A Technical Look at D&D Insider Applications

[portermj]

Every D&D 3.5 book is available via BitTorrent already. All that charging for PDF access will do is cause people to go download it elsewhere rather than pay Wizards. So - knock yourselves out.

Why would people who aren't using BitTorrent now, even though WOTC doesn't offer Ebooks for 3.5, suddenly start using BitTorrent once WOTC does decide to offer Ebooks? It would almost have to go the other direction. People who only used BitTorrent because PDFs weren't offered will now go to WOTC.

 

[Scribble]

Zip Drives? I haven't seen a Zip Drive since like 1998...

Datasticks maybe... But not Zip Drives... Those things is dead.

But I revised my thoughts to just a barcode or RFID like when you buy a gift card.

In anycase, I don't think WOTC really plans to support transfer of the digital file in the secondary market. You can't sell a used PDF now ight? Just like you can't really sell MP3s that you bought and no longer want.

The used market will now mean people who don't want/need the nifty online materials. But who knows, maybe they'll sell the PDFs without the books, as well.

 

[BASHMAN]

Shrug. You may very well be right. It just seems that if WOTC starts offering the books + a digital copy at a very low price people might start expecting the same from all companies.

I've always offered free digital copies with hardcopy purchase just as common curtosy to the customer. I don't expect to start charging a dollar or two extra for this-- as a small publisher, I need to work harder for the business I get-- and that's just the way it is. If that means giving away more freebies to keep customers happy, so be it.

 

[BASHMAN]

Far better to simply have a reasonably priced download service available for the books entirely separate from the original purchase. I'd pay $10 (each) for a normal PDF (bookmarked, searchable) of every D&D book I own, and I am not alone here.

--Steve

Unfortunately, the DnD books you own if they are of the current edition, are not selling for $10 as pdfs. Those books are listed AT FULL PRICE-- $30-40 each. Think I'm making this up? Look here: http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=44&filters=0_0_0

 

[MonkeeGalore]

The VTT?

I've been thinking about the virtual miniatures for the VTT. Just guessing here, but I can imagine several scenarios:

1)When subscribing to the DDI, I get access to all virtual minis – as many copies of each as I would like. This is, of course, my favorite option since it’s free and versatile for me to use (need 50 kobolds for an encounter? They’re there)

2)I can buy single virtual minis through my DDI subscription. I need a dragon – I buy a dragon. Possibly with some sort of “basic set” of minis that’s available for all subscribers. This will be fine for me as well, as long as the virtual minis are is reasonably priced.

3)WotC ties the physical product to the virtual one, just like the books. So if I buy a box of minis, I get a code that unlock these specific virtual minis. I don’t think this is actually possible, though. Does WotC even know what’s in each randomly packed mini booster pack? Do they have this information in a database? I seriously doubt this.

4)You can buy random boosterpacks of virtual minis. I would hate this, for the same reasons that I hate random boxes of physical minis.

Personally, I don’t buy random boosters today, but instead I buy single miniatures from stores that sell these individually. This way I get the miniatures that I want, and it’s not that expensive since the common ones are pretty cheap. So for me, option 3 would pretty much make it impossible for me to use the VTT. I’m wishing for option 1, but I don’t think it’s realistic; virtual minis seems like too good a business to just give away. So I’m guessing 2 or 4, and really hoping that it’s not 4.

Does anyone else have an idea as to how they’re going to handle virtual minis?

 

[Matthias]

Putting CDs in books doesn't seem like a good idea. First, adding something that bulkly can affect the shipping weight raising the cost for retailers. Second, I think CDs are on the way out and will be replaced by zip drives. A sticker covering a printed code should be the trick.

There is technology that lets one 'burn' and read paper CD's -- Literally. Granted it may not be currently widely available but it's something to consider.

WOTC could also resort to so-called "business card" CDs. The memory capacity of an e-book CD is much less of a concern than the mass or volume of the CD itself, unless WOTC wanted to include PDFs of all the important tables, table of contents, and index of said book, among other things (such as web enhancements and other material cut prior to publication) as filler, without providing the whole book itself.

 

[Ander00]

Maybe I'm not understanding you, but I don't get why you'd specifically want the DDI w/o the magazines. Are you just hoping for a lower price or is it sour grapes over the elimination of the print version?

Character generation tools, connected to a database which contains all the material in books I've bought, I would be interested in. I don't find Dragon magazine (whether in print or in online form) interesting enough to pay the full price for it. And I certainly don't see the point in every member of a gaming group subscribing to Dungeon when, realistically, only one member will be running any given adventure.
If I remember correctly, initially, there was something said about purchasing individual articles and a basic DDI subscription covering just the online tools. I'd be on board if it worked like that (but not for a full $10/month subscription plan), but I haven't seen any mention of these ideas recently.


cheers

 

[Aus_Snow]

If it's cheap enough, I'll happily pay for a PDF that I can cut & paste from (. . .)

I already pay for PDFs I can C&P *and print* from.

Out of interest, will these PDFs (the ones you can buy for $1 or $2, after buying the hard copy) be copy/paste- and print-enabled?

 

[cyberpunk]

I'm disappointed. A PDF is lazy! I've already got the index and TOC in my printed book. All they're adding is search capability, which isn't fast enough for the game table.

4e is supposed to speed up play.

 

[portermj]

Zip Drives? I haven't seen a Zip Drive since like 1998...

Datasticks maybe... But not Zip Drives... Those things is dead.

Oops, I meant Flash Drive.