Custom content for onlien tabletop

[Silverblade The Ench]

I was a bit surprised, to put it mildly, that WOTC hadn't considered that fans would want to make custom characters, gear etc, for the online tabletop!

i can see why, techncially, such may be difficult to implement, but also pros:

CON
File size.
A great Poser character, for example, can have an HUGE amount of polygons and enormous texture sizes (up to 4000x4000 jpgs), which is not good for games and online style graphics. The textures in particular can be a major headache for sheer resource useage.
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PRO
ABility to make such characters.
A lot of folk love making characters in poser, Zbrush and other apps, quite a mini-business making character portraits with such. So there's definately the ability out there.

I read that DAZ3D has created an app for allowing Poser characters to be ported into games, and presumably, reuced in filse size/complexity, if so, that's an obvious big point for the D&D game table ot have custom content.

PRO
Desire.
Lots of folk LOVE having their characters made visually, as noted above.
Check Second Life, too.

PRO
Increased broadband use
That makes it much easier to distribute custom content, as well as run the virtual table top.


Hm?

 

[Bagpuss]

the fact they never even considered custom content really does illustrate how clueless the folks at WotC are when it comes to the digital age, it doesn't bode well for the DnD Insider aspect of 4E. I hope they eventually allow custom content, but its normally much harder to add these things later than include support at the start. So I don't hold out much hope.

 

[joshuha]

I think they want to make money selling art packs, token packs, etc. as well though which is probably a bigger reason why rather than the technical issues.

 

[Revinor]

Wizards want to earn money by selling virtual minis. Allowing custom content means free alternatives - bad for them.

I expect that sooner or later we will get completely free alternative to DDI. Especially the 3d part, as it is not limited by license (as it is not D&D specific).

 

[Bagpuss]

You generally have either a subscription model or a pay per item model.

If they try to get you to subscribe and then also have to pay for additional content, I think they are asking for trouble.

 

[Nytmare]

I think they want to make money selling art packs, token packs, etc. as well though which is probably a bigger reason why rather than the technical issues.

I would have figured that the bigger reason is that with customization, you need to police the innevitable swarms of idiots dressing up their characters as giant bipedal genitalia.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

while thats a problem of course for a mmo, its not for a 6 player game. The dm should have admin controls, and if you accidentally let a penis impersonator in your game, just use the kick command... aim low.

Thier really should be custom content, just so you can add stuff to make all your friends laugh. I mean thats what the internet is all about right?