Wizards Digital Initiative Moving Forward

[JVisgaitis]

I think you're vastly overstating with the "crucial and vital" bit there.

I probably am, but for me I feel that it is that important. Especially with all of the hoopla around Master Tools in the dawning days of 3e. One would think that they would have kept software support in their business plan.

Software support is rarely vital for things that are not primarily done on a computer already. It has never been a priority for, say, print publishing. Or board gaming. Or most other hobby activities that don't already take place on the computer.

Yeah, but with board games and print publishing you don't have something cannibalizing the existing customer base. With D&D you have that with WoW and other MMOs. And come on, this is a silly argument. What type of computer support can you ever get for a book or board game that enhances those activities in the same ways that computer support for an RPG could?

The thing is, software requires completely different skillsets and infrastructure than the other things Wizards does. Moving into that line of work represents an enormous capital outlay and significant financial risk - basically equivalent to opening a new startup company. It doens't matter how long-sighted you may be if the resources are not available.

I don't buy that for a second. Yeah, its a different skillset no arguments there, but I don't agree the same as far as enormous capital outlay and financial risk. I work at Network Solutions with insanely talented tech people every day. I know what someone can put together with a few hours of dedicated work and the right tools.

A lot of our internal tools are developed by different tech support teams for no other reason then to make our daily jobs easier and our primary focus is troubleshooting inbound calls with websites and email all day. We don't get time to sit around and code. If Wizards brings a few highly qualified individuals on board, they can put together a web-based E-Tools in less then a year.

Of course this depends on the scope of what they are looking to accomplish, but people saying that it will take more then 2 years to see the fruits of this endeavor aren't very accurate IMHO.

 

[JVisgaitis]

What was the Grim News at Code Monkey Publishing? The website is down or something (keeps asking for a user name and password)

Basically that they are on life support and the company only has two people left. That being Mynex and Merton Monk. 80% of the code they had was scrapped because of some sort of major design flaw. They don't have any funds to hire people to code for RPG Foundry, because Wizards had pulled the license so they plan on doing it themselves.

Which isn't a big deal, but they don't expect to have RPG Foundry out for another year at least. Lone Jedi left the company so the website will just be updated periodically in a blog style format. They've been having a lot of issues with their webhost as well. That's why the site is up and down. Something about a worm eating up their data center. How something like that can possibly happen? I have no idea...

 

[MKMcArtor]

I'm really glad I wasn't at that meeting or I would have went crazy. Good software support is so crucial and vital in this day and age and they are looking at it now?

That's very true, if your client base supports it. Not every industry does.

How in the Nine Hells can they be so short sighted?

I'm not sure they are. Please see my following response.

Especially when they are so well know for their marketing surveys and the pulse they have on the industry.

Obviously they have access to numbers we don't get to see (even those of us who work on their licensed products) gleaned from all their market research. But this much I know, from looking at Paizo's market research: An astonishingly high percentage of D&D players do not have reliable internet access, and even among those who do, many more do not always use their computers for their D&D games. I think it might be more telling that Wizards of the Coast is just now looking into serious online support for the game. It might be that they've finally seen a critical mass of players online such that it now makes sense for them to spend the money on creating such support.

Just a thought. Like you, I'm just speculating.

 

[JVisgaitis]

But this much I know, from looking at Paizo's market research: An astonishingly high percentage of D&D players do not have reliable internet access, and even among those who do, many more do not always use their computers for their D&D games.

Wow, I never expected that... Thanks! That sheds a lot of light on the how and why and makes a lot of sense. I still never expected that to be the case, but it explains a lot.

 

[Psion]

Having been forced to use it for 2 years, the word is *relief*, not shock.

You said it. Someone unplugged a switch while I was checking in a document and it corrupted the database irretreivably. Fortunately, we back up nightly, but still, that's unsat for content control.

Huh? My own employer splits its time equally between the Windows and Unix platforms.

Quite. I don't use .NET, but we do use a visual studio add-on for the main Unix-Like OS we use which compiles under GCC. And we just added a major library to our system using autoconf.

There may be lots of people who live in just one world or the other, but the PC is prevalent enough as a workstation platform and GCC is used in just about every Unix-like (and not-so-unix-like) platform out there.

This is a *very* dense set of requirements. I hope Wizards are prepared to pay this person a lot of money.

Yeah. I don't hit lots of them, but I'm tempted to submit a resume just in case they are pie-in-the-sky-ing it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not doubting the market research, but I find that result incredibly strange. Who knew that Diaglo was the point man for a vast offline army of grognard-luddites?

 

[jmucchiello]

I work at Network Solutions with insanely talented tech people every day. I know what someone can put together with a few hours of dedicated work and the right tools.

A lot of our internal tools are developed by different tech support teams for no other reason then to make our daily jobs easier and our primary focus is troubleshooting inbound calls with websites and email all day. We don't get time to sit around and code. If Wizards brings a few highly qualified individuals on board, they can put together a web-based E-Tools in less then a year.

Of course this depends on the scope of what they are looking to accomplish, but people saying that it will take more then 2 years to see the fruits of this endeavor aren't very accurate IMHO.

There is a huge difference between developing/coding/supporting an internal tool and a production end-user tool.

Also, you said yourself that you work with highly skilled individuals who can produce magic in an afternoon. Those magicians cost big bucks. Normal folk develop software slowly and carefully with junior programmers doing most of the work to save money. Being less skilled they produce less polished code that takes longer to QA.

US Business does not see the value of spending more money now to save money later so I suspect they will not have the budget for your all-star coding team. And they will pay the price in delays. 2 years is a good estimate in my view.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Also, you said yourself that you work with highly skilled individuals who can produce magic in an afternoon. Those magicians cost big bucks.

I make about $15 an hour plus a sales incentive and the people I work with that develop these tools are on the same type of support team that I am. Is that big bucks in the software industry?

 

[KB9JMQ]

I just hope whatever WoTC does it turns out to be worth it in the long run.
I am still shocked that to this day we don't have official electronic aids/support in this information age.
I have been using a computer to aid my DMing since the Red Box set and my Apple IIe.
I currently use Heroforge, Etools, Dunjinni, an electronic SRD (CMG's ?? maybe) and various homegrown generators.

I believe tech using DM's are a minority at least from my own experience (I am the only one in all the DM's I know personally who uses computers for help) but I would think there is a market out there that Wizards could make money off of.

I am just scared that in two years we will get previews of cool monster sounds for the upcoming electronic aid.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'm not doubting the market research, but I find that result incredibly strange. Who knew that Diaglo was the point man for a vast offline army of grognard-luddites?

I'm not surprised at all. Very few of the people I game with are online much, and we've got a lot of professional, well-paid people amongst my gaming groups.