When I started gaming, there was no internet, no Amazon.com and no infinite number of gaming websites to visit. I had to go from one bookstore to another in Oklahoma City just hoping there might be a new book to buy. The one thing I could count on was Dragon Magazine. Every month there would be something new there. I don't know how many times I would come home from work tired and worn out, but then find a new issue of Dragon waiting for me and all the fatigue would fade away. And you could allways tell just how good an issue was by how long it sits on my desk. If it is still there when the next one comes, it was a very good one.
And although I do have a large collection of gaming books, and have to "make room" often, one shelf is never altered. my Dragon shelf. Issues #89-#355 and the CD-ROM collection (If I ever hear a tornado coming, that is one thing I will grab as I run for cover).
It feels as if something sacred to me has been defiled and desecrated.
As too what ever WotC comes up with, I won't be part of it from either side. I have had a part in the Mind's Eye from the begining and have written the last few articles, but they are the last for me. I doubt it will continue in the new "online service" anyway, as it is written by gamers for gamers and that doesn't seem part of the new WotC.
As to the new Pathfinders, I'll look at it, but Dungeon was allways the cherry to Dragon's Hot fudge sundae for me. I can do adventures, I liked Dragon because it made me see new ways of playing and writing those adventures that I had not considered.
This is going to hurt WotC in many ways. How many times will I be reading Dragon at work or elsewhere and have people ask "What's That?" How many of us had had times where we almost quit gaming, but were kept in it by that monthly subscription that kept coming? And I can't think of anything that could have pissed off the hard core "epic" gamers more than by killing Dragon & Dungeon.
Even a bad issue was still a not-so-hot fudge sundae to me.