Why did you stop subscribing to DDI?

[Arlough]

While reading this thread on the gap between book sales and DDI subscriptions, and more specifically about people who used to subscribe, have or had the downloaded character builder, and let their subscription lapse, I began to wonder on what drove people away.

So, if you were, but no longer are a subscriber to DDI...

• What was the turning point where you decided to cancel your subscription or let it lapse? Was it an economic issue, content issue?
• And, what other issues have continued to influence your ongoing purchase of D&D material?
• Did a ruling anger you?
• Do you suffer from errata fatigue?

What would WotC need to do to get you back?

There are a few other threads like this, but they all degenerated into flame wars and became unhelpful. So I am bringing this up again in the hopes that we can start off, and remain, civil. I am looking for enlightenment, not combat.

 

[KarinsDad]

I let my subscription lapse when WotC stopped supporting the offline Character Builder.

I was doing the yearly subscription and although there were some minor issues like WotC never improving the CB interface (simple things like not auto-selecting the drop downs for the user to speed it up, or to allow the user to decide to auto-add beta material or not) or the normal power creep (especially in Essentials, but also in some of the other splat books), I have bought most of the 4E material and have used it in my game.

But, I have a lot of free time when I do not have online connectivity. WotC dropping support of the offline Character Builder means that I have to pay them the same for losing a major part of what I was paying them for.

I used the Compendium quite extensively when I was subscribing, but I found out that I only need to use it to do a query now. Since I have all of the books, I use Compendium to query which book something is in and then I just go look it up in a book, or bring up a fake PC in the offline CB to look up details. The Compendium is faster with a subscription, but I don't really need it.

I also have a ton of Dungeon adventures and most of the published adventures, so I don't need Dungeon. And Dragon lost its appeal to me years ago. I only occasionally read Dragon.

To bring me back on a permanent basis, they would need to re-support the offline DM tools (note: they do not have to be the current CB or MB, just a version that has everything in it). I think that they could do this if they just wrote their tools in something like Java and had a web applet version and a PC based application version of the same tools.

And because I feel that WotC did a bait and switch on me here, I was purchasing most of their products. Now, I am being a lot more selective.

 

[SuddenImpact]

I actually still have my DDI subscription (it renewed in December) but here are my issues:
Character Builder has moved to Internet access mode only.
* I sit on a communter train without access for 6 hours a week when I use this feature the most.
Character Builder features have moved backwards
1. The name of my character is the name of the file online (I can't have a version with a halberd and another with a greataxe without adding this information to the character's name)
2. My character is now 6 pages long for a 6th level character. I cannot hide cards or change anything to decrease this.
3. I'll stop here because it's to much like complaining.

My key reasons for subscribing to DDI:
1. Dragon and Dungeon magazine
Issue: it's now just a collection of articles since they are not compiled each month. And many of these items cannot be downloaded, I have to print the web page in PDF format to keep, a real pain. I think it will have good content, but not very usable. They don't even have a index of dungeons sorted by level of characters.
2. Char Build offline
Issue: Online only now, features have significantly decreased. I can't even find a javelin to purchase in the thing.
3. Rule Compendium
They are still doing a good job with this. An offline version would be a nice value add, but I have purchased about 75% of the 4e books so far and just hate carrying them.
4. Monster Build offline
Issue: moving to online format, I'm scared what features will be left in it.
5. To support the hobby
Issue: I don't think it's supporting the hobby so much as their own profit margins anymore. I don't mind people making a living but something is wrong with the math here. I can't even download RPGA modules MINI1-1 to 1-6 from them or the RPGA group, must be a licensing issue I guess. (sorry, complaining again)

Thanks for listening!
Keep those cards and letters coming in!

 

[Retreater]

I never really played 4E regularly, so I would subscribe for a month every now and then to play around with the compendium, catch up on reading Dungeon and Dragon magazines, and fool around with the Character Builder.

Now that I am playing in a weekly 4E campaign, I'm actually contemplating a regular subscription to DDI. However, I'm hesitant to do so based on what I've read here and elsewhere on the Internet about the dip in quality of the magazines and the buggyness of the online CB. Even my DM who has been a subscriber to DDI since Day 1 is letting his subscription lapse - so I'm wondering if now is not the time to become a subscriber.

In my case it's more of a choice to NOT begin subscribing regularly instead of letting my subscription lapse.

(However, all of this said, I would love if I felt confident enough to subscribe and support Wizards now that I am regularly playing 4E.)

Retreater

 

[Lalato]

I actually recently started my subscription back up after over a year of it being inactive. My main reason was that I finally found a group after my move to Salt Lake City. The reason I keep it active now though is because the character builder is web-based. As a Mac user, it makes my life a million times easier.

[MENTION=61441]SuddenImpact[/MENTION]... here would be my workaround for the commute without internet access. Use the offline character builder to build the shell of the characters you want to build. When you get to an internet connection, upload the shell to the character builder and complete them there. I know it's not a perfect solution, and it won't have all the latest feats and whatnot, but you should be able to at least get most of the work done offline.

That said, I largely agree with most of SuddenImpact's issues. The character sheet being the one I gripe about the most.

 

[Lostdwarf]

Two main reasons:

The economy sucks, I work in sales, and I am the only income in my household. We had to cut back across the board. No dnd insider, no mmorpg subscriptions, no netflix, etc. You can play the game just fine (which I do) without subscribing to anything. How oldschool of me.

Number two: I tried the new character builder, and I am convineced it is a steaming pile of gorilla crap. The single biggest attraction of the DDI subscription for me was all the updated information in the CB. The new one is buggy, slow, needs to touch the server on every page change, crashed often, and in general is just a hunk of total junk. So I took my final updates of the old tools and called it a day. It doesn't have the Essentials material in it, but essentials is supposed to be simple. If you want to play an essentials character sit down with the book and a piece of paper and make one, for goodness sake.

With more money floating around the house, I might subscribe again for the articles, but right now austerity measures prohibit anything but (dare I say it) essential spending.

 

[malraux]

The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the choice to stop the compilations of Dragon and Dungeon. I like to read en mass, and ideally wait till I'm in an internetless situation. That basically took the last big feature of DDI out of my normal routine and just felt cheap.

But while that was the last straw, the big reasons were the online only version of the CB and the fact that MB has languished for a long time without feature upgrades. The jumping from one project to the next without finishing up the previous one is really irritating.

 

[Mirtek]

So, if you were, but no longer are a subscriber to DDI...

• What was the turning point where you decided to cancel your subscription or let it lapse? Was it an economic issue, content issue?

When they announced their upcoming web based tool. I always assumed the very worst, aka assumed an online-cb even before WotC admitted it, and sadly was proven right.

• What would WotC need to do to get you back?

Offline CB and compiled magazines (the announcement that they will no longer compile them was another nail in the coffin for me)

 

[Odysseus]

While reading this thread on the gap between book sales and DDI subscriptions, and more specifically about people who used to subscribe, have or had the downloaded character builder, and let their subscription lapse, I began to wonder on what drove people away.

So, if you were, but no longer are a subscriber to DDI...

• What was the turning point where you decided to cancel your subscription or let it lapse? Was it an economic issue, content issue?
• And, what other issues have continued to influence your ongoing purchase of D&D material?
• Did a ruling anger you?
• Do you suffer from errata fatigue?

What would WotC need to do to get you back?

There are a few other threads like this, but they all degenerated into flame wars and became unhelpful. So I am bringing this up again in the hopes that we can start off, and remain, civil. I am looking for enlightenment, not combat.

When they stopped supporting the offline CB, was the final turning point.
And to get me back, Get taken over by Paizo, would do it.

 

[El Mahdi]

Why did I cancel?

At the time I cancelled (11 months after the release of 4E), it was due to a combination of not producing the DDI applications they wooed us with, the disparaging manner in which they responded to customer feedback, and the straw that broke the camels back for me...pulling pdf's.

What would bring me back?

Nothing less than the return of sales for all D&D products (current and out-of-print) in a downloadable electronic format (downloadable - not just "rented" on their site). I would get a subscription again even if everything else I want didn't come to be (though I'd continue to lobby for them), but I will not ever buy another WotC product (D&D, DDI, or other) until the "pdf" products they pulled are returned in some "ownable" format...and an apology.

So...

• The return of all D&D products (current and out-of-print) in a downloadable, perpetually user-owned, electronic format.
• A mea culpa for pulling them in the first place, and the other PR misteps that have been replete in WotC's dealings with customers over the last 2 1/2 years.

plus...

• Support for ALL editions of D&D in DDI (occasional articles in Dragon and Dungeon, online rules compendium for all editions, character/monster/encounter builders for all editions, support on the virtual table-top for all editions, etc.)
• The ability to "houserule" DDI tools...so people can play their games, not just the game WotC says they should play.
• And eventually, the Virtual Table Top and Character Visualiser they originally promised.

I believe all of the above would require some very fundamental changes in WotC attitude towards their customers and potential customers. Though some of the following attitudes are ones they do seem to possess, I believe that many of them aren't. And though they may say that they do adhere to all of these, their actions show otherwise. These attitudes need to be:

• Accepting that Dungeons & Dragons is not just one edition, but a panorama of editions that supports multiple play-styles spread across a very large percentage of all RPG customers.
• That regardless of brand, the game Dungeons & Dragons does not belong to WotC. Dungeons & Dragons truly only exists on our tables (whether physical or virtual). If they want to remain relevant, they need to provide all gamers (not just 4E gamers) the tools and products they want for their games. WotC ideas or expectations of what those games should be are irrelevent.
• That only the owner of the D&D brand truly has the ability to exploit the population of both current and potential customers, but only if they give those customers what they want.
• That there are alternatives to WotC's Dungeons & Dragons, and a very large percentage of those customers can, and have, gone other places for support of their games. (But again, as owner of the D&D Brand, it is within WotC's ability, and within only WotC's ability, to woo those customers back.)
• That when current customers are added together with all potential customers, current customers are not the majority.
• That without those customers, WotC's Dungeons & Dragons will not indefinitely remain successful (if it's even currently successful).
• That the recent practices and philosophy of WotC, whether intentional or unintentional, has been to ignore a huge base of potential customers.
• That many of WotC actions since the release of 4E (but not necessarily the release of 4E itself), has caused a large amount of resentment and ill-will towards their company (for example, pulling pdf's). Apologizing to customers for these misteps is the only way to begin dealing with this customer resentment.
• That most of these potential customers want to support WotC as the caretaker of our favorite game, but they simply will not compromise on what they want.
• That only asking current customers what they want (through polls only on the WotC website, some only open to DDI subscribers), is an extremely foolish way to seek such info.
• And finally: That DDI is the only avenue open to WotC for consistently sustainable revenue...but only a DDI that provides what gamers want will attract those customers to it. The current DDI is not successfully accomplishing this.