Erik Mona said:
Letters to the editor are important for a couple of reasons.
1. They give the readers a voice in the magazine.
2. They allow us to convey certain information that would be awkward if presented any other way. Generally, if someone has a question about a back issue or a magazine policy or what have you, other people probably have the same question, and rattling off an answer in the letter column is a good way to get info out quickly.
Plus, when you have writers like The Koga (see the latest Dragon), you've got to print their wisdom for the masses.
--Erik
i generally do agree that a voice for the readers IN the magazine is a good thing. in fact, i laughed my a#$ off at the koga letter, and really enjoyed the fact that you chose to share it with us. thanks. no, really!
HOWEVER, later in that same dragon, some dingus wrote a letter based on letting you all know the name of the "glaive" from kull. the letter itself was a waste of time - unless you had several more like it. is it just too optimistic of me to think that the possiblility of multiple letters-to-the-editor, based on the fact that the writer was either too lazy to flip the page or completely failed his spot check, is unlikely at best?
anyhow. i did vote against downer - because i find it rather incomprehensible. i've just begun to pick up dungeon again after many years, missed the whats going on in downer article, and find myself just generally more interested in the other content of the book (which, for the most part, is d*#m fine content). i think the reason that downer is so unpopular is because it is so serialized that, without having read it from the beginning, it is difficult to follow. it's a common problem that full blown comic books have, so only getting the story 2 pages at a time is really a difficult thing for most people to be OK with.
i'm definetly sad to see Wil save go, but i understand wil's reasons. i certainly hope that you find some other columnist who will, rather than focusing purely on mechanics or DM advice, help bring our hobby into perspective in the same way that Wil did. I think that one of the reasons i started picking up dungeon again was specifically because i enjoyed wil's column so much.