Possible DDI Tiered Pricing...

[Dice4Hire]

If it was me:
Copper: Character builder + ability to join a VTT game. $35/year

Why? Every single person that plays D&D 4e will want copper.

BZZZZZZT Sorry, but no. People who do not subscribe now might join, but not everyone. Probably not even close.

To be honest, even if the copper above were FREE, I would not join. It offers nothing I need.

And I never play online in real time.

 

[Dannager]

Trying to charge more for GM tools would be WotC shooting themselves in the face (and they've given no indication that they're stupid enough to even contemplate it). Without GMs, there is no game, and there is always a shortage of GMs relative to players. You want to do everything possible to encourage more people to GM. Hint: Do cons charge you more for your membership if you want to GM a table, or do they give you a discount of up to 100%?

Er...

Your options are to either provide everything to everyone for the same price, which means that non-DMs (players) will be forced to pay the full price of the package (which will be higher than they'd have to pay for what they'd use on a tiered pricing structure), making them less likely to subscribe, or to implement a tiered structure and charge more for the full package and less for a more limited package with player-only tools. You certainly can't provide a discounted full package because then everyone would pick that package, whether they were DMs or not.

Which would you suggest? The one that makes players less likely to subscribe, or the one that has everyone paying only for what they will end up using?

 

[Mapache]

Your options are to either provide everything to everyone for the same price, which means that non-DMs (players) will be forced to pay the full price of the package (which will be higher than they'd have to pay for what they'd use on a tiered pricing structure)

That's faulty reasoning. You don't have to recoup the cost of GMing-related tools by explicitly charging more for them. Instead, you can recoup it by selling more player subscriptions. Since you can't have players without GMs, including the GM tools at no additional cost is an investment in your overall product. The more GMs you get, the more players you can get, so you can increase your total subscriptions by enabling people to GM. Fortunately, WotC seems to realize this, as the current Virtual Tabletop Beta requires tickets to sign up to play (which will presumably cost money some day) but not to GM. It's like how Apple gives away their XCode developer tools for free, so more people will use them to create applications, which are what sell the platform as a whole.

 

[Dannager]

That's faulty reasoning. You don't have to recoup the cost of GMing-related tools by explicitly charging more for them. Instead, you can recoup it by selling more player subscriptions. Since you can't have players without GMs, giving away the GM tools is an investment in your overall product. The more GMs you get, the more players you can get, so you can increase your total subscriptions by enabling people to GM. Fortunately, WotC seems to realize this, as the current Virtual Tabletop Beta requires tickets to sign up to play (which will presumably cost money some day) but not to GM. It's like how Apple gives away their XCode developer tools for free, so more people will use them to create applications, which are what sell the platform as a whole.

The only tool that players will want the DMs won't care about (necessarily, though many might!) is the Character Builder. Anything else is directly useful to a DM, and if you give away all of those things to the DM for free, the only things you can end up charging for are the Character Builder and the ability to join a VTT game. That's not much content to make up a subscription.

The reality is that DDI subscriptions are affordable and useful enough that you don't really need to do a lot of encouragement to get prospective DMs to invest in a subscription. The utility of the product is enough to entice many would-be DMs into actually sitting down behind that side of the screen, simply by virtue of how easy a DDI subscription makes running a game.

 

[Mapache]

The only tool that players will want the DMs won't care about (necessarily, though many might!) is the Character Builder. Anything else is directly useful to a DM, and if you give away all of those things to the DM for free

By my fist "give away", I actually meant "give away with the rest of the tools"—now rephrased for clarity. The point is that charging extra for the ability to GM is suicidal. You want people to have everything they need to GM available for the price they're already paying to be a player, so that there's no cost hurdles for them becoming GMs, which the game needs to survive and grow.

 

[Dannager]

By my fist "give away", I actually meant "give away with the rest of the tools"—now rephrased for clarity. The point is that charging extra for the ability to GM is suicidal. You want people to have everything they need to GM available for the price they're already paying to be a player, so that there's no cost hurdles for them becoming GMs, which the game needs to survive and grow.

I agree, but how is giving the DM tools away for free with the player tools subscription any different from what we have right now?

DMs and players currently pay the same price per month for their access to DDI. What if WotC introduced a lower-priced tier that only included things players might want? So, instead of $8 per month, they might pay $4 per month. How would that harm the DMs in any way, or be a disincentive for them to pick up a subscription? They wouldn't be paying any more than they normally would, and it's likely that more players (who are less invested in the hobby than DMs and therefore less likely to drop as much money on a subscription) would pick up subscriptions for themselves.

 

[delericho]

If I were to do a suite of DDI tools, here's what I would offer (I'll get to tiers in a moment):

Character Builder: This is the app that will shift subscriptions. Frankly, 4e is now sufficiently complex that I now won't consider playing it without.

Rules Compendium: Likewise, we know what this is.

Virtual Tabletop: This is the other of the 'big three' tools for a DDI.

Dragon magazine: This should be a very solid magazine released on a fixed date every month. It should be heavily focussed on the player side of the fence, and include new powers, magic items, feats, and so on. Every month, there should be something for every class and/or race.

(There should probably be a number of 'fluff' pieces as well, such as the editorial, letters to the developers (providing a guaranteed response from the team on at least some topic every month), Confessions, advice articles, articles fleshing out some aspects of the setting, or whatever. But the meat of the magazine would be the PC-centric articles.)

Dungeon magazine: Likewise, a very solid magazine released on a fixed date every month. Ideally, it should have at least three adventures every month (one for each tier). Additionally, the magazine should try to have a mix of adventure types: short zero-prep delves for the time-strapped DM, larger standalone adventures to drop into a campaign, and an ongoing Adventure Path.

(Again, it wouldn't be bad to include some other materials, perhaps fleshing out the setting, or developing an entirely new online-exclusive setting, or giving advice on building a campaign, or whatever. But the meat of the magazine is always going to be the adventures.)

Incidentally, about the fixed release date and the Adventure Paths: these are to build buzz. If the magazines are solid products (which they had better be, or they can be dropped), then we want people to be anticipating them. What's happening next in the Adventure Path? What's next for my character? Releasing the magazines all at once makes this easier - it's really hard to get excitied for "a single article, released when Wizards can be bothered". (I know that every month I used to look forward to the day the magazines dropped through my letter box; I still look forward to the arrival of Pathfinder... despite never actually having played any of the adventures therein.)

Adventure Builder: This maintains a bank of the existing D&D tiles (maps, whatever), the existing D&D traps and hazards, and the existing D&D monsters (and any 'encounter elements' I've forgotten), and allows the DM to drag and drop these into an "adventure file" to create their own adventures quickly. The key point, though: it doesn't itself allow the entry of custom elements.

Monster Builder: Allows the design of custom monsters.

Map Builder: Allows the design of custom maps.

Trap Builder: Go on, guess.

(Actually, while we're at it, let's also have race, class, power, feat and magic item builders, too!)

The Archive: This is an expanded bank of all the custom monsters, traps and maps that everyone on the DDI has entered (and allowed to be shared). In other words, it gives you access to the collected work of thousands of other subscribers.

Character Visualiser: We know what this is.

And I think that's about it.

So, the tiers for access, then:

Copper Tier

For Players: Character Builder, Rules Compendium
For DMs: Adventure Builder

Gold Tier

For Players: Dragon Magazine
For DMs: The 'builder' tools, Dungeon magazine

For everyone: Virtual Tabletop

Platinum Tier

For Players: Character Visualiser
For DMs: Access to The Archive

I think that's the combination of features I would go for, and also the tiers. It means that the basic subscription is a very solid offering that people will want, but it also means that there's plenty of value-add in the upper levels of subscription.

But an absolutely key factor in this is that all of these tools and features must be quality offerings, and must be supported with every bit as much commitment as is shown to the physical products (if not moreso). Things have been rather shambolic on the DDI front for a while; unless this gets brought under control then the above is an impossibility.

 

[delericho]

DMs and players currently pay the same price per month for their access to DDI. What if WotC introduced a lower-priced tier that only included things players might want? So, instead of $8 per month, they might pay $4 per month. How would that harm the DMs in any way, or be a disincentive for them to pick up a subscription?

For existing subscribers, that's fine. And for existing players with no interest in ever DMing a game, that's fine.

But for new players, who might decide they want to give DMing a shot, it's a real problem. There's already the disincentive that they need to buy more books (it was the DMG and MM; I don't know what the best Essentials equivalents are), but now you're also adding an extra $4 a month on their subscription.

The more barriers you put in place to any random player deciding to give DMing a shot, the less likely they are to do so. And if they don't try it, they can't find that they'll like it. Which means fewer new DMs, which in turn means fewer tables available for players, which can stunt the growth of the game.

No, I agree with other posters: WotC should try to make it as painless as possible for players to try DMing, and try to reduce the burdens on DMs as far as possible.

 

[Dausuul]

For existing subscribers, that's fine. And for existing players with no interest in ever DMing a game, that's fine.

But for new players, who might decide they want to give DMing a shot, it's a real problem. There's already the disincentive that they need to buy more books (it was the DMG and MM; I don't know what the best Essentials equivalents are), but now you're also adding an extra $4 a month on their subscription.

The more barriers you put in place to any random player deciding to give DMing a shot, the less likely they are to do so. And if they don't try it, they can't find that they'll like it. Which means fewer new DMs, which in turn means fewer tables available for players, which can stunt the growth of the game.

No, I agree with other posters: WotC should try to make it as painless as possible for players to try DMing, and try to reduce the burdens on DMs as far as possible.

I must spread some XP around before giving it to Delericho again. This pretty much sums up everything I was going to say on the subject of DM tools... yet another reason why I think content rather than apps will be the basis of any tiered system.

(Incidentally, the Essentials equivalents are the DM's Kit and the Monster Vault.)

 

[RangerWickett]

I actually would prefer not to have a large dump of articles once per month as a "whole issue." I'd rather have the articles finished at the start of the month, throw up a calendar of what gets released when, and stick to that. It keeps people coming to the site more regularly, which is good for business.