So...did Dragon wow you?

[Celebrim]

Is it fair to hold WotC up to such a high standard? Probably not. But then WotC has no one to blame but themselves. Since it was announced a year ago that Paizo had lost the license to produce print versions of the magazines, we've gotten nothing but overblown hype and extravagant promises about how great the online versions would be. I fully understand why they did this, but, having done so, they should have made a greater effort at trying to come through on their promises. As it is now, e-Dragon looks like an afterthought rather than something that WotC considers important enough not merely to get right but get perfect out of the gates.

I have the distinct impression that alot of people will feel much the same way about the launch of 4e.

 

[JamesM]

I have the distinct impression that alot of people will feel much the same way about the launch of 4e.

Undoubtedly. I'm a 4E skeptic myself, based on what little we've seen so far, but I don't get the impression that WotC isn't devoting significant resources to 4E. I may not like how they're developing the game but I'd never suggest they weren't pulling out all the stops for the new edition.

Dragon, though, really does feel like an afterthought. I get the impression the magazines were brought back in house primarily to lock down the D&D IP under one roof rather than because there was any real plan of how to utilize an online magazine to promote and support the game. And, truth be told, once DDI gets off the ground, Dragon and Dungeon will basically just be names for "departments" of the whole online initiative rather than distinctive entities of their own. That's a shame.

The magazines, until Paizo took them over, had always been house organs, it's true, but they still had a certain amount of independence and unique flair. Now, especially after what we've seen so far, it looks like they'll be little more than logos they attach to collections of articles and adventures, "sub-brands" if you will. Nothing wrong with that, but it does feel like the end of an era.

 

[Celebrim]

Undoubtedly. I'm a 4E skeptic myself, based on what little we've seen so far, but I don't get the impression that WotC isn't devoting significant resources to 4E. I may not like how they're developing the game but I'd never suggest they weren't pulling out all the stops for the new edition.

Dragon, though, really does feel like an afterthought.

True. However, based on some things that have been said, 4e may have been more like an afterthought than we would like. It feels very rushed to market to me.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Its one article, unless theres more I cant find. I wasnt terribly impressed, but then again, Dragon rarely wowed me as a whole. I got it because it was cheap to add to Dungeon, and a good bathroom read. Some3 of the features were awesome (Demonomicron, Core Beliefs, Bazaar, Ecology) but there were many that I didnt get much from, and I rarely read the fiction pieces. I'd need to see at least a couple full issues before declaring anything.

 

[Scribble]

I'm in the "too early to tell" camp...

Not sure I dig the way they deliver it though. One article at a time all through the month.

When I was a kid I went on a trip with a friend, and my mom gave my friend's mom my spending money to give to me a bit each day, so that I wouldn't spend it all at once... Feels like that with Dragon. I'm old enough now to spoil my dragon appetite all at once now thanks...

But Dragon itself really hasn't been my thing in a long while. Very rarely do the articles interest me. It tends to be "more of the same" as opposed to new ideas and concepts. I'm hopiong in 4e it can do the new ideas thing.

I'm also happy to have them in digital format. WAY more usable to me.

 

[D.Shaffer]

*shrug* We've had one real article so far. I'll wait for the end of the month and we have the first 'complete' magazine (AKA, the monthly compilation) to come out. That said, I'm not in the 'See! I told you it would suck!!' group that some people are.

 

[Belen]

I'm exceptionally underwhelmed by what's there so far...in part because there's so little there so far. The ecology of the Death Knight isn't the worst ecology article I've ever seen...but it's also a far cry from the best. Unfortunately, that mediocre article is essentially the entirety of the content currently available. It reads like a free web enhancement, not pay-worthy premium.

I wouldn't say they're doing a bad job. However, unless there's a lot of extremely high-quality stuff coming down the pipe that's better served by appearing in a digital format, I'd just as soon save my real money for real products.

I agree.

The new Dragon is exactly how I expected it to turn out, so I cannot say that I am underwhelmed. WOTC just wanted to be able to charge for their web content without having to compete against Paizo and Dragon Magazine. The DI could not work if a better alternative existed.

 

[SteveC]

Final gripe. WotC has hurt their image once again by releasing something not up to par with THEIR image of what it was to do. Being busy has no place in this, they had time and people 3 months ago. If WotC every expected me to put out money for these e-magazines they need to make it worth my time and money. Not this rehash of free stuff and looking like the enhancements from time before.

I think this is spot on. Running a magazine takes a huge amount of time, energy and resources. Did I miss all of the people that were hired to run this? Not too long ago, updates to the WotC website were delayed because the webmaster was on vacation. Note how I didn't say "one of the webmasters," I said the webmaster. My take on Dragon is that it's suffering from the same problem as the errata updates for 3X: not enough resources, and poor project management. I don't mean that to slight the WotC folks, because I think they are excellent game designers. I will simply submit to you that game design is a completely different skill set than project management, and, in some ways, I think it is a mutually incompatible skill.

I don't know how many staff Paizo had for running Dungeon and Dragon, but there didn't appear to be any additional headcount hired to make the online magazines run. Even if there were some that didn't get publicity, putting inexperienced people on a project of this size, and then giving them only a couple months to get up to speed is a recipe for disaster.

Will Dungeon and Dragon take off? Frankly, it's way too early to tell, but unless WotC starts hiring a lot of people to make this happen, they won't until well after the launch of 4E. The trouble is, will the magazine be out for long enough that it will be declared a failure by then? I certainly hope not, but signs aren't looking good.

When the issue of the Digital Initiative came out, I was very skeptical, largely because I believed that WotC didn't have anyone in house who had enough experience with online publishing to tell them what they were getting into. That seems to still be the case, unfortunately.

--Steve

 

[Desdichado]

They've only had one actual article of real content so far. A bit early to be wowed or un-wowed, IMO. The article on those three guy's gaming history certainly underwhelmed me, but I thought the Death Knight was good enough. Maybe a little on the short side.

 

[Wormwood]

They've only had one actual article of real content so far. A bit early to be wowed or un-wowed, IMO. The article on those three guy's gaming history certainly underwhelmed me, but I thought the Death Knight was good enough. Maybe a little on the short side.

Paizo's own Dragon Magazine writer's guidelines state that "Ecologies" articles are to be about 3,000 words.

The Ecology of the Death Knight article clocked in at over 4000 words (according to Word).

*shrug*

I bet the article would look perfectly fine laid out in a Dragon magazine spread (with ads and full-sized graphics).