The Failure of Gleemax

[Nicephorus]

This isn't too shocking. It often happens when those in charge don't really understand the particular field or subfield but try to push along on their own. For example, if a manager doesn't know anything about web programming, it's hard for them to tell if a potential employee really knows their stuff or if they're just bluffing to get a job. So, they wind up with a mediocre bunch of employees. Then they don't know how to manage the project and guide it with the key goals in mind so the programmers wind up each doing their own thing.

The hobby industry has had this happen many times. Avalon Hill never managed to make an in-house electronic product that was successful. ADB (makers of Star Fleet Battles) has had trouble making a Trek RPG because neither of the two main bosses ever plays rpgs. WOTC has had a few failures in the past.

It's not just Gleemax. The main Wizards website isn't as useful as it was at the time of the 3.0 launch. There isn't as much content and it's harder to find. You also have to login just to view free material.

 

[Rallek]

I used to post on the WotC board on occasion, before the days of Gleemax.

I went to check the board one day, got directed to gleemax, tried to log on, error screen. Tried again... error screen. Checked to see if my info had been transfered from the old boards, and you guessed it, error screen. After more of the same with all of my attempts to navigate the site, I pointed my browser elsewhere.


Never went back.



Happy Gaming

 

[Zaukrie]

Welcome to the team Merric. WotC has never pulled off a successful D&D technical innovation, and I don't expect them to any time soon. If they can't even manage to do message boards and blogs well (pretty much universal, easy technology at this point), I'm not sure how anyone trusts them to pull off DDI. Under promise, over deliver, does not seem to be in their vernacular when it comes to IT. The whole Gleemax thing was messed up from the beginning, what with its marketing campaign launching while they were still in "alpha" (personally, I think they were in beta or final, but then realized how bad things were, and called it alpha).

WotC has made many, many mistakes in the IT world, and I don't trust them to do it better any time soon. They couldn't even be bothered to bring the Dragon and Dungeon content into a usable pdf....I wish Paizo still owned the rights to publish those mags.

I'll look at the free DDI, but I have no expectations they'll deliver. Heck, KotS is THE launch product for their new edition, an edition that is supposed to be well supported on-line, and they have posted two mediocre articles in support. Where are the things like additional encounters, more maps, more rules supplements, more of anything much at all? I thought this edition was going to be supported on line, so far, KotS makes it look like more of the same, and that's not good.

*edited for bad spelling

 

[DaveMage]

I find myself wondering how much damage this kind of discussion can do to their reputation amongst similiarly-minded folk who might otherwise be unaware of their apparent technical ineptitude. (I, for one, tend to respect Merric's opinion a great deal, for example.) Particularly when one of the major components of our 4E expectations is specifically tied to the company's online presence.

If they get it up and running and working, it won't matter how much complaining is going on now. People will forget technical problems of the past once they've been solved.

The social issues, though, (if true) may cause some people to leave and not return.

I have a feeling that WotC subscribes to the belief that you don't worry when people complain - you worry when they stop buying. Vote with your money, people.

 

[GeorgeFields]

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.

Yeah, the new chat client kept me away from there for quite a long time. Even after I started going back, it wasn't often.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

It's not just Gleemax. The main Wizards website isn't as useful as it was at the time of the 3.0 launch. There isn't as much content and it's harder to find. You also have to login just to view free material.

Sadly you don't. Just one more problem with their website is that the security can be breached with almost no effort at all. And were not talking needing hacking tools either.

The whole Gleemax thing was messed up from the beginning, what with its marketing campaign launching while they were still in "alpha" (personally, I think they were in beta or final, but then realized how bad things were, and called it alpha).

The marketing failures go back even farther than that. When first announced and heavily promoted (remember the foam brains) they didn't even have a website that related to the announcement. It took a month for them to change the website enough to acknowledge what was coming so that other people showing up wouldn't be totally confused, and then another 3 or 4 months to even release the Alpha. The Alpha was released because marketing jumped the gun one year before they should have.

 

[SavageRobby]

Waitaminutestopthepressesholdthephoneareyouserious? Wizards barfed on releasing promised technical innovation? <gasp>

Color me stunned.
























Or not.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm withholding judgement 'till I see the finished product.

But optimism is not very high on this.

 

[WhatGravitas]

The sad thing is that that Wizards has actually been able to properly design, implement and launch electronic support... it's just been for Magic: the Gathering. The website there was great in the latter part of my playing days, it's still great to look up all the rulings and current text on whatever card I'd like.

To be fair, they haven't changed the structure main page for years. And it shows its age, especially when you look at modern web design - something WotC *should* be able to afford. But I still want daily articles for D&D like for Magic.

(By the way: You're really *angry* about that, no? Because your first two post in this thread lack your trademark "Cheers!"... NOT a good sign!)

Cheers, LT.

 

[cr0m]

FWIW, Gleemax was not developed in house. And I don't think anyone at WotC is under the illusion that it's anything but a complete disaster.