WoTC "social networking" integration with EN World?

[Henry]

I have to admit, I don't follow WoTC people/news etc (for the most part), so I had not heard of Rodney - but as you mentioned him I did a little search and ran into his blog on the wotc boards, which had a post about making adventures better... which made me think, "this sounds familiar" - sure enough, he has posted that around a few places soliciting feedback.

I know that is how I would do it if I were in the same position - I would want to put out the best material possible, and how do you do that without knowing what your consumer is looking for.

You also might not have heard much of Rodney until recently if you haven't followed the Star Wars Saga game, but he posts regularly to various SW forums, both WotC and fan, he is a regular on the Order 66 podcast, and he responds to fan criticism, and IMO successfully listens to the critics and is able to separate the message from the noise pretty well. The dude might have some critics, but I've never really heard them. More to the point, given the whole "adventure writing" thread, it looks like he's bringing that passion and POV to the Dungeons and Dragons R&D, and more power to him.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

They can't use Rodney - haven't you been following things? The more a WotC employee talks to others on forums or communities, the faster they get fired

 

[Henry]

They can't use Rodney - haven't you been following things? The more a WotC employee talks to others on forums or communities, the faster they get fired

No, the rule is, the more a D&D employee talks to the public, the faster they get fired. Rodney's not -- uh, oh. DUCK, RODNEY!!!

I think Rodney's biggest problem with the latest mission might be the "sub-committee" problem. On Star Wars, he was both lead developer and designer -- judge, jury, and executioner, if you will. Now, there are more hands in the D&D pot, so getting any dramatic changes will look very different from when he has the final say-so. And if I might add, the final say-so has looked pretty darned good on his SW work to date.