Gleemax = Enworld

[Mike_Lescault]

I guess that if your site is trying to be a home for a niche group of gamers (niche of a niche) and you see WotC announcing that they are now trying to gather all gamers under 1 (Gleemax) banner, then I can easily understand why they are defensive.

We've been promoting the discussion of other games and I made it a point in my blog to mention a few key community sites. Our goal is to grow the industry as a whole, not steal people from other sites.

 

[PatEllis15]

Do you expect Warhammer (Games Workshop) or Warmachine (Privateer Press) to embrace and encourage their mini's players to use "Gleemax" because WotC is designing it to be the "Gamers Home" ? Hell no.

Gleemax, and the rest of the DI is a new front in the war for your gaming $. What will be interesting is if once the price structure and content for the DI is announced to see if there is any competition.

Well, BGG doesn't publish any games, they are a fan site for Board games just like Enworld is for RPG's.

I think that if stores promote their events on Gleemax (which we've been told they will be able to), and as a result a player goes to said store, and buys an previously unseen Board Game, or 40K set, then both BGG and Games Workshop would be happy.

I don't see Gleemax being a paid service (at least it hasn't been described as such), so it wouldn't be draining my gaming dollars. Just the opposite, since if I see more opportunities to play the games I like, I may end up buming UP my gaming dollars in my budget.

Pat E

 

[Khairn]

We've been promoting the discussion of other games and I made it a point in my blog to mention a few key community sites. Our goal is to grow the industry as a whole, not steal people from other sites.

Mike, I completely understand that , and you did clearly say that in your blog. But how can WotC's intent to make Gleemax a "Home for Gamers" not be perceived as competition for sites like BGG and smaller game publishers?

Using game-neutral boards like ENWorld, BGG, RPG Net or the Forge as a place where gamers and smaller companies can promote, gather, share and grow your niche gaming community is one thing. But if you are a publisher ... doing all that over on your competitor's home field is certainly less than an exciting opportunity. Maybe something along the lines of having a BBQ over at a den of wolves. Just because the wolves invited you, doesn't necessarily mean its a smart idea.

BTW ... the wolf analogy is there for fun, not as a hit.

Again, my point in bringing this up was to say that I easily understand why some sites and some of WotC's competitors may be defensive about the DI and Gleemax's purpose to become the Home of Gamers ... not just WotC gamers, but all gamers.

 

[Nifft]

Computers => Innovation/Science => Issac Newton => "Newton's Apple"

If "innovation and discovery" + "apple" makes you think of Newton, I have more faith in humanity.

Beyond Fruit and Evil, -- N

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it's natural for established communities to feel somewhat defensive. Banning all discussion of the major player's entry into a segment of the market is an extreme overreaction, though.

 

[Mike_Lescault]

Mike, I completely understand that , and you did clearly say that in your blog. But how can WotC's intent to make Gleemax a "Home for Gamers" not be perceived as competition for sites like BGG and smaller game publishers?

Well, the internet isn't really about exclusivity. The more people we're able to bring into the hobby will mean the larger pool of folks that will be around to discover other sites, which they'll learn about on Gleemax, and then become members of.

If you check out the forums that we've set up to support the Gleemax promotion you'll see that we're talking about all the games, the publishers, and the gaming sites we can. One of the coolest parts of our industry is the smaller game publishers, and they're probably the ones who stand to gain the most.

 

[Sigdel]

Gleemax?

All I can think of is the Gleemonex pill that

'reaches into your brain "chemically," and then it locates your happiest memory "chemically," then it locks onto that emotion and freezes it "chemically," and then it keeps you happy, happy.'

from the under-rated film Brain Candy by the Kids in the Hall. Wonder if the site will be a happy, happy orange.

I was wondering if someone would pipe in and make the reference. So I guess I don't have to now.


Awwww, what the hell:

DUNK THE DRUG!

 

[Dragon Snack]

You know, I really could care less about the name.

It just DOESN'T DO ANYTHING FOR ME. Sure, it may in the future, but it's just another message board* right now.

With all the "we have 'kewl' things planned for the DI, but we can't tell you" and then the release of this - I don't have much hope. It seems like there was no plan and they are playing catch up by implementing user suggestions after the fact (the legalese posted above only serves to reinforce my opinion).

Why should I have to wait to see it become something 'new' and 'different'? It should have had at least partial functionality from day one. I can understand wanting to put something out there and improve on it, but it just came off as putting nothing out there and then patching stuff onto it. That makes me fear what the end result will look like, some sort of hogde-pogde of disparate ideas cobbled together into some Franken-site like monstrosity. Not that it's far from that right now, the poor color scheme is just one more nail in it for me.

Let's not even start about everything being run by WotC. This is a company that doesn't allow people to talk about their own novels because people 'insulted' the authors (plus the intermittent banning of whatever the 'issue of the week' is). If this is supposed to be some sort of all inclusive, talk about anything, gathering ground for gamers, banning stuff isn't going to be very conducive to the stated goals of the site. Does WotC have the stomach to endure the grit that is sure to come? Past performance better NOT be indicative of future results...

*sigh* I just can't get excited about it.


*Can you search this site? I'm thinking no, since I was logged in with my Wizards account already. That's yet another strike, especially since there are only 4 apparent forums (for a website that is going to cover EVERYTHING!?). How quickly will threads get lost once they are shoved off the front page?

PS - And now I have to watch Brain Candy. The funny thing is, one of my players just gave me the tape of this since he doesn't have a VHS player anymore...

 

[ssampier]

Y'know you've been spending too much time online when Thunderbird means internet browser before car.

And I must have spend WAY too much time online when I read your post and realized that Thunderbird is not a browser, it's an email client.

 

[Mike_Lescault]

With all the "we have 'kewl' things planned for the DI, but we can't tell you" and then the release of this - I don't have much hope. It seems like there was no plan and they are playing catch up by implementing user suggestions after the fact (the legalese posted above only serves to reinforce my opinion).

The legalese cited above is for the current forums; that aspect of Gleemax won't be available until close to launch. As far having no plan, I can see why you'd think that, but i'll try and explain why we went about it the way we did.

Why should I have to wait to see it become something 'new' and 'different'? It should have had at least partial functionality from day one. I can understand wanting to put something out there and improve on it, but it just came off as putting nothing out there and then patching stuff onto it.

The current gleemax.com is a promotional site. We decided to start the promotional site for a few reasons. We wanted to give people a heads up that this was in the works and was coming, so our communities weren't caught by surprise. We also wanted to build up some anticipation since a community orientated site without any critical mass of community will have a tough time starting out. Finally, we wanted to engage the community to take feedback and suggestions on what they'd like to see.

With those upsides, we also encounter some downsides. Some people hate the design/art/layout of the page. Some hate the color scheme (and some have trouble reading those colors). Some are frustrated because they're only receiving information and no actual social networking site features. So I think there's plenty of legitimate criticism, I am just not sure that avoiding those problems wouldn't have created even bigger problems.

Let's not even start about everything being run by WotC. This is a company that doesn't allow people to talk about their own novels because people 'insulted' the authors (plus the intermittent banning of whatever the 'issue of the week' is).

Authors can often be even more thin skinned then game designers! But seriously, sometimes authors have specific requests as part of their contracts and we have had to adhere to those agreements with our current forums. As far as intermittent banning of an issue, I've never seen that on the Wizard's forums.

If this is supposed to be some sort of all inclusive, talk about anything, gathering ground for gamers, banning stuff isn't going to be very conducive to the stated goals of the site. Does WotC have the stomach to endure the grit that is sure to come? Past performance better NOT be indicative of future results...

I agree that you can't be trying to promote open all inclusive talk on one hand, while trying to ban or censor on the other. Does WotC have the stomach to endure? I hope so. Otherwise a lot of us are going to be in serious trouble.

*Can you search this site? I'm thinking no, since I was logged in with my Wizards account already. That's yet another strike, especially since there are only 4 apparent forums (for a website that is going to cover EVERYTHING!?). How quickly will threads get lost once they are shoved off the front page?

Currently there is search for the forums, only I think it's still limited to a subset of forums users as they make sure it's stable for full search to be turned back on. When the actual gleemax.com site launches, search is something that's being built in from the beginning as we design the architecture, so our goal is to have more robust search capabilities then most other social networking sites out there.