Liz Schuh on Dragon/Dungeon moving to the web

[JustinA]

A number I question. Say I look at the website at work, at home and on the game club computer. That means I'm 3 "unique visitors."

It also means that they have more unique visitors at their website than there are active D&D players.

My guess is that they're also talking about everyone who comes to wizards.com -- including the MtG and Pokemon players. Is the DI going to include Magic and Pokemon content?

 

[TheYeti1775]

A valid point. Of course, the devil's advocate would note that if you're that attached to the website, you're much more likely to be a paying customer than some guy who only visits from one machine....and even if every visitor was using three machines, that's still 4 million+ unique visitors. And that doesn't include multiple people using the same computer: my wife and kids and I share one computer for doing little else but web-browsing. It's a certainty that while only one IP address would be marked, at a minimum two of us would hit the site. But we have no accurate way of tracking actual number of users versus either of those metrics.

Well I'm 3-5 uniques depending on the day and what I'm doing.

Also, WizarDru you have to take into account you with that one computer, will only get one subscription right? So your one fills 3 possible subscribers in this role.

But using that 13 million figure, you still have to take into account is that just this past year? Or was that a 'peak' year, such as right after releasing 3.5? Now if it is an average, they I would say that's pretty good but again look at how many are multi-uniques.

Anyways go read Morrus's interview and they are almost word for word the same. Imagine that. :\

 

[WizarDru]

Well I'm 3-5 uniques depending on the day and what I'm doing.

Also, WizarDru you have to take into account you with that one computer, will only get one subscription right? So your one fills 3 possible subscribers in this role.

Very true. Where WotC will find their profit point is the real question. How much they charge and how many actual subscribers they'll get all factor into how much they'll make from this whole effort. The question is, if they got exactly the same numbers of subscribers as the magazines HAD, will that be more, less or an equal amount of money in WotC's pocket? I suspect that may be the magic number.

They have already publicly stated that the DI will involved M:tG content. What sort of pricing model they'll be using is anyone's guess. Obviously, many people including me have no desire to pay for content they won't be using. Will the pricing have a tiered structure, or will it be low enough that I won't care?

 

[TheYeti1775]

*SNIP*
Will the pricing have a tiered structure, or will it be low enough that I won't care?

Actually more to the point for us married ones, low enough that the spouse won't care.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Uh... I don't think any of the articles on ICv2 are by-lined (at least none of the ones I've read offhand).

And I'm pretty confident all of them aren't purchased advertisements disguised as articles.

I didn't suggest that they were purchased. They are sent in terms of "provided content" that happens to slant advertising to whatever news outlet is used. This is very common with newspapers and television news as well. For example, a story about allergies might have been scripted by a drug company, which produces an actual "spot". It isn't uncommon for the local network to then reshoot using their own people. Here in Canada, the CBC recently did an expose on just this sort of sneaky advertising. It is very, very common.

 

[diaglo]

so i'm a luddite b/c i don't do pdfs.

wow. i guess the 15 message boards/bulletin boards/ newsgroups / discussion lists/ etc... i belong(ed) to don't count for me keeping on top of the times.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

A number I question. Say I look at the website at work, at home and on the game club computer. That means I'm 3 "unique visitors."

No one believes website numbers. IP address is a pointless way to count website visitors. Cookies might work -- it'll count unique *PCs*, sort of. But so many people routinely sweep and/or block those, now, you can't even count on a visitor without a cookie as being a frst-timer. And is that "unique" visitors to the D&D specific portions, or to the website in general?

What I don't get is that up until the DI, the refrain was that regular Internet users accounted for a very small percentage of players. Now it's so huge?

 

[Vocenoctum]

No one believes website numbers. IP address is a pointless way to count website visitors. Cookies might work -- it'll count unique *PCs*, sort of. But so many people routinely sweep and/or block those, now, you can't even count on a visitor without a cookie as being a frst-timer. And is that "unique" visitors to the D&D specific portions, or to the website in general?

Right, without knowing more about the numbers, it's basically just "ad-speak".

What I don't get is that up until the DI, the refrain was that regular Internet users accounted for a very small percentage of players. Now it's so huge?

I don't think they really consider it huge, just big enough to be profitable. Possibly also considering it to reach more folks than the magazines did.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

so i'm a luddite b/c i don't do pdfs.

wow. i guess the 15 message boards/bulletin boards/ newsgroups / discussion lists/ etc... i belong(ed) to don't count for me keeping on top of the times.

Seconded. Since when does name-calling directed at your customer base result in increased sales? :\ In another thread here I've requested that online content be downloadable onto my iPod so I can game at the playground. Even so, I still prefer, will buy, and will use hard copy.

What I sense going on here is that WotC believes, even though it's still apparently only in the development pipeline, they have a breakthrough product that will revolutionize gaming in the form of online content and that they have a valid business opportunity at their feet. Good on 'em.

But does the best way to market said product involve refering to your clients, even a slimmer-than-it-used-to-be share of clients, in a derogatory manner? The "interview" does little to entice me to their subscription, is fairly off-putting to me simply because of the language used, and doesn't lend a professional air to the company behind the product.

 

[Allura]

Actually more to the point for us married ones, low enough that the spouse won't care.

In this case, the spouse (not Yeti's! ) cares more that she doesn't have to find shelving space for more magazines. I read Dragon, but only bc DH gets it. And I don't GM, so Dungeon is mostly useless to me (more to the point, I avoid it BECAUSE he uses it for our gaming group). So, when I heard it was being canceled in print, my first thought was "yay! I get my shelving back for more books!" I mean, I need to put my comps someplace, right?