Any more I might as well just research everything that interests me on my own and stop visiting EN World because I'm beating them to the punch more and more often. Hell I beat them on breaking the Morgan Webb story (see D&D Live Game at PAX East: Guest Player Revealed for more) by nearly twenty-four hours. Which is a ridiculous margin when you realize that they're a clearinghouse for Dungeons and Dragons news that just copied and pasted the announcement off Wizards' homepage and I spent time researching her and putting her in context for people who might not know who she is.
Now I fully understand that when it comes to indie publishers that it's hard as hell to get their information from a central source. So I'm fine with making the effort to follow those companies and creators through social media; but when it comes to a website that is supposed to be bringing you "Daily RPG News and Reviews," and who focuses almost exclusively on D&D, it kind of pisses me off when they suck at it.
I stop to follow EN World over a year ago. They did not give me anything more than what I already found elsewhere. :)
ReplyDeleteTrue story.
DeleteIt's kind of funny, because I joined EnWorld about 4 months ago. I knew of its existence, but since the only gaming I was doing was boardgaming, I spent all of my online time on Boardgamegeek. When I discovered the playtest, and got my daughter and her friends into the game, I joined up to find the news and info that we love to have, not to mention their huge forum. Well, I probably posted in their forums 5 or 6 times, and just couldn't hang with all of the bitterness and infighting. People bitching over and over and over again about the same shit as to why they hate, or are going to hate the new edition of D&D, and the same people making the same arguments as to why they like it. It wasn't overtly hostile, but other than a few people saying "Welcome to enworld" there was no effort made to engage new people. Maybe if I had said I was a 20-something hawt female DM, then maybe people would have been more engaging. Damn my honesty.
DeleteI still think it's a good site, and I think that it definitely has its place in the hobby, but I don't see me logging back in and commenting on anything ever again. And yes, I agree with you that for a website that is supposed to be "the rpg news and review" site, not a whole lot of effort is put in to expediency and detail. By the time they've posted news, like you said, copy and pasted it, I've already found it elsewhere or here. And don't get me started on how long it takes them to post reviews of new products. By the time they post a review of something, there are plenty of quick reviews on Amazon and Drivethrurpg, with some of those reviews being quite extensive.
Jim you should try out RPGMP3.com. The people who run that place are awesome and the forum is really a great place. Lots of goodness there to be found.
DeleteI will do that tonight. The filters at my work block a lot of gaming-type sites, and that is one of them. Sigh.
DeleteJim Haltom probably you alredy know it, but for boardgame I like a lot google+ community "Board Games": https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/111229977945579240171
DeleteHasn't their mode of news gathering always been to ask for scoops? Then again with so many gaming blogs nowadays why would anyone do the work for them?
ReplyDeleteEven their scoops are on the low end of effort. Essentially: "Hey I found this. Did you know about it yet?"
Delete"so many gaming blogs nowadays why would anyone do the work for them?"
I think that's part of the problem. Morrus is so used to getting everything for free that he's not prepared to make the effort to keep the site valuable beyond launching his latest kickstarter and funding his self-publishing dreams. :(
Maybe I'm just in a foul mood.
I'm getting sick of reading about "What's O.L.D. is N.E.W." everytime I go to EN World, as well.
DeleteInitially I was curious, but the video where he sits there and talks about cheeses was as about as annoying as WotC's marketing video for 4e.
Has he ever really explained what it is, such as its mechanics--is it d20? How does it differ from other RPGs based on similar concepts? Or what those stupid acronyms mean?
He's released a public playtest version of the two games so I imagine that your answers are there. I'm just too disinterested with it to even be bothered with looking into it at this point.
DeleteSorry to year it, Charles. It's always just been a collection of bullet points and links to articles on the web, with the occasional excerpt or quote. You're a better blogger than I, for sure! I hope you find a blog more your taste! I've always enjoyed your blog, for what it's worth, though I'm, not so keen on the latest update. :)
ReplyDeleteI know that it's always been a collection of bullet points. It's just that in the past you've put yourself more into them. You've kind of put things into context and made the site one of the most valuable D&D news points out there. Lately though, lately you've contented yourself with just quoting press releases and have dropped from a daily posting to three times a week.
DeleteI fully understand that there isn't necessarily enough information out there on Dungeons and Dragons to publish daily but you have developed these amazing contacts throughout the industry where you could do something every day - even if you just focus on Paizo, Wizards, 13th Age, and Monte Cook's games - and make EN World the most important RPG related site on the net.
Anyway, forgive me for being ugly yesterday. I woke up in a foul mood and unfairly took it out on your site and your projects. That was uncalled for and not typical of me. I realized that towards the end of the day, but by then I had already been talking out my neck for far too long.
I joined EN World years back so I could apply for writing/publishing gigs they had listed on the site... right before that section closed. I continued receiving their weekly news updates (I felt so informed!) until the site was hacked.
ReplyDeleteWhen I began following your blog, I started to realize I was becoming more informed about changes in the industry than I was before. All this information! What am I supposed to do with it? I do I maintain my veneer of aloofness?
How will I ever play an elf again? I can't un-care!
--Dither
Wait, what?
DeleteElves are aloof. It's a whole thing.
Delete--Dither
p.s. Nice work on the Trampier scoop Charles. EN World certainly thanks you. ;)
ReplyDelete