What if Dragon and Dungeon go online only?

[Festivus]

I would not be surprised if they did move Dungeon and Dragon to an online only format (using some sort of online only viewer). That probably won't stop piracy, they always figure a way around protective measures... there is just no way to stop that.

But the reason I suspect might be different, that they will change how the magazine functions all together, becoming a hybrid interactive sort of dynamic content site of sorts. At least if I was running it that is what I would do. Think how cool it would be to click a link in the article that takes you to the monster builder web app, or click on the map and it takes you to the online tile builder web app?

Yeah, I'd pay for that sort of stuff.

 

[Henry]

So now that the CB is going online only, why not the Dungeon and Dragon magazines? It would serve the same purpose; prevent people from subbing for a month and then downloading everything in one sweep.

In my case, it would be, "Straw, meet Camel's back." As neat as cloud-based computing is, it's a model with an enormous single point of failure in it, and one people need to consider and prepare for before just deciding to "get into the cloud or fugeddabout it" on every freaking thing in sight.

Me, I save the PDFs on disk for future reference; I'm not interested in logging into WotC every time I want to do some reading.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

To address the OP, I was a print Dragon subscriber and I initially subscribed for Dragon. It was a no brainer, Dungeon and Dragon for less that it used to cost me for Dragon.
I used to download the compiled completed dragon pdf to my hard drive.
I stopped and am unlikely to resume it. Why? well I have been thinking about that:
I never subscribed to Dungeon, initially I was not a DM and when I was the current issue of Dungeon never had anything that was suitable to me for the party I had at the level or campaign I was running.
However, since 4e I have been running WoTC modules and Chaos Scar adventures, Chaos Scar is excellent for a DM like me and for a goup that meet only intermittently.
I have come to appreciate the utility of modules even in an onging campaign more. So why not download, because downloaded they are of less ulitity unless i create indexes and search capality myself. Online I can leverage Google or even WoTCs search
I do think that WoTC could do better on indexing Dragon and Dungeon and should provide better seach tools. However, offline, just like their paper counter parts they are files in a drive/shelf and unless I remember that there was something I want to use I will never know about it.

So at the moment my subscription is worth it for Dungeon and the CB is added jam. It is inconvenient not having the CB on multiple machines where my players could access it without having to authenticate on WoTC. But when we create new characters, it is not too much trouble to login and allow the players to access the browser.

 

[ourchair]

Me, I save the PDFs on disk for future reference; I'm not interested in logging into WotC every time I want to do some reading.

Well said.

Despite all the arguments and counterarguments that could be made on either side, this pretty much answers it.

 

[Nymrohd]

Both Dungeon and Dragon end up on the popular download sites within minutes of release (heck earlier on, even individual articles could be found this fast). The same with the Character Builder updates.

 

[Mirtek]

Both Dungeon and Dragon end up on the popular download sites within minutes of release (heck earlier on, even individual articles could be found this fast). The same with the Character Builder updates.

And the books follow in max a week after release, sometimes even as soon as the first premier stores get to sell them. So Wotc should stop producing any D&D material, as that is the only piracy protection that works.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Both Dungeon and Dragon end up on the popular download sites within minutes of release (heck earlier on, even individual articles could be found this fast). The same with the Character Builder updates.

and WoTC will, if PDF experience has taught us anything, feel that this is lost revenue yes?

 

[TheYeti1775]

Just one more reason, I'm glad I never subscribed to it.

You all do recall WotC's policy of anything on their site belongs to them right. Remember that in the forums, and how many of us went through and scrubbed our house rules and all from there. Same thing applies to your characters, nothing to say they don't change the ToS there as well with the CB.

Just like PDF's, I bet it hurts them more than they admit.
It will just drive players to hunt elsewhere for what they want.

As was said earlier, no matter the version, most of my planning for gaming takes place during my commute on a bus without internet access.
This won't effect me much at all.

 

[Zaran]

I think it would be a mistake for them to make the magazines online only. When they first announced that the mags would be digital they flat out said that we could print them out if we wanted. Frankly, they really shouldn't try to take anything more away without bringing something new to the table. They burned up alot of confidence in many players. Besides, I doubt they would get many players to sign up for a monthly account just because the magazines are online only. The quality in the product just isn't there.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I actually don't see how they could make Dungeon online-only. They're modules. They need to be printed out so we can have them at the table when we play. And while I think they are eventually trying to move to a system where you can DM games with a computer at the table... they're nowhere near that point yet.

Besides which... all the magazines are is just pages of text and images. Even if they didn't put them into PDF form for us to download... we'd just copy/paste the text and/or make screen grabs of the modules so that we could print them out ourselves.