Comments on: Hail Gleemax! WotC creates marketing initiative that actually makes some sense

By: OgreCave » WotC’s series of tubes still clogged 14 hours later; video trickles out

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:08:20 +0000

[...] (For those of you just joining us, Wizards of the Coast announced D&D 4th Edition and their web server turned into a small pile of crisped meat. Also, the new edition will be accompanied by a big online product, which is sort of a part of this other Gleemax thing.) [...]

By: Dai Oni

Dai Oni — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:39:54 +0000

I don’t mind them growing the market. Just don’t kill the establishments you’ve grown from.

By: Foe3

Foe3 — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:38:26 +0000

No, I guess I just bristle at statements of “reality”. Ah well.

I think WotC’s spot on (well, with concept… not so sure about the approach at the moment). Folks talking about needing new generations of gamers has been pretty regular lately. And while some Old Gamers may take the “who cares if anyone new joins the hobby?” stance, I think it’s absolutely appropriate for WotC (or other publishers) to try and tackle the issue of growing the market.

By: misuba

misuba — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:55:55 +0000

Quite so, but it isn’t bad speculation. My question: so what if they are? What’s inappropriate about looking to grow an entertainment market by looking at the needs of this group?

By: Foe3

Foe3 — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:42:12 +0000

“The reality is that WotC’s focus group are within 18-25 years of age.”

I’ll believe it when I actually see hard, cold facts. Until then, the “reality” is that you’re speculating.

By: Dave T. Game

Dave T. Game — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:21:47 +0000

“Because first impressions matter, and while I am certainly down for an online strategy-gaming hub seasoned with cryptic commands from an evil brain in a jar, my first impression is that gleemax.com is a fairly dumb play-by-post RPG that thinks it’s an alternate reality game.”

Agreed. I think the Gleemax concept is good (with lots more ideas than some of the other niche social networking sites) but they’ve done it a real disservice by launching it this early when it’s uninteresting, hard to find any useful info, and frankly hard on the eyes.

So Mike, are you and I going to be competing over the post of “community thought leader”?

By: Dai Oni

Dai Oni — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:32:44 +0000

“People who are willing to change and adapt to market realities are worth more of WotC’s marketing dollars.”

The reality is that WotC’s focus group are within 18-25 years of age.

I should have retired from RPG a long time ago.

By: Foe3

Foe3 — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 02:19:07 +0000

Firms are tripping over themselves to get online and tap into community development, whether it’s interactive brand sites to build consumer loyalty, establishing MySpaces pages, or building islands on Second Life (like IBM is, for example).

As an IT professional, I’m reading this stuff constantly. I think Mike’s spot on with his assessment.

By: Scott R. Krol

Scott R. Krol — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:57:55 +0000

“And, you know, if we can’t make games that appeal to people who actually want to leave their homes and see each other, how much help do we deserve?” -Misuba

Amen! Which makes me sort of wonder if all the cash they’re about to spend on Gleemax would be better off spent on making those kinds of games.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

By: misuba

misuba — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:45:43 +0000

Scott - sorry for that delay, comment moderation needs a bit of sorting still. But to your point: FLGSes that don’t offer anything that can’t be had online are already suffering anyway. If Gleemax can build excitement about things like organized in-person play and the whole corporeal side of things (and yes, that’s an if), good stores can take advantage of it. If not, well, I suppose Wizards still makes its money on UnCiv and Magic Online.

And, you know, if we can’t make games that appeal to people who actually want to leave their homes and see each other, how much help do we deserve?