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.

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    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 (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,

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

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06172007/ne ... _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...  

jasonw1239 wrote:Here is a sample of Hasbro's "way of thinking". Monopoly - the movie...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06172007/ne ... _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...  

It doesn't sound like they even have a story....and they are simply floating names of stars out there to see if there is any interest.  In my experience, putting the cart before the horse in movie making leads to abyssmal failure.  We should all pray horrific failure on this project, anything that could possilbly lead to Hasbro losing buckets of money and therefore perhaps divesting itself of the D&D brand should be commended....

Mike B.

No, casting Rosie O'Donnell to replace Bob Barker as host of "The Price Is Right!"    

Hasbro - WOTC press release

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/sit ... ewsLang=en

In addition to the Advisory Board's industry thought leaders, to kick off the launch celebration, WotC is making an Open Casting Call to select a few players to sit on the Advisory Board, ensuring the hobby and tabletop gamers and fans are represented on the board. The selection process will be a reality TV style contest run through Gleemax.com over the course of the summer. Bringing player members onto the Advisory Board reinforces WotC's long-standing tradition of engaging with its consumers to ensure their thoughts, opinions and voices are heard.

 Sounds like something out of a Dilbert strip... "industry thought leaders".

I had planned on taking a few days off from all forums/gaming sites/search portals, etc., but ... I'm sorry, I just can't not comment on this:

WotC geniuses wrote:The selection process will be a reality TV style contest run through Gleemax.com over the course of the summer.

Actually, I'm not sure that I should add a comment ... nothing I could say here would be funnier than the sentence quoted above. It's just taking the concept of "stupid" to previously unknown planes of existence.

And let's not forget that every single initiative that WotC has launched, barring one, has resulted in failure (often in spectacular fashion). They caught lightning in a bottle with Magic:TG ... and here we all are 13 or so years later paying the price.

jasonw1239 wrote:Hey X if you think that's funny, get a load of Hasbro's PR firm home page.

http://foghornpr.com/

Well, that certainly explains some of the stupider market campaigns put forth by Sun Microsystems....

jasonw1239 wrote: It seems that to them D&D has become a footnote in their catalog.

What do you mean "become"?  It was simply along for the ride when they bought WotC for the Pokemon CCG.