Interview with Scott Rouse, Chris Perkins & Bill Slavicsek
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I'm glad we got some info. Though I agree that it sounds a bit on the tight-lipped side, what does concern me is that it's been in development for a year and they're not able to really announce what's *going* to be in it. Even a little. Even what they're looking at. It might not be the case, but it makes WotC sound like they went in a little half-cocked, pre-emptively saying "no more Dungeon and Dragon mags!" before they had much of a clear idea of where to go from here.
Some of the side-concerns have been very well addressed, but I still don't know what this is going to *do* for me. What's it's selling point? Why do I want it? What's the core plan for this DI?
A lot of the stuff posted in the first page is stuff that would get me to want it. MySpace style campaign pages, online tabletop play (with voice chat or similar), the ability to pop in some weekend and join an e-game would be great. Character generators, online databases for my books, the ability to edit rules online so that I can easily set up (and see the effect of) house rules.
Part of the problem with that is that D&D's forays into software have been largely lackluster. I've got no real confidence from past successes, here.
I guess what kind of unnerves me is that they decided to stop making a product people paid money for before we know what we're going to pay money for next. I have no idea what this next stage of D&D supplement will even resemble. I'd like to be excited for it already, but I've got nothing to be excited for, no reason to look at the horizon. There's just vague promises and no more Dungeon or Dragon. It's a bit freaky not knowing if those vague promises are going to pay off.
Tell me they're going to pay off, and give me reason to believe you, and I'll jump on your side, but saying "just trust us" doesn't really cut it. You just broke some hearts with these cancellations. I'm not just going to trust you. But I want to. Give me a reason to. Give me some content.
Some of the side-concerns have been very well addressed, but I still don't know what this is going to *do* for me. What's it's selling point? Why do I want it? What's the core plan for this DI?
A lot of the stuff posted in the first page is stuff that would get me to want it. MySpace style campaign pages, online tabletop play (with voice chat or similar), the ability to pop in some weekend and join an e-game would be great. Character generators, online databases for my books, the ability to edit rules online so that I can easily set up (and see the effect of) house rules.
Part of the problem with that is that D&D's forays into software have been largely lackluster. I've got no real confidence from past successes, here.
I guess what kind of unnerves me is that they decided to stop making a product people paid money for before we know what we're going to pay money for next. I have no idea what this next stage of D&D supplement will even resemble. I'd like to be excited for it already, but I've got nothing to be excited for, no reason to look at the horizon. There's just vague promises and no more Dungeon or Dragon. It's a bit freaky not knowing if those vague promises are going to pay off.
Tell me they're going to pay off, and give me reason to believe you, and I'll jump on your side, but saying "just trust us" doesn't really cut it. You just broke some hearts with these cancellations. I'm not just going to trust you. But I want to. Give me a reason to. Give me some content.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Every major game company does what I advocated. Blizzard and Bioware do it too.Zaruthustran said:I know a company that did exactly what you advocate. It was called Ion Storm. They made a game called Daikatana.
HEY, COMPETITORS! WIZARDS IS DEVELOPING AN ONLINE MAGAZINE WITH INTERACTIVE FEATURES! YOU KNOW, LIKE PYRAMID + THE STUFF THEY'VE BEEN HINTING AT FOR ABOUT NINE MONTHS!
Disclosing that they plan to continue the Ecology and Demonomicon articles would hardly be earth-shattering, but it's exactly the sort of thing the upset fans want to hear to allay their fears.
Not on this planet.
If you think a logo, a piece of art and a list of non-committed bullet point items constitutes a major disclosure, I have to wonder why the NSA is letting you post on this board during the work day.
Didn't ask for that. Repeated what I was asking for more than once.
Obergnom
First Post
Well,
I think I will just post what I want the DI to be
I have never been a regular consumer of Dragon/Dungeon Mag as they are hard to get by where I live... somewhere in Germany I own a lot of Dungeon Mags, but I got those by buying a whole bunch of them at a time...
Basically there re three things I think would makethe DI great, a way of enhancing D&D:
1. Tools! I DM, and I tend to only use core content plus a very few non content feats for my monsters and npcs... why? Cause I only ue PCGen to create those! I want a fully featured generator for PCs, NPCs, Monsters, Treasure etc. (Or many small generators...) It would make my DM life easier.
2. Patches. I have the feeling balance in D&D today is considered to be as important as in Blizzards most famous games (WoW, War3, SC)... what did Blizzard do to get finely balanced games? They patch. Thats more than errata, you could provide "alternate" versions of spells, classes etc. to fix the games balance. That would not be everyones cup of tea, but those who want would be able to get a finely balanced version of D&D. (Might be a local tick, I don't know about that. What I know is, there are many many DMs and Players here thinking as much about balance as about anything else...)
3. Content. The Most important content to me would be adventures. Players like the obious crunch, but I think you need o be carefull with that, as many DMs do not like to be suprised by the newest Feat. And making DMs read all the new stuff is a way of hightening the DM load, something no sane person wants, I think.
What I would also like to see would be some kind of nerver ending Unearthed Arcana. (Rules, Races and Classes Variants that can be used to create a different campaign from time to time.)
I think I will just post what I want the DI to be
I have never been a regular consumer of Dragon/Dungeon Mag as they are hard to get by where I live... somewhere in Germany
I own a lot of Dungeon Mags, but I got those by buying a whole bunch of them at a time...Basically there re three things I think would makethe DI great, a way of enhancing D&D:
1. Tools! I DM, and I tend to only use core content plus a very few non content feats for my monsters and npcs... why? Cause I only ue PCGen to create those! I want a fully featured generator for PCs, NPCs, Monsters, Treasure etc. (Or many small generators...) It would make my DM life easier.
2. Patches. I have the feeling balance in D&D today is considered to be as important as in Blizzards most famous games (WoW, War3, SC)... what did Blizzard do to get finely balanced games? They patch. Thats more than errata, you could provide "alternate" versions of spells, classes etc. to fix the games balance. That would not be everyones cup of tea, but those who want would be able to get a finely balanced version of D&D. (Might be a local tick, I don't know about that. What I know is, there are many many DMs and Players here thinking as much about balance as about anything else...)
3. Content. The Most important content to me would be adventures. Players like the obious crunch, but I think you need o be carefull with that, as many DMs do not like to be suprised by the newest Feat. And making DMs read all the new stuff is a way of hightening the DM load, something no sane person wants, I think.
What I would also like to see would be some kind of nerver ending Unearthed Arcana. (Rules, Races and Classes Variants that can be used to create a different campaign from time to time.)
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CanadienneBacon
Explorer
I want to be able to load it onto my iPod so I can take it to the playground where I meet with my stay-at-home mom friends so we can game at the picnic bench while the children romp on the jungle gym. Don't laugh. I'm quite serious. If I could load it onto my iPod and use that instead of lugging 20 lbs of books and 20 lbs of kid gear for a park outing, I'd happy. Could users each get access to a dice roller, the SRD, and a wiki storage area for accessing personal tabletop campaign information?
And if the other moms weren't available to game on park day, then at least I could have something to while away a few minutes over and aboard simply listening to the music I already stash on my iPod or reading the newspaper. I could see sitting at the playground for a few minutes checking out what's online at the subscription site, as long as I could do it with my portable handheld device.
Heck, I'm not even that high-tech a mom. Mid-30's w/ four kids.
And if the other moms weren't available to game on park day, then at least I could have something to while away a few minutes over and aboard simply listening to the music I already stash on my iPod or reading the newspaper. I could see sitting at the playground for a few minutes checking out what's online at the subscription site, as long as I could do it with my portable handheld device.
Heck, I'm not even that high-tech a mom. Mid-30's w/ four kids.
CanadienneBacon
Explorer
Incidentally, would someone please enlighten me as to what DRM means? Been seeing it flung left and right of late and I'd really like to know!
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Now that iPods run small apps (downloadable games), that's certainly doable. Not necessarily easy -- iPods aren't really meant as ebooks -- but it's a pretty good idea and likely would be a lot more used than scaling the content for smartphones. (And we smartphone users have had years to get cracking on it, and so far we've got ... uh ... a few dice rollers.)
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Digital Rights Management. It basically is a form of copy protection that prevents you taking downloaded materials (songs from iTunes, PDFs from DriveThruRPG back in the day) and handing them out to all your buddies. (And, at the same time, preventing you from moving them between devices you own and might want to use them on.)CanadienneBacon said:
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