Here's what Dragon and Dungeon gave their lives for

Posts: 1075 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:54 am

Mars wrote:

Mabye Gary should start a portal too: Gygamax.

Would he need to name it Xagygmax? Very Happy

Posts: 135 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:58 am

Im sure most of the clowns that work for WOTC do not even know what D&D is!

Another reason for third party D&D entusiasts to go out and create for themselves!

These corporate bafoons would not know a good original idea if it was stuck to a +3 mace and bounced over their baloon heads!

Posts: 11 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:15 pm

Xaxaxe wrote:

May I borrow this image for sig/avatar use on another site? I like it.

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:33 pm

Go for it — use it as you see fit. As long as you're actually mocking WotC and/or Gleemax, of course ... Smile

Posts: 11 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:38 pm

Xaxaxe wrote:

Go for it — use it as you see fit. As long as you're actually mocking WotC and/or Gleemax, of course ... Smile

Thanks. Mocking Gleemax mostly. I'm saddened and angered by the demise of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. I'm blaming the DI and Gleemax.

Posts: 4542 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:06 pm

nyjastul69 wrote:

May I borrow this image for sig/avatar use on another site? I like it.

If I can get it made into a button, I'll wear it to Gencon......!

Mike B.

Posts: 995 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:37 pm

Skips along merrily. Notices new web site.

"Oh... I daresay....Gleemax! How truly wonderful!

I'm splendidly sure it will maiximise my glee!"

"Oh can I play there Mother? Can I? Can I?"

flower

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 2:19 am

I don't want WOTC to go under. I just want them to create and sell good material for D&D.

Maybe Gleemax is so clever we can't even see the cleverness thereof?

Like blind men who cannot see a flashlight shining in their eyes?

Like describing smell to someone with no nose?

Like sound to a deaf person...we can only feel the rumble where the sound should be?

Gleemax so far escapes me that I sense it must be zen-like in the purity of its cleverness....so uber-clever that it cannot dumb itself down to my level.

I am so clueless as to the value of Gleemax that I cannot even recognize it as a gaming site.

It's not that I hate Gleemax. Rather it is that I find Gleemax so utterly incomprehensible that I cannot figure why anyone would look at it twice.

Gleemax is "beneath my contempt" in a literal sense...I cannot even figure out what it is meant to do.......much like a bizarre Happy Meal toy at McDonalds that must do something if I only understood what kid's movie it came from and what its current status is meant to mean to me.

It is so utterly stupid that it must somehow approach brilliant...like Trouble With Tribbles...it raises far more questions than it answers yet somehow people might consider it their favorite episode.

scratch

Posts: 105 · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:19 am

Isn't stuff like this the problem with modern capitalism? Why can't a company like WOTC/Hasbro who has been literally rolling in profits since I was a youngster just put out a good product that appeals to gamers rather than trying to psychoanalyze the market to maximize their current profits?

I'd guess these guys have their respective fortunes set with MTG anyway... couldn't they produce less quantity and more quality? What if they created a new division just for oop editions? Tell me all of us wouldn't be at least mildly interested...Instead we continue to languish with the cheapest products at the highest prices across the board not just in the gaming world.

Gleemax? Someone at that brainstorming session must have said "Dude, WTF?"

Posts: 4716 · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:45 am

That is the difference between a company run by businessmen and a company run by people who actually developed/use the product. Businessmen have no contact with or concept of the people they sell to.

Posts: 272 · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:45 pm

Ech

Gellmax

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:54 pm

Badmike wrote:

If I can get it made into a button, I'll wear it to Gencon......!

The actual graphic is very, very easy to do. If you really have an interest in wearing it, just find someone who can print on buttons, and I'll send them whatever sort of file they might need.

Posts: 118 · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:58 am

This is a realisation, perhaps late, of what the younger generation is doing. For example, both my daughters do everything online (19 and 22). Same with all their university friends.

And face it, who spends the money?

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 2:54 pm

No argment there. I think we'd all agree the average Acaeum member is proably not who WotC is concerned with when the term "target audience" is bandied about.

They are entering a crowded field, though. There is no shortage of gaming/entertainment portals out there, and they are all competing for the same consumer dollars. Will Gleemax be cool enough to get a semi-serious 15-year-old D&D fan away from XBox Live Arcade? That's what I'd be worried about if I was a WotC marketing hack.

Plus, they've just been so maddeningly vague about what Gleemax is (or isn't). I actually think this is sort of a trait of Wizards, because most of their publicity material is incredibly poor and usually raises more questions than it answers. It's like they have a team of monkeys that bangs the stuff out on old typewriters or something ...

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 8:54 pm

I suspect that Gleemax is vague and worthless at the moment because WOTC is saving up all of their information for GenCon.

They have an outline of a plan and little else at this point, I suspect, or they don't want to reveal their product just yet.

Posts: 1200 · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:19 pm

They are definitely hiring heavily right now on the online/programming/development side.

Taking a quick look at the WOTC job page they are hiring:
Art Director - World Building
Sr. Digital Media Designer
Systems Administrator
Game Designer - New Business
Product Engineer
Game Developer (Japanese/Engl Bi-lingual)
Design Manager, Role-Playing Games
Web Developer x 3
Executive Website Manager
Director of Technology
Senior Art Director
Plus an additional 12 positions in their marketing dept.

I don't know what their routine hiring cycle is like, but this looks like the core of a full production team.

Posts: 203 · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:29 pm

Nice research Jason and good thinking to check out their site to see what they are hiring for. I have read through all of the thread and as OD&D gamer from the late 70's, I have to say that this really puker

I had a subscription to Dragon from issue #66 thru #296, a Polyhedron subscription that went from #11 thru #160+ (too tired to check), and a Dungeon subscription from #1 thru #96. I opted to unsubscribe when WoTC took over the mags as the whole design, feel, and more importantly substance began to change. The product was being aimed at too many audiences and not just the CORE audience that had created the industry to begin with. It was our "GDMN, MTHRFKNG" money (I had to earn the money for my D&D stuff as my dad was not too keen on it) that supported them.

Anyhow, now that I got that out of my system puker

(Oops, still had a little left), I will put my objective marketing hat on. I could not look past the first page of "Smegmax", as all I had to read was this passage:

Gleemax wrote:

Gleemax will be The Home for Gamers on the web – a combination of social networking, on-line gaming and game related content. This site will be for everyone. Whether you play RPGs, TCGs, board games, turn-based strategy games, miniature war games, or almost any type of tabletop/hobby game, you will find a home here.

The line that is bolded & underlined says to me that they are attempting to be the quintessential online gaming destination, but with a "Disney-esque" name. Obviously the powers to be decided on a nice, clean, and wholesome name . . . which I'm sure will lure people away from sites like World of Warcraft (not saying their portal will be the same). WoTC/Hasbro is going about this the wrong way, they want to market to all types of gamers and then hope to cross-sell (not like cross dressing) them on their other prodcuts. This is a valid marketing strategy, but you have to create what the consumers want. In other words, I do NOT want to go to a site that is trying to be everthing to everyone, but if you had a site that was aimed just at my gaming interests and had creative or incentivized (making up words) links for other product lines, then I might be inclined to check them out. This whole thing is doomed to fail or at least FLAIL around for a while (management is rarely ever wrong, just poor timing or blame it on the execution) until it dissolves or evolves into something more similar to what I mentioned. (My diatribe)

Thanks,

Posts: 2130 · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:35 pm

Gleemax really is a gay name puker

Posts: 1200 · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:27 am

Here is a sample of Hasbro's "way of thinking". Monopoly - the movie...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06172007/news/nationalnews/dice_roll_on_mo nopoly_film_nationalnews_christine_field.htm

And of course the advice from their consultants:

"Casting agency William Morris told the company that it would take sexy stars to make the unlikely film a worldwide hit."

"Everyone has played Monopoly in one version or another so, hopefully, they would be curious about how it translates to the screen,"

This tells me that if they have a product in their catalog, they do not care what core fans think.
Like all good multi-nationals the bottom line is wringing every penny from the husk this fiscal period, collecting your bonus and moving on... Evil or Very Mad

Posts: 105 · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:36 am

Please... a movie about monopoly? The only game that could ever be a film is clearly Yahtzee!.