So...did Dragon wow you?

[carmachu]

The point of taking the magazine away is to begin the non-support of 3.5 by wotc. WOTC owns dragon and dungeon magazine. They're plan is to prepare people for 4e as opposed to supporting what they consider to be a dead product. The timing of this was determined by the licenses expiration. It didn't make good fiscal sense for them to negotiate an extension that was only going to last a few month and give a false impression that they were trying to double dip off of 3.5 and 4e at the same time.

Again, when dragon was in print, they had the 2e material right along withthe hype of 3.0.....I cant see why they cannot continue to give GOOD articles along side the hype.

They're already, as this thread shows, fighting ill will with the cancellation of the magazine. Crappy filler articles is not going to help the, Later on isnt going to help them, much.

Now was the release, now was the time to wow the fan base with something that they will want us to pay money for. If 3.5 is so dead as you say, and it doesnt make any sense to double dip, why are they still releasing 3 or so splat books for it? Exemplars of Evil, Eldar Evil and rules compendium for gods sake! You're speaking out of both sides of your mouth.....

 

[Imaro]

Not, dragon will contain articles about 4e. Mechanical stuff may be issued much closer to launch. They can't possibly give you enough material to play 4e without buying the core book, this is just good business sense.

Not asking for that, but trying to center an online gaming magazine about a game that doesn't exist yet and is suppose to be kept under wraps is...well...dumb. They should still be producing 3.5 stuff until 4e arrives, and they are. Correct me if I'm wrong but there are articles that are the equivalent of web enhancements for two 3e products under Dragon, right?

The example I gave of the ecology article of the Kraken didn't include more mechanical info than the Deathknight ecology article...but it was better put together, better written and had more stuff that was directly useful to an adventure.

The point of taking the magazine away is to begin the non-support of 3.5 by wotc. WOTC owns dragon and dungeon magazine. They're plan is to prepare people for 4e as opposed to supporting what they consider to be a dead product. The timing of this was determined by the licenses expiration. It didn't make good fiscal sense for them to negotiate an extension that was only going to last a few month and give a false impression that they were trying to double dip off of 3.5 and 4e at the same time.

You know they extended Paizo's license anyway right? What would have been the difference if they had extended it till 4e was published and it included 4e lead up articles along with the 3.5 stuff? Oh, yeah and like I said earlier they are still "supporting" 3.5 with articles...the articles just aren't up to par with what Paizo was producing.

From what I've read, Dungeon will primarily be supporting 4e adventures only. The key word is primarily.

Yeah after 4e is released. I'm talking about for the next 7 to 8 months. It will only support 3.5 since 4e isn't out yet.

 

[Maggan]

The DI is, of its $10 a month, cost you $120 a year.

Dragon, if you subscribed, was roughly $40 a year. Assuming Dungeon was the same price....thats $80 a year for the two.

For me the DI is a far superior offer. I paid a lot more than 40 dollars for my overseas Dragon subscription, and only received one or two issues.

Paizo did do right by me by refunding the money after it was clear that my magazines would never show up.

But this means that digital delivery is far superior to me. I can get the content when it's published, and not a month or two months after the US readership. And I won't have to worry about it getting lost, or buying an issue at the FLGS and then have the subscription issue turn up four months late.

And each issue bought at the FLGS costs 10 dollars here in Sweden. By coincidence, that's what I believe that the DI will cost per month. So add Dungeon to that, and the other tools, and it becomes a no-brainer for me.

Note that Paizo did do the right thing, and were curteous about it, never casting doubt on my situation. I would more than have liked to be able to subscribe, but it didn't work, so I was deprived of that service.

The DI reinstates that to me.

/M

 

[Beckett]

Well, we are all entitled to our opinions. Whether I agree with you or not, I defend your right to yours.

Then we're cool. It's just I've seen a lot of opinions put forth like they were facts. If you don't like something, fine, but when someone starts saying something I like is empirically bad, I start getting defensive.

Although this,

Looking at the poll thus far, I'd extimate that you only needed to roll a 3 to make your saving throw vs WotC's "ain't this cool?" suggestion spell. Obviously, though, a few people have unlucky dice......

Even with the smiley comes across as insulting.

 

[carmachu]

For me the DI is a far superior offer. I paid a lot more than 40 dollars for my overseas Dragon subscription, and only received one or two issues.

Paizo did do right by me by refunding the money after it was clear that my magazines would never show up.

But this means that digital delivery is far superior to me. I can get the content when it's published, and not a month or two months after the US readership. And I won't have to worry about it getting lost, or buying an issue at the FLGS and then have the subscription issue turn up four months late.

And each issue bought at the FLGS costs 10 dollars here in Sweden. By coincidence, that's what I believe that the DI will cost per month. So add Dungeon to that, and the other tools, and it becomes a no-brainer for me.

Note that Paizo did do the right thing, and were curteous about it, never casting doubt on my situation. I would more than have liked to be able to subscribe, but it didn't work, so I was deprived of that service.

The DI reinstates that to me.

/M

For you, overseas, I can see why its a great deal.

Cheaper
instant arrival.
Same as everyone else.

But for us in the US....being asked to pay 1/3 MORE then the two magazine subscriptions combined.....even with the niffy(or hopefully unsucky) E-tools.....WotC had to do a bang up job on the release to get more money out of me.

 

[Beckett]

You know this is funny I was just reading the ecology of the Kraken in issue 334...now they presented the knowledge from different DC checks, History, Physiology & Society, refrences (inside & outside of D&D for the monster), a new god based on the kraken, a cult based around a kraken and tips for fighting a kraken. I'm sorry but I just don't see the article about the Death Knight approaching this quality or quantity. IMHO word count=/= quantity for actual use.

I've used Death Knights in the past. I will use Death Knights in the future. A kraken might play a very small part in one of my games, but not enough that it matters outside the encounter. So, the Kraken article fails the usefulness test.

Also, I found the Death Knight ecology fairly entertaining, while most of the new format of ecologies have been pretty dry (ah, how I long for the ecologies by Spike Y. Jones, who could make an article interesting even when I couldn't care less about the monster. Or better yet, the old days when Greenwood and Moore would write on monsters like the beholder and the mind flayer).

 

[Imaro]

I've used Death Knights in the past. I will use Death Knights in the future. A kraken might play a very small part in one of my games, but not enough that it matters outside the encounter. So, the Kraken article fails the usefulness test.

Also, I found the Death Knight ecology fairly entertaining, while most of the new format of ecologies have been pretty dry (ah, how I long for the ecologies by Spike Y. Jones, who could make an article interesting even when I couldn't care less about the monster. Or better yet, the old days when Greenwood and Moore would write on monsters like the beholder and the mind flayer).

So, it's not about how well the article was written...but whether you personally would use the monster. I can understand that, though for me I would rather have an ecology that makes me want to use a monster I might not have considered as top of my list (another good example from Dragon was the Shadar-Kai article especially with so many clamoring for Fey information). Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

[Scribble]

I've used Death Knights in the past. I will use Death Knights in the future. A kraken might play a very small part in one of my games, but not enough that it matters outside the encounter. So, the Kraken article fails the usefulness test.

Also, I found the Death Knight ecology fairly entertaining, while most of the new format of ecologies have been pretty dry (ah, how I long for the ecologies by Spike Y. Jones, who could make an article interesting even when I couldn't care less about the monster. Or better yet, the old days when Greenwood and Moore would write on monsters like the beholder and the mind flayer).

I used to love the articles that started with a short bit of fiction.

Speaking of fiction... I wonder if they might put it back intot he "magazine" now that it's digital... Why not? Digital space is infinite (sort of.)

Guess I can dare to dream right?

 

[Jhaelen]

If all its going to be is weekly web enhancements under a new title, they can keep it.

THey could at least give me a polished pretty form that I could print as a PDF or something.

I'll wait and see what the final product is, but right now, I'm not impressed.

Well, we'll get a pdf with all articles for this issue at the end of the month. That would also be a good time to repeat this poll.

Actually, I'd like this poll to be repeated after each of the monthly issues have been completed. It's not as if I'd liked every single issue of the printed magazines.

I've never been a subscriber - I only bought the issues that had something which particularly piqued my interest. Which incidentally means, it's unlikely I'll become a subscriber for D&D Insider.

 

[Scribble]

Well, we'll get a pdf with all articles for this issue at the end of the month. That would also be a good time to repeat this poll.

Actually, I'd like this poll to be repeated after each of the monthly issues have been completed. It's not as if I'd liked every single issue of the printed magazines.

I've never been a subscriber - I only bought the issues that had something which particularly piqued my interest. Which incidentally means, it's unlikely I'll become a subscriber for D&D Insider.

I was a subscriber way back in 2e time... But then TSR screwed me out of a few issues I was supposed to get free, and my mom canceled my subscription. Since then, I only bought issues that had stuff that appealed to me.

Then just about none of it did...

So I'm hoping WOTC makes the mag better then Paizo. Not because I'm angry they took it back... But because I didn't like most of what Paizo did with it.