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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3898308" data-attributes="member: 22424">My big worry is that in a few years we'll look back and see that killing Dragon and Dungeon was the turning point that led to the demise of the game as a whole. It removes the D&D presence from the news-stands, it generated a huge amount of anti-WotC feeling online, and it removed one of the prime venues for new writers to break into the industry.I have been deeply unimpressed with the launch of the digital equivalents, especially on the Dragon side. In my opinion, WotC really needed to hit a home run with the first issues online. They have failed to do so. (Yes, I know, they are having the inevitable teething troubles. Problem is, they really couldn't afford to.) That represents a big blow against their Digital Initiative, and something they have to sort out really quickly - the online magazines have to get up to the quality of the best issues of Dragon and Dungeon from the Paizo years, and they have to do it at least two issues before they start charging.The other pillar of the Digital Initiative are the game tools. If these work as advertised, then that will be great. Unfortunately, WotC's record with electronic tools for D&D (whether produced in-house or by a third party under license) is lousy. Based on that, my own experience with software development, and also the roll-out of Dragon and Dungeon online... I have a bad feeling.In the worst case, this could lead to the Digital Initiative simply falling flat. And, if it is a catastrophic failure, WotC would have to write off the money invested in it. Suddenly, the 'line item' that is D&D to Hasbro goes from a negligible profit to a big loss. All it would take then is for Hasbro to have a bad quarter, to look for things to cut, and D&D is cancelled.That is very much a worst-case scenario. If the DI is even a moderate success, it will guarantee the future of the game for ten years or more, and a really good Virtual Tabletop coupled with a really large community base could well be the best thing for gaming since, well, ever. Clearly, WotC expect things to play out well for them, and I really do hope they're right. But, I do worry.As for bringing back the print magazines: never going to happen. When Dragon #360 and Dungeon #151 failed to appear on the news-stands, that was it. There is no going back.</blockquote>

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