Okay. I officially miss paper versions

[Obryn]

I'm still torn.

I wish I had a print version, for easy reading on the couch or elsewhere when I don't want to break out the laptop - or don't have it to begin with.

On the other hand, the PDFs have been extremely useful. I can simply print an article I intend to use and have it available for reference. I can also look through all my saved PDFs in a fraction of the time it would take me to look through a stack of magazines. (Also, I don't lose track of my PDFs the way I lose track of physical magazines...)

At this point, for me, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

-O

 

[Jhaelen]

I agree with the OP. I just don't read online articles. I skim over them, that's it.

In other words: The DDI may be fine in terms of the tools and crunch it delivers but it falls flat when looking at the 'magazines'.

I'm an avid reader, you'll never catch me without a book or magazine handy, but until there is some E-Reader that actually works exactly as well as a book (or better!), E-Articles are useless to me.

 

[Jack99]

If you really want a print magazine so bad, why not subscribe to one? Kobold Quarterly was designed to appeal to people who want print!

Not that useful if you play 4e.

But on the other hand, come april, Goodman Games will be releasing Level Up, so there is hope for those that play 4e, but only want dead-tree magazines. On the other hand, it's so cheap that even those who have a DDI subscription should be able to buy it without a problem. Good times indeed.

 

[Monkey King]

Because KQ has 1 4E article a month, and lots of other articles. I only play 4E at this point, and don't need any 3.x stuff.

We'll run more 4E content when people ask for it. So far, the Letters page and the submissions both show a preference for 3E.

When more people ask for 4E and we get more 4E submissions, we'll certainly provide it. Until then, gotta go with the will of the majority.

 

[Negflar2099]

Dragon on the other hand is much different. While there are SOME articles inside that I think are good purely for the sake of knowledge alone, most of the time when I like an article in Dragon it's because I want to use it in my game. When it goes on my shelf, I'm intending to refference it again int he future.

Having this info in a digital format makes it much easier for me to use. (Just like I now use wikipedia as my encyclopedia, and dictionary.com as my dictionary.)

I think back to when I had my paper copies and how many times I'd hope one of them had an index to all the articles. How many times I'd hope someone posted one once computers entered my world... And how much of an impact the dragon cd-roms had on me. Digital copies of the mag with an index of each article type... A dream come true.

I agree almost completely with this. I too miss the print magazines for the initial read through but after that itch was scratched I always found them vaguely unsatisfying. I tried lugging them around to my games but it never worked out. Having them all on my laptop has been fantastic.

 

[Zaukrie]

We'll run more 4E content when people ask for it. So far, the Letters page and the submissions both show a preference for 3E.

When more people ask for 4E and we get more 4E submissions, we'll certainly provide it. Until then, gotta go with the will of the majority.

Hey, I get that. I was just saying why I'm not buying it now. That said, had you started with a 4E mag, I bet it'd be successful right now.

Looking forward to the dwarf adventure. Some out of the norm stuff has been proposed, so too far off the wall for my taste, some great.

 

[Monkey King]

Hey, I get that. I was just saying why I'm not buying it now. That said, had you started with a 4E mag, I bet it'd be successful right now.

Well, that may be because there was no 4E game available when KQ launched...

I'm not sure why we don't see that many 4E submissions right now, but there's certainly going to be free material for 4E on the KQ.com site.

Negflar, the PDF/print distinction is not an either/or. KQ and the Paizo books are both delivered as print+PDF. It's not that tough to deliver both formats and let readers enjoy the strengths of each.

 

[Reynard]

Well, that may be because there was no 4E game available when KQ launched...

I'm not sure why we don't see that many 4E submissions right now, but there's certainly going to be free material for 4E on the KQ.com site.

Negflar, the PDF/print distinction is not an either/or. KQ and the Paizo books are both delivered as print+PDF. It's not that tough to deliver both formats and let readers enjoy the strengths of each.

Out of curiosity, does KQ support OSRIC/1E? Would it if submissions were made? After all, there's kobolds in every edition...

 

[Monkey King]

Out of curiosity, does KQ support OSRIC/1E? Would it if submissions were made? After all, there's kobolds in every edition...

It hasn't come up. But yes, KQ does intend to support True20, OSRIC, etc if there's interest from writers and fans.

The Kobold Quarterly writer's guidelines are available.

/threadjack

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Put me in the "miss paper versions" column.

I'd re-subscribe to Dragon & Dungeon this instant if they were available in paper. I'm not subscribing to DDI because of the digital format. I simply can't abide reading PDFs for gaming use -- and that goes to virtually all PDF gaming products. Having to print them out myself is the publisher offsetting a substantial printing cost to me that would be cheaper aggregated at the publisher (I couldn't print a year's worth of Dragon for anything close to what a magazine publisher could).

My opinion isn't restricted to gaming magazines -- I've dropped other magazines that switched to, or came out as, strictly digital formats, after discovering their reduced utility to me.

PDFs are great for copy/pasting into other documents. I find them very useful at work for reference documents, which I don't read for pleasure, and don't want or need to use anywhere away from my workstation. But I don't find them a suitable substitute for print for gaming (especially for Dungeon adventures, which I'd need to print in total anyway).