The Value of my DDI Subscription

[the Jester]

All right, so I subscribed to DDI fairly early in the 4e lifecycle. I've been an annual sub for just under two years now- I believe my sub is up in like March or something- and, unlike last year, I am seriously debating whether or not to renew my sub.

When I subscribed, I felt as though DDI had a very high value for me. I got:

• A Compendium with everything in it
• A Character Builder that was stable and had every character option in it within a month of release
• A Monster Builder that, while a touch buggy, was very usable
• Fair to good content in Dungeon
• Great content in Dragon
• Kick-ass preview and playtest material

I no longer feel like I am getting any of those things for my money, except for one- the preview material.

The Compendium is no longer complete; according to a post on the WotC boards, there is no intention of adding the monsters from Dark Sun to it. I thought that the whole point was to have all the D&D resources available at your fingertips (well, on your screen, anyway). If I have to have my books open alongside the Compendium when I am writing an adventure, why have the Compendium open at all?

I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with the Character Builder debacle- a great, fun, workable tool was replaced with an unstable piece of software. Using the old CB was fun; using the new one is a drag and feels like work. Moreover, it doesn't have the functionality of the old one- even simple things like the lack of even minimal house rules support make the new CB useless to me. The lack of the inclusion of new material in the old CB makes it less useful to me, although it's possible to end run around this... but if I have to do all the work to do so, why exactly am I paying for a Character Builder at all?

Likewise, when WotC switched the Monster Builder to the new MM3 stat block, a bunch of instability crept in. Things don't print right; damage tends to reset randomly; etc. Now, I would be totally fine with this, if I thought these problems were going away, but the forthcoming online version again implies that the old school Monster Builder won't be updated or fixed. So until the new one comes out, we're left with a tool that is, ehhh, unreliable.

Then there's the Dragon and Dungeon content. I'm going to roll my comments about this together with my comments on preview and playtest content. You see, we're still getting tons of preview content and dribbles of playtest material here and there- but the rest of the content in Dungeon and Dragon seems to have dried up. If the mags were still in print, I'd never pick a copy up these days- it's like paying for advertising.

So the long and the short of it is- where is the value in my DDI sub? Especially as the price has gone up, I really feel like there needs to be something that I can point to as worth it. A Monster Builder that prints my monsters wrong, a Character Builder that can't build characters for my campaign, two electronic mags that have become largely in-house ads, a Compendium that doesn't save me the hassle of having the books with me- what exactly am I paying for here? What should I be expecting for my subscription dollar?

I am not intending this as a rant. Rather, I'm increasingly frustrated by this, and I would love to have someone point out what I'm missing. Is it just the promise of "coming soon!"? Because it seems to me that if "coming soon" is all DDI is offering, I might as well wait until it's come.

[MENTION=56746]mudbunny[/MENTION], I know you forward certain comments on to WotC. I hope that at least the gist of my concerns, if not this actual post, makes it onto your list.

 

[malraux]

This is the first I've heard that DS monsters won't make it into the compendium. If that's true, then it is sad news indeed. It betrays a certain implicit promise about what the compendium should be.

I do not disagree with anything else in this. If major improvements are made by the time my subscription is up, I'll probably renew. If its not, then I'll just stick with my offline tools. But a buggy web-app that is in many many ways inferior to my current offline setup just isn't going to keep me subscribed.

 

[Haltherrion]

I'd have to agree that the present value is low. The CB fiasco is just mindboggling. If I had anything to do with WOTC (and I've managed at the exec level), I would fire both the program manager and the marketing manager of this product and find someone with a clue. It is likely they were charged with "pulling back in WOTC intellectual property" i.e., controlling it better and that's fine, they are a business. But the execution was just aweful.

I'm personally inclined to keep paying for DDI for now and give them a quarter or two to clean up this disaster but I will cancel in time. My forebearance has to do with being willing to fund my cherished hobby but I have finite patience.

As for the price going up, in principle I'm fine with that. Frankly before they screwed everything up, I thought they were under-charging. They need to make a profit on this effort and feel this is worth investing in. If they can get the product back to where it was, I'll be happy to pay a higher rate.

For one thing, this whole fiasco is probably related to the fact that whether or not you feel you are paying too much, they are probably not pulling in enough to fund this development. I'd guess they skimped on QA and maybe on a properly sized team. A good bet they skimped on competent managers.

They aren't a charity; they are a business so more to get quality tools is fine with me. The problem is, they are raising the price while introducing junk and that is a foolish way to run a business unless they are just looking for an excuse to kill this whole thing.

One can hope they got the message and are trying to fix things. But bear in mind that large software development projects are about as manueverable as an aircraft carrier. It is going to take some time to fix this mess. The thing that annoys me is that it was all predictable and this mess entirely attributable to a botched development and introduction. Someone ought to be fired over it.

 

[samursus]

I might as well chime in on this thread as it most of the statements echo my own feelings on the matter. Oddly enough, like the OP, my 2nd Annual subscription runs out about the same time as his.

Up until the last few months I felt DDI was a good deal for my money. Now?? Not a chance. The part that is frustrating is that they TOOK AWAY the useful bits, with no clearly demonstrated intent of REPLACING THEM. Will Dark Sun ever come to the Compendium? Will we ever get all the features of the old CB back?

I agree with others when they opine a lot of the issues of the moment seem to be stemming from a WotC mandate to reduce piracy and protect IP, but seriously, if I ever saw a case of a company shooting itself in the foot, this might be it.

I remain neutral in regards to DDI atm, with no plans to renew my subscription come March. I still love the game (Essentials and all), but if things don't change for the better, my guaranteed yearly dollars are going elsewhere.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

My 2 cents. Been a subscriber since 11/2008, sub runs until late next year.

- Compendium: I only use it occasionally, so its value hasn't changed for me. However:

The Compendium is no longer complete; according to a post on the WotC boards, there is no intention of adding the monsters from Dark Sun to it.

Do you mean this post? Or is there an "official" post somewhere on the WotC boards regarding this? Because it seems like an over-reaction to interpret "have no timetable" to mean "never" when it could just as well mean that it's not high on their priority list right now.

- Character Builder: Lost much of its value for me. I can no longer customize character information, especially printing to pdf format (with editable text, not Silverlight bitmaps ) so I can edit and customize character sheets and power cards. The online CB's only use now is as a guide through character creation where I write down character information by hand or in a text editor. Nevermind the stability and connection issues.
The "Classic" CB still works with all of its bugs, some of which were introduced by the last update. Not going to be updated again by WotC, ever, so no Dark Sun and Essentials stuff.

- Monster Builder: Lost much of its value for me. No online equivalent available yet (and I expect it to have many of the issues of the online CB), and the last update introduced bugs that mess up my custom monsters. As a bonus, WotC isn't going to fix the bugs, ever.

- Dungeon Magazine: I got the impression its value has increased, though I admit I rarely read it. For me it's a resource for when I can't come up with good plots or adventure ideas.

- Dragon Magazine: Quality has been in constant flux. Fortunately, I haven't had a month without any useful articles, so it's still got its value for me. I hope that Steve Winter manages to improve the quality of Dragon content back to the level of the early 4e magazines (#364-#369).

- Preview material: IMO it has become less, or at least less useful. Case in point: the PH3 debut content which allowed a DDI subscriber to play one build each of 5 new classes (out of 8) for the entire level range, plus githzerai, hybrid rules, and skill powers. I really liked that; it was good value for the money.
Fast forward to Essentials and we get preview material that doesn't let you play anything, not even for one level of play, because key rules information is missing. So we're back to the glorified ads in Ampersand... and I'm not amused.

In conclusion, for me DDI is on a year-long period of probation right now. When my sub runs out next year and my main issues with DDI haven't improved I will not resubscribe.

I'll keep playing 4e though. <3

 

[Droogie128]

I'm basing my subscription on the finalized Executioner. My biggest gripe has been the Dragon magazine quality as of late, and the playtest of this looked fantastic. It really gave me hope that they hadn't lost all creativity.

Then they released the "final" version this month. While it was a mistake, the changes were horrendous. It was but a shell of the playtest, and showed that WoTC has no interest in making a worthwhile "Assassin".

My sub expires on Christmas Eve. I've been a subscriber since it went to a pay format, and I've sang its praises over and over again. Just hoping this isn't the end of it.

As far as the character builder goes... I like the new format. I'm going to hold the assumption that the bugs will get worked out. The original one was loaded with them (to the point of being unuseable) when it was first released. The original also had minimal house rule support, so this one is no different. I know you could add custom feats and stuff, but it still wouldn't calculate the math from them, so it's really no different.

As for the VT.... they absolutely must make it integrate the other tools. If it doesn't, people will have no incentive to pay for it over maptool, or in my case, I've already paid for fantasygrounds. I won't pay for another that doesn't do it better.

 

[noodle fish mice]

My DDI subscription just lapsed - through no fault of my own, as a glitch caused them to lose my billing address! I would get the issue fixed except that I'm not really losing out on anything other than access to a new character builder I can't stand and mind-blowingly boring Dragon articles.

I don't know about yours, but my DDI subscription is currently worth nothing.

 

[ggroy]

The problem is, they are raising the price while introducing junk and that is a foolish way to run a business unless they are just looking for an excuse to kill this whole thing.

This would be very damning if it was intentional from the start. Sabotage to the N-th degree.

On the other hand, it could just be internal company politics where one faction is finding ways to eliminate another faction, by the former covertly and "Machiavellian"-ly causing the latter to catastrophically fail and becoming the "fall guy".

 

[I'm A Banana]

Steadily decreasing value, absolutely.

The Compendium news hits me especially rough, since that was still the biggest value in the DDI after the CB fiasco.

But "No Timetable" -> "We're Not Planning On It" -> "Don't Expect It" -> "It ain't happenin'" is not a big leap to make. Especially after the CB, I don't know why they deserve the benefit of the doubt on this.

I'm starting to look at other games again. I know 4e supposedly plays fine without all those e-Tools, but for me, those e-Tools made the difference between "It's fine," and "Blah."

Maybe take my subscription money and go play WoW until "soon" gets here. And maybe even after that, unless the CB works again, the Compendium is complete again, and we have a monster building tool that is functional.

I'm not a huge fan of WoW, but at least when making an orc warrior, they can friggin' do the math right and let me equip things I can equip.

 

[Haltherrion]

This would be very damning if it was intentional from the start. Sabotage to the N-th degree.

On the other hand, it could just be internal company politics where one faction is finding ways to eliminate another faction, by the former covertly and "Machiavellian"-ly causing the latter to catastrophically fail and becoming the "fall guy".

I doubt it was intentional (just venting earlier ). It probably was management pushing development too hard but geeze, I remember thinking when they annouced this "I hope they don't screw this transition up," fearing exactly an under-featured, buggy release. And what do we get?

Wouldn't have been quite so bad if the earlier CB wasn't so nice