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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arawen" data-source="post: 3484789" data-attributes="member: 27967">SuggestionsRegarding the digital initiative, there seem to be two sets of suggestions here.1. On line equivalents to Dungeon and DragonThe only advantage that I could see to a totally on-line format would be that it should be extremely cheap compared with a print magazine and completely searchable. Though I subscribe to Dungeon in print form, I would not pay money to subscribe to a web or pdf version. I believe most customers would want to keep whatever they paid for i.e. monthly content, not access.Printing on line material costs money, takes up too much room to store, and loose sheets are inconvenient to flip through casually on the go. Computer print outs really do not last very well either. The ink fades and the paper is poor quality. In contrast, my old Dragon and Dungeon magazine issues are still in good shape after many years. I'd suggest that the bar for successful on-line content selling will be a considerably higher price/value ratio for content because the format is much less attractive and the product will be far more emphemeral.  Further, I would not want to waste my own paper and ink printing advertisements.One way to address this partially might be to have a lot hyperlinked content, so that adventures can be scaled and stat blocks be printed with one click.Still, my guess would be that hardcover compilations would sell better. I would hope that the variety of adventure styles and short adventures in Dungeon's existing issues would continue. Dungeon's mystery adventures especially appealed to me, and, generally I have found much more I can use to DM there by browsing the magazine than in WotC's combat heavy megadventures.That said, I cannot imagine paying money to browse Dungeon and Dragon on my PC, even though I read my paper magazines cover to cover.  PDFs and web sites just do not have fun factor for me.2. Computer aids to play D&DThis has also been mentioned by many users, but I really cannot see why offering web tools like a character generator would require cancelling these beloved magazines.If I were to pay for a character generator instead of using a free one like PCGen, I would like to have it downloadable and usable without internet access.  It's hard to imagine renting a service to be like DMGenie when one could instead pay once. Similarly, there are many free virtual tabletops, dice rollers, chat programs, and VOIP programs like Skype. Charging monthly fees for these would not make much sense. There are quite a few mapping programs like Dundjinni as well out there, so again the question is what would a more expensive subscription package add.The only way I could see charging more than once for these services working is if the on line service was so amazing in quality, in usability, simple elegant interface, and on-line community matching facility that it would take tabletop D&D, on-line virtual tabletop D&D and Neverwinter Nights to a new stage, while still providing good value at an extremely low price for users without laptop or internet at the gaming table. (For the record, at present I cannot imagine paying subscription fees for on-line tools that I really do not need or want).To the designers of this so-called digital initiative, please think boldly and elegantly, is there the equivalent of an Apple IPod revolution for pen and paper RPGs? I really do not think so, but I think that's the kind of corporate model to follow for next generation step.Whatever you do, please do not consider WotC's current web site a good model. It's cluttered, hard to navigate, and takes longer than it should to find what you want.</blockquote>

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