Gleemax = Enworld

[Mortellan]

Gleemax? *laughs hysterically and moves on*

 

[Bayushi Seikuro]

Sounds like a bad Fifties sci-fi drug name from a story where everyone eventually takes Gleemax (For Maximum Happiness!) and become mindless automatons serving the greater good of society.

I think you might be mistaking it for Kids in the Hall: Braincandy.

 

[Henry]

Still, I can't remember a moment in the last year that I've felt more sad, more alone, and more up against the impossible than I do right now.

Mike, there's no reason to feel that way, like Kevin said. Most of the successful people got where they are by not putting stock into fears of impossibility, or worry that the bigger guy was going to shut him out. The success came from going the best job they knew how to do. Be Proud, Kick Butt, and others will follow.

Not to mention, I don't see this Gleemax subsite, or even the Digital Initiative when it comes, as competitors to ENWorld, and from what I've seen so far, WotC's been nothing but cordial. I certainly hope the new drive to reach out to the fans continues, and that the goodwill doesn't change. If it were, however, we'd keep on trucking and doing the best we know how.

 

[Aeolius]

Gleemax? *laughs hysterically and moves on*

Agreed. I actively avoided anything with the name Gleemax at wizards.com, simply because I couldn't take the name seriously. I would have much preferred "Flumphy-poo".

 

[GlassJaw]

After reading some of the press releases, I'm really exicited by this. I think WotC is really on the right track here. In its simplest form, it's Myspace for gamers - frakkin brilliant. It also sounds like a single portal to tie all their product lines together and to deliver new content. A bold endeavor but a necessary one I think.

I think the name works too. It's quirky, it's easy to remember, and you really don't know it is exactly. It kind of reminds me of NERPS from Shadowrun.

 

[Merkuri]

Do people even bother to read threads anymore?

Did they ever?

I admit, I've been guilty of just skimming over a long thread in order to post my thoughts, only to find out later that what I said was already posted a few times (as was the case in this thread, I think). They've done studies that say the average internet user only reads something like the first couple sentences in a paragraph, so four pages of conversation is just too much for most people to sit through before they can make themselves heard.

I think this thread has turned into one of those where people react to things written on the first page without reading the rest, and since there seems to be just two or three schools of thought on the subject they end up repeating themselves again and again.

 

[Hussar]

After reading some of the press releases, I'm really exicited by this. I think WotC is really on the right track here. In its simplest form, it's Myspace for gamers - frakkin brilliant. It also sounds like a single portal to tie all their product lines together and to deliver new content. A bold endeavor but a necessary one I think.

I think the name works too. It's quirky, it's easy to remember, and you really don't know it is exactly. It kind of reminds me of NERPS from Shadowrun.

Exactly.

Lots of people have wiki's or other pages for running their games. I'm quite sure that fair numbers of the people reading this have web pages for their games. A central space, myspace style, where you can stick up a page for your game, plus, hopefully, a VTT setup (perhaps cross pollinated with the DI) would be great.

How is this even remotely in competition with ENWorld? I dunno about you, but, it's pretty hard for me to run the EnWorld Virtual Table Top. Maybe that's a subscriber feature I was unaware of? Perhaps I can host my campaign wiki on Enworld as well. I don't know, I never realized that those features were here.

This is a completely different beast.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Guys -

First of all, it isn't fair to insult Gleemax based on a preview. When it finally debuts maybe it'll be incredibly useful, and maybe not, but consider this - WotC is going to do everything they can to make it as cool and useful as possible. This is high profile and very important -- and they have a lot of talented and ingenious people who love D&D. Frankly, I'm betting it's going to be awfully good, and that's a GOOD thing.

I would disagree with you on the first point but agree with you on the rest. The point of a preview is to give the potential customer a glimpse at what is being offered in order to wet thier appettite for the final product. In this case I feel they failed misserably. I too feel that the overall concept has some merrit and is worth a shot to see if it works. The problem is that the preview presented has absolutely nothing to do with the main concept.

First they picked a name that only has meaning to insiders and one particular game (and only to the hardcore players who bought Unhinged) and additionally opens itself to ridicule. Why not pick a name that can be understood and embraced by all gamers if this is supposed to be a site for all gamers.

Next up they make a temporary website where people can go once the name and concept has been released. This website however also has nothing to do with a website for all gamers. Instead it is a website about a game based on a character from M:tG. The content of this temporary site should be promoting the final concept and telling people what to expect. Additionaly the boards there are all about the game as well instead of covering the concept. There should be at least a section if not the main premise of those boards to talk about the main concept and help build a real community that will migrate to the final product. This community could also provide suggestions and ideas about what a community for gamers should include.

Lastly they also take this temporary website and skin it in the worst way possible. As harsh as it sounds radioactive cat urine is a fairly acurate description of the impression given. The color combination alone is siomething that will turn off alot a people stopping by to check it out for the first time. Once more this is supposed to be about all gamers but instead they skin it in color combinations that will turn away many otherwise interested people. I personally found it irritating to just look at the site even though I was interested to find out what it was about. I certainly won't be using the forums because of this issue alone even if they changed them to cover the main concept.

For these reasons I feel that once more WotC marketing and PR have failed at thier jobs. WotC has an interesting idea and one that certainly deserves exploring. It is quite possible that the design and implementation people will come through in the end but they will be so while at the same time trying to overcome future resistance to thier idea that customers might have based on thier impressions of this preview.

While the language in some of these posts may be harsh and insulting the point still needs to be gotten accross. If this is supposed to be for and about gamers then they need to listen to the gamers. So far the gamers have spoken and while they may be for the main concept of a myspace for gamers they are certainly against the actual solid product released so far however limited it might be. If the final product is going to be a success they need to hear and understand that the final product needs to be nothing like the preview we have right now. To continue down this path and leave up the existing preview website will only handicap the success of the final product.

 

[Nebulous]

What the hell? Out of the gagillion options available to them, they picked the name "GleeMax?" For maximum glee? Fun-a-rific!

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

After reading some of the press releases, I'm really exicited by this. I think WotC is really on the right track here. In its simplest form, it's Myspace for gamers - frakkin brilliant.

The shoals of the internet are littered with the wrecks of companies that made business plans around the concept of 'It's just like (Google/Yahoo/Ebay/Amazon/YouTube/MySpace] but for [GenXers/Baby Boomers/Whatever]'.

If you want to grow the hobby, you don't take a 'build it and they will come' attitude. You go to where they are. This may do very well with existing CCG/CMG players, but I don't think it will have any impact on growing the hobby.