So, I check the main site everyday for updates, and I must say for about the past month (or at least since the artificer was released) I feel the updates and the content has been a little weak.
It seems every update to dragon is some other excerpt from a Forgotten Realms sourcebook or from some upcoming Eberron book. If that continues why should we go out and buy the book? All we gotta do is check out all the excerpts!
And I know my signature will come true here, and because of the nature of my next statement (and only about half of you reading this will read this far anyway) will have to bash me and say how much I am wrong and how great it is, but anyway.
I can take about 10 to 15 minutes and come up with about 3 to 4 new and interesting things, be it feats, powers, roles, etc., and write a rough copy. Maybe spend another 20 minutes to an hour (generally toilet time with a rough printed draft) to fine tune the creation, and another 20 minutes to an hour (depending on hungry kids, diaper changes, and nagging wife) to type it up to a final draft.
So, homebrew material in about 1 to 3 hrs. And I am by no means a "Professional" like a lot of the writers of the excerpts are.
So, I think that we could get better material from our updates to the site.
And no, I don't plan on submitting anything, because I have a job and a wife and a family to support, and I savor what little precious time I do have on playing with them, so I am not going to submit any articles to the site.
But as a consumer of a product (and soon to be paying member as soon it is online) I feel I do have a right to complain about a product which I feel is lacking.
Just like when they turned my nice little fruity balls of "Trix" cereal into fruit shaped monstrosities that tore up our mouths. It was a grand day when they returned Trix to being fruity balls. Any economical people out there can do research and see sales of Trix went up after they went back to being ball shaped.
So, I am overall very pleased with 4e, and all the work they are doing with the game. Minis cost to much, but meh. I feel that the content of the site can be better.
Well, gotta go feed the baby his nightly dose of formula and mashed rice cereal. peace
BTW, what percent of the existing 4E content do you estimate you have used in your campaign so far? Consider all classes, races, and builds from PHB, magic items from PHB, all monsters from MM, the 2 official modules, the Dungeon adventures, and the Dragon supplemental material. What percent of that have you actually used in game?
Not that new free content isn't nice. But have you even scratched the surface of what exists already in the 2 months+ since 4E released?
So, I check the main site everyday for updates, and I must say for about the past month (or at least since the artificer was released) I feel the updates and the content has been a little weak.
I just posted this on another thread
Not to be a spoil sport but what exactly would we get if we don't subscribe? After all most of the Dragon content was free up until 4th ed was announced, things like excerpts, web enhancements and other such things were really just adverts for the products and stuff that didn't fit into the book for space reasons.
and I have to say that most of what we are seeing in Dragon is a web enhancement(something that was left out for space reasons)/ excerpt(something that will appear in a upcoming product)/advert(something that hypes a product)
Mithrendain, Citadel of the Feywild -- web enhancement/ excerpt/advert
Wish Upon a Star -- web enhancement/ excerpt/play-test
Ritually Speaking -- web enhancement/ excerpt/play-test
Trapped! -- web enhancement/ excerpt/play-test
Rose Keep: A Red Wizard Enclave -- web enhancement/ excerpt/advert
Gontal -- web enhancement/ excerpt/advert
Characters of the Scales of War Adventure Path -- new
Death in the Streets: The Bloodghost Clan --new
Roll vs. Role: Trolls --new
Expeditionary Dispatches: Janus Gull -- formerly free/advert
Design & Development:The 100-Year Leap -- formerly free*/advert
I say formerly free because it should be in Realmslore or such like.
Confessions of a Full-Time Wizard--new
RPGA Report--formerly free
Ampersand--new
(I base this off what little info we have on most of the articles. I would be pleasantly surprised if my guesses turned out to be incorrect)
now if issue 366 is what we will be getting when we start having to pay for DDI I will have some seres concerns as to the value of the e-zens. I can only hope that we will see more original content in the future.
It's called playtesting. I, for one, am glad the writers don't "take an hour to write something and throw it on the website".
This.
I prefer my material well written, well editted, and well balanced, Singe, and that just doesn't happen in 20 minutes on the toilet.
I realize I'm playing into your theory, but I won't apologize for disagreeing.
This.
I prefer my material well written, well editted, and well balanced, Singe, and that just doesn't happen in 20 minutes on the toilet.
I realize I'm playing into your theory, but I won't apologize for disagreeing.
you'd be surprised what mankind has accomplished on the toilet. just ask a certain Martin Luther, father of the protestant reformation.
anyway, it was meant as sarcasm but apparently on these boards one cannot even speak thier mind without being torn apart.
and it seems whenever anyone complains or is brave enough to either post thier mind or opinon or something, or if the post complains about the rudeness and general impoliteness of many of the posters at this site, there is always some other poster who says there is a forum that is worse off elsewhere, or comes up with some blitznak comment about going elswhere or the always famous "You can always house rule." which is a weak response in most occasions.
regardless of someone's opinion, it is thiers. one should not bash that person for having it (for the most part anyway. certain ones, such as those shared by many villains of the ever popular Law and Order:SVU should be bashed and hated and smitten, but alas, that is another tangent entirely).
i feel the updates to the pages are generally weak. and if you go back and look, we mostly get excerpts from everything. i for one have limited gaming fundage as i have a mortgage and electric bills and a car payment and school tuition and taxes and food expenses, etc etc etc. you know, grown up stuff. something many of the people at these boards know very little about (through maybe no fault of thier own having only been progenated in the last 0-18 years or so. they will soon find out the chaotic evilness of the world! ;))
i for one do not want to spend my money on a product that is just excerpting from other products. while the occasional preview or excerpt is cool, it is not worth paying for the same material over and over again.
if the mags were still in print, and you payed the 10 bucks for it, and 3/4 of the mag was an excerpt from some other book would you pay for it?
Putting it in that light it is almost like bying the Reader's Digest.
but anyway, gotta tuck the kids to bed and watch Elmo in Grouchland for about the gazillionth time
This.
I prefer my material well written, well editted, and well balanced, Singe, and that just doesn't happen in 20 minutes on the toilet.
It doesn't happen in the new digital Dungeon either. The quality of the material (Ari Marmell being the exception) has been abysmal. Poor typesetting, errent typos, and a demonstrated lack of knowledge by the authors. Some of whom were on the bloody design team.
I really like 4e but the digital content from Dungeon has so far been a steaming pile.
JoS
you'd be surprised what mankind has accomplished on the toilet. just ask a certain Martin Luther, father of the protestant reformation.
An idea a person gets on the toilet, or during a bath, or whatever, usually still has to be pondered, refined, and expanded before it is ready to be presented to the world.
anyway, it was meant as sarcasm but apparently on these boards one cannot even speak thier mind without being torn apart.
and it seems whenever anyone complains or is brave enough to either post thier mind or opinon or something, or if the post complains about the rudeness and general impoliteness of many of the posters at this site, there is always some other poster who says there is a forum that is worse off elsewhere, or comes up with some blitznak comment about going elswhere or the always famous "You can always house rule." which is a weak response in most occasions.
regardless of someone's opinion, it is thiers. one should not bash that person for having it (for the most part anyway. certain ones, such as those shared by many villains of the ever popular Law and Order:SVU should be bashed and hated and smitten, but alas, that is another tangent entirely).
None of that happened in this thread.
It doesn't happen in the new digital Dungeon either. The quality of the material (Ari Marmell being the exception) has been abysmal. Poor typesetting, errent typos, and a demonstrated lack of knowledge by the authors. Some of whom were on the bloody design team.
I really like 4e but the digital content from Dungeon has so far been a steaming pile.
JoS
I don't necessarily agree with this. I've liked the theme and intention of nearly all of the articles I've read, but I'm still not confident in the quality of editing at times.
What I'd really like to see is visible hot-editing. (The potential to do this is one of the major advantages of the digital format.)
...
anyway, it was meant as sarcasm but apparently on these boards one cannot even speak thier mind without being torn apart.
and it seems whenever anyone complains or is brave enough to either post thier mind or opinon or something, or if the post complains about the rudeness and general impoliteness of many of the posters at this site, there is always some other poster who says there is a forum that is worse off elsewhere, or comes up with some blitznak comment about going elswhere or the always famous "You can always house rule." which is a weak response in most occasions.
regardless of someone's opinion, it is thiers. one should not bash that person for having it (for the most part anyway. certain ones, such as those shared by many villains of the ever popular Law and Order:SVU should be bashed and hated and smitten, but alas, that is another tangent entirely).
...
It seems like you're trying to incite the fulfillment of your own prophesy here, Singe. Several of us have disagreed with you, but I don't believe any of us here have intended to "tear you apart", or belittle you, or to imply that you aren't entitled to your opinion. (You are.)
I just don't happen to agree with you, Singe.
try it sometime.
go up to someone and randomly start talking about something thay bugs you, and usually the first or second thing out of the person's mouth is "well, I don't do that!" or "I've never done that to you!" and sometimes they might even get defensive.
it's really funny.
but back on topic, the point is that many people come to these boards with open minds and open hearts and end up getting crushed by meanie-heads.
how many times has someone come here and posted something, only to have the next two or three posters speak negatively of the post, only to have the original poster either apologize and change his stuff for the negativity, or defend his stuff to them onmly to propogate 50 pages of blather.
it's an observation into the human mind, as well as some of the things that go on at this site.
It's okay to disagree...
Ok, I will. :D
fwiw, I think the Dragon content that's been released has been great. Yes, there have been some editing mistakes (probably because of the pressure to get the material out quickly), but the content has been very valuable to me and my group. I think it really shows that the WotC team is working as hard and fast as possible to respond to their community.
