PAX 07: Wizards of the Coast hits me over the head

by: Ben Berry - posted: 8/25/2007 11:22:00 AM

Sometimes when you take an appointment at a conference, you don't really get anything useful, and you walk out feeling they wasted their time and yours. Then there are appointments where you learn so much you almost can't get your head around all of it in the time that you have. The later is what happened when I sat down with Ilja Rotelli, lead for the WotC digital initiative.

Mr. Rotelli told me that WotC took a look at the way they were approaching their existing market, and their core consumer, who they had a solid grasp on due to their experience in building their community going back to 1995 and 1996 when they launched the tournaments for Magic: The Gathering. In the past few years, they recognized their new customer base was being eroded as the younger portion of their target demographic was being "distracted" by games in the digital space, gaming online rather than spending time on games in traditional hobby stores.

More after the jump...

This led WotC to the question of "How do we get these people back into our space?" And rather than launch initiatives designed solely to bring players back into hobby stores for tabletop gaming, they instead decided to bring their products to where the gamers are today. The heart of that digital initiative is Gleemax.com, which Mr. Rotelli refered to as "MySpace for gamers". WotC envisions Gleemax as a social website for gamers. "Of course, it will have many offerings pointed specifically at Wizards of the Coast gamers, but it will not be just for them, but gamers of all kinds."

What is unique about this community is that it isn't designed to be strictly a community for online gamers, nor is it designed to just be a place for Magic players to find each other. The idea is that the site will provide content for players who play strictly online games, players who play strictly tabletop, and everyone in between. "We don't believe in online community, real world community, we believe in community. Our players existing and they participate in activities both online and in the real world. We have been very good at offering them a space and an opportunity to interact in the real world, and now we're going to offer them a space to interact online as well", said Mr. Rotelli.

The Gleemax site will be comprised of a three pronged approach. The first portion is the community, through which gamers will be able to find local real life events through a game search. Hobby stores will be able to populate calendars of events, and through which players can subscribe or search for events. Players can also search for other local players based on the games they like, which will be a part of the gamers profile. Players will be able to communicate through forums and private messaging on the site.

The second portion is the editorial voice for the site. Game developers of both online and tabletop games will use blogs and forums to engage directly into conversation with gamers to constantly improve gameplay.

The third portion of the site is the gaming portal. The gaming portal looks to leverage most of WotC existing IP, while also looking for the "next big thing", as Mr. Rotelli referred to it. WotC hopes to find that next big thing through their new indie game portal. This indie game portal will encourage indie developers to publish their games on Gleemax, providing developers access to WotC existing online and tabletop customer base.

In order to leverage the existing Wizards of the Coast IP, they will be developing online versions for every one of their tabletop games that can be played enjoyably online. While the position currently is strictly for PC, with the ease of portability to Xbox Live, Mr. Rotelli stated "It will certainly be something we will consider. But at least for the first year, users should expect this to be strictly a PC initiative."

Of particular interest to some tabletop gamers will be the conversion of many titles in WotC Avalon Hill division, including one of the best tabletop games ever: Axis & Allies. This is my favorite game I played growing up, and if you have 2 to 4 friends and 3 to 6 hours to play, you can relive world war two as each of the 5 major powers involved. "We look as Axis & Allies as the flagship of the tabletop games to be converted to the online portal", said Mr. Rotelli.

Gleemax.com will begin public Alpha in September, public Beta in November, and look to go fully live sometime in February 2008.

In addition to the conversion of existing tabletop properties for Gleemax, WotC will be creating new digital IP as well. Uncivilized is the first example of this initiative. Think of a slightly off-kilter version of Civilization where your tribe of goblins who may or may not do what you tell them in your effort to be the last tribe standing at the end of the game. Each instance of the game will last roughly two months, with different types of tribes having different goals and skills used to make both alliances and war. The game is designed to take a casual game game approach to non-casual gaming.and players will be limited to 15 minutes of game play per day. To play more each day, players will have to play multiple instances of the game.  Players will pay on a per-instance basis, so you pay a flat fee for each game you play. Beta for Uncivilized will begin in September, with game launch sometime during the second quarter of 2008.

Of course, when you think of Wizards of the Coast, you two things, immediately come to mind; Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. The twin crown jewels of the WotC empire both have major updates going on.

Dungeons and Dragons is about to see the fourth edition of the rules in May of 2008. Part of this update is to reduce some of the more time consuming aspects that interrupt the storytelling and action of the game, such as the grapple rule, which bogs down play. Mr. Rotelli said, "This will be a faster, easier to learn game, but will still offer all of the compelling elements that D&D is know for." They plan to offer D&D with the same positioning as Gleemax, by offering tools that will allow for 100% analog, 100% digital, or any mix in between. The new online tools will allow Dungeon Master to quickly create and edit maps that allow for a visual online experience with voice chat. The online tools will not have any rules in place in terms of gameplay. "DDI is not a game, it's simply an interface that will allow gamers to play the same way games are played analog, but over the internet with voice chat", Mr. Rotelli stated. Players will also be able to do full character customization, and because the characters will appear in play, but will not be animated, the character customization will offer levels of detail that are rarely available in online games. Finally, the business model for this interface will be a subscription model when it is released, with a high likelihood of a trial subscription being included with the purchase of the 4th Edition rules. As another added bonus, purchase of the paper rulebook will include a fully searchable digital edition as well. DDI is currently available for free until the launch of the 4th Edition rules, after which it will be a subscription based business model.

For Magic: The Gathering the big change comes in terms of Version 3 of the interface. With a game as difficult to convert to an online system, WotC believes small changes to the interface can make a huge difference in terms of gameplay. One of the major changes will be the inclusion of the WotC online store in the Magic game interface. This has been the biggest complaint of Online Magic players, is that the purchase of booster packs was a cumbersome process requiring the user to leave the game interface to visit the WotC website. Version 3 will be available 4th quarter 2007.