guess I should download the stylish plugin for FF so I can adjust the font size for that site myself.

And to be honest: I think it wasn't a brilliant idea to move the blogs there. If it's really an alpha, THEN YOU SHOULDN'T RUN FULL-FLEDGED STUFF ON IT. ONE DOESN'T USES ALPHAS FOR ANYTHING EXCEPT TESTING. The same is more-or-less true of betas, but "alpha" is basically a sticker, meaning "anything can happen". You simply don't use such stuff for 'officia' blogs. Even if they're used to showcase something.

Cheers, LT.

 

[hexgrid]

I suppose it could go well with the alien goo background, but the sci-fi-ish flair doesn’t make sense for a primarily D&D buying audience.

That's ok. Gleemax isn't primarily a D&D website, it's WotC's general gaming website. Speculation about future online D&D offerings should focus on DDI, not Gleemax.

 

[WayneLigon]

Thanks for the update about the inside joke... I had no idea. The theme sorta makes sense, but I think my comments in my "editorial" are still valid as many people won't have a clue what it means.

Never heard of it, myself. I figured it was some play on 'Maximizing Glee (fun)'.

So far, it's really just too early for me to have a real opinion on it. I think letting people in to kick the tires and break things is a good idea, since there are few populations as hypercritical as gamers. They might get some very valuable info out of this phase.

I think that so far, things are just far too clunky. It seems like they're trying to reinvent the wheel when they could pick an already-existing online format and just use that. The 'blogging' feature is .. well, it's all clunky. Too many steps to do common, normal things that should be resolved with one click or a menu of options.

Hopefully we'll also get rid of the Google ads when they move to the paid phase. They're intrusive, and the people who really dislike them will simply find a plugin that makes them invisible, so they serve no purpose.