Thursday, July 31, 2008

Gleemax is Dead

According to several sites, including ICv2, WotC has announced that it is shutting down the Gleemax social networking site. Apparently they got a little too ambitious and found that they did not have the manpower to sustain such an ambitious venture as well as developing their other online inititives. Instead they will concentrate on Magic Online and D&D insider. Given that nearly a year after being announced and almost 2 months after the release of D&D 4e, D&D insider is still pretty useless I would say they definitely need to spend a little more time and manpower getting the supposed cornerstone to 4e up and running.
I visit the WotC sites regularly, including the message boards, but have only been on the actual Gleemax site a handful of time, usually to get to the message boards. I fear that given the company's poor handling of the release of 4e, very poor execution of its online inititives and general bad image in the eyes of gamers, the company needs to start making some good decisions quickly. D&D is an iconic brand and the grand daddy of pretty much all modern gaming, I would hate to see some over ambitous and poorly planned stunts bring down the juggernaut of the gaming industry. As much as I give WotC a hard time for some of their decisions, D&D is till my all time favorite game and it pains me to think that we could see the beginning of the end if they don't get things going in their favor soon.
Of course this could be a sign of good things to come. TSR had its rough spell before WotC bought the brand and reinvigorated the industry, maybe it is about time for someone else to do the same. Or else it could be time for another brand to take top spot in the eyes of gamers. Unlike Chocolate and Peanut Butter, some things just aren't meant to be mixed, maybe table top gaming and the internet is one of them.

You can read the ICv2 article here: Gleemax

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