Well, I'm a bit stunned by today's news, I must say--I mean, I remember buying Dragon back in the late 1970s. It seems to me to be shortsighted in the extreme to just terminate the brand--it's intimately wound up with the D&D playing experiences of such a huge part of the gaming community, and seems to me that an online mag is not going to generate the revenue or the attention that a paper mag does.
Anyhow, my big question about all this is, is Paizo developing a campaign world with the Pathfinder APs? Or is each one going to be in its own self-contained world? This would seem to be an opportunity to build a new campaign setting, and since the APs will need gods and nations and background NPCs (kings and famous wizards, etc. etc.), it might be advantageous to build a campaign world by accumulation--loyal subscribers would be rewarded by a certain amount of continuity that connects adventures, and some of the common denominators (like a list of the deities and such) could be kept in an online gazetteer. Of course, WotC might not like this, but as long as it's completely the creation of Paizo with no license involved except OGL, they really don't have much control over it. In theory, Paizonia could be competing with Eberron. (Of course, Paizo will want to keep the adventures somewhat generic and compatible with existing campaign settings, but I think having the APs unfold in a place that feels like a campaign setting, and not "the World of Generica" will make Pathfinder a more attractive product--at least to those of us who enjoy the worldbuilding aspect of the game.
I'm going to be bummed about the loss of support for Greyhawk that we got in Dungeon and Dragon--Wee Jas and Pelor and all that are owned by WotC even if all they do is sit on them and squash them flat--so aside from LG there won't be much happening in Greyhawk anymore. Unless WotC is planning to revive the setting, which seems rather unlikely.
So--I'll miss Greyhawk, but I'll be further attracted to Pathfinder if I get to watch the people I consider D&D's most brilliant minds gradually unfold a new and interesting world to explore.
