Over the course of the last few years, I've seen Dragon and Dungeon (both industry standards) move away from being excellent [sometimes ad heavy] magazines move to being webzines to being part of a paid content web site. I've gone from collecting the print magazines to collecting the pdf versions of the magazines to... well... reading articles on a website.
As for the additional tools, I'm a bit put off by the lack of 'success' (read success as overall useability) of the tools. The character builder was useable as an offline tool... was remade into a useable (after sometime) online tool. The monster builder has been temporarily reclassified as a monster compendium... which per the current buzz hasn't been a success. VT seemed to be a hit, but is not in a state that is ready for market.
Considering the relative success of E-Readers wouldn't it be best to compile the magazines at the end of the month and make them available via the Kindle and Nook apps as well as PDF? Couldn't WotC embrace the trend and sell the magazine on B&N and Amazon sites as an independent product without these apparently disfunctional tools and toolset?
I've been reading D&D for a long time (since BECMI) and playing whenever able (I work in sales, so I'm forced into traveling an awful lot, so its not fair for my group of gaming friends for me to make a committment that I'm often forced to reconsider for work).
Over the course of the last few years, I've seen Dragon and Dungeon (both industry standards) move away from being excellent [sometimes ad heavy] magazines move to being webzines to being part of a paid content web site. I've gone from collecting the print magazines to collecting the pdf versions of the magazines to... well... reading articles on a website.
As for the additional tools, I'm a bit put off by the lack of 'success' (read success as overall useability) of the tools. The character builder was useable as an offline tool... was remade into a useable (after sometime) online tool. The monster builder has been temporarily reclassified as a monster compendium... which per the current buzz hasn't been a success. VT seemed to be a hit, but is not in a state that is ready for market.
Considering the relative success of E-Readers wouldn't it be best to compile the magazines at the end of the month and make them available via the Kindle and Nook apps as well as PDF? Couldn't WotC embrace the trend and sell the magazine on B&N and Amazon sites as an independent product without these apparently disfunctional tools and toolset?
This is not something that will happen, despite the fact that it should go hand-in-hand with WotC's attemps expanding the distribution channels for their games. First of all, giving away control over their content is not something they seem comfortable to do at the moment.
Second, I for one, would not trust WotC enough to purchase any of their electronic content via 3rd-parties. I am smarting after losing the hundreds of pounds I sunk into their OOP pdfs in 2009 and the technology in the Kindle would just make pulling another stunt like this easier for them. I am certain I am not alone in this.
Your an ok dude. Really. Naive, but ok.
Thanks? I think....
I've not been an active member of the forums for years... I think I really never managed to convert to the Gleemax forums, so I imagine I still am a bit naive about WotC's policies and procedures. I literally rejoined the forums to ask what happened with the compiled versions of the two magazines. So, I'm trying to play catch up on my piss and vinegar for WotC.
This is not something that will happen, despite the fact that it should go hand-in-hand with WotC's attemps expanding the distribution channels for their games. First of all, giving away control over their content is not something they seem comfortable to do at the moment.
Second, I for one, would not trust WotC enough to purchase any of their electronic content via 3rd-parties. I am smarting after losing the hundreds of pounds I sunk into their OOP pdfs in 2009 and the technology in the Kindle would just make pulling another stunt like this easier for them. I am certain I am not alone in this.
In looking over alot of their actions, I tend to agree with you; I'm honestly surprised they have not shut down every vendor channel except their own website for every product.
I had tried to banish that scenario it from my mind. Making their OOP pdfs available was a great idea, terminating it in the manner that they did was not. And I can see where the salt is still in the wound with that one... I remember frantically downloading my previous purchases after the emails I recieved indicating that the files would no longer be available... not even for previously purchased content. I am tending to agree with you on second thought.