Would you pay for so-called Online "Dungeon/Dragon" content from WotC?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Software? Digital music? Advertising? Investments?

Of those, I don't buy digital music- I want my CDs and their cover art and their liner notes.

For the record, like many others here, I'm a collector. My comic book collection takes up more space than a Cadillac, my sci-fi/fantasy book collection spans over 100' of shelving, my RPG/wargames about 60', and my music collection contains hundreds of albums, cassettes and over 4000 CDs.

Less than 1% of my purchases of any kind are online.

My Dragon collection goes back to #44. In those days, it was almost a "gateway drug"- I got into Dragon shortly after getting into the game, and I knew a lot of people who, like haakon, bought the mag first, and then bought other stuff because they were in the store.

It may seem like "just a magazine," but it really isn't.

 

[JeffB]

I'm upset about the demise of Dragon & Dungeon...Erik convinced me (here on the boards) to re-sub back when he took the helm (early polyhedron era)..I trusted him based on his GH efforts, and I was not dissapointed overall with his or his team's work on the magazines But I guess I'm not THAT upset, as I drifted away from 3.x rules, and let my subs lapse.

WOTC on the other hand has steadily diluted the game of D&D to where it's no longer D&D to me, and they stopped getting my money 5 years ago. I have no malice towards them, I'm simply no longer the type of gamer that they cater to.

BUT

Even *if * I cared for WOTC's direction/products these days:

1)I hate PDFs and never have bought even one.

2) I hate reading large amounts of text (like a magazine or book) on a computer.

3) I'd be *really* pi$$ed about the demise of dragon & dungeon.

Plain and simple, I like books and magazines.


Erik and Paizo crew, y'all gave it a great run, and should be proud. Thank You for the efforts. I'm looking forward to the Necro team up and hope to get some use of it in my C&C/B/X games.

 

[Maliki]

No.

 

[Nightfall]

*is just here for the food*

 

[MojoGM]

Oh sure, that's absolutely true. But what you just blathered here was "everybody has a price". Neither deep nor insightful.

The people saying "NO! NEVER! I DON'T PAY FOR ELECTRONS", however, have likely already done a quick 'n' dirty scenario analysis in their head based on already existing models - which is why they said what they did.

Hell, I said (extremely loosely paraphrasing) "I DON'T PAY FOR ELECTRONS", and if WotC turns around and offers fully downloadable efficiently-made fast-printing electronic versions of Dungeon, Dragon, and a massive and exhaustive character generator for $2/month, I'd change my tune and subscribe. I'm also not holding my breath.

So stop complaining and wait and see what they offer before you decide. All I'm saying is there is a lot of whining going on with little or no facts to back it up.

And believe me, it's not going to take a whole hell of a lot to sway most people...

 

[Nightfall]

Mojo,

You noticed that too? But in point of fact, I do have facts to back it up. At least when it comes to dealing with WotC's web site...and if they can't hack that, why should I think they could with say, a subscription based online magazine?

 

[MojoGM]

Thanks, you've convinced me Waldorf is right. I'll never buy online content from WOTC.

They cannot take that to the bank, but I can think of a better place for them to put it.

Yup, that's what people said about upgrading to 3.5. Sure, some of you wll be true to your word and won't buy into it, but I suspect enough will that it will be a success. Wizards has probably done a good deal of market research going into this (I suspect that online survey was only a part of it), so they have an idea of what they need to offer to get people to sign on to this service.

 

[Nightfall]

Mojo,

You might be right, but part of me keeps hoping your wrong. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[MojoGM]

Mojo,

You noticed that too? But in point of fact, I do have facts to back it up. At least when it comes to dealing with WotC's web site...and if they can't hack that, why should I think they could with say, a subscription based online magazine?

Because if they go to a pay model, down-time could have a serious direct effect on revenue, and not just inconvienience a bunch of fans. That has a way of upping the ante on what they are willing to put into having a stable site.

Look, I'm not happy about them axing Dragon or Dungeon magazine, I've collected them for a long time and I always look forward to reading them, but they did it. I was also not happy about them taking the software license away from Codemonkey, but they did that too. Now I just want to see what they offer in this new model of theirs, and will certainly subscribe if I deem it to be a value for my money.

I'm just noticing a trend with a core of vocal gamers that I find a little irksome. Times are changing and our hobby needs to change with it or suffer. And maybe this is a good change, but we'll never know if we don't give it a chance.

Anyway, I'm willing to hear them out and make my decision then. But please, go on bashing them and proclaiming that they'll never get your money. I'm sure I'll be reading similar comments from many of you on the premium-member message boards at Wizards the first time they have to raise the service fee.

 

[Vague Jayhawk]

Where did all of the 4e posts go?

***ducks***

Just kidding.

I don't think I really have an opinion on this. I won't subscribe unless a bunch of people on this site write about how essential it is. Even then I might not.