So...did Dragon wow you?

[WhatGravitas]

Well, each of the articles right now has a Download option at the bottom, but the PDF's aren't exactly stellar. The one for Ecology of the Death Knight has a Spoiler Warning that, when clicked, tries to connect to the wizards site. So they still have some kinks to work out.

Well, that's the Auto-PDF. That wasn't designed, that's just an automatic function putting the website into a PDF, with no changes whatsoever. According to one of the blogs, you'll get a real PDF (formatted by a layout designer by hand, not a machine-made print-to-PDF). So, that's not the right time to judge the PDF quality.

But still, it's not that great, what we have seen until now. I *really* hope they get better... because they should... they killed off the offline Dragon and Dungeon, after all!

Cheers, LT.

 

[exile]

I'm not impressed so far, and most of my displeasure has to do with teh way articles are released than with any specific content. I glanced through the Death Knight article (the same as I did with most print Dragon articles), and I thought it was okay (about what I thought about most print Dragon articles). What I do miss is getting all of the articles at the same time in a print format. I hope that WotC can get the part about releasing all of the articles at the same time right eventually (rather than one at a time); that might at least make Dragon seem like an e-zine rather than simply the same stuff WotC used to post for free.

Chad

 

[exile]

Despite my negative feelings, I'll still purchase a subscription. I've got more money than sense when it comes to D&D.

Chad

 

[Mouseferatu]

Guys, if you don't want to see the articles piecemeal... Don't click on the Dragon tab until the end of the month. At the end of every month, the articles will be compiled into a PDF "issue" of Dragon.

For those who want to read them as they come out, they're available. For those who don't, well, don't.

 

[bowbe]

It's all good Ari, on this we can agree to disagree

Believe me I got nothing against the dudes at Wizards doing what they feel they have to do to push 4e and the DI. I think the DI is brilliant and im convinced that if 4e doesn't suck and the DI and its online play element work that WOTC will literally make money hand over fist in ways that the company has never made money before. I'm talking money that makes poke dollars look like toilet paper. x dollars (we'll say 10) times a paltry 10,000 gamers with little overhead 100,000 a month in the pocket. That goes a lot of way to pay salaries and promote puff projects that WOTC currently wouldnt even dream of doing. It goes a long way to make the Rhode Island guys happy too. DI is pure genius especially if the online play thing works.

Likewise I, like you have several friends there. Their jobs are of course to:

Push 4e

Get 4e done

Promote WOTC and put the best spin on activities of the worlds largest RPG producer. I get that and I am rooting for them, just like you are.

Good as gold I get that totally. Problem is this: A LOT of bad blood was created for a whole lot of people with the license cancellations and bringing things back in house. I get why, and I can't fault them for it at all but...

Maybe for the very first month of DI Dragon... they coulda had the whole finished product up at once with the very broad disclaimer that in coming months issues would be updated daily till the end of the month? Maybe even an article explaining why it will be that way in the future, rather than an article explaining why it's that way NOW?

This first offering should have been finished, whole, a complete magazine with as much positive information, action and activity as could possibly be squeezed into X amount of pages to promote the new offering and the inherent cooler-ness of 4e. It should show exactly how cool it (still) "could be" vs. a piecemeal offering. Done. That simple. Nothing else can in my mind put a positive spin on that. This is the FIRST DI Dragon. It SHOULD be 100 times more kick ass than Paizo's mag right out of the gate.

You write, so do I. You know as well as I do that if either of us turned in a manuscript that was 64 pages short, and told the publisher "check back with me at the end of the month" 9 out of ten times their reaction would be quite unpleasant. Thing with me is, if I do crap by my friends, I want to be called on it. If I give them a preview of some chapter im working on and it isn't good enough I want them to tell me. I don't want to be sugar coated with people going "Heck yeah" if its really "oh no".

Instead it looks (from articles, flavor, feel, art, and incomplete-ness) exactly like the Dragon mags I quit buying when 3ed came rolling out. Yeah, the ones by WOTC. Seriously I don't mean to bash. I really really dont. This isn't impressive to me. For many others who felt that Paizo got hosed and more-over that Paizo did a MUCH better job in their tenure with the magazine (and we know these boards are filled with them) I have no doubt their sentiment is exactly the same. Hopefully the "finished" version will be better and as awesome as folks have come to expect Dragon (and Dungeon for that matter) to be.

If I WERE like joe everybody else and came upon these articles "AS IS" my sentiment would be a resounding WTF?

Check back at the end of the month? For most of those folks (who do not hang on these or many/any other boards) I can only imagine that their answer would be "why bother"?

I think the guys at WOTC want to hear this kind of criticism. I know that the guys I know who work there do. I believe they want to do better by the fans, who afterall are the ones that support their career. Sometimes it needs to be said so that the message gets out there loud and clear.

That is all.

Case

 

[Zaukrie]

1/4 of the way through, and not yet 1/4 of the articles, I hope. Otherwise, it is too thin. Also, as I suspected, by the time I've spent hours at work staring at spreadsheets, I'm just not interested in reading articles on line (especially if I also have to manage my FF team on line, chat with people about minis, check here for info....). The on-line thing for me has been a big turn off so far (as I expected).

I expect printing it out will be a huge ink hog.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm more interested in Dungeon, also, and I will also give WotC not just this one issue but all the free issues to make a final decision, but, that said, I wasn't very impressed by the ecology article. It just didn't inspire me like the recent Paizo stuff did.

The dreaded ditto post.

I mean, the death knight is know the original skeleton warrior? wha?

 

[WayneLigon]

Just one real article up, so it's a bit too early. Plus, you might as well say they'll be on-the-job training for some time to come. A year, probably. Remember when everyone was bagging on Eric Mona during Paizo's early tenure? Calls for Dungeon and Dragon to be cancelled? Now that he hangs the Moon and stars, everyone seems to have forgotten that. He turned things around big-time, but it took awhile. It'll take awhile here, too.

 

[JeffB]

Where was the "Wow, they pulled the license from Paizo for THAT?"

Thats my vote.

Case

I'm with ya Casey. My Initial reaction is the same.

Although I'd hope this is just a "too early to tell" scenario. Not that I planned on buying online mags anyway. But yeesh....I'd be a little scared If I was one of the folks who has high hopes for D&DO based on whats up there now..even when considering it's only " a weeks worth" of material.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Where was the "Wow, they pulled the license from Paizo for THAT?"

Thats my vote.

Case

My sentiment exactly.

Sorry WOTC but if your Dungeon sucks a** like your Dragon does, I'm writing you off.

and I was actually pulling for your online versions of the mags.

EDIT: you know what? To be fair I'm gonna wait until all of the content is released before I pass judgement. I still stand by the fact that so far WOTC Dragon is a big "meh" but maybe they'll win me over...