So...did Dragon wow you?

[Aus_Snow]

Would i read it? Yes
Would I pay for it? Not bloody likely.

Yeah, that.

 

[ivocaliban]

Everything I've seen looks like what used to be called web enhancements.

My thoughts exactly. Web Enhancements were great when they were free and you got them because they gave you something extra for the money you put down for a printed book. They're not so great on their own, however.

Nonetheless, it's the article on Graz'zt that I'm really looking forward to. Ask me again once that's up.

 

[Wormwood]

Ask me again when I've seen an entire 'issue'.

 

[wedgeski]

Way unfair to judge it on the two or three articles. It won't begin to gel as a 'magazine' until the first few months are out of the way, and the first few PDF's are released. Honestly I have been somewhat underwhelmed, and expected a bigger launch 'splash', but I'm reserving judgement until gone Christmas at least. It's not like it's costing me anything to do so.

 

[Dice4Hire]

see I want the whole Magazine up front.

Yeah, if they want to impress me, they need to have the whole magazine appear on a certain day of the month very month from now till May. If every magazine was decent or above it would impress me a lot. But piecemeal over the course of a month is what we have been getting free fr years on WOTC anyway.

If they just change their Mind's Eye and such piecemeal articles to other names seen in Dragon, it is not impressive at all.

 

[JediSoth]

Sounds to me like it would have made more sense for WotC to give Paizo another year to publish Dungeon and Dragon while they put the finishing touches on 4E. They then could have used preview articles in Dragon to reach out to the "give me paper only!" crowd that's still miffed they can't carry their magazines around with them.

Instead they're trying to relaunch two magazines in a new format while trying to administer playtesting, finish up a new edition, and prepare for the launch of a new edition of one of the world's most popular roleplaying games.

A missed opportunity...

 

[WhatGravitas]

Yeah, if they want to impress me, they need to have the whole magazine appear on a certain day of the month very month from now till May. If every magazine was decent or above it would impress me a lot. But piecemeal over the course of a month is what we have been getting free fr years on WOTC anyway.

If they just change their Mind's Eye and such piecemeal articles to other names seen in Dragon, it is not impressive at all.

I have no problem with a piecemeal magazine whatsoever - if you want one chock of goodness, wait for the PDF compilation.

However, as I stated above, the pace worries me - I don't want to have a Dragon light with only half the pages. And I miss the ads, because they were sometimes interesting.

My biggest criticism by far, however, is the poor start. I mean, they've known that for month. And not all articles are 4E-articles, like the Death Knight. The Graz'zt article is pretty much a Demonomicon article in Paizo-style. The Dungeon articles are not 4E-style as well. And other stuff... I guess not. They could have prepared some of these articles months in advance! It's not like they're only knowing that they're doing Dragon and Dungeion for one or two month - and Paizo was able to churn out magazines monthly, including print (well, WotC was able to do that as well in the pre-Paizo time). And don't forget, their CCG department (Magic: the Gathering) produces one column a day, has a daily "stuff"-column that shows off artwork, wallpapers and stuff... well, why can't they borrow some web-monkeys from the other WotC-half?

And why is this "R&D: Core Mechanic"-article suddenly a Dragon article? Previously, they were only normal articles.

To sum up, I think the start could have been a bit smoother. I mean they know how to pull something like that off. The 4E announcement was quite spectacular, with life-size beholder and troll at GenCon, videos, blogs, and everything else. They produce books on almost monthly base, that are also filled with stuff. And they had more than enough time to prepare some stuff in advance. Because of all these factors, it looks very... half-hearted.

I still give them the benefit of doubt and hope they get a lot better.

Cheers, LT.

 

[jimpaladin]

I'm in the it's looking like I thought it would look.

I was very upset at the cancellations of the mags and so I am looking at this as a"I told you so". I realize that it will be rough going the first 3 issues or so as they find the time to put everyone in place. The real problem is that they knew this would be the result if they didn't get on the stick and yet they allowed it to happen. As a "big" corporation they needed to put people in focus on this. They had a year plus to get it ready to launch.

4e will take up the lion's share of time as it's in the final stages before printing and you want eyeballs on that. But since the announcement they should have spent hours on this thing with 4e fluff filler as needed. Every day there should be a Dragon or Dungeoun piece going up. If you are going to go the end of the month route, then September should have been the start date else November. The little that has come out looks and feels just like the free stuff they use to put out. I mean let's be smart and at least change the look. We heard so much about how being digital will make it so much cooler. How? It looks like everything did 3 months ago.

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.

 

[carmachu]

Way unfair to judge it on the two or three articles. It won't begin to gel as a 'magazine' until the first few months are out of the way, and the first few PDF's are released. Honestly I have been somewhat underwhelmed, and expected a bigger launch 'splash', but I'm reserving judgement until gone Christmas at least. It's not like it's costing me anything to do so.

Underwhelmed is a great term. As is Missed opportunity.

I dont see what its unfair to judge them at all. They canceled the Print magazines, with the intention of releasing the digital Initative, and hyping that up. They had time to prepare for it, and make a big splash and big opportunity to show us what they got and what they plan. They already had a negative opinion when they canceled the print....here was their chance to mend a bit of the fence.

And failed. Its underwhelming completely. It looks like a web enhancement rather than online magazine content. Dont forget, their going to want folks to PAY for their DI and online stuff....so here was a chance to show what you can get that's worth money.

Be honest, would you pay for that?

 

[JamesM]

While I agree wholeheartedly with those who argue that it's a bit unfair to judge the online Dragon based solely on an incomplete first issue, not to mention those who rightly remember that the early days of Paizo's stewardship of the magazines weren't all wine and roses, the fact remains that, after the very public killing of the print editions and the repeated promises to "wow" us with all the cool things they could now do virtually that would have been "inefficient" to do on paper, e-Dragon's first issue should have been amazing. This is the launch of a wholly new approach to a venerable gaming institution. This is the beginning of a bold, new era, one that many people greet with justifiable skepticism. WotC should have devoted significant resources to making this first issue rock so hard that we nearly forgot the existence of any other Dragon. What we got instead was an incomplete, seemingly half-hearted attempt to dress up web enhancements as premium content.

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.

Sure, it's deeply unfair to expect a rookie to hit a grand slam in his first at bat, but, after being told for months that he was the second coming of Babe Ruth, should we have expected any less?