"Wizards of the Coast has made the decision to pull down its Gleemax social networking site in order to focus on other aspects of our digital initiatives, especially Magic Online and Dungeons & Dragons Insider. We continue to believe that fostering online community is an important part of taking care of our customers, but until we have our games up and running at a quality level we can be proud of, it will be the games themselves that receive the lion’s share of our attention and resources.
Our plan is to shut down Gleemax completely sometime in September."
Well, I could see this coming, to tell you the truth. Gleemax seemed like a bit of a stretch for Wizards IMO. Does Gleemax have even that big of a community?
Hmm, so I presume they'll go back to a normal forum? Wizards has been trying a lot of overhauls in the past year (and in the coming future as well), I guess at least they recognize when an idea is not working.
.
.
It took me three days of wrangling to import my old wizards boards account to gleemax and I had to use an ancient username/password/email and was locked out of changing or updating any of that info.
So, suck it Wizards. You have driven another internet-based venture into the basement with piss-poor management.
I only went to Gleemax once, when they opened it up and announced it. I just saw zero there I wanted to read or participate in, that I wasn't getting much better elsewhere - like here at MTGS for one.
* rancored_elf wonders, will Gleemax members create Gleemax groups called "If 1,000,000 join, Wizards will save Gleemax! Invite all your friends!" *
Agreed. I couldn't figure out what Wizards was going to be providing with Gleemax that I couldn't get better at another site, so I never went.
Every site/service needs a "niche." E.G. MTG.com is the official company site, SCG is where you find a lot of top players/tourny reports, etc. Our primary niche might be as "oh that spoiler site"; but hey, whatever draws people in to see the rest of the site works for me.
Gleemax, on the other hand, really didn't have anything.
d20 Optimization Boards, D&D 3.5 Custom Creation Board (That doesn't exist anymore, it was wiped away when 4E arrived.) and some other stuff. Most of boards I used in gleemax didn't have anything to do with MtG, though.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
Wow, I'm not surprised, but still I never felt that Gleemax was given a chance. The whole project appeared, at least to us on the outside, unfocused and it didn't do anything that you needed it to do.
I guess we just have to use Twitter and Facebook to keep in touch with people online.
I went to Gleemax once or twice but only because I was forced to by WoTC while trying to access the WoTC forums. As I'm already a member of 3 social networks, MySpace, Facebook, and BuffaloME, Gleemax is pretty much irrelevant. Who comes up with these hare-brained ideas at WoTC? The D&D thing has rubbed alot of people the wrong way too. I don't know one person who has switched over to 4.0. >.<
I think the big thing here is that they have a) admitted that Magic Online III isn't right yet and b) they have committed resources from Gleemax to help fix it. So Gleemax at least had an organ donar card that MGO III can use for spare parts!
Media is not making me steal. But in a way is like the story of the very hot girl with the short skirt teasing the old sick guy with a history of rape.
I think the big thing here is that they have a) admitted that Magic Online III isn't right yet and b) they have committed resources from Gleemax to help fix it. So Gleemax at least had an organ donar card that MGO III can use for spare parts!
Gavin
I think it's far more likely that Gleemax was using MTGO/DDi resources than it is that Gleemax had it's own resources that are now coming to MTGO. The net result should be similar, but the actual reason that both sucked so hard was completely different.
For example, I think that there's only one QA group in WotC. They have to QA all digital things, like MTGO, Gleemax, DDi, etc. Instead of MTGO and DDi getting new resources from Gleemax going away, MTGO and DDi are getting more of the existing resources. Just like they should have be en getting from the start.
I think this is a good move, overall. It gives me hope that things may actually get better with the digital products that are actually making them money.
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^^
MTGO Writer and Epic Time-Waster.
If you have questions about MTGO PM me, I'm all up ons, as it were.
Check out my articles on http://puremtgo.com/ I'm the nerd you see there... wait, not that one. Nope, not that one either... yeah. That one.
Wow, that's a lot of big ideas they're flushing down the toilet.
I liked the part about stores having their own sites so you could find games in your area. And of game publishers having sites to market their products. It seemed like a good idea in theory.
But every time I went to the site I couldn't find anything of interest. Good ideas, sloppy execution.
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I'm a mathematics postdoc researching evolution and complex systems. Learn about these ideas here!
It's about time. Gleemax has been one large (mostly nonfunctional) train wreck since they released it. As is very usual for Wizards online initiatives, it was pretty well concepted but disastrously implemented.
I think there is something to be said for the fact that Gleemax wasn't yet any good at doing what it was supposed to be doing. But Mercadian Masques and Kamigawa weren't too good at their jobs, either. Did Wizards proceed to cancel Magic?
I think there's much more to be said for the fact that Hasbro is taking resources away from a project that didn't have a built-in revenue stream, and moving them to two projects that do -- Magic Online obviously gets a lot of people spending money, and D&D Insider will be subscription-only. To me, it's pretty hard to view this move as anything other than a monetary decision.
Furthermore, the lack of grace with which this change has been executed is telling. Mogote mentioned above that Eventide had advertisements for Gleemax, which makes this a very rapid and absolute about-face. It's the third such quick reversal we've had to deal with in recent months -- the first being the decision to drop JSS and other tournaments, and the second being the move to drop a card from each pack and add mythic rares. That suddenness is out of character for a gaming division that has a Future Future League to develop its cards years in advance. While MaRo and others have done their best to rationalize those decisions, they all have obvious financial implications. I suspect that is why they happened, and why they had to happen so quickly.
It looks like the downturn in the American economy affects Hasbro, too, and as a result it is starting to affect Magic.
Okay, so I was venting. But many people have complained about the site. It has a very wierd layout and I think they never figured out how to streamline a dozen games into a single messageboard.
Plus where was the capability to EASILY locate people to play their games? It was a great idea to make an online board for locating IRL players. I didn't see them even take the first step towards realising that, which would have justified any expense as a promotional tool by the largest gaming company in the US. Locating players is a major obstacle to playing wizards products and there are very few resources to help players do so. (outside of being lucky enough to have a good gaming store and the time to troll it for players)
d20 Optimization Boards, D&D 3.5 Custom Creation Board (That doesn't exist anymore, it was wiped away when 4E arrived.) and some other stuff. Most of boards I used in gleemax didn't have anything to do with MtG, though.
To be fair, yes, their D&D sections were good. But they were no better than the old Wizards' boards were. (Just harder to log in to >.>)
While you all joke about Gleemax being dead, you miss a very real problem. Wizards is desperate. Everything they have done in the last year screams it. They have managed to avoid assimilation into the Hasborg Collective for quite a while, because they were able to throw up money shields. It looks like the shields are failing, and the collective is getting set to make a move. Every move out of WotC has been money based. Instead of the normal well planned actions everyone is accustomed to; it is knee-jerk reactions to make a quick dollar to put in the books. They are in trouble. No I am not saying doom and gloom, but it looks to me like they are about to be assimilated and cannibalized by the Hasborg Collective. I do not think we will lose the games we enjoy, but I see them becoming something less than they are.
You think we have seen stupid changes so far? I get the feeling these are just drops in the bucket. Wizards is flopping around like a fish out of water, suffocating and desperate. This means even more extreme changes are to come. Mark my words, the worst is yet to come, and you have the failure that is MTGO v.3 to blame.
I think the big thing here is that they have a) admitted that Magic Online III isn't right yet and b) they have committed resources from Gleemax to help fix it. So Gleemax at least had an organ donar card that MGO III can use for spare parts!
Gavin
MtGO III will never be right. You cannot fix a flawed product by rushing it out half complete, then bandaging it. You can think it for the damage being done to the game as a whole. It is the cancer killing the organism. One day people will realize that simple truth.
MtGO III will never be right. You cannot fix a flawed product by rushing it out half complete, then bandaging it. You can think it for the damage being done to the game as a whole. It is the cancer killing the organism. One day people will realize that simple truth.
Agreed on this note. MTGO 3 needs to be taken back in they need to rerelease v.2.5 and let us continue to have server issues... 2.5 is at least more stable than 3.0
I wonder when they made this decision as I just got an Eventide token card with a Gleemax ad on the back.
Also are you sure it wasnt a shadowmoor token ass they are in eventide packs... plus consider they have bee printing cards at least 2.5-3 months in advance.
I don't know one person who has switched over to 4.0. >.<
I'm switching Actually I think it was about time to move on to 4.0. Making a non-spellcaster that could go toe to toe with a spellcaster was getting tiresome with all those spell-filled splatbooks WotC released for 3.5. They pamper those wizards and clerics and (worst, because most powerful, of all) druids with the Spell Compendium, and what do the fighters, barbarians and rogues get? Nothing, because the whole spellcasting system was inherently flawed. Nah, I'll be trying the new system out gladly, knowing that this time it is actually possible to share the splatbook goodiness!
Edit: And yeah, uhm, since this is a magic related site... I think I visited Gleemax once or twice, was amused by that strange photo shoot contest ages ago, and never checked back. It just wasn't on my radar...
I'm switching Actually I think it was about time to move on to 4.0. Making a non-spellcaster that could go toe to toe with a spellcaster was getting tiresome with all those spell-filled splatbooks WotC released for 3.5. They pamper those wizards and clerics and (worst, because most powerful, of all) druids with the Spell Compendium, and what do the fighters, barbarians and rogues get? Nothing, because the whole spellcasting system was inherently flawed. Nah, I'll be trying the new system out gladly, knowing that this time it is actually possible to share the splatbook goodiness!
There's The Complete Warrior and The Complete Adventurer for melee lovers. People just love being spellcasters.
So, is this why I haven't been able to log on to the forums or even see them? It's been weeks, and I'm logged in, but it's not letting me do anything, and it's not showing an interface that I'm familiar with. It's as though the forums don't exist to begin with.
While the idea of Gleemax was always too nebulous for my tastes and I didn't see it serve any function that the forums didn't already do, it would be a shame for the forums to go down completely. A lot of people put some real work into those in spite of a very confusing and tumultuous admin culture. I hope all that wasn't for naught, at least.
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International Magic Judge (Level 4)
Former US Southwest Regional Coordinator
"Wizards of the Coast has made the decision to pull down its Gleemax social networking site in order to focus on other aspects of our digital initiatives, especially Magic Online and Dungeons & Dragons Insider. We continue to believe that fostering online community is an important part of taking care of our customers, but until we have our games up and running at a quality level we can be proud of, it will be the games themselves that receive the lion’s share of our attention and resources.
Our plan is to shut down Gleemax completely sometime in September."
For the rest of the announcement, please go here.
Artist Strikes Fish
Burn, you worthless monster, burn!
.
.
It took me three days of wrangling to import my old wizards boards account to gleemax and I had to use an ancient username/password/email and was locked out of changing or updating any of that info.
So, suck it Wizards.
I only went to Gleemax once, when they opened it up and announced it. I just saw zero there I wanted to read or participate in, that I wasn't getting much better elsewhere - like here at MTGS for one.
* rancored_elf wonders, will Gleemax members create Gleemax groups called "If 1,000,000 join, Wizards will save Gleemax! Invite all your friends!" *
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=123568
d20 Optimization Boards, D&D 3.5 Custom Creation Board (That doesn't exist anymore, it was wiped away when 4E arrived.) and some other stuff. Most of boards I used in gleemax didn't have anything to do with MtG, though.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
I guess we just have to use Twitter and Facebook to keep in touch with people online.
www.CinderGirl.com
I went to Gleemax once or twice but only because I was forced to by WoTC while trying to access the WoTC forums. As I'm already a member of 3 social networks, MySpace, Facebook, and BuffaloME, Gleemax is pretty much irrelevant. Who comes up with these hare-brained ideas at WoTC? The D&D thing has rubbed alot of people the wrong way too. I don't know one person who has switched over to 4.0. >.<
Gavin
Gleemax was pretty useless, so Im glad WoTC will be focusing elsewhere on programs that actually matter.
I think it's far more likely that Gleemax was using MTGO/DDi resources than it is that Gleemax had it's own resources that are now coming to MTGO. The net result should be similar, but the actual reason that both sucked so hard was completely different.
For example, I think that there's only one QA group in WotC. They have to QA all digital things, like MTGO, Gleemax, DDi, etc. Instead of MTGO and DDi getting new resources from Gleemax going away, MTGO and DDi are getting more of the existing resources. Just like they should have be en getting from the start.
I think this is a good move, overall. It gives me hope that things may actually get better with the digital products that are actually making them money.
MTGO Writer and Epic Time-Waster.
If you have questions about MTGO PM me, I'm all up ons, as it were.
Check out my articles on http://puremtgo.com/ I'm the nerd you see there... wait, not that one. Nope, not that one either... yeah. That one.
I liked the part about stores having their own sites so you could find games in your area. And of game publishers having sites to market their products. It seemed like a good idea in theory.
But every time I went to the site I couldn't find anything of interest. Good ideas, sloppy execution.
EDH:
UBGThe MimeoplasmUBG
Only went there once, bored myself to death, and never came back.
Mi blog: http://japoniano.blogspot.com/
I think there's much more to be said for the fact that Hasbro is taking resources away from a project that didn't have a built-in revenue stream, and moving them to two projects that do -- Magic Online obviously gets a lot of people spending money, and D&D Insider will be subscription-only. To me, it's pretty hard to view this move as anything other than a monetary decision.
Furthermore, the lack of grace with which this change has been executed is telling. Mogote mentioned above that Eventide had advertisements for Gleemax, which makes this a very rapid and absolute about-face. It's the third such quick reversal we've had to deal with in recent months -- the first being the decision to drop JSS and other tournaments, and the second being the move to drop a card from each pack and add mythic rares. That suddenness is out of character for a gaming division that has a Future Future League to develop its cards years in advance. While MaRo and others have done their best to rationalize those decisions, they all have obvious financial implications. I suspect that is why they happened, and why they had to happen so quickly.
It looks like the downturn in the American economy affects Hasbro, too, and as a result it is starting to affect Magic.
Okay, so I was venting. But many people have complained about the site. It has a very wierd layout and I think they never figured out how to streamline a dozen games into a single messageboard.
Plus where was the capability to EASILY locate people to play their games? It was a great idea to make an online board for locating IRL players. I didn't see them even take the first step towards realising that, which would have justified any expense as a promotional tool by the largest gaming company in the US. Locating players is a major obstacle to playing wizards products and there are very few resources to help players do so. (outside of being lucky enough to have a good gaming store and the time to troll it for players)
To be fair, yes, their D&D sections were good. But they were no better than the old Wizards' boards were. (Just harder to log in to >.>)
Modern: Dominium Eminens
Legacy: UB Tezz (Check out My Primer at TheSource)
Vinitage: Oath
I used to judge alot.
You think we have seen stupid changes so far? I get the feeling these are just drops in the bucket. Wizards is flopping around like a fish out of water, suffocating and desperate. This means even more extreme changes are to come. Mark my words, the worst is yet to come, and you have the failure that is MTGO v.3 to blame.
MtGO III will never be right. You cannot fix a flawed product by rushing it out half complete, then bandaging it. You can think it for the damage being done to the game as a whole. It is the cancer killing the organism. One day people will realize that simple truth.
Agreed on this note. MTGO 3 needs to be taken back in they need to rerelease v.2.5 and let us continue to have server issues... 2.5 is at least more stable than 3.0
Also are you sure it wasnt a shadowmoor token ass they are in eventide packs... plus consider they have bee printing cards at least 2.5-3 months in advance.
Yes i am the same guy who trades/sells on MOTL AND Wizards of the Coast and i trade on POJO.
Edit: And yeah, uhm, since this is a magic related site... I think I visited Gleemax once or twice, was amused by that strange photo shoot contest ages ago, and never checked back. It just wasn't on my radar...
There's The Complete Warrior and The Complete Adventurer for melee lovers. People just love being spellcasters.
While the idea of Gleemax was always too nebulous for my tastes and I didn't see it serve any function that the forums didn't already do, it would be a shame for the forums to go down completely. A lot of people put some real work into those in spite of a very confusing and tumultuous admin culture. I hope all that wasn't for naught, at least.
Former US Southwest Regional Coordinator
Favorite cards of all time:
Overall - Peacekeeper
Flavor text - Blazing Archon