Paizo to cease publication of “Dragon” and “Dungeon” magazines

Wizards of the Coast has pulled the plug on Paizo Publishing‘s license to produce the Dungeon and Dragon magazines.

Today, Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing announced the conclusion of Paizo’s license to publish Dragon and Dungeon magazines. The magazines will cease publication following the release of the September issues, which ship to subscribers and newsstands in August. The final issues will be Dragon #359 and Dungeon #150.

Wizards of the Coast will be moving the kind of content currently found in Dragon and Dungeon to an online model.

What’s Paizo doing instead? Well, they’re switching their machine over to producing a new magazine monthly book called Pathfinder, a “96-page, perfect-bound, OGL-compatible full-color softcover Adventure Path book.”

Personally, I think this stinks. As much as I like Paizo as a company, I’ve never gotten into their Adventure Path adventures, and now, it seems, that’s pretty much all they’re left with.

I’m not sure what WotC was/is thinking, but it apparently isn’t an issue about profitability, as publisher Erik Mona explained on Paizo’s message boards:

» Ikor wrote: Were the magazines losing money?

Absolutely not. As far as I know, the sales of the magazines were not a factor in this decision. We’re actually very pleased with the sales of the magazines, and in particular with our growing subscriber lists.

Here’s hoping that enough readers decide to give Pathfinder and our GameMastery Modules a try. We’re extremely excited about the new opportunities we’ll have with the new arrangement.

–Erik

Betcha dollars to donuts that Steve Jackson Games’ Pyramid sees its subscriber numbers swell nicely in the weeks to come.

The full text of the announcement is after the cut.

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Whee! Look at me, mommy! Look at m- WHAM!

Line Rider
Forgot to post this little gem that Cindy emailed me yesterday: Line Rider.

According to the Line Rider page on Squidoo (which has a bunch of sample video clips):

Line Rider is not a game but a toy according to the author. Basically you take a pencil and draw curves and lines on a white background. You can then press play and it launches a guy on a sled into your line drawing. The sled slides down the lines. If you make them too steep the guy crashes. If you make them too flat he just comes to a halt. If you make them just right you can get a crazy rollercoaster going on.

It’s quite amusing. Check it out.

Come and see the violence inherent in the system!

So apparently I missed this little bit o’ smackdown since I avoided the World Cup:
Zidane vs Matterazzi

There has been much speculation about what prompted France’s Zinedine Zidane to head-butt Italy’s Marco Matterazzi. And now, apparently, we know:

It is the question on every football fan’s lips. What did the Italian footballer say to prompt Zinedine Zidane’s shocking headbutt in the closing moments of Sunday’s World Cup final?

The answer, it has emerged, was a vile stream of racial and personal abuse.

First Marco Matterazzi called the French star the Italian equivalent of ‘n*****’, and then insulted both his mother and his Muslim background by saying he is the ‘son of a terrorist whore.

Zidane got red-carded and ejected, and France lost.

…and then Zidane was declared the game’s best player. Oops.

Shame was replaced with the glow of the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player.

For FIFA the award – voted for by journalists before half time in the final game – will be an unwelcome embarrassment.

And, just for the hell of it, here’s a Zidane head-butting game. Simple and violent and wholly satisfying.