Only ten articles in Dragon this month?

[MrMyth]

Which could mean this is an equilibrium thing.

They can only budget so much time/money towards the magazines- so they end up with high quantity, lapsing quality, or they reduce the quantity and increase the quality.
...

A lot of the stuff I was paying for in my paper magazine is free on the site. My money now goes to things that actually improve my game experience... An ever increasing pool of digital content for one... And yeah- I believe the CB and MB are just going to get better.

So I'm still ok with my subscription dollars.

I don't think comparing it to the print magazines is really relevant, though. Sure, even with reduced content, the online magazines are far more useful to me than the printed magazines ever were.

But the current DDI magazines have significantly less content than they had for the past 2 years. That's what bothers me. Especially because I suspect that DDI brings in enough for them to afford to give the magazines decent budgets, but because of being burned on earlier DDI expenditures, and because of negative feedback over recent DDI directions, they keep yanking the budget tighter and tighter - a vicious downward spiral.

I remain optimisic that the new direction with the Character Builder, Adventure Tools, VTT, despite all the issues they've had just far, will lead to something truly excellent. But I just hope that the magazines aren't completely abandoned in the meantime, and can return to providing the excellence that they did a year ago.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Yeah but there was a time we used to get quality and quantity.

Those are officially known as the "Paizo Years."


As for the rest of this thread, nothing WotC has done recently fills me with hope.

 

[moxcamel]

Speaking of the old format, I really think that by dropping the compiled PDF, they really missed an opportunity to sell ad space. Maybe they put some feelers out behind the scenes and decided ads just weren't going to bring in enough revenue, but I do wonder. I'd have dropped Dungeon in favor of compiling everything into Dragon, and sold advertising space in the compilation and maybe even the individual articles.

 

[malraux]

Speaking of the old format, I really think that by dropping the compiled PDF, they really missed an opportunity to sell ad space. Maybe they put some feelers out behind the scenes and decided ads just weren't going to bring in enough revenue, but I do wonder. I'd have dropped Dungeon in favor of compiling everything into Dragon, and sold advertising space in the compilation and maybe even the individual articles.

Ad space would seriously piss me off. A lot.

 

[Scribble]

I don't think comparing it to the print magazines is really relevant, though. Sure, even with reduced content, the online magazines are far more useful to me than the printed magazines ever were.

But the current DDI magazines have significantly less content than they had for the past 2 years. That's what bothers me.

Yeah but that's exactly why I'm comparing it to the printed format.

Looking at an older magazine can show that what they seem to be moving to is closer to what the magazines in the past have proven as a sustainable level of content/quality.

My point being that what we were getting for the past two years may have been too much from a production standpoint. They cannot sustain that level of content/quality given their time/budget.

So their choice is either keep up the content pace, and let quality suffer. Raise the price of the subscription so they can increase the budget and man hours available for the magazines- or reduce the content and focus on quality.

They seem to have chosen the last option.

So sure- I'm not saying that being upset about less content is bad, or wrong, or whatever... More content is great... It just might be that it's not possible to have content, quality, and current price.

IE: Lots of Content, High Quality, and Cheap price... Pick two.

 

[Herschel]

I've been jonesing for more Genasi goodness and this month there's more....but I can't log in from work! I can get to teh site and everything, but when I enter my username and password it doesn't "take" and just sits there. Grrrrrrrrrr.

"You wanna log in?"

"PSYCH"!

 

[renau1g]

IE: Lots of Content, High Quality, and Cheap price... Pick two.

It shouldn't have to be that choice as they've scrapped out a few books, which presumably would be very far into the development cycle (if not completed) to draw from. The content from them alone should cover a few months of the magazines with good quality content.

You really can't compare to the print mags as those were augmenting the regular splat books being issued providing even more options.

Personally, I do think DDI is underpriced. The cost of the sub was like $70 or something like that for a year. I know people say, OMG it's getting into MMO pricing if you make it like $10/month, but really they're totally different things. If Dragon/Dungeon produced quality articles that people wanted to read they would provide value even if you couldn't use that new feat or power.

 

[Scribble]

It shouldn't have to be that choice as they've scrapped out a few books, which presumably would be very far into the development cycle (if not completed) to draw from. The content from them alone should cover a few months of the magazines with good quality content.

Well- those books also cost money to put together, and now they need to be reformat to fit the magazine which also costs money and time. While I'm sure it will help, I doubt it's a magic fix all. It might give them a temporary boost though- but see below.. I think they're in the hole.. So that boost might just help them equalize faster.

You really can't compare to the print mags as those were augmenting the regular splat books being issued providing even more options.

I don't think that's true. It's just the basic magazine design I'm comparing. Even though it's a digital magazine now the basic idea remains the same.

The choose two thing is a pretty well known business meme I kind of co-opted. For the past 2 years I think they were trying to do all 3, but ended up being lots of content with suffering quality, and since they went too long without equalizing they started only being able to maintain the low cost part.

Personally, I do think DDI is underpriced. The cost of the sub was like $70 or something like that for a year. I know people say, OMG it's getting into MMO pricing if you make it like $10/month, but really they're totally different things. If Dragon/Dungeon produced quality articles that people wanted to read they would provide value even if you couldn't use that new feat or power.

Which I think is what they're trying to do... Whether they will succeed or not is up for grabs.

I think you'd agree that they can't up the price right now right? So without any more income the only way to up the quality is to lessen the load, and increase available man hours.

 

[moxcamel]

Well if WotC are trying to leverage MMO-style subscription pricing, they are behind the curve. The MMO industry is starting to move away from the monthly subscription model and into the free-to-play with microtransactions model. Turbine (makers of Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online) have already switched over, and they're making a killing. Asian MMOs have been doing it for years, and more US titles are at least thinking about it. Per usual, WoW is the exception that proves the rule.

Which is an interesting point. I wonder if WotC wouldn't actually be successful by offering a "free to play" DDI, with the option of getting access to everything with a monthly subscription, or pay-as-you-go access.

 

[MrMyth]

Yeah but that's exactly why I'm comparing it to the printed format.

Looking at an older magazine can show that what they seem to be moving to is closer to what the magazines in the past have proven as a sustainable level of content/quality.

My point being that what we were getting for the past two years may have been too much from a production standpoint. They cannot sustain that level of content/quality given their time/budget.

I don't think I can accept that premise without a lot more proof. They had two years of the magazines running at full strength without any indication they were burning past their budget - I don't think this is a case of that amount being unsustainable. Similarly, given the numbers some have presented on how much money DDI should be pulling in, I am dubious about it not having the budget needed for that amount of content.

I don't think it is getting the budget needed, but I suspect that is due to management decisions from above, not because of the 'quality/quantity/price' limitation.