D&D Intiative...Master Tools 2008?

[Xyxox]

The more I've looked into the DDI, the more I am reminded of the Master Tools/eTools debacle of third edition.

Now I was one of those DMS that purches the Core Rules CD-ROM and went ahead nad got Core Rules 2.0 and the Expansion. I have to say, that CR2+E lived up to what I wanted for D&D 2nd Edition. Sadly, they came out with 3E right after that with the much vaunted Master Tools/eTools which remained vaporware throughout the third and 3.5 editions.

From what I've seen of DDI, we're in for a repeat of Master Tools/eTools. It's nothing more than vaporware at this point and the books point to DDI as the way to do things. Sadly, I don't believe there will ever really be a fully functional DDI.

 

[Mercurius]

I completely forgot about Master Tools.

(7 years later)

I completely forgot about D&D Insider.

Well seriously, I'm guessing WotC will make it happen...eventually. Maybe it is already done but they don't want to release a really buggy version? (You'd think there would be enough "tech know-how" within D&D circles to make this pretty easy).

 

[jdrakeh]

The more I've looked into the DDI, the more I am reminded of the Master Tools/eTools debacle of third edition.

Me, too. That said, the good news is that the DDI doesn't appear to be at all essential, so as long as WotC keeps printing books, I'll be okay. I already have all of the die rolling software I and email access I will ever need to run PBEM games usng my PDA, so I'm covered in that regard.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

(You'd think there would be enough "tech know-how" within D&D circles to make this pretty easy).

I find the number of true techies (people that do it for a living and actually know what they are doing) that also play D&D is remarkably low. I work for a relatively large software development consutling firm. Of the 100+ software developers I have met in my company (of about 2500 developers) I am the only one who plays D&D until recently. A guy I talk to at work regularly recently picked the game up again after a hiatus of many years (pre-3rd edition).

I play in a large group of and know a great many more role-players in the Houston area. I cannot name a single D&D player that also develops software professionally in Houston other than me. I know they are out there, and I know this is anecdotal evidence, but I believe the convergence of D&D players and honest-to-goodness software developers is actually pretty low.

Edit: oh, yeah, and I doubt WotC is paying top dollar for their software development. Too many people lowballing the bid to do their "dream job" of developing software for D&D probably cuts down the truly top end devs that would do the work. I know I wouldn't take a pay cut to do the work, but I would love to do it.

 

[mhensley]

I find the number of true techies (people that do it for a living and actually know what they are doing) that also play D&D is remarkably low.

Yeah, everyone I work with plays WoW instead.

 

[mhensley]

Edit: oh, yeah, and I doubt WotC is paying top dollar for their software development. Too many people lowballing the bid to do their "dream job" of developing software for D&D probably cuts down the truly top end devs that would do the work. I know I wouldn't take a pay cut to do the work, but I would love to do it.

Heh, they probably don't want to pay programmers their market value because they all make more than the game developers do.

 

[Mercurius]

Yeah, everyone I work with plays WoW instead.

Sad. And so the death of imagination commences.

 

[Glyfair]

From what I've seen of DDI, we're in for a repeat of Master Tools/eTools.

While it might be as poor a program as E-Tools, I think the path is very different.

When I knew E-Tools was going off the path was when the contradictory messages started. WotC was making a big point that it wasn't being designed as an tool to run D&D games online/at the table. It was supposedly designed as a character generator and DM Toolkit for designing adventures.

However, most of the early peeks dealt with the cool 3D monster images and monster sounds. These were completely useless unless E-Tools was being designed for what WotC was telling us it wasn't being designed for. Clearly the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing.

To me it seemed clear that the project funds and time was running short so WotC had them rush what was left out the door*. It seems a large amount of development time and money was spent on features left on the "cutting room floor," such as the monster sounds and images.

In this case, I see none of that. WotC has stated what they plan on developing and I have seen no peeks that indicate they are spending development time on other things. Yes, they are behind schedule, but that really is par for the course. Anyone who expected something different was really living in a fantasy world, IMO (based on software development history, and WotC's history there).

That doesn't mean that the D&D Insider will not be a disappointment. However, I don't expect it will fail for the same reason E-Tools did.

* and from CMP comments, they also apparently had no clue how to deal with database programming.

 

[mudbunny]

You'd think there would be enough "tech know-how" within D&D circles to make this pretty easy.

It would be easy enough to do on your own if you had the technical know-how.

To do it on someone else's dime, someone else's timetable and following the instructions of the corporate hierarchy, probably not so easy.

Also, a techy/programmy friend gave me this piece of wisdom on tech stuff getti8ng developped:

You can have it:

1. Fast;
2. Cheap; or
3. Good

The catch is you can only pick two.

 

[Terwox]

You can have it:

1. Fast;
2. Cheap; or
3. Good
   
   The catch is you can only pick two.

Which of those did e-tools pick?