Good day, gentlemen. Has anyone noticed a striking change in Dragon magazine?

[brehobit]

As another old fart I stopped reading Dragon some 5-8 years ago although I got a few of them when 3.0 was first coming out.

I've been unimpressed since around 100. But I somehow suspect that has more to do with me than with Dragon.

Looking at the recent covers (last few years) the only real complaint I have is all the text on the cover.

I can say that when browsing at the store I've not been tempted to buy the mag other than those pre-3.0 days. I don't need new rules or rulings. I loved the old board games in dragon (fantasy football and king of the table top come to mind). The fiction (I loved the Cat Lord story as well as the "Everybody eats everybody on Sunday's planet".) and a few of the adventures. Heck the April fools issue with "Da Jock" and the 1/2 spells was great. I've not really seen anything compareable. But I suspect old age is to blame

 

[Hecatol]

When I moved recently I went through my collection of Dragon, issue 53 and up. While many of the articles brought back fond memories of gaming sessions, the quality and selection of content suddenly seemed less fabulous than I remembered it. Though to relate to Zogg's critique I'd have to qualify that by mentioning that I was never a fan of the short stories. I'd have to say that I'm very happy with what Paizo is putting out now.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Not good enough..

Originally posted by Zogg
Considering most of what I am referring to is artwork, marketing and general presentation, of course my statements are going to be subjective. You use the word like it's a bad thing.

I’m quite aware of the fact that people have different tastes. Nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong with preferring the old over the new, even. After all, there’s a lot to like about older issues of Dragon.

However, I used the phrase “extreme subjective ranting” with regard to this not quite objective conclusion (emphasis mine):

Originally posted by Zogg
but it needs to be said. Again. Dragon magazine is clearly a cess pool of its former self

“Clearly”? To you, obviously, but to the rest of us? I don’t think so. (If you’re going to write a grand, sweeping generalization like that, perhaps you might want to consider that list of exhibits at least one more time? )

I’ve gotten more use from Dragon (and Dungeon) magazine the past 2 years than ever before (in my 17 years of gaming). But, YMMV.

FWIW, I’ve seen several such rants-masquerading-as-arguments/conclusions (particularly with regard to the Forgotten Realms) posted on message boards and mailing lists since 3E hit the stands; all written by folks who have taken a lengthy sabbatical from gaming and returned to a vast number of changes in the game that dealt quite a shock to their system. Of course Dragon was effected a great deal by these changes.

In that regard, I can appreciate the core of where your coming from.

However, I’ve little patience for comparisons that fail to address such basic, fundamental questions as: Is the magazine still useful to DM’s? To players? Is it inspiring? Is it informative?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

He looks as if he's in the prejudging part of a body building contest in the "relaxed" pose.

Back when the MM came out, my take on that pic is that he lost his car keys, walked over to search for them, got distracted, and then forgot what he was doing. "Hmm. Now why did I come over here? I know it was important. Well, maybe not, since I forgot. I'm sure it'll come to me. OK, let's think..."

 

[Artimoff]

This why I hate message boards. Not because the original poster used a few colorfull words, but because suddenly we have every Tom, Dick, & Henry ( hi Henry ) arguing his choice of wordage. I'm really suprised that someone hasn't spellchecked his post so they can bitch at him for spelling and grammar.

I think Dragon is pretty bad, but it's always been pretty bad. 90% stuff I'd never think of useing in any campain. But that 10%, WWOW! That's great stuff!!

Edit: Un-did the attempt to fool the profanity filter, when actually the profanity filter doesn't care about that word.

 

[Eternalknight]

Right now I take Dragon issue by issue. I'm not as happy with the mag as I was at one time ... but more happy with it now than at other times. The quality (for me) just tends to do that ... sometimes what I like, sometimes not. Don't like it now? Give it a year or two. Publishers will follow the majority of their customers.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts, too.

 

[fba827]

Several of the columns mentioned here by some of you as things you would like to see return for future editions (or new things altogether) are things that would add no value to the magazine to me, personally. It might prompt you to want to read the magazine more, but at the same time those same things would make me want to read the magazine less. Conversly, some of the things that make me want to read the magazine are columns or features that some of you have already mentioned are reasons you do not like the magazine.

I find it hard to believe that there is one format that everyone will uniformly agree upon.


It's just plain and simple fact that what some people like, others will not and visa versa.

If you don't like how the magazine is formatted, send an Email or postal letter to Pazio and let them know what columns / features / art-style you would like to see more of and what columns / features / art-style that you would like to see less of.

You would accomplish much more that way (it has more chance to go into a company archieve of Email / letters) as opposed to remarking on a message board.

It does not need to go into long-winded nitpicking or personal remarks (and, in fact, to be most effective, it should not be) -- it is after all simply your opinion of what you like and what you don't like.

Remember, it is a letter to a business, not to a college friend, so keep it clear, concise, informed, and simple. Using a word from earlier in the thread, you can be impassioned in your comments to Pazio still remember that you are writing to a professional organization. Your message is probably going to garner more attention and respect if it can be seen as a professional letter (again, I am simply referring to if you were to actually write a letter, be it postal mail or Email, to Pazio).

You may very well only get back what seems like a "canned" response. But that canned response is what basically allows them to acknowledge to you that they have received and reviewed the Email. If they have any sort of internal company organization, someone will be able to read the comments in detail at some time. Even if they arenot changes that they are able to incorporate at that very issue, it would be information for them to keep available in case there is such a time that they decide to revisit the topic / possibility.

I'm sure if they would appreciate and welcome the information and constructive feedback.

They no doubt have a very hard time trying to figure out what the balance of different features would be.

Same comments go for artwork, etc. - just didn't want to keep saying "features and artwork and layout" all the time.

just my rambles.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I always get a kick out of people complaining about a magazine changing its style over a lengthy period of time. I work at a small daily newspaper that is still owned by the same family which has owned it for decades. I've worked here since 1983. I've been involved in pushes to see our publication change and "modernize," and I've been involved in pushes to see our publication "stay in touch with its roots." I have to regularly deal with people who have been reading the newspaper for 70 years or more, and don't like the changes we've made, and with people who have been reading it for less than 5, and want us to change to become more modern and put in more content they want to read.

"Dragon" has changed because the environment in which it exists has changed. Gaming has changed. Gamers have changed. Publishing and the information industry have changed. The society of the U.S. has changed. The world has changed. Too often we forget that when we are looking at our favorite magazine, or our favorite restaurant, or our the work of our favorite movie director, or our favorite sport.

"Dragon" is being written and published by people who weren't even born when many of us started gaming (raises hand). Or at least they were still in elementary school. They have grown up in a different society than the one in which we were raised. The in-your-face style of the magazine and its staff is reflected in other magazines, TV, movies, our society as a whole. I see it in all the new journalism school graduates our newspaper has hired over the past decade or more. I'm sure the old timers who were working here when I started saw the same thing in me.

That doesn't mean you can't pine for "the good old days." Just don't expect things to go back to the way they were. Because they can't.

 

[Yeoman]

Well, if you go far enough back...

But actually, the point I was trying to make specifically, is that a lot of really badly polluted waterways of the 70's have been significantly cleaned up, like Lake Eerie (I think that's teh one that used to always catch on fire), the Hudson River, and Boston Harbor. But it takes time for perception to catch up with reality.

Acutally that was the cuyahoga river in Cleveland that caught fire, and on multiple occasions too.

http://www.csuohio.edu/cestp/sol/history/pictures.html

 

[Imhotepthewise]

I have lived in years where there was Dragon and a whole year when there wasn't. That year was less for it. It was greatly missed. Some I like better than others, but it is MY MAGAZINE, and I have had a lot of fun reading it.