Paizo to Discontinue Dragon and Dungeon Magazines

An anonymous reader slipped us a link to a page on the Wizards.com site marking the end of an era. As of September of this year Dungeon and Dragon Magazines will cease publication. Dragon has been in continuous circulation since 1976, while Dungeon will be marking its 150th issue at the end of its run in August. Paizo Publishing, the current printing house for the magazines, is offering several options for what to do with your ongoing subscription. From the announcement on the Wizards site: "'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.'" I've looked forward to my issue of Dragon every month for over a decade. It will be sad to see it go.

How sad

[JoeWalsh]

My first issue of Dragon Magazine was #68. While I have long since stopped reading the mag, I enjoyed it immensely at the time (back when Gary Gygax was still regularly writing for it). While it has changed unrecognizably in the intervening years, it's still sad to hear that this last vestige of this once great magazine is to cease to be. What would Woimy say?

I actualy know several people who subscribe...

[jimstapleton]

Some of them don't have internet access (or at least not regural access).

Yep, dropping dead-tree distribution definetly expands their user base over having both available.

Re:I actualy know several people who subscribe...

[Anonymous Coward]

But one distribution is much, much cheaper and reaches almost all of their audience.

First InfoWorld, and now Dragon and Dungeon

[diabolus_in_america]

It's seems supremely ironic to me that the Internet is killing the best "Geek" magazines.

I miss Wormy

[tuffy]

Dragon was never quite the same once Tramp [wikipedia.org] vanished.

not that big a deal

[Lord Lemur]

I have a few copies of Dragon laying around some place, and I have to say in 15 years of D&D I never really found them usefull. Seems like everyone would be better surved with forums, a web-page and the normal book releases.

Online gaming "magazines"

[DragonWriter]

I think the online model offers a lot of additional potential than dead-tree formats for gaming: when Steve Jackson Games took Pyramid online, giving subscribers access to a a searchable archive of articles from previous issues (including the print issues), discussion forums (which have somewhat faded, though, since SJGames opened public forums), etc., it was a big improvement.

Re:How sad

[JoeWalsh]

[...]shortly after the launch of Dungeon magazine (which would be something like 17 years ago, right?)

Geez, has it really been that long? Let's see. We both started reading Dragon in, what, 1983 or something like that? That would be 24 years ago. Yikes!

Heck, even my time of writing for Imperium Games' Marc Miller's Traveller was 10 years ago now.

And I haven't been to a GenCon in about that long.

Man, I feel old.

Re:Nerdy or Not?

[spindizzy]

Ah, Fineous Fingers. I too have the collection mouldering away somewhere, bought in the early '80s. The things I remember most are everyone torturing peasants for directions/info and of course Grond the anti-paladin. But I digress.
And yes, Dragonlance was an abortion of 4th rate Tolkien rip-off only exceeded by anything by Raymond Feist.

Have I alienated enough fantasy readers yet? ;)

Electronic no substitute for paper

[Ruprecht the Monkeyb]

This really blows. And I have no interest in WotCs electronic offerings. They have proved utterly inept at this before and show no signs of getting better. Besides which, pen-and-paper gaming is, for a lot of us, a welcome respite from too many hours in front of the damn computer. Dragon and Dungeon magazines were enjoyable to read, the artwork was good, and they had that underestimated advantage of being able to flip through a back issue and maybe see something you'd forgotten or missed the first read through. Not to mention they were great for those times when someone was taking way to long on their turn. Also, these magazines were an entry point for a lot of talent, bot for designers, writers, and artists.

Re:I actualy know several people who subscribe...

[vrmlguy]

Funny, but you've almost perfectly described a "summer house" that I inherited. It's in the Ozarks, which means no line of sight to anything unless you're lucky enough to be on top of a ridge. I don't know anyone who has a cell phone; even in town there's never anough signal to make it worth while. All of my water comes from a well fifty feet from the house, and (since the indoor plumbing was installed in the sixties) the waste goes into a septic tank fifty feet from the opposite side of the house. There is a land line, but I can never get more that 36KB out of it, usually less. Personally, I love it since I can completely unhook myself from the outside world, but I suspect that my neighbors would like better connectivity. Some of the wealthier families have tried satellite; as you say, it isn't cheap, but it also feels sluggish. Something to do with the packets making a 2x26,000 mile detour. The poorer neighbors, however, have to do without.

(I am thinking about putting an 850 MHz Yagi on the tower holding up my TV aerial and running a cable to my cellphone, for those instances where I really need to make a call to get my land line working. Of course, that's based on the hope that a bit of altitude will let me "see" the nearest cell tower, 18 miles away.)