Interview with Scott Rouse, Chris Perkins & Bill Slavicsek

[Vigilance]

Asking for input and having ideas of their own are not mutually exclusive. Showing at least one of the cards in their hand would have allayed a lot of people's concerns.

As my father likes to say, this ain't rocket surgery.

We now know that we're getting print compilations, and that the amount of content will be equal to what was delivered in Dungeon and Dragon "or more" at a comparable price.

Those are things we didn't know before.

They showed some of their cards, they just didn't give the mea culpa some people seemed to be wanting or expecting.

 

[Zaukrie]

First: nice start in recovering from the PR fiasco so far. While it won't placate many, it will likely help the process for some.

Second: If I don't own the content (not tools, but content) under this plan, I'm 100% out. I've purchsed Dragon on and off (mostly on) since issue 14 or so, and I own about 1/2 of the Dungeon magazines. I want to have what I pay for, so if portability is not an option (and I mean 100% I can put it on any storage device I want for the rest of my life and my kids' life).

Third: What do I want:

All the classic articles: Giants in the Earth, monster ecologies, new monsters, adventure paths, stand alone adventures, demonicon (already a classic), new spells, faiths of faerun, pretty much what I've got for the last few years, and from the glory years. I want new, non-WotC authors to get a chance, I want WotC authors. I want art, really want art. I can't stand monster articles w/o art. I want to be able to print any content I paid for. I want maps in 1'=5' scale for every adventure. I want content that is unique to the site, and content that is in support of published products.

I want tools: character, monster, mapping, whatever tool you can think of in support of a DM or player, I want it. I want to be able to look up feat trees. I want to be able to put in my own house rules. I want you to experiment with new design ideas.

I want WotC to be more involved with their fans on line.

I want you to take the best content from througout the history of Dragon and print it in compendiums (heck, I think Erik has done most of the work for you here).

Frankly I still want both magazines in hard copy, but that wasn't your question.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

What do I want from the DI?

What do I want from the Digital Initiative?

I've been running (and occasionally playing) in D&D games regularly since 3e was released. Since 2000, I've had three different 5 person groups. In each group, I was the only person who ever (semi-)regularly picked up a Dungeon or Dragon magazine printed in the 21st century. I was also the only person who mined the freebies and articles from the WotC website.

So, if anyone in my group is going to get in on the DI, it's going to be me.

What I want from the DI is something cost-effective that I can use in my weekly tabletop games. I'll have to print out anything I plan on using for the group, so I expect the subscription price to reflect that. Five bucks a month, max. This isn't a MMORPG after all.

I want battle maps and visual aids I can print out, with a low-ink option for most of them.

I want more revisions of old modules WITHOUT tie-ins to non core products. I didn't mind the tie-ins/promotions when they adventures were free. If I'm paying for them, that's a different story.

I want all the material released in the DI to be open material. I want the DI to have a private community dedicated to refining d20/D&D into a sleek, easy-to-play, OGL ruleset that can stand the test of time.

I want the impossible.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Get down your high horse, Ari. Please.

Beg pardon? People have been screaming bloody murder, comparing WotC's actions to assault and even rape, and it's inappropriate of me to have finally lost patience and object? I don't think so.

You know that anything that you'll say about the topic will be associated with the fact you've been/are writing for WotC.

Ah, yes. I forgot about the "turning over my free will" part of the contract I signed with WotC.

Oh, wait. No, I didn't sign that section.

Maybe you're referring to the "Freelancers for WotC aren't allowed to express an opinion" part of ENWorld's terms of use.

Nope. Didn't check that box, either.

Here's a stunner for you. I disagree with WotC on this. I don't think they should have canceled the magazines.

Doesn't mean I'm suddenly excused from common courtesy and basic human decency when discussing it.

How about at least some acknowledgment that the people who are trying to answer our questions, to the best of their ability, have their hands tied by people higher up in the company? How about at least some acknowledgment that WotC isn't a faceless, monolothic entity, and that the real people who are being insulted and denegrated across the Internet are fellow gamers, fans of D&D, writers and developers, most of whom had no say in this decision at all?

Trust me, you haven't seen high horse from me yet.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Nice job, Morrus. It's so great that you've stepped up as an ambassador for the community, and organized these questions. And kudos to Scott, Bill, and Chris for being so forthcoming.

Someone earlier griped "many words, little content", and reading the interview I just don't understand how that opinion could have been formed. Given the realities of a publicly traded company (it's ILLEGAL to reveal certain information prematurely) they're astoundingly open.

For ideas on what the DI should be, this thread has a bunch:


WotC is going online. What do you want the digital initiative to be?

-z

 

[Riley]

People have been screaming bloody murder, comparing WotC's actions to assault and even rape

I haven't seen anyone actually compare this action to rape. Maybe I missed it. However, I do keep reading posts claiming that people have been comparing this to rape.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I haven't seen anyone actually compare this action to rape. Maybe I missed it. However, I do keep reading posts claiming that people have been comparing this to rape.

It might've been edited out by a moderator by now, but it happened. It was in one of the first threads about this whole issue, the day Paizo made the announcement.

 

[LeaderDesslok]

Thanks for doing all the work compiling the questions Morrus, and thanks to Scott, Bill, and Chris for responding.

I was hoping for more information about pricing but had a feeling it was still too early to get anything solid. I don't expect we'll get real numbers until August.

I would have liked some idea about content structure besides an undecided plan for DRM (which I despise; I barely tolerate watermarking). Will it be PDFs? Unlikely, considering that they expect to have very frequent updates. Will there be a searchable database of posted content? No idea from the responses given. Will it be Open Game Content? Unlikely, considering that nothing WotC has done after the core rules has been OGC (nor any Dungeon/Dragon content).

Most problematic to me was the non-answer to the questions regarding the kind of content that will be available. I applaud their "turning the question around" and asking us what kind of content we want to see. However, before they turned it around I would have liked at least one example of content that is definitely going to make it into the DI.

Ultimately, I'm still left with an empty feeling. We got a few definites on things that don't directly impact the DI, like submissions from freelancers. We got some notion of what is still being decided on, like the pricing structure and DRM concerns. BUT when all is said and done, we still know absolutely nothing about the content of the DI product.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We now know that we're getting print compilations, and that the amount of content will be equal to what was delivered in Dungeon and Dragon "or more" at a comparable price.

Those are things we didn't know before.

They showed some of their cards, they just didn't give the mea culpa some people seemed to be wanting or expecting.

I don't see anyone in this thread looking for a mea culpa, they want to know what the heck is going to be in the DI. That it'll be compiled into a hardcopy form and they will be pricing it at or near the Dungeon/Dragon magazine price are both terribly unsurprising and not telling us what the DI will actually be.

 

[Riley]

It might've been edited out by a moderator by now, but it happened. It was in one of the first threads about this whole issue, the day Paizo made the announcement.

There's always one idiot - until they get banned. Good riddance. [Edit: Or better yet, apologize and admit their error, as mentioned below] I'd like to think that we might move past what that one person said, and talk on a more reasoned level.