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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5501716" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 226: February 1996part 8/8The current clack: Wizards of the Coast get a whole page to themselves this month, as they make massive layoffs despite (saying they're) making record profits. They're dropping the ventures that aren't working, and concentrating on the ones that are. Once again, they're proving themselves more business savvy than TSR ever were. Of course, that pragmatism comes at a cost in innovation. In fact, it seems they've completely cut their roleplaying department. They want a proven seller rather than risking tons on developing a new property. Hmm. This is very interesting indeed in light of future events. Both the good and bad aspects of this attitude will be applied in force when they take over D&D. So this is a definite historical pointer. Really, its amazing just how quickly they rose to prominence. The other news is fairly dramatic as well. There's another gaming magazine folding, and FASA's fan club has fallen apart, defaulting on their debts. Things aren't looking so good for gaming in general. On the plus side, it seems most companies now have at least a token online presence. And we can be pretty sure that'll only get better. Pretty big changes in the landscape, really. I'm rather pleased they're reporting on them. With lots of useful crunch, quite a few articles that are good for any system, several very interesting historical details, and bad articles that are hilariously bad rather than just dull, this is the best issue they've done in a while. That's not to say there aren't problems with it, the beginning in particular is pretty ropey, but it shows they are still getting good submissions, and picking them out of the pile. I guess all those repeated reminders of how you submit to the magazine do serve a purpose. If only everything had as firm a logic behind it.</blockquote>

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