Gleemax = Enworld

[Cthulhudrew]

BECAUSE GLEEMAX COMMANDS YOU TO!

The Computer says Gleemax is a Commie. The Computer is your friend.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I can't get excited about the stupidity of the name. Google, Yahoo, YouTube, eBay, Wikipedia, Amazon (what's the relationship to selling books? all the trees in the Amazon Basin cut down for pulp? awesome) . . . unlikely names become big successes.

 

[molonel]

That's part of a game they were using to introduce Gleemax that started with a bunch of people being sent foam brains in the mail with a code on them. The extra characters are a code that sends you further down the game trail. That part's been solved by people chatting in the Gleemax part of the WotC boards.

*shrug*

I guess I wasn't on the foam brain mailing list.

 

[Maggan]

I realize that there are going to be people who defend WotC up until they start slaughtering small children on the lawn, or something similarly indefensible, but come on. Cancelling Dragon and Dungeon the way they did, and then this?

I wasn't very upset about the cancellation of Dungeon and Dragon, and I'm not in the least upset about WotC launching another product in their portfolio.

I'm waiting for the Digital Intiative for D&D, and I fail to be bothered by Gleemax. It hasn't changed my life to the worse. Nor to the better, I guess.

/M

 

[Klaus]

"Gleemax"?

I mean, seriously, "Gleemax"?

Don't they have marketing people?







"Gleemax"? Really?

 

[Maggan]

"Gleemax"?

I mean, seriously, "Gleemax"?

Don't they have marketing people?

Probably. And since the name is widely debated, and has lodged itself in my brain, I guess that they even have shrewd marketers.

Creating and/or assigning names for new services, products and/or even companies is very, very difficult. I've done it a few times, and the amount of work that goes into finding a name that people agree upon that is not already taken is staggering.

EDIT: I'll amend my post saying that finding names can be very difficult. Sometimes it's very simple, but that's more the exception than the norm.

/M

 

[Mark Hope]

>awesomely funny picture<
-Hyp.

Thankyou so much

 

[Khairn]

I'm waiting for the Digital Intiative for D&D, and I fail to be bothered by Gleemax.

/M

The way I read it, there is no actual "DI" for D&D alone. The DI is an all-encompassing business model meant to drive all WotC's gaming support through a common internet based interface. There may be some content and a few programs that are unique to D&D, but no solely D&D DI. And the first DI product that has been launched is Gleemax which will be the community interface.

So at least part 1 of the DI has arrived.

 

[D.Shaffer]

For everyone complaining about the name...well it IS lodged in your brain now, isnt it? I'm beginning to think they purposely picked it because it IS such a silly name. People made fun of 'Wii', but the name did its job of getting people to remember it.

Note, btw, it's not a M:TG ref. The M:TG card is ITSELF a reference to the joke. Gleemax was around before the card ever showed up.

 

[CharlesRyan]

I for one am pretty excited about this. I think it could be pretty darn cool, and I look forward to the social networking opportunities it provides. I totally agree with WotC's rationale: our hobby is very, very community oriented, and communities are built very differently these days than they were 5, 10, or 20 years ago. [disclaimer below]

As for the OP's concerns, I don't imagine this being especially competitive for ENworld. WotC's mandate is to serve a broad community; ENworld's niche is to serve a narrower slice of more deeply invested gamers. If Gleemax were a threat to ENworld, ENworld would already be threatened by WotC's D&D message boards, which currently get something line 10x the traffic ENworld gets. (And I for one will not stop visiting ENworld every day, even when I have my full-fledged Gleemax account.)

[Disclaimer: This is all new to me; I know nothing more about Gleemax than anyone else here. This is, I think, the very first major initiative from WotC that wasn't under way or being discussed when I was at the company, so I have no preconceptions or insider knowledge.]