No more Dungeon or Dragon
April 19, 2007 (BELLEVUE, Wash.) – Paizo Publishing and Wizards of the Coast today announced the conclusion of Paizo's license to produce Dragon and Dungeon magazines effective September 2007. Publication of Dragon and Dungeon will cease with issues number 359 and 150, respectively. "Today the internet is where people go to get this kind of information," said Scott Rouse, Senior Brand Manager of Dungeons & Dragons®, Wizards of the Coast. "By moving to an online model we are using a delivery system that broadens our reach to fans around the world. Paizo has been a great partner to us over the last several years. We wish them well on their future endeavors."
April 19, 2007 (BELLEVUE, Wash.) – Paizo Publishing and Wizards of the Coast today announced the conclusion of Paizo's license to produce Dragon and Dungeon magazines effective September 2007. Publication of Dragon and Dungeon will cease with issues number 359 and 150, respectively. "Today the internet is where people go to get this kind of information," said Scott Rouse, Senior Brand Manager of Dungeons & Dragons®, Wizards of the Coast. "By moving to an online model we are using a delivery system that broadens our reach to fans around the world. Paizo has been a great partner to us over the last several years. We wish them well on their future endeavors."
"We at Paizo are very proud of the work we've put into Dragon and Dungeon during the past five years," says Erik Mona, Paizo's Publisher and Editor in Chief of Dragon. "While we'll all miss working on these venerable magazines, our talented editorial and art staff as well as our phenomenal team of freelance contributors will continue to produce high-quality, exciting, new OGL releases that are aimed at supporting our existing customers and beyond. We look forward to sharing useful and provocative new products that support our favorite hobby."
Subscribers should visit paizo.com/transition to learn more about the future of their subscriptions. Multiple options will be available for customers whose subscriptions extend beyond the final issues of the magazines. The final issues will be Dragon #359 and Dungeon #150–both of which will contain special content commemorating the history of the these incredible magazines. The Savage Tide Adventure Path will conclude as planned in Dungeon #150.
Paizo will continue to publish its popular GameMastery line of RPG accessories, including a new line of monthly OGL adventure modules beginning in June with Nicolas Logue's Crown of the Kobold King.
Paizo Publishing spun off from Wizards of the Coast's periodicals department in 2002. In its five years as publisher of Dragon and Dungeon, Paizo introduced popular features such as the The Shackled City, Age of Worms, and Savage Tide Adventure Paths, the Demonomicon of Iggwilv, Core Beliefs, and Critical Threats. Paizo published three official Dungeons & Dragons hardcover books–The Shackled City Adventure Path, The Dragon Compendium, and The Art of Dragon Magazine. In five years of publishing Dragon and Dungeon, Paizo received twelve Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (ENnies) and the 2004 Origins Award for Best Gaming Related Periodical.
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Ack!
This announcement really "hit" me - like I was losing part of my youth. I have boxes of Dragons, as well as a collection of the PDFs, and various annuals, and, and, and... Even though I don't have time to read (or buy) the new ones, this "hurts".
A sad day indeed. I also have a dog-eared collection of Dragon mags that I refuse to part with. I would probably still be buying it if any of my local outlets stocked it. The 'online distribution model' does have its advantages, I suppose, but I don't like to spend all my time glued to a computer screen.
While a bit saddening (I was once a subscriber to both magazines), I think this is the right way to go. The costs of keeping them on paper (especially with the limited circulation they enjoy) are much too high to justify keeping them active.
I hope the online version will be sustaining the high quality.
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the fuuuuuuuuuture ...
The announcement is a interesting in that both sides are dropping standard jargon for "we cut the other guy off". On the surface parting doesn't make much sense no matter the medium.
Why isn't Paizo gunning to host WotC material? It would seem a no-brainer. Must be too expensive. Why would WotC not want the license revenue? Must not be enough - either for self-control or they have a better offer. Weirdness.
What I want to know is what happens to the Full Frontal Nerdity comic strip. I can't find it on-line and shipping cost are prohibitive.
Last things first. Full Frontal Nerdity can be found from a link at www.nodwick.com. There is an automatic rerouting and a well marked link, but it gets you there quick enough and you can always bookmark that page.
As for the licence issue, it only happens if both sides can think they will make profit from it. If I buy (rent actually) a license for $100 but it only brings me $101, maybe I should look elsewhere to invest. Similarly, if you want to license "whutaguy" and I think you'll make $10,000, I'm not selling you the license for $10. Piazo doesn't think the license is worth as much as WotC thiks it's worth.
Personally, I will miss Dragon. I haven't read it in 10 years and not thoroughly in 15, but it is a tradition of gaming.
I prefer dead-tree magazines, but haven't found one recently worth reading. Can anyone recommend any? Has anyone read Polymancer?
While I realize the advantages of E-zines (better for the planet, less space, print a new copy when the old gets frazzled eyond comprehension) there is a simplicity to jamming a print copy into my bag for when I have time which may not always be near a PC.
Are on-line archives of Dragon (and/or Dungeon) available anywhere? While I'd prefer free, I might be willing to pay a nominal amount for the product.
Wooo! Thanks for the Nodwick link. I had long given up trying to find FFN.
I think you're right about the licensing thing, but I'm a Curious George type and always wonder what's going on under the Big Yellow Hat. I agree about the dead-tree thing too, but other situational restrictions has kept me out of the market. Just no place to keep a small library. Since then the advantages of connectivity have grasped me firmly.
I haven't been around this site that often as I'm usually too busy planning or running one of my many campaigns to sit in front of a computer. Which is exactly why reading this bummed me out.
Not only have I, like the rest of you, been collecting these magazines for sooo many years...but I read them in the bathroom. LOL. I can't and won't read pdfs in the bathroom.
If only my players new that some of my best ideas came to me while sitting on the throne and perusing back issues. LOL. "Hey...if I combine this adventure and the one from last issue, and bring in that NPC from Dragon 247 (I know it's in the rack here somewhere)....EUREKA!"
Eureka sounds great yelled out in the privvy. I'd invite you to try it with a future issue of Dragon...but you might drop your laptop in the loo.
*sigh*
First of all, I'd like to agree with glFAbT. That was really deep. I couldn't have said it better myself.
Second of all... wow. I first got a subscription to Dragon about two years ago, so for me - although I know it's been around for ages - it's still a new thing. I let that subscription run out, but I've been considering either picking it up again or getting Dungeon instead.
Guess I won't be after all.
http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2007-05-02
"Gee, I wonder why they decided print was for suckers?"
hehe, yeah, they really nailed it on the head there Lorthyne, eh?
especially with the limited circulation they enjoy
The thing is, I think it's still possible to publish and make money from paper-based gaming magazine. It's not easy, but for a company like WotC with a built-in audience, it shouldn't be too hard.
One of the reasons the circulation kept decreasing is that the quality has been sub-par over the last few years. I subscribed to Dragon from issue #37 all the way through 200-something (sometime shortly after WotC purchased TSR) and purchased a few issues in the 300-ish neighborhood.
The trend I noticed most in that time period -- as the magazine became "slicker" (ie- more glossy, more color, more "look at how cool I am"), the content was poorer... badly edited, badly laid out, less useful. Granted, the shrinking audience for RPGs in general didn't help, but the magazine had some problems outside of circulation.
I've seen this trend in other WotC products -- poor copy editing and really bad graphic design. One module I recently perused had black text on a dark gray background for large portions of the content. WTF? What copy editing genius thought that would be easily read?
I saw similar examples in Dragon -- black text on a "parchment" brown mottled background on glossy paper. Someone clearly thought it "looked cool" but didn't take into account that dark text on a dark background with a glossy surfaces makes for shitty readability.
Sure, maybe the old black text on white background with some line art might seem "boring" to some... but it's not a comic book or product catalog. It's supposed to be usable gaming content. Trying too hard to make the art direction look "hip" doesn't improve the innards.
Sorry to rant, but that's why they lost my circulation dollars. Glitz and gloss do not automatically make a good magazine.
Another contributor to the decreasing quality was that after the whole conversion to 3.5, Dragon became a place for WoTC to get Paizo to advertise their upcoming books for them. Rather than getting a nice stand alone piece of crunch or fluff we were being fed "here's a piece of what you will get if you buy product X". The arguement can be made that this isn't actually the case but anyone who's ever worked in sales or marketing knows when they are being pandered to.
Back when Magic: The Gathering first hit the shelves I called it like I saw it..."this company will kill roleplaying sales". Funny that they waited till they owned the D&D license to start fulfilling my prophecy. LOL.
Scott,
I'm not sure roleplaying sales are dead. While I have no official numbers, I see multiple companies coming out with new products and more bookstores holding them (D&D only, admittedly).
Not having read Dragon for the last three years or so, I can't comment on the quality of editing, but WoTC's D&D products are generally of the highest caliber in both production values and editing, in my experience.
I guess I meant quality in more of a "is it any good" way rather than a "is it made well" way. The visual quality of both mags went nothing but up over the years...but sadly the wow factor of the actual content declined equally due to it being support for WoTC published products as opposed to original content. I stopped buying Dragon about a year ago because of just that, and then only rarely bought Dungeon because I couldn't take even one more Eberron adventure. LOL. Baker wrote a good setting, but I'd had enough of the houses and the Warforged.
Roleplaying sales aren't dead, that's for sure. However, there are now only a few companies actually making any money at it. By killing the industry I didn't mean ending the sales...I meant actually changeing it enough that it becomes something else. Example: D&D slowly making a shift to collectible minis game over actual roleplaying game.
Surprisingly, I wasn't one of the people that resisted the change to 3.0; in fact I embraced it since it's a superior rules system. But, everything since then has been far more Hasbro than I would care to see.
I echo the sentiment of disliking what seems to be the moving of more and more resources into Magic-ification of D&D (collectible miniatures and so on)
Bummer, I never really got a chance to read them, they looked super cool. I forgive Paizo because they made Pathfinder.
I bet it's going to be all online now, sigh.