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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maggan" data-source="post: 3508884" data-attributes="member: 6616">Because they contain official D&D material. And we want more D&D material. The people who want all official stuff buys them, and since D&D is so big, that's always been at least a minimum base of readers to sell to. So Dragon and Dungeon might very well have existed that long because a certain percentage of D&D players want a complete collection.Let's put it another way. What's most important for the purchasers of Dragon and Dungeon?It's not reading about other rpgs. Why can we say that? Because no one bought the other mags that had that content.It's not reading about d20 system rules. Why can we say that? Because no one bought the other mags that had that content.It's not reading reviews of d20 stuff. Why can we say that? Because no one bought the other mags that had that content.Is it the paper format? I don't think so. Why? Because I believe that if WotC had pulled the official stamp of approval from Dragon and Dungeon, and they would have published the same rules under the d20 license, those magazines would have gone bust, paper or no paper format.It's down to the magazines being the containers of official D&D stuff.And if magazines are such a great thing, why don't we have more magazines on the market? Why can't the gaming community support more than two magazines, which only covers one game?Why have everyone failed with every magazine except Dragon and Dungeon? Because magazines aren't that hot with gamers. Unless there's D&D stuff in them, in which case they are lukewarm, a shadow of their former selves.I still love the magazines, it's just that I've seen the complexities of trying to get gamers to buy rpg magazines first hand, and all the comments from industry people I've read or heard confirm it. Gamers don't buy magazines.Of course, the rebuttal to that is "I do!", but I'm not speaking about individuals. Evidence points to 15 000 subscribing to Dragon, so of course there are gamers that do buy Dragon. But I don't think they'd keep on buying if it weren't official D&D, even if the same rules were package in the same paper format. And if 15 000 people are buying it every month, then a couple of million aren't.Please note that I don't think that the DI will skyrocket and pull in millions of subscribers. I do think it was a bad move for WotC to cancel the mags, and I would have liked them to come up with a strategy that kept the mags after launching the DI.It's just that I have worked in the industry since 1989, and rpg magazines have been a pain to sell for as long as I can remember./M</blockquote>

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