Ninja-to
First Post
For me, I'm not concerned so much with magic items, character classes, races or alignments, demons, devils, monsters or anything else. My problems and dreams are far simpler and very basic:
Please deal with errata better.
The next small section will be basically me ranting on the problems with 4E. All of these topics have been covered before, and people have their own opinions. I'm only posting the below as a reference of *my* take on it. Please don't debate on these issues again as there are countless other threads for that (and they're all worn out IMO). Feel free to skip my /rant to get to my point. I don't want this to turn into a debate on the short rant. I'm looking to talk about what 5E needs to do better.
/ begin rant
Seriously. It's been said before, but it can't be said enough. The errata issues of 4E were just out of control. This is the sole reason I stopped buying books, as did my players. Pretty much everyone will agree that the number of errors in books was bordering on incompetence. I hear you when people talk about deadlines, money and schedules, work loads, blah blah. But seriously folks, if it's not ready, don't release it. It's that simple. Especially when you expect people to purchase something in print form, something that can't be 'downloaded' and fixed instantly or effortlessly.
Yes, we need mistakes correcting, so errata serves a purpose. Sure. But there are two lose-lose situations with the current way errata is dealt with in 4E.
Because of the sheer volume of mistakes and errata, people (such as myself, my players and I suspect many others) simply stopped purchasing the books. Instead, we began to simply rely on the Character Builder.
This to me seemed a half-step forward. Half, because it made the books much less useful than they should have been. Why buy a hard copy of Adventurer's Vault when it's being released on character builder? Add to that, the expected errata that will come along will be done electronically. Get the CB, you're better off for it.
It hurt the desire to get books, but it was still a move forward. Then of course, as we all know, the CB moved to a far inferior, online only version, with less options, far more bugs, and was basically just a debacle for the majority of DDI subscribers, resulting in (apparently) droves of subscribers not only cancelling their accounts but even asking for their money back.
/ 4E rant over
Now 5E (or whatever it will be called) has been mentioned to be in the works.
I will call this out right now:
Get a handle on errata or D&D is done. The game will die.
Period.
If not, there will be two groups of people who play D&D. One broad group will be the ones who still own their old books, 1st to 4th edition, and are happy with what they've got. The 2nd group, will be a very small niche group, and a minority. In other words, not enough to sustain the business.
How to handle the errata problem?
#1: Slow the hell down. Release quality products that aren't full of errors on the day they're released.
I've heard people whining about production costs (when they know absolutely nothing of the sales figures or the production costs whatsoever) and say this is why books are released when they are. It's BS.
Is it *easy* to release something that is practically flawless? Of course not, but it should damn well be a requirement for any hard copy book in print.
#2: If you can't produce hard copy content that isn't riddled with mistakes, provide a viable alternative.
When, before 4E was released, I heard there would be a digital copy of every core book downloadable with a 'serial number' from the hard copy books, I was super excited. I thought finally D&D was shifting to the modern world. I still, to this day, dream of running my entire campaign from a sleek, ALL inclusive platform on my laptop. It's a dream, but you need dreams to make them reality, right guys?
I want all my core books digital, on my laptop, with a menu system that makes it fast, easy and efficient to find a rule. I want there to be a very simple, easy to use map making app, that allows me to print my rooms out so I can place them on the battlegrid easily. I want a little media player with a media library that I can add content to, where I can flip the laptop around and show pictures of things they see, and sound effects they hear.
I can do half of this with a multitude of apps and addons. I could have winamp running for the sound, picture viewer for the pics... you name it. But why not integrate it all into one convenient application?
When I've designed my dungeon (or, GASP, bought it from WotC, in a digital form) and I see a room with a little speaker icon on it, I click it, and that's what the characters hear.
I could go on. My main points are these:
Convenience. I will *pay* for convenience. We pay for convenience all the time in our daily life. This should come as no surprise. I for one will gladly pay to have my entire gaming system neatly and professionally integrated into a suite on my laptop, that does NOT require me to be online all the time. Requiring me to be online is NOT convenient for me. Convenience does not mean 'convenient to a point so long as we can be paranoid/greedy about piracy' (more on this later). Again, entirely integrated. One ap. Period.
I will not pay for the opposite, which is me trying wrap my head around literally over a hundred pages of mistakes and errors and changes. In other words, I will not pay for hard copy books that I know, upon release, are outdated already, and will change so much as to be nearly un-usable.
So in short, for me personally to be even slightly interested in purchasing a single thing of 5E, I will need re-assurances. I need to know that what I'm buying is worth the money I'm putting forward. There are two ways to assure me of this.
Release the products when they are finished. Not a day sooner.
If the above is not possible, go digital so the changes to the very thing I paid for, are made seamlessly. Don't expect me to pay for a half finished product.
/ offline vs online rant start
Please let's not discuss the virtues or non-virtues of having an online or offline CB/tools. Let's just assume for argument's sake we all basically agree that offline is better for the consumer, and NOT assume that requiring a constant online presence prevents piracy (it doesn't).
On that note, for those who whine about WotC not being able to make money if they go all digital, because of piracy. With the endless amount of updates that seem to occur, requiring a password to download each update just makes it 'convenient'. Again, people will PAY for convenience. It would be far easier and simpler, not to mention SAFER to log into a WotC server to get all my updates instantly and quickly rather than snoop around shady download sites every week.
Wizards could also consider bonuses to players who subscribe to all digital content: Passes to events, minis, goodies etc.
/end of offline vs online rant
So, in short, at the top of my wishlist is a set of books that I know I don't need to feel are obsolete in a year or two, and I *DREAM* of a day when my laptop has it all, and all of it is updated and current. I'd love to pay money and instantly download modules and campaign settings to my laptop, have it all in a slick and functional ap, and be content that the money I'm spending, be it monthly, or by a per item basis, is being spent wisely.
Do one (produce more solid books) or the other (create a complete digital package), but please don't neglect both.
Please deal with errata better.
The next small section will be basically me ranting on the problems with 4E. All of these topics have been covered before, and people have their own opinions. I'm only posting the below as a reference of *my* take on it. Please don't debate on these issues again as there are countless other threads for that (and they're all worn out IMO). Feel free to skip my /rant to get to my point. I don't want this to turn into a debate on the short rant. I'm looking to talk about what 5E needs to do better.
/ begin rant
Seriously. It's been said before, but it can't be said enough. The errata issues of 4E were just out of control. This is the sole reason I stopped buying books, as did my players. Pretty much everyone will agree that the number of errors in books was bordering on incompetence. I hear you when people talk about deadlines, money and schedules, work loads, blah blah. But seriously folks, if it's not ready, don't release it. It's that simple. Especially when you expect people to purchase something in print form, something that can't be 'downloaded' and fixed instantly or effortlessly.
Yes, we need mistakes correcting, so errata serves a purpose. Sure. But there are two lose-lose situations with the current way errata is dealt with in 4E.
Because of the sheer volume of mistakes and errata, people (such as myself, my players and I suspect many others) simply stopped purchasing the books. Instead, we began to simply rely on the Character Builder.
This to me seemed a half-step forward. Half, because it made the books much less useful than they should have been. Why buy a hard copy of Adventurer's Vault when it's being released on character builder? Add to that, the expected errata that will come along will be done electronically. Get the CB, you're better off for it.
It hurt the desire to get books, but it was still a move forward. Then of course, as we all know, the CB moved to a far inferior, online only version, with less options, far more bugs, and was basically just a debacle for the majority of DDI subscribers, resulting in (apparently) droves of subscribers not only cancelling their accounts but even asking for their money back.
/ 4E rant over
Now 5E (or whatever it will be called) has been mentioned to be in the works.
I will call this out right now:
Get a handle on errata or D&D is done. The game will die.
Period.
If not, there will be two groups of people who play D&D. One broad group will be the ones who still own their old books, 1st to 4th edition, and are happy with what they've got. The 2nd group, will be a very small niche group, and a minority. In other words, not enough to sustain the business.
How to handle the errata problem?
#1: Slow the hell down. Release quality products that aren't full of errors on the day they're released.
I've heard people whining about production costs (when they know absolutely nothing of the sales figures or the production costs whatsoever) and say this is why books are released when they are. It's BS.
Is it *easy* to release something that is practically flawless? Of course not, but it should damn well be a requirement for any hard copy book in print.
#2: If you can't produce hard copy content that isn't riddled with mistakes, provide a viable alternative.
When, before 4E was released, I heard there would be a digital copy of every core book downloadable with a 'serial number' from the hard copy books, I was super excited. I thought finally D&D was shifting to the modern world. I still, to this day, dream of running my entire campaign from a sleek, ALL inclusive platform on my laptop. It's a dream, but you need dreams to make them reality, right guys?
I want all my core books digital, on my laptop, with a menu system that makes it fast, easy and efficient to find a rule. I want there to be a very simple, easy to use map making app, that allows me to print my rooms out so I can place them on the battlegrid easily. I want a little media player with a media library that I can add content to, where I can flip the laptop around and show pictures of things they see, and sound effects they hear.
I can do half of this with a multitude of apps and addons. I could have winamp running for the sound, picture viewer for the pics... you name it. But why not integrate it all into one convenient application?
When I've designed my dungeon (or, GASP, bought it from WotC, in a digital form) and I see a room with a little speaker icon on it, I click it, and that's what the characters hear.
I could go on. My main points are these:
Convenience. I will *pay* for convenience. We pay for convenience all the time in our daily life. This should come as no surprise. I for one will gladly pay to have my entire gaming system neatly and professionally integrated into a suite on my laptop, that does NOT require me to be online all the time. Requiring me to be online is NOT convenient for me. Convenience does not mean 'convenient to a point so long as we can be paranoid/greedy about piracy' (more on this later). Again, entirely integrated. One ap. Period.
I will not pay for the opposite, which is me trying wrap my head around literally over a hundred pages of mistakes and errors and changes. In other words, I will not pay for hard copy books that I know, upon release, are outdated already, and will change so much as to be nearly un-usable.
So in short, for me personally to be even slightly interested in purchasing a single thing of 5E, I will need re-assurances. I need to know that what I'm buying is worth the money I'm putting forward. There are two ways to assure me of this.
Release the products when they are finished. Not a day sooner.
If the above is not possible, go digital so the changes to the very thing I paid for, are made seamlessly. Don't expect me to pay for a half finished product.
/ offline vs online rant start
Please let's not discuss the virtues or non-virtues of having an online or offline CB/tools. Let's just assume for argument's sake we all basically agree that offline is better for the consumer, and NOT assume that requiring a constant online presence prevents piracy (it doesn't).
On that note, for those who whine about WotC not being able to make money if they go all digital, because of piracy. With the endless amount of updates that seem to occur, requiring a password to download each update just makes it 'convenient'. Again, people will PAY for convenience. It would be far easier and simpler, not to mention SAFER to log into a WotC server to get all my updates instantly and quickly rather than snoop around shady download sites every week.
Wizards could also consider bonuses to players who subscribe to all digital content: Passes to events, minis, goodies etc.
/end of offline vs online rant
So, in short, at the top of my wishlist is a set of books that I know I don't need to feel are obsolete in a year or two, and I *DREAM* of a day when my laptop has it all, and all of it is updated and current. I'd love to pay money and instantly download modules and campaign settings to my laptop, have it all in a slick and functional ap, and be content that the money I'm spending, be it monthly, or by a per item basis, is being spent wisely.
Do one (produce more solid books) or the other (create a complete digital package), but please don't neglect both.
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