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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shemeska" data-source="post: 4401898" data-attributes="member: 11697">Honestly, was anyone surprised by this? Gleemax was a potentially great idea that had the worst possible implimentation in the world. Forum structure got upended, mixed and put through a blender to the point where it drove quite a number of long-time posters away from the boards (only to do the same thing again once 4e rolled in). The new order behind Gleemax ended up seeing many of the pre-Gleemax WizOs resign or get fired (I've heard some bad stories), which doesn't help for your PR when that sort of stuff trickles out into public time and time again. The VCL / Forum Lead program ended up looking like WotC fanboys pulled together -and without any training beyond zealotry- given posse rights to stamp out dissent about the awesomeness that Gleemax was. A lot of bad moves that compounded on each other repeatedly.The original color scheme that marketing apparently came up with for Gleemax had zero viability for use on an online forum, because it freaking hurt your eyes to read. It was like a hundred flying dire monkeys jabbing pins into your brain.Over the past year the bloated thing has been in a perpetual "Alpha". Today, despite the high minded notion that now that it's in the grave, we're told that they'll be able to put all their time and energy towards making the DDI work, but I have to ask just what time and effort is now free to be used for DDI? I can't honestly say I saw anything new added (or fixed) from Gleemax's launch till now when they put a bullet in its head. Maybe I just didn't follow it after getting so jaded about the whole thing after the first few months.I really worry that there's bargain basement coding by the lowest bidder at work here, and little to no management understanding of just how much in over their heads the DDI coders might actually be. I don't really expect any functional portions of the DDI to be out by GenCon, and at this point I'm not sure it will ever be out. Even if they do manage to put it out, albeit grossly past promised deadlines, they've obliterated consumer confidence in their ability to deliver a functional product. They've shot themselves in the foot, and they're trying to rationalize the end result as somehow being a good thing.I might be wrong. On some level I hope I am, and that they end up learning a lesson and come out of this humbled and willing to listen to their community rather than the job they've done so far over on Gleemax in the past year. In the meantime, I won't be surprised to see some heads roll over there among management involved with this whole thing. I really don't want to speculate much on there being any link between this, the novel lines getting trimmed (that truly sucks for you Ari...), and Hasbro's profit expectations. Too soon and too little data, but if there's a link, I won't be surprised given how much $ WotC sunk into Gleemax with now zero return on a year of time and budget expense.</blockquote>

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