WoTC products, going downhill?
- Thread starter WarlockLord
- Start date
Mouseferatu
Hero
Nepenthe said:That's because apparently two books with the same premise are getting released 4 months apart(!)
Not even remotely. That's like saying Monster Manual V and the Fiendish Codex have "the same premise."
Belen
Legend
Hussar said:
I have yet to see Wizards develop an effective online presence. There boards are a joke. Even if they have the exact same material, the online versions will not be useful to me. The free articles posted online now suck. Maybe if they had the people who turned the mags around the last few years in charge of the show, then I would take a look at them.
However, I am not going to pay for a website. I am not going to pay to have to print out everything I want to use. I do not want to have to worry about whether my internet connection is working or whether the WOTC servers are operating or even if my damn power went out.
The DI will not be Dragon and Dungeon magazine. They may use the names to garner support for their pet initiative in an attempt to suck in the loyal fan base of the mags, but it will not be the same and will not be anywhere near as versatile.
Belen said:
Actually, Wizard have an effective online presence for several years now. Unfortunately, it isn't with D&D.
D&D Miniatures and Magic: the Gathering have both benefitted greatly from Wizards' online presence.
The D&D RPG has two problem: a lack of great communicators at Wizards, and a lack of shared ground. The second is a big problem. D&D is a big game - just look at our discussions here on EN World and you'll marvel at the area they cover... and what they leave unsaid. Unfortunately, much of what makes RPGs great isn't something easily discussed.
The first problem... well, it's not entirely true. People like Mike Mearls and Rich Baker are pretty good at posting online and interacting with fans. However, D&D really lacks a good insight into the design process. I thought they'd cracked it with their Design and Development columns, but they've languished unwritten for months now.
Compare to the Magic site, that has incredibly insightful articles by Mark Rosewater every Monday, and Aaron Forsythe on Fridays, and a bunch of other articles throughout the week. Mark Rosewater is one of the gods of talking about game design. I wish D&D had someone like him.
D&D Miniatures got off to a very good start with Mike Donais and Rob Heinsoo posting frequently about the game. More recently, we've had Stephen Schubert and Linae Foster posting; perhaps not so frequently, but often insightfully.
During Charles Ryan's time as Brand Manager, he was very good at answering people's questions on the Wizards boards. Ok, they were often mine, but he was doing a good job. Scott Rouse has (finally) taken up the baton and is posting regularly, and also insighfully. After a year or two of not much, feedback from those at Wizards to our concerns is flowing again. That's great.
I really, really wish the Design & Development columns would come back.
Cheers!
Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
Nepenthe said:That's because apparently two books with the same premise are getting released 3 months apart(!)
Hell, if they released Lords of Madness 2, 3 and 4 in the same week I'd be buying. Both books sound great, and different enough to not compete with one another.
Vocenoctum
First Post
Belen said:
I don't think they all suck now, and they certainly haven't always sucked. I've liked plenty of Wizards online adventures myself and plenty of the articles are nice, if short. I think the DI will give them an influx of resources that will greatly improve it and have no doubt that articles on par with Dragon & Dungeon will be present.
As someone that was letting my magazine subscriptions lapse because the magazine had grown repetitious for me, I'll give the DI a chance before proclaiming Paizo's staff the absolute masters of the format.
I had a Pyramid subscription a while ago and it was fun. It's definetly nice to get updates more frequent than monthly. The long term usefulness WILL depend on the material being downloadable in some manner for me.
Dragon and Dungeon have changed through the years many times, and while I appreciate the Paizo loyalty repeatedly shared, and the folks that like printed books (which I do), I can't judge material before it exists, so I'll wait to see whether the new DI is a worthy successor to the magazines.
DragonLancer
Hero
WarlockLord said:
I feel that they are on a slow rise again. But then WotC do seem to have an up-an-down path on quality. Thankfully I think things are on an up again right now.
w_earle_wheeler
First Post
I would say that the Dungeon Master's Guide II, Magic Item Compendium, Spell Compendium and Dungeon Tiles mark an upturn in quality and focus for D&D 3.5 products.
The second wave of the Complete books and the Expedition series haven't really impressed me much, but that might be personal taste. However, the smaller adventure modules seem to be much better than the ones put out when 3.0 was first released.
The newer lines of miniatures are also better painted than the older ones, from what I've seen.
The second wave of the Complete books and the Expedition series haven't really impressed me much, but that might be personal taste. However, the smaller adventure modules seem to be much better than the ones put out when 3.0 was first released.
The newer lines of miniatures are also better painted than the older ones, from what I've seen.
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