WotC's D&D Virtual Table Cancelled

Silverblade The Ench · Jul 17, 2012

I love D&D
I actually really like 4th ed, bar needing soem "pizaz" and more fluff it really improved the game
But WOTC in last few years have killed the game off by managing to make it subdued, terrible "leadership/salemanship" of D&D, and screw ups like this.

Almost impossible for me to get a game nowadays (health issues), so was hoping this VTT would help...meh.

Oh and don't get me starte don the "Neverwinter Nights" that's coming out, short of a miracle that looks to be a pile of huge poo.

WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO THE GAME I LOVE?
Sigh

Herschel · Jul 19, 2012

I'm surprised they didn't just contract out/license to a 3rd party in the first place. VTT users are a niche of a niche market, use the people that already have time and development in to that resource or acquire and assimilate one. I really like DDI and admit I have no real interest in a VTT. D&D has always been a face-to-face endeavor for me and trying to set up a VTT from scratch always seemed an odd choice to me.

Blue · Jul 19, 2012

Steel_Wind said:
I am suggesting to you that the technological maturity of this technology "a bunch of years ago" compared to the camera quality, bandwidth and software tools available *now* makes all the difference in the world.

Your experience "a bunch of years ago" is out of date.

I feel like you're dismissing my experiences with a handwave while not addressing most of my points. Bandwidth wasn't a problem I had. A better quality camera might help making out things drawn on a battlemap. But really, better software is exactly what I was talking about why resorting to just what we gamed with twenty years ago isn't the best option.

A VTT instead of cameras can replace needing to have the right mini. It can have graphics better than I can on a battlemap. (Even if I've invested in 3d dungeon kits.) It can make a battlemap larger than my table. It can let me store a large number of pre-done maps (by myself or others) to pull up immediately instead of needing to sketch taking up session time. (Just think of a community to share your maps.) It gives easy options for doing things like showing zones and ongoing effects, perhaps tagged so the players can remind themselves without having to interrupt the DM. It gives good opportunity to do things like track all of the conditions that are put the PCs and their foes.

Really, it sounds like you've got a camera setup that could rival sitting across a table from each other. But what I'm envisioning (and experiencing today) is to take cameras for where they are best - real feeds like people, and marry it to virtual table spaces that can do more than could be represented with just minis and a battle map.

To make a somewhat unflattering analogy, newspapers today are much easier to publish than a few decades ago with layout tools and other advances, but that doesn't mean that a paper newspaper delivered to your house once a day is the best way to deliver news any more.

Ryujin · Jul 19, 2012

Herschel said:
I'm surprised they didn't just contract out/license to a 3rd party in the first place. VTT users are a niche of a niche market, use the people that already have time and development in to that resource or acquire and assimilate one. I really like DDI and admit I have no real interest in a VTT. D&D has always been a face-to-face endeavor for me and trying to set up a VTT from scratch always seemed an odd choice to me.

It could even be a potential source of revenue, via content licensing, rather than a drag on resources.