Responses to Questions about the DI

[Eridanis]

Remember the Rubber Brain? It was the Gleemax thing - and Wizards announced today, that Gleemax will be some kind of "House for Gamers", that will provide "Community, Content, and, of course, Games."

Source: Gleemax Announcement by Randy Buehler

Here's the text. Note, not a single word about D&D or Dragon/Dungeon Online.

May I ask - why the painful-to-observe neon green website?

Mon, June 11
by Randy Buehler
Welcome to Gleemax!

"Wizards of the Coast is building nothing less than the Home for Gamers right here on this URL. Gleemax.com will be an online strategy gaming destination built on three important pillars: Community, Content, and, of course, Games. But before I get into the "what," I want to talk a little about the "why." Wizards has always done the majority of its business through a core network of hobby stores and the communities those stores create. When my friends and I got into gaming, we walked into a hobby store and found a world of awesome games, a guy behind the counter who knew everything about them, and a bunch of people just like us who wanted to play. I've sat at enough gamer-tables at weddings to attest to the fact that those are the friends you hold on to.
But times change. Today, that hobby store and all its wonders is still there, but we see an opportunity to engage more budding gamers and ultimately drive new traffic to those stores. The key to growing the hobby gaming industry and making sure it continues to thrive for years to come is to recruit the next generation of gamers into our culture. And what about gamers who want to play, but don't have the time, or don't know where to find other gamers anymore? How can we make it easy for all these would-be gamers to start -- or return to -- gaming?
The answer, we believe, is Gleemax. It's a massive expansion of our web presence, designed to give gamers a place online where they can hang out, play games, and most importantly, find other gamers. We see this as a natural extension of things that Wizards has stood for since the early 90's and here's how we're going to do it:

Community
We want to give all gamers their own personal pages
pages with tons of features that make it convenient to talk about games, find people to play games with, and get more out of the games they choose to play. We're not just talking about Wizards of the Coast games either. We see this project as an investment in growing the entire strategy gamer culture. There will be features aimed at existing Wizards customers (ways to show off your D&D character, your warband, or your deck, etc.) and there will be plenty of tools that fans of other games can use as well. We also want to give retail stores their own pages where they can promote their store, talk about store events and organized play programs -- events that will then automatically appear on the calendars of local players who care about those games. Our goals are to make sure the tabletop gamer has everything he or she could possibly need from a website and also to turn our attention to the online strategy gamers who want the same sorts of game play but prefer to play on a digital platform.

Content
We already have lots of great content on our website, from articles about our various games to behind-the-scenes peeks. But we can do even better. With Gleemax, we'll be deploying many of those same tactics, except we'll be talking about gaming in general and digital gaming in particular. You can expect a ton of blogs from Wizards insiders and a real dialog between us and our fans (that would be you). And like I said before, this isn't just about our games. It's about all games, so you'll be able to talk about anything you want.

Games
And, of course, we're going to have games. Lots of them. I don't want to give too much away yet, but imagine an Indie Strategy Games Portal filled with the coolest independent games, vetted by us, and given the Wizards Seal-of-Approval for fun, strategic game-play. Then think about a Board Game Portal featuring classics from our Avalon HillTM catalog, as well as new games we don't even know about yet! Plus Magic Online® and our original computer game Uncivilized: The Goblin GameTM (take a peek: www.wizards.com/goblinz). And that's just a start.
We think Gleemax is the right thing to do for Wizards of the Coast, the right thing to do for the tabletop hobby gaming industry, and the right thing to do for a sizable group of digital gamers who are being ignored by the mainstream computer gaming industry. We want to build a home that all three groups can feel comfortable in and I think it will change the face of the hobby gaming industry forever. If we pull this off (and believe me, we intend to), then Gleemax will become the center of the online strategy and roleplaying gaming universe.


Advisory Board
There is one other thing I want to talk to you about. Because we're interested in building something that serves the needs of the entire community and not just Wizards, we want everyone reading this to help us get it right. Gleemax has to be a collaboration between us and our community. To that end, we are developing an Advisory Board.
We will invite thought leaders from both the tabletop and digital gaming industries to serve on this board. The idea is to bring folks together several times a year to tell them about our plans for the future, and ask their advice. We want to know where they think we got it right and what they would do differently.
In addition (this is important), we will reserve multiple seats on the Advisory Board for gamers like yourselves. Because Gleemax is everyone's community, we want to make sure you have the chance to tell us in person precisely what we need to do to make it a place you will want to use. Stay tuned to this site to find out how you can become one of the chosen board members.
So there's the pitch... that's what we're up to. There's more, of course, much more. But that will all come in time. Meanwhile, I'll be posting weekly updates with more detail on each of the aspects of Gleemax.
Coming next week: Open Casting Call. Be sure to tune in to find out how you can prove yourself the most worthy to sit on our Advisory Board in our Ultimate Gamer contest. Don't miss out. I'll see you on the message boards!
Randy Buehler
Vice President, Digital Gaming

 

[Brown Jenkin]

My first suggestion. Don't call it Gleemax. Ugh what an awful name. What exactly does this have to do with gaming? Right away you went from something I would check out to something I am leary about using just because of the name. I realize that a name doesn't have anything to do with content but as much as we would like to believe that a book shouldn't be judged by its cover it will be none the less. As much as I normally hate marketing (I have worked in marketing departments) this is one time they should have been more involved or competant and provided a better name.

As for the content itself it has a chance of working but I am not fully convinced. It is a MySpace or Facebook for gamers. Could it work? sure, but it also might fall flat on its face. Much like MySpace or Facebook it will apeal to younger gamers with older gamers being left out. The question then is do younger gamers want a genre specific Facebook or will they stick with the main portals.

Edit: After looking at the site so far please tell me this is April 1st. While it is Wizards of the Coast this can't really be the new home of the Digital Initiative. Please tell me I am wrong.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

More from Randy Buehler in a ICv2 interview

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/10687.html

D&D online was a licensed product, right?

Correct. Atari had a licensing deal to use the D&D IP on the computer and they gave it to Turbine. We worked with Turbine and did approvals.



That's not going to get incorporated into this initiative at all?

That is not. We do have plans for D&D. I'm sure you noticed the license to the Dungeon magazine and the Dragon magazine reverted to us. We let people know that we have plans, but we're not ready to announce them yet. The story that we're ready to tell at this stage is the story about Gleemax. The story about D&D is for another day. The relationship with Atari is unaffected by any of these plans.



Will the online initiatives that are replacing the print magazines be part of Gleemax?

Not directly. We have a lot of really good ideas that I'm aware of, but we're not ready to talk about them yet. I can clarify a little bit about the relationship between Gleemax and D&D and Magic. In 6 months, 12 months, people will look at WotC as having three big brands, we've got Magic, D&D , and we've got Gleemax. Gleemax is its own separate brand; it's a product created by Wizards of the Coast. It's a little different in that this product supports the Magic player and the D&D player and it's full of a bunch of features and tools sets that support gamers of all shapes and sizes, but it is its own brand and its own product produced by Wizards of the Coast. That's the relationship. D&D will still have its own web presence, D&D will still do its own thing, but there will be a lot of cross references with Gleemax. We'll be trying to drive Gleemax customers over to the D&D Website, and we'll be trying to drive D&D players over to the Gleemax Website, but they're not the same thing--they are distinct initiatives.

Not sure if this bodes well or not for the DI

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Gleemax?

All I can think of when I hear that is, "Ask your doctor if Gleemax is right for you."

 

[Nepenthe]

Sounds like they are trying to do some kind of Myspace for gamers.

... All I wanted was to keep buying quality Dragonlance books!

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I think Gleemax is just the big mama hub that is going to incorporate all the smaller DI´s like the one for D&D. And the name comes from a legendary artefact in Magic, i think.

 

[Mercule]

My first suggestion. Don't call it Gleemax. Ugh what an awful name.

....

Edit: After looking at the site so far please tell me this is April 1st. While it is Wizards of the Coast this can't really be the new home of the Digital Initiative. Please tell me I am wrong.

Ditto and ditto. I've heard the Gleemax.com tossed around and assumed it had some relationship to MtG and could be safely avoided. If that has anything to do with the DI, you can count me out. A free lifetime subscription to both the Dungeon and Dragon content isn't worth dealing with that offensive Gleemax persona and the radioactive urine coloring. Heck, I feel like an imbicile even typing the address into my browser, which is saying something for a 25+ year gamer geek and someone who has been excited about the DI thus far.

It's like someone's bad alt (and I do remember someone notorious for bad alts using Gleemax elsewhere last year) went all corporate.

Please, please, PLEASE, someone from Wizards please tell use Gleemax is either a niche site or will be transitioning soon.

 

[Mercule]

I think Gleemax is just the big mama hub that is going to incorporate all the smaller DI´s like the one for D&D. And the name comes from a legendary artefact in Magic, i think.

Just so long as I never actually have to visit the Gleemax site or be cognizant of its existence.

 

[sjmiller]

I think Gleemax is just the big mama hub that is going to incorporate all the smaller DI´s like the one for D&D. And the name comes from a legendary artefact in Magic, i think.

Gleemax? Geez, talk about the dumbest name for a gaming site I can think of! Gleemax sure sounds like Funmin to me.

 

[thedungeondelver]

DROP THAT FAIRY BOOK AND GIVE ME TWENTY-FIVE, TWINKLETOES


Whoop, wrong sort of D.I. ... Sorry!