Merric's view: Thoughts on the Digital Initiative.

[MerricB]

My only other concern would be how long it will take them to bring the first "virtual products" to the "virtual table." If it's six months, nine months, a year between Dragon's cessation and the DI's first offerings, this would be a bad timing move - striking while the iron is hot is a pretty important step in making sure this initiative is successful.

That's a very good point, Henry. My gut instinct that the DI will roll out about a month or two after the magazines say goodbye.

(Of course, given the erratic shipping to me, that probably means the DI will arrive about three or four months before I get my last magazines. Well, possibly not. But not by much).

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Could even be more than that. It costs about -- what? 80$ a year for a combined Dragon and Dungeon subscription currently? You could see a $60 yearly fee announced, which would still be $20 a year less than the print magazines, and therefore discounted from print. So, say, $10 a month if buying by the month, and $5.50 a month if buying for the year?

A $60 subscription fee would mean a 60% reduction in cost for international subscribers. It's about US$150 for a year's combined subscription to the two magazines, IIRC.

Cheers!

 

[Odysseus]

Another thing to take into account is that this doesn't look like its a "buy a supplement" model. This seems closer to a "membership" model, where you pay a fee to be a member to a website for premium content.

This to me seems the best explanation as to why they canceled the licence to piazo. You wouldn't want a 3rd party company producing licenced products if your charging members a fee for premium content.

 

[MerricB]

Odd thought of the... err... too late at night: If Wizards had announced that they were cancelling the magazines, but replacing them in an online form headed by Erik Mona (they're not, as far as I know), would you have been as unhappy?

Cheers!

 

[Imaro]

One of my biggest concerns, and a basic deal breaker is keeping the information that I paid for. In the interview WotC kind of danced around this issue, but for me the fact that I still have magazines from a year ago that I own and can reference anytime I want trumps most of the advantages of the DI as so far announced. Yeah it's great not having to find space for all those mags, but if the alternative is "keep paying" even if later quality drops, to keep the stuff I paid for and want...Nope, I'll pass.

I don't need a character generator, already got one and it was free, downloadable and Mac compatible.

I don't see an advantage to printing things out, when a photocopy machine does the job just as well and costs less, as far as ink cartridges. This IMHO trumps the whole "carrying a zillion magazines with me" argument.

I don't play online so anything in that department is, for me, moot.

Just a side note, isn't this project called the D&D DI...if so where are the assumptions that it will have Magic, Dreamblade, etc. content and if I am incorrect in my assumption, why would I want to pay for stuff I'm not going to use?

 

[MerricB]

We've been hearing talk about the DI from the Magic side of things as well. I really doubt that it's all one big subscription... if it is, it better be a good rate. It might be that the rate is really good, and you get everything, in which case, no problem.

Actually, not that much talk, but this was posted on the Magic side of things:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/385


Cheers!

 

[pawsplay]

I wonder if you'll be able to buy individual "issues?" I know that when my budget gets thin, the first thing to go are subscriptions to services I rarely use.

 

[Henry]

Well, there may be a trade-off, there. Which is more valuable, buying and owning any one months' content for good, or paying once and owning ALL the previous content, but losing it if you lose the subscription? Tough call, for me.

 

[MerricB]

I'd prefer the latter, myself.

Cheers!

 

[Imaro]

Well, there may be a trade-off, there. Which is more valuable, buying and owning any one months' content for good, or paying once and owning ALL the previous content, but losing it if you lose the subscription? Tough call, for me.

See it doesn't have to be a trade off. You we're able to purchase back issues of Dragon/Dungeon, and, before the license was pulled, I believe Paizo had started putting issues in PDF format( someone correct me if I'm wrong). I'm sorry but as a consumer I like to buy, not lease...and what happens if Wizard pulls the DI at a certain point, I guess I'll be stuck buying reprints of information I already payed for. This just doesn't sit right with me. YMMV of course.