The Failure of Gleemax

[DarkKestral]

Not to mention films. When it comes to outside of their own trade specialty and medium (i.e., pen-n-paper RPG), they have absolutely no idea who to look for.

You got that right. I suspect the only reason they didn't get Uwe Boll to direct a D&D film is because he probably didn't think the property to be worth enough in possible tax writeoffs to justify it.

Otherwise, I'm sure that's who they would have tapped, given their atrocious film history... (what? 2-3 different films, all flops?)

 

[Cergorach]

I just tried to login to Gleemax, I get an error page twice while trying top login. Finally I suspect that I might not have migrated over my account yet, so I let the thing check it, I've been migrated over already. I go back to the login page, but it's not my login page, it's my account details page... So now I'm logged on, and I want to proceed to My Page => Personal Page, I get another error page. The best thing about these error pages is the message "I recommend that you close your browser and log back in.", as if the error has something to do with my browser, and closing it will help somehow. Trying to go to the community pages gives me another error, trying to go to the forums gives me a redirection error. I'm using Opera btw., but that shouldn't generate these kinds of problems. I'm trying IE now, and that gives me the same kind of errors. I'm kind of logged in now in Opera, but now even the front page won't load without going to an error page...

Folks that can't make their own websites should stick with frameworks that don't have these problems. Folks that can't get frameworks to behave properly shouldn't be in the web design/programming business.

Not to mention that I absolutely hate the visual design of Gleemax! I kind of like the green bubbly background, even the logo design is good (a bit retro), I even like the little cute brain in a bottle. But the silver/grey/blue interface is what ruins the experience for me, it just doesn't fit with the green (IMHO). This give the whole site a completely impersonal feel, what a gaming site shouldn't have.

 

[Khairn]

Wizards decided to cancel a contract with the producer of a set of relatively popular set of mags while Wizards was waiting on a new product to come out, and before they had provided a clear path to an "upgrade" for many while also canceling them in such a way as to do maximum PR damage to themselves. They also changed the formula behind the replacement to those mags, so much of the fanbase decided that the new formula wasn't for them. They then released the buggy new product that was the ostensible replacement while everyone was still outraged. And then proceeded to not fix that.

Amen.

But let me ask you all a question. Do you think WotC is even listening at this point, and that any amount of BMC'ing (B*tch, Moan, Complain) on our part will accomplish anything? These complaints have been voiced for months now without any acknowledgement from WotC.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Amen.

But let me ask you all a question. Do you think WotC is even listening at this point, and that any amount of BMC'ing (B*tch, Moan, Complain) on our part will accomplish anything? These complaints have been voiced for months now without any acknowledgement from WotC.

That's a good question. But in this case, I definitely think it might still make sense to "BMC". The DDI and Gleemax are something that are supposed to stay around for a while, and unlike core books already in print or shipping, they can and will be changed over time.

ENWorld is definitely high on WotC list to gather user/player feedback, considering that several designers and The Rouse are posting here.

An even better question might not be if WotC is listening, but if we will still care when they finally implement the changes? They are (self-inflicted) in the awkward position of having to hurry to fix things, and still make the fixes good enough to regain the trust (or at least hope) of the disappointed.

 

[Relique du Madde]

You forget that no matter what, even if WoTC is listening to the BMC, they are unable to cannot come out and say "We really screwed the pooch on <insert blunder>" because once they do they would destroy even more consumer confidence in their products, services, and decisions. All they are basically able to do is say, "We decided to improve X by doing Y and in the process we made X become a whole lot X-ier because the previous version of X was broke and flawed!"

 

[Staffan]

I was a WizO mod for the WotC chat rooms 6-7 years ago. I have to say the community there today pales in comparison to what it was back then.

I used to hang out at the TSRO/WIZO chat all the time back in the day, but I have to say that the quality started dropping long before Mike Lescault came on the scene. I left about two years ago, because most of the people I used to know there didn't come by anymore. The straw that broke the camel's back in my case was that they got a new chat client that was highly inferior to the old one (for one thing, if you switched windows/tabs and then came back, you would have to click on the text input bar again to write), but I had become increasingly disillusioned before then.

That said, it appears that Gleemax/D&DI is suffering from the same problem MasterTools did - it's trying to do too much at once. I mean, I remember reading the progress reports on Master Tools, with the developers saying things like "Oh, today we recorded sounds for the beholder figure." I think most of the people on the mailing list thought "What? Sound effects? Give us a character generator and maybe a dungeon designer, not a frickin' video game."

 

[ShadowDenizen]

I'll just agree with everything that Merric originally posted.

WotC made this an epic fail; they touted the DI as a "Conerstone of the 4E experience", yet we've seen next to no progress on that side of things.

Interesting how things change in the course of a year; after the 4E launch, everyone was buzzing about the online components, and what it would offer; now, with the 4E books nearly here, the online component doesn't seem to be a blip on the radar, for the most part.

While I think an online character/NPC generator would be a huge boon (especially for the new generation that will be checking out 4E!!), I think D+D could have suvived without this push for online presence, honsestly. And this would have kept tons of gamers happy with the continued physical presence of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. (I confess I only look at the online versions sporadically.)

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Backing up Shemeska's post - if Gleemax has lost Merric (and not just lost him, but severely pissed him off), then someone has dropped the ball big time.

Merric, if control was in your hands (and that is truly not a ridiculous idea), what do you think needs to happen and in what order?
What can WotC do to win you back?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[JohnRTroy]

I think it's a classic case of a company trying to "do it themselves" rather than either outsource or use experts.

I just would like to know if they have hired any professional web designers out there. And software developers, project managers, etc. Maybe seek out a pro from one of those free games online who've done this before. You can tell when bands, actors, and other people have let friends setup web sites instead of having professionals do it. And that's just from the design perspective, when you get into forums, wikis, AJAX tools, and customized software it gets a lot more complicated.

I have a feeling Wizards wouldn't spend a lot of money on this, or try to give it to a game designer looking to "try new things". My best guess is that its too costly. The salaries for programmers, good web designers, etc, are I believe more expensive than for the game designers at WoTC, so I can see it seeming unpalatable to them. And it's dangerous to outsource programmers for this task, since if this is part of your "core competency", you shouldn't depend on people outside your firm for these tasks.

 

[DarkKestral]

Amen.

But let me ask you all a question. Do you think WotC is even listening at this point, and that any amount of BMC'ing (B*tch, Moan, Complain) on our part will accomplish anything? These complaints have been voiced for months now without any acknowledgement from WotC.

The heck if I know. I don't work for WotC. I'd just like to see them fix what I see as the mistakes they can now fix: work doubletime on getting their code (both on the web side and for the electronic game products) stable and bug-free before adding features, and work on building back a sense of community. Not much else they can do at this point.