Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[AllisterH]

I don't think it was piracy that WOTC was trying to combat.

I think it was trying to nix the "buy once a year/6 months and download everything subscriber"

Both Heromaker (for both 3.x/PF/4E) and the PCtools of 3.x was/were sold as a basic program that handled just the PHB character and you had to purchase separately EACH book/update.

Personally...I tend to even the current online-model as compared to the Heromaker/PCtools model...That could get VERY expensive, very quickly especially if you were just a casual gamer.

 

[MerricB]

And that uncomplicated nature of the fighter goes back to what class? Every version of the fighter before 4e.

Note, I'm not disagreeing with you about new players jumping into it. If you look at my old posts when 4e first came out, that was one of my complaints too. Where's the simple class.

But in making it 'simple', its another nod to the older play style of less complications.

Erm, and not making it simple caters to new players, right?

Personally, I feel that Essentials caters to new players first, and takes the design decisions it does primarily to aid those players. Where you see "oh, that's old school - it must be for them", I see it as "oh, that's old school - that because that works better for this". Good design is good design, regardless of edition.

There are a few nods back to older editions, but for the most part I think they're because it amused the designers to do so, rather than a major design for older players. Magic Missile wasn't working in its original (4e) form, so a new version that auto-hit debuted. Yes, a nod back to the earlier version, but it is still quite different in how it interacts with the 4e ruleset. The "Red Box" set is the most significant old-school look for its cover, but the contents are quite different. I feel it evokes nostalgia rather than being designed for nostalgia, if you understand what I mean by that.

Cheers!

 

[fanboy2000]

I don't think it was piracy that WOTC was trying to combat.

I think it was trying to nix the "buy once a year/6 months and download everything subscriber"

Like you, I don't think it was piracy. Nor do I think it was the buy only occasionally model. For one thing, if you weren't a recurring subscriber, I suspect people bought more frequently than once every six months.

You know what I think was part of it? New players. You hook a new player in via Essentials and Dark Sun, and suddenly, they get everything for $10. All the PHBs, Power Books, and Item books. Ten dollars. They unsub, and don't need to resub for a quite a while given the new schedule.

 

[rjdafoe]

I don't think it was piracy that WOTC was trying to combat.

I think it was trying to nix the "buy once a year/6 months and download everything subscriber"

Both Heromaker (for both 3.x/PF/4E) and the PCtools of 3.x was/were sold as a basic program that handled just the PHB character and you had to purchase separately EACH book/update.

Personally...I tend to even the current online-model as compared to the Heromaker/PCtools model...That could get VERY expensive, very quickly especially if you were just a casual gamer.

Have you listened to the podcast where they talk about the character builder and how much they need to protect their content?

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I'm confused. Could you elaborate?

A few in this and the other threads have proclaimed outrage for the "entitlement" they see in those angered by the CB changes, or those that decide to play Pathfinder instead.

In my view, nothing could be more the opposite. It is the height of entitlement to believe that you or the company you support is owed customers even after you sell them a faulty product - and that's what this online CB is. A faulty product.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Wow

I leave these boards for a few weeks, and look what happens!

Merric, leading the charge against WoTC.

Who would have thought it? Welcome to the Dark Side, Merric!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't think it was piracy that WOTC was trying to combat.

I think it was trying to nix the "buy once a year/6 months and download everything subscriber"

Both Heromaker (for both 3.x/PF/4E) and the PCtools of 3.x was/were sold as a basic program that handled just the PHB character and you had to purchase separately EACH book/update.

Personally...I tend to even the current online-model as compared to the Heromaker/PCtools model...That could get VERY expensive, very quickly especially if you were just a casual gamer.

I think you are wrong. Sure, they might be bothered by those 1-month subscribers, too, but I think the fact that there are people using all their material at no profit to WotC at all is even worse for them. The last podcast on this issue also talked a lot about piracy.

Dark Sun and Essentials are the perfect time to make this switch. Dark Sun and Essentials are the hottest new parts for D&D 4. For many it will be the gateway to D&D in the first place. For anyone interested in it, for anyone entering D&D via Essentials, there is now no way to get the digital support via piracy. They might still get scanned PDFs of the books, but they won't get a convenient character creator for it without paying WotC for it.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Dark Sun and Essentials are the perfect time to make this switch. Dark Sun and Essentials are the hottest new parts for D&D 4. For many it will be the gateway to D&D in the first place. For anyone interested in it, for anyone entering D&D via Essentials, there is now no way to get the digital support via piracy. They might still get scanned PDFs of the books, but they won't get a convenient character creator for it without paying WotC for it.

I would say this might remain the case for a few weeks at best. Eventually someone will find a way to get full Dark Sun and Essentials material into the old CB. It is amazing to see the effort and work that a determined pirate will undertake just to stick it to the man.

When a point is reached that makes a product more frustrating and irratating to legitimate paying end users in the name of combatting piracy then the pirates are the real winners. People who do not want to pay for product will always find a way to steal it. Making the product worse for paying customers will not suddenly force pirates to stop, it will merely urge them to adapt and become even more proficient at what they do.

This is the situation I see. In the near future there could quite possibly be a fully hacked functional up to date offline CB that works better than it ever did before. It might be so good that everyone who makes use of a CB will be using it. Honest customers will continue to pay for their DDI sub and still use the pirated CB in lieu of a less functional official one. They will have the best of both worlds. WOTC will be getting paid for the content and the user will have best tool available. Those who want to steal content will continue doing just that.

This will create a situation for the subscriber in which the decision to continue paying will be made without regard to CB functionality since it will be available anyway. (Which is precisely the situation the online CB was created to get rid of) The net result is nothing gained. It could be even worse since the old model situation was pay or not pay for the same CB function and the new model could end up as pay or not pay for better CB function.

 

[zoroaster100]

While I think the online Character Builder needs some work, I don't understand why people are calling it a disaster. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I created the two characters I needed to create, which I couldn't do with the old CB because of the missing Essentials powers and feats. The numbers were all correct, and I found everything I needed. The program did seem to have a number of little glitches in that sometimes I had to click something a couple of times before I could select it, but creating the two characters was still super fast and easy.

 

[DEFCON 1]

While I think the online Character Builder needs some work, I don't understand why people are calling it a disaster.

They're calling it a "diaster" because each new poster needs to use more and more over-the-top verbiage to make their comment stand out against the other dozens of people doing the same thing.

Very few people come on two or three days in and just comment "It wasn't in a very good state and there are some obvious problems with it. Many of them will probably get taken care by the end of the week... but for a roll out, it didn't set a very good first impression."

Who wants to come online and post something like that? That's no way to get XP!

See my post below, please. ~ PCat