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What do you want to ask WotC?
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
gribble
Explorer
Bad business sense...
So, I have absolutely no recent hard data to back it up (although I believe Ryan Dancy's pre-3e surveys agreed with me here), but it was my understanding that the online community for D&D was like a tiny proportion of it's fan base? That most groups went to their local FLGS (or even borders or other mainstream bookstore), picked up their new release books, and happily played their tabletop games without bothering about any of the online stuff.
At least, every time a new WotC book comes out and gets blasted on the forums that's the line that gets trotted out, more often than not by WotC and other publishers staff.
So with that background, my questions are:
1) Do WotC now have reason to believe that the online community makes up a substantial portion of it's market?
2) If not, do they have reason to think that the online community will be growing substantially?
3) If not, what proportion of the existing online community did WotC assume would buy (or subscribe to, or however it will work) the new online content?
Judging by the reaction of the online community so far, I hope WotC's business case didn't assume #3 was going to be too high...
So, I have absolutely no recent hard data to back it up (although I believe Ryan Dancy's pre-3e surveys agreed with me here), but it was my understanding that the online community for D&D was like a tiny proportion of it's fan base? That most groups went to their local FLGS (or even borders or other mainstream bookstore), picked up their new release books, and happily played their tabletop games without bothering about any of the online stuff.
At least, every time a new WotC book comes out and gets blasted on the forums that's the line that gets trotted out, more often than not by WotC and other publishers staff.
So with that background, my questions are:
1) Do WotC now have reason to believe that the online community makes up a substantial portion of it's market?
2) If not, do they have reason to think that the online community will be growing substantially?
3) If not, what proportion of the existing online community did WotC assume would buy (or subscribe to, or however it will work) the new online content?
Judging by the reaction of the online community so far, I hope WotC's business case didn't assume #3 was going to be too high...
How will the Digital Initiative affect the OGL and the SRD?
Both Dungeon and Dragon were venues for the advertising of non-WotC game related material, will the Digital Initiative offering from WotC allow non-WotC companies to advertise there?
Dungeon and Dragon in magazine form were visible support material for d20 games that could be found in chain book stores. With the magazines gone, how does WotC plan to make up for the loss in visibility for their products?
Both Dungeon and Dragon were venues for the advertising of non-WotC game related material, will the Digital Initiative offering from WotC allow non-WotC companies to advertise there?
Dungeon and Dragon in magazine form were visible support material for d20 games that could be found in chain book stores. With the magazines gone, how does WotC plan to make up for the loss in visibility for their products?
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Simple question, unlikely to be answered, but:
***What would it take to convince Wizards to reverse this decision before September, at least to the point of continuing the print magazines alongside the online initiative, whatever that'll be?***
A less simple question, but perhaps more likely to be answered:
***How much value does WotC place on intangibles such as tradition, collectibility, and continuity when making decisions; not just specifically about the magazines, but about the game in general? The fan base - your customers - would seem to value these rather highly.***
And a pipe dream question:
***With the broader scope allowed by the online realm, can we hope for any support for older editions of the game, and older settings?***
Corollary to above:
***If there is to be no support for older editions/settings, would Wizards be open to selling the rights to such, to those that could revive and support them?***
That said, if all the other questions (many of which are *very* good) so far posted get answered - with crunch rather than fluff - we'll at least have a better clue what's coming down the pipe.
Lanefan
***What would it take to convince Wizards to reverse this decision before September, at least to the point of continuing the print magazines alongside the online initiative, whatever that'll be?***
A less simple question, but perhaps more likely to be answered:
***How much value does WotC place on intangibles such as tradition, collectibility, and continuity when making decisions; not just specifically about the magazines, but about the game in general? The fan base - your customers - would seem to value these rather highly.***
And a pipe dream question:
***With the broader scope allowed by the online realm, can we hope for any support for older editions of the game, and older settings?***
Corollary to above:
***If there is to be no support for older editions/settings, would Wizards be open to selling the rights to such, to those that could revive and support them?***
That said, if all the other questions (many of which are *very* good) so far posted get answered - with crunch rather than fluff - we'll at least have a better clue what's coming down the pipe.
Lanefan
Last edited:
LeaderDesslok
First Post
I have never subscribed to Dragon or Dungeon, but I bought Dragon regulalry for 25 years. I bought it from my FLGS (or book store back when I was just a punk kid), and only bought issues that had content that appealed to me. I knew what was in it because I saw the cover and checked out the table of contents.
QUESTIONS:
* I don't want to buy a subscription to the digital initiative, so will I be able to know what appears in each months's content, and will I be able to buy access to just one "issue"?
* If I can buy access to one "issue," can I take that a step further and buy only content that I am interested in?
My second question is important because I think the greatest strength of this digital initiative could be that subscribers (or one-off buyers) only pay for what they want. With hard copy magazines, I have to pay the same price whether I read the whole periodical or just one article.
QUESTIONS:
* I don't want to buy a subscription to the digital initiative, so will I be able to know what appears in each months's content, and will I be able to buy access to just one "issue"?
* If I can buy access to one "issue," can I take that a step further and buy only content that I am interested in?
My second question is important because I think the greatest strength of this digital initiative could be that subscribers (or one-off buyers) only pay for what they want. With hard copy magazines, I have to pay the same price whether I read the whole periodical or just one article.
1. How will you replace the content of Dungeon magazine that I have lost?
Each month, Dungeon provided me 3 quality adventures for less than $5. Not only has Dungeon given me a library of adventures to pull from to find something that fills a hole in whatever campaign I am running, the monthly magazine gave me adventures to read which have taught me how to make better adventures.
2. How are you going to make my job as a DM easier?
At D&D XP, I came away with the belief that WotC was concerned with the difficulty in attracting and retaining DMs. The canceling of Dungeon canceled my belief leaving me thinking WotC only wants my money and could care less about DMs otherwise. Running a campaign is not only difficult and time consuming, it costs much more money than playing. Not only do I have to buy adventures, I have to buy a copy of any book my players are using (I allow almost every WotC book figuring if a player is willing to spend the money at my FLGS, they should be encouraged to do so). Dungeon was a great, cost-effective tool for DMs.
3. If adventures are going to be provided by this digital initiative, how will you prevent my players from reading them, thereby making the adventures useless to me?
Three of my regular players have read all of the adventures on the WotC site, which means those adventures are worthless to me. They haven't read the Dungeon adventures because they are not willing to pay for a subscription or buy from my FLGS. Plus they had to physically store the magazine and they can't read it easily at work of college. If the fee paid to the new online content allows them access to the adventures as well as the Dragon type content, they will read them. If there is a separate fee for the adventures that will give them access to all adventures for a reasonable price, they will pay it to look at all the adventures.
4. Why should I turst WotC?
Harsh question, but an honest question that needs an honest answer. D&D XP was only 2 months ago. It seems likely that some people knew about the death of Dragon and Dungeon at that time. Why wasn't it announced there? With the overwhelming negative reaction on the various forums to the announcement, it is likely the feelings would have been mirrored at XP. But the attendees at XP were described by the WotC staff at XP as the most hard core, loyal customers. If there is a good reason for canceling the two magazines, these were the people who would be the easiest to convince.
Each month, Dungeon provided me 3 quality adventures for less than $5. Not only has Dungeon given me a library of adventures to pull from to find something that fills a hole in whatever campaign I am running, the monthly magazine gave me adventures to read which have taught me how to make better adventures.
2. How are you going to make my job as a DM easier?
At D&D XP, I came away with the belief that WotC was concerned with the difficulty in attracting and retaining DMs. The canceling of Dungeon canceled my belief leaving me thinking WotC only wants my money and could care less about DMs otherwise. Running a campaign is not only difficult and time consuming, it costs much more money than playing. Not only do I have to buy adventures, I have to buy a copy of any book my players are using (I allow almost every WotC book figuring if a player is willing to spend the money at my FLGS, they should be encouraged to do so). Dungeon was a great, cost-effective tool for DMs.
3. If adventures are going to be provided by this digital initiative, how will you prevent my players from reading them, thereby making the adventures useless to me?
Three of my regular players have read all of the adventures on the WotC site, which means those adventures are worthless to me. They haven't read the Dungeon adventures because they are not willing to pay for a subscription or buy from my FLGS. Plus they had to physically store the magazine and they can't read it easily at work of college. If the fee paid to the new online content allows them access to the adventures as well as the Dragon type content, they will read them. If there is a separate fee for the adventures that will give them access to all adventures for a reasonable price, they will pay it to look at all the adventures.
4. Why should I turst WotC?
Harsh question, but an honest question that needs an honest answer. D&D XP was only 2 months ago. It seems likely that some people knew about the death of Dragon and Dungeon at that time. Why wasn't it announced there? With the overwhelming negative reaction on the various forums to the announcement, it is likely the feelings would have been mirrored at XP. But the attendees at XP were described by the WotC staff at XP as the most hard core, loyal customers. If there is a good reason for canceling the two magazines, these were the people who would be the easiest to convince.
Destil
Explorer
What kind of plans do you have to help support local game stores in lieu of this? Prepaid cards for those without credit cards would be the very least you could do. But if the digital system is truly on the ball something like the ability to set up games at local stores online could be rather cool, for instance.
Is this just going to be a new venue for the same sort of content, or are we talking interactive server / client PC sheets and other game aids?
If there is to be pure digital content of the same vein as everything we've seen before will you support something other than the horrid PDF format, like simple HTML/XML. PDF is good for no more than one thing: printing. It's a terrible format to actually read on a PC, because it gives the creator far too much control - Why is my PDF book divided into two columns vertically when my screen is horizontal? (Actually It's a horrid format for anything, but I can at least see printing as giving it a slight advantage... as long as you don't want to print it at anything other than the original scale and aspect ratio.. or do things like get rid of images to save ink...).
Why would you reveal something like this, aside an announcement that you should have realized would upset a large part of your fan base, without anything to wow us and get us excited for the future? Were you honestly caught that flat-footed by the backlash of the announcement?
Is this just going to be a new venue for the same sort of content, or are we talking interactive server / client PC sheets and other game aids?
If there is to be pure digital content of the same vein as everything we've seen before will you support something other than the horrid PDF format, like simple HTML/XML. PDF is good for no more than one thing: printing. It's a terrible format to actually read on a PC, because it gives the creator far too much control - Why is my PDF book divided into two columns vertically when my screen is horizontal? (Actually It's a horrid format for anything, but I can at least see printing as giving it a slight advantage... as long as you don't want to print it at anything other than the original scale and aspect ratio.. or do things like get rid of images to save ink...).
Why would you reveal something like this, aside an announcement that you should have realized would upset a large part of your fan base, without anything to wow us and get us excited for the future? Were you honestly caught that flat-footed by the backlash of the announcement?
Jemal
Adventurer
I'm not sure how many people out there are like me, but my main concern is this :
With dragon/dungeon, I could look at each issue and decide whether or not it was for me, will there be anything like that available for the online format?
A sort of free preview so those of us with limited resources don't end up 'wasting' it on something we won't enjoy/use?
With dragon/dungeon, I could look at each issue and decide whether or not it was for me, will there be anything like that available for the online format?
A sort of free preview so those of us with limited resources don't end up 'wasting' it on something we won't enjoy/use?
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