'Dungeons & Dragons' fights for its future

xechnao · Apr 2, 2008

Dragonblade said:
But D&D? I consider that money well spent. Heck I spent $10 a month on the paper subscription to Dragon and Dungeon. Now for the same money I get that content and a lot more. Like Klaus said, I consider the rules database alone worth the money. The virtual tabletop is just icing on the cake.

How do you get more content when you have the physical papers and art and their collectible value in your hands is beyond me. Heck, if 4e was open you realize you would be getting this for free, don't you? I am not saying that it should be free. I am just saying that regarding the technical part it does not cost them so much to them to give it to you. It costs a lot more to publish and books do cost more -but how much tax is reflected in their price due to the creative part? I believe certainly less than what they are trying to do now. So yes it is laughably overpriced.

Zinovia · Apr 2, 2008

Online games and D&D are different enough that many people enjoy participating in both of them. I am a very active player in WoW, but still look forward to my D&D game every 2-3 weeks (busy schedules among our group). They will remain different games, even if you will be able to play D&D online with your friends who moved away. Online gaming is not a threat to paper and pencil games. Not yet anyway.

The rules database alone is a great feature, and one I am looking forward to. If the magazines contain content I'm interested in (not infinite broken prestige classes and articles about settings I don't use), then I'd be interested in those as well. I keep wavering on D&DI because of parts of it not working on the Mac, but then there's the rules. From *all* the books. That's making it look more tempting.

Maggan · Apr 2, 2008

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
So it's your fault then?

Hey, how was I to know that they had a sample size of "1"!

/M

Rykaar · Apr 2, 2008

I'd like to apologize for my lack of information on this issue before chiming in. I didn't realize the $10-15 per month included all Dragon and Dungeon articles. That makes it a bit more palatable for a DM at least, though I doubt many groups will buy into the full price for each member. I still can't believe they surveyed their market and found $15 or even $10 acceptable to the majority.

That said, as a few of you alluded to already though, this has been discussed elsewhere, so I'll respectfully drop out of further examination of the DDI and it's price.

Dragonblade · Apr 2, 2008

xechnao said:
How do you get more content when you have the physical papers and art and their collectible value in your hands is beyond me. Heck, if 4e was open you realize you would be getting this for free, don't you? I am not saying that it should be free. I am just saying that regarding the technical part it does not cost them so much to them to give it to you. It costs a lot more to publish and books do cost more -but how much tax is reflected in their price due to the creative part? I believe certainly less than what they are trying to do now. So yes it is laughably overpriced.

Having been a former subscriber to Dungeon and Dragon, I'm already comfortable with the subscription model for getting D&D material as long as I feel its worth the money. Which Dragon and Dungeon were, IMO.

I agree that having glossy printed magazines in hand is worth more than having downloadable PDFs. But when you throw in all the other stuff that DDI includes, especially the rules database, that makes it worth the money to me.

And I don't believe that 4e being open would make all this stuff "free". The 3.5 SRD was free, but was only marginally useful to me since it was basically core + psionics. The real value for me in the DDI rules database comes from it having all WotC book content.

xechnao · Apr 2, 2008

Dragonblade said:
And I don't believe that 4e being open would make all this stuff "free". The 3.5 SRD was free, but was only marginally useful to me since it was basically core + psionics. The real value for me in the DDI rules database comes from it having all WotC book content.

You didn't get my point

I was talking about profits and expenses here. The SRD was marginally useful to you due to a question of limited openness -not because of the cost of its service. The service could very well cost around 0. What you need to pay is their creative work. How much do you thing that you pay for it when you are buying the books? I believe certainly less. A lot less. So this means whatever you have been paying so far to Wotc, now Wotc is overpricing it. It is overpricing what was producing so far. Do they need the extra money-profits for D&D? I don't think so even if they start investing more in the creative sector because truth is that D&D has its limits. So if this is true what are they gonna do with the extra money you give them?

TrainedMunkee · Apr 2, 2008

USA Today has picked up the article

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-04-01-dungeons-dragons_N.htm

It has a picture of the Tabletop, to boot and comments by users thinking that it is an MMO.

Trainz · Apr 2, 2008

Spacekase said:
USA Today has picked up the article

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-04-01-dungeons-dragons_N.htm

It has a picture of the Tabletop, to boot and comments by users thinking that it is an MMO.

There's a whooping 2 comments, ONE of which is:

D&D I have bought and played every game they have made for the PC and enjoy them all I will definitely join the MMO As I am sure it will be alot of fun.

I think we'll be fine guys. The sky's still where it's supposed to be, cats aren't mating with dogs, and 3rd ed and 4th ed are/will still be around for all of us to enjoy or not.

Dragonblade · Apr 2, 2008

xechnao said:
You didn't get my point
I was talking about profits and expenses here. The SRD was marginally useful to you due to a question of limited openness -not because of the cost of its service. The service could very well cost around 0. What you need to pay is their creative work. How much do you thing that you pay for it when you are buying the books? I believe certainly less. A lot less. So this means whatever you have been paying so far to Wotc, now Wotc is overpricing it. It is overpricing what was producing so far. Do they need the extra money-profits for D&D? I don't think so even if they start investing more in the creative sector because truth is that D&D has its limits. So if this is true what are they gonna do with the extra money you give them?

Hmm, ok, well books cost what they do because some money goes to paying for the physical binding, printing, and so on. Plus distributors and game shops all gotta get their cut.

But for DDI, you're saying we should only have to pay for creativity? Well, there is also server maintanence, hosting expense, bandwidth and all that. I guess I just don't see $10 a month as overpricing.

Although, if WotC starts raising the fee, then I may start to come around to your way of thinking.

TrainedMunkee · Apr 2, 2008

Trainz said:
There's a whooping 2 comments, ONE of which is:

I think we'll be fine guys. The sky's still where it's supposed to be, cats aren't mating with dogs, and 3rd ed and 4th ed are/will still be around for all of us to enjoy or not.

I wasn't trying to be negative. I just thought that it was kind of funny that he was so far off. He will be surprised when he logs on and actually has to look for people to play with.

It's gathering momentum hopefully more outlets will pick up the article.

'Dungeons & Dragons' fights for its future

xechnao

First Post

Zinovia

Explorer

Maggan

Writer for CY_BORG, Forbidden Lands and Dragonbane

Rykaar

First Post

Dragonblade

Adventurer

xechnao

First Post

TrainedMunkee

Explorer

Trainz

Explorer

Dragonblade

Adventurer

TrainedMunkee

Explorer

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