Merric's view: Thoughts on the Digital Initiative.

[gribble]

As a note: it is inconceivable that you won't be able to print out the adventures offered through the DI.

I have to disagree with you there - I can certainly conceive of it.


Like you, I don't think it's *likely*, and that the most likely format will be watermarked PDF but if they are persuing stronger DRM it's certainly conceivable that you won't be able to print them out.

For all we know, the whole concept of an adventure in the DI might be something very different from what we're used to. I might not even be in a format which is *possible* to print out - for example it might only run from inside the "adventure running" application.

Like I said above, conjecture all you like (as I am), but don't assume stuff like this is *fact*.

 

[MerricB]

Like I said above, conjecture all you like (as I am), but don't assume stuff like this is *fact*.

Na. Not at all. (See my disclaimer at the start of the thread).

If the adventures can't be printed, then the DI will fail for me, and likely for many others who would otherwise use it.

Cheers!

 

[gribble]

Like I said above, conjecture all you like (as I am), but don't assume stuff like this is *fact*.

Na. Not at all. (See my disclaimer at the start of the thread).

So you did. For some reason I thought the above was in a section of your original post stating the "facts" and that your conjecture/assumptions were after that.

Apologies for so horribly misreading it!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I loved and bought every print issue of Pyramid.
I have not subscribed to the online version.

You are missing out here.

For only $20 you get access to the entire back archives - and their article count is now up to 6400.

No matter what, that's excellent value for your money.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

No, I wouldn't be nearly as unhappy. I still prefer print, but i don't see the format change as the major issue.

The problem for me, is that we're going to lose Erik Mona and James Jacobs, who took a magazine that was marginally useful to me and made it indispensable. I personally don't believe that anyone at WoTC can fill their shoes.

Ken

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!

 

[CharlesRyan]

I hear a lot of talk about the possibility of character generators, map editors, campaign planners, etc, that Wizards will offer via their DI [. . .] But Wizards have shown ZERO ability (or even interest) in the past to produce quality products for these purposes.

Incorrect. WotC has shown insufficient ability or interest to produce quality products for those purposes.

There's a vast difference between zero ability/interest and insufficient ability/interest, especially with a difficult task such as creating complex tools like these.

It's possible that WotC's interest and ability have been quite high--but just not high enough to make it happen. Perhaps, over the past year or so that the DI has been in the works, whatever amount of extra interest/ability needed to make the leap has been achieved.

Or perhaps not. None of us will know until WotC takes the wraps off the DI.

 

[WizarDru]

I have bought a single issue of Dragon in the last 3 years I think
The last WOTC item I bought was d20 Past about 1.5 to 2 years ago, right after it came out
Otherwise I am all 3rd Party

I have talked to one person who was hired for the DI, good programmer, awesome content provider, good person, a gamer.

I loved and bought every print issue of Pyramid.
I have not subscribed to the online version.
I wont to the DI either.
Just one person though.
Back to making my stuff for free to give away.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you purchasing habits pretty much make it clear that to WotC, you are irrelevant. You don't purchase the print OR electronic materials and aren't interested in either, really. They can't lose a sale they don't have and can't publish with the hope they <i>might</i> get your business when they have current purchasing customers who they need to consider (and who they may have to win back).

One concern that occurs to me, now, is the fragmenting of the community. Previously, the magazines were readily available. Even if you weren't a regular customer, if you heard something good about the current issue, you popped out to the store. I doubt that you'll be able to do that with the DI.

I'm really curious how they're going to handle things. On the one hand, if you lose access to content when you're not a subscriber, I'm very discouraged from using the service. On the other hand, if they don't restrict it somehow, how will they prevent folks from signing up for a month, grabbing all they can get and then cancelling? There's a lot of challenges here and I have no idea how they'll face them.

 

[Dirt]

FATHEAD'S THOUGHTS ON THE DIGITAL INITIATIVE:

I believe that what they'll propose will be radically different than simply offering something like Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine online.

I believe that they will create a peer production application (think of some strange combination of web apps like Wikipedia or Digg).

Individual authors will be able to post content to be edited and viewed, and allow other contributers (cartographers, artists) to append additions.

It will allow for collaborative projects (think of a dungeon in which several authors can contribute and their contributions can be voted on and/or edited).

I'm only touching the surface on this, but I believe WOTC will be pushing a full fledged peer production application geered specifically toward RPGs.

Whatta ya think?

 

[Ron]

Don't take this the wrong way, but you purchasing habits pretty much make it clear that to WotC, you are irrelevant. You don't purchase the print OR electronic materials and aren't interested in either, really. They can't lose a sale they don't have and can't publish with the hope they <i>might</i> get your business when they have current purchasing customers who they need to consider (and who they may have to win back).
[...]

Perhaps he is not irrelevant. I wonder how much of Wizards sales come from hardcore customers that brought most or all of their books and how much come from occasional purchasers. I know many people that buy a couple of Wizards books per year and I think they might be the majority of their customers. The great deal behind the DI is trying to attract all D&D players, hardcore or occasional, as they will cash every month from a sizeable portion of their customers.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Perhaps he is not irrelevant. I wonder how much of Wizards sales come from hardcore customers that brought most or all of their books and how much come from occasional purchasers. I know many people that buy a couple of Wizards books per year and I think they might be the majority of their customers. The great deal behind the DI is trying to attract all D&D players, hardcore or occasional, as they will cash every month from a sizeable portion of their customers.

Actually, they're probably trying to get 10% (which would still be an order of magnitude more than Dungeon and Dragon got) or less.

When Howard Tayler, creator of the webcomic Schlock Mercenary (and one of the very few webcomickers who supports not just himself but a family of 4-5), investigated the donation + books and subscription models, he found that, among webcomics with a similar level of notoriety, subscription-based ones had about 10% of the readership, and donation-based ones got contributions from about 10% of their readers. Mr. Tayler went with the donation model because he wanted more total readers (which no doubt helped when he went to sell print collections of his work!).

I see no reason Wizards won't be targeting that same 10%. Even if you assume only half the D&D playerbase is online to begin with (this seems VERY low for a geek-culture luxury item in 2007), getting 10% of THAT would be mean five times the circulation of Dragon and Dungeon.

NOTE: I'm assuming the subscription-model DI will cover only Wizards' d20-based games, not Magic, what remains of Avalon Hill, etc. 10% of the Magic-playing community is probably more than the ENTIRE D&D-playing community.