Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[I'm A Banana]

I think based on some of the comments at the Gencon Seminars when the Ravenloft Campaign setting comes out, we'll see it functions kind of like Gamma World. It's highly importable into any D&D 4e based game, however, it will have some of it's own unique aspects that change the rules up in certain ways to match the flavor.

Personally, I like this.

I'd rather see campaign settings as almost like playing a different game. I made the case during the run up to Dark Sun that if it feels like I'm doing the same things that I am in bog-standard D&D, but with an orange coat of paint, it's not very attractive to me. I look at campaign settings as opportunities to be different sorts of heroes.

Though I've got major issues with the collectability elements (however small) in Gamma World, it is otherwise pretty much what I would want from a "New D&D Setting." It certainly allows me to be a different sort of hero! And while the Ravenloft rumors I've heard are not very encouraging ("Play as vampires and werewolves!!!!"), I certainly think a gothic horror setting would only be improved if it didn't have to be tethered to eladrin and tieflings and dragonborn and all that. If I could play a doctor or a scholar or a gentleman-adventurer, perhaps struggling against a dark inner nature, with a saber and pistol, and going town-to-town with my crew of misfits to liberate people from various versions of Gothic villains, Victorian and Edwardian mad scientists and devil-summoners, that matches the feel I would want from a game with the Ravenloft title on it.

And if it was basically compatible with 4e, I could (and would) mix and match elements to my heart's content.

My only fear in that case would be that it's not part of the DDI. Which would blow royally. Though if it was just a "two books (or boxes) and out" strategy, it might not hurt that bad.

 

[Alhambra]

If you're referring to piracy or to the "once a year subscriber" phenomenon, maybe.

If you're referring to people that buy a few books and then play the game- which is, I think, what Dice4Hire meant- than you're being silly, perhaps even disingenuous, and I think you should retreat from your statement.

Or, if you'd like to stand by it, I'd like to see a quote or some kind of citation that backs you up.

Perhaps I should state it's more of a underlying feeling I get from WotC lately. Basically an opinion that I don't specifically adhere to, because otherwise I'd be following the subliminal text between the power boxes.

I'm not saying it's a conspiracy or front. It is not. However, I still feel confused and insecure, as if it were. What bothers me is that WotC seems okay with that. They haven't given me the expected hug after the heartfelt apology, or even the cold apology after one breaks a coveted toy.

WotC produces and releases a good to my nerdish community. We buy said goods with little to no questions if everything goes off as it should because without it we would have to create another fantasy dice-rolling medium, but it wouldn't be universally accepted or updated (because we wouldn't be paid for it). Enter the pirates, and they steal the goods because they're twisted and evil and poor and that's what pirates do, hat, eye-patch, and all. WotC alters the good in a way that negatively impacts both pirates and consumers, but leaves a nasty taste in our mouths specifically because we're paying for a good that tastes of steel wool after the rigorous scrubbing it has gone through.

We follow. We understand. All of this makes sense, so far. But here's where they lose me:

I cannot, for the life of me, find an open and official address that these actions were instated due to piracy. Instead of this, they make up a slew of other reasons to why they're dropping the invisible hammer. These reasons, albeit that some are legitimate, make me feel like WotC thinks I'm a moron. I mean, I am, but I don't want to feel like one. It's a bad feeling to have. Is it so hard to say, "Sir, we're protecting the value of your good by making sure the money you spent on it was not in vain"? I digress from my rant.

I feel, personally, that WotC is wagging a finger at me, ME from afar as if I've done something wrong. I feel, again only in my opinion, that they sent me a box in the mail with a letter attached that reads, "Thanks for being a subscriber. Here's the sum of all our efforts using your money". The figurative box, of course, contains a paddle ball freshly soiled upon. Yeah, it works, but it's covered in poop, it isn't what I paid for, and I feel insecure using it.

Just my opinion and personal gripe. I just want things to go back to the way they were. Please go easy on me.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The EULA for the Character Builder had some pretty clear language regarding disclaiming their liability to update their product. There were some advance word on what they planned to do, but I didn't see any promises in there.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, no lawsuit has ever been won strictly on the basis of terms found in a pre-drafted contract between parties of unequal bargaining power.

The language may be clear, yes, but without the ability to negotiate, it's possible a judge would invalidate the clause if he found the less powerful party relied upon other statements (especially contemporaneous or subsequent ones) made by the contract's drafters. The public statements would be deemed to override the terms of the clause BECAUSE there was no negotiating.

It happens all the time.

 

[rjdafoe]

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.

My standard Sorcerer Power Cards are wrong and the calculations are unusable. In fact, all of them say unarmed as the weaon, except the power that actually has Dagger in the name.


If it doesn't do what it is supposed to do and I have to do it by hand anyways, why would I use it. Sorcerer is not the only one that has this problem.

 

[rjdafoe]

What exactly defines a "software launch disaster"? I don't know about you, but only a small few reported the program did not work at all. Most people reported only a few problems, and some people reported many.

How about characters that are flat out WRONG? That counts as a disaster in my book, expecially when they were not wrong before I imported it from the old CB.