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Rate WotC as a company
- Thread starter Kzach
- Start date
roguerouge
First Post
FWIW I'm going purely based on what others have told me about their issues. Let's see... I'm told that they:
Randomized minis.
Deleted the d20 Modern boards.
Have moderator power grabs of epic egotism.
Release Feh modules, except for those written by freelancers.
Released the GSL late, putting small businesses in danger and forcing their best 3PP content provider away from their edition.
The GSL is draconian and caused another 3PP flight.
Their website is alienating, borked, and green.
3.5 didn't fix the biggest problems of 3e, which raises the question of why they released it.
They promised to never make people pay for errata, then released the Rules Compendium.
Have a dragon boob fetish.
Cancelled Dungeon magazine. (I could care less about Dragon.)
Admitted to designing 3e classes to fail because they were inspired by Magic: the Gathering, without considering that the time and emotional commitment to a DnD character is vastly greater than that given to a deck of cards, however pretty.
On the plus side, they release many free modules, some of which are even useful. I've used one.
The OGL was a shining light of enlightened capitalism.
Third edition, for all its flaws, was a comprehensive system that gave me a lot of fun.
Fourth edition has boosted ad sales and page views on gaming web sites.
Online free rules is a great idea.
What did I vote? I'm not going to tell you, as that would only bias your response to reading the commentary.
Randomized minis.
Deleted the d20 Modern boards.
Have moderator power grabs of epic egotism.
Release Feh modules, except for those written by freelancers.
Released the GSL late, putting small businesses in danger and forcing their best 3PP content provider away from their edition.
The GSL is draconian and caused another 3PP flight.
Their website is alienating, borked, and green.
3.5 didn't fix the biggest problems of 3e, which raises the question of why they released it.
They promised to never make people pay for errata, then released the Rules Compendium.
Have a dragon boob fetish.
Cancelled Dungeon magazine. (I could care less about Dragon.)
Admitted to designing 3e classes to fail because they were inspired by Magic: the Gathering, without considering that the time and emotional commitment to a DnD character is vastly greater than that given to a deck of cards, however pretty.
On the plus side, they release many free modules, some of which are even useful. I've used one.
The OGL was a shining light of enlightened capitalism.
Third edition, for all its flaws, was a comprehensive system that gave me a lot of fun.
Fourth edition has boosted ad sales and page views on gaming web sites.
Online free rules is a great idea.
What did I vote? I'm not going to tell you, as that would only bias your response to reading the commentary.
Hussar
Legend
Well, I guess I've been told.
So, let's review shall we?
You don't need to pay extra to use the VTT portion of the DDI.
The DDI has already made about half of its services available.
Any questions?
Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
Dungeon magazines in the hand of WotC still needs a team good at making adventures. Paizo has been better at it so far then WotC. And the 4E Dragon so far has been excellent with lots of useful and interesting material.
My general theory is: Paizo is good at adventures & fluff, but only mediocre at crunch, and WotC is good ad crunch, but mediocre at adventures and fluff.
Hence my secret dream of Pathfinder failing, the GSL miraculously turning into something far more usable and fair, and Paizo creating some 4E adventure paths, instantly covering all losses in the Pathfinder experiment and becoming - if so desired - filthy stinking rich, turning us into a new, golden age of role-playing... [/Dream of a Madman]
Dude, let it go already. He's right.
If you went into WoW with a monthly subscription, and before going into the game proper it told you 'oh wait, if you actually want your toon to show your choice of hair color, hairstyle and/or the armor and weapons it's wearing, you need to pay us $X.XX for every hair, weapon or armor skin you want to equip'... yeah that would be ridiculous wouldn't it.
Online games either choose to go with monthly subscriptions OR they choose to go with micro-transactions for their business models. Not even the most greedy, capitalist, corporation profit-driven money-machine MMORPG tries to go after both monthly AND micro. Why? Because there's a line between greed and just plain foolishness.
DDI has you pay monthly to get into the content and the online tabletop game. They then have you pay again if you want your character to look customized. That's paying twice. No amount of word-twisting or semantics-bantering is going to make anyone believe otherwise, because contrary to general belief, people in general aren't idiots.
The Little Raven
First Post
It's more like paying for cable, then paying extra for premium channels: you get a basic service for your fee, and you get additional services if you want to pay for them. No paying twice involved. Claiming it's paying twice is like claiming you're paying twice because you buy a car, then you pay for insurance. Or you're paying twice because you bought dinner, then buying dessert. You are paying extra for something extra, not for the same exact thing twice.
And Hussar is wrong in one respect: you do not pay extra for the character visualizer. That is part of the subscription package. You pay extra for additional minis they create beyond the starter set, as they are an extra service beyond the core service.
Hussar
Legend
I would point out that I'm not technically wrong since I never mentioned anything about the character visualizer. The only thing you would have to pay for would be a custom MINI to use on the VTT.
People really have to get out of the idea that a virtual tabletop is a complete game. It's not. It's simply exactly as advertised - a virtual tabletop. Does your tabletop come with custom minis that look precisely like your character? Probably not. So, neither will the Virtual Tabletop.
See, the trick is, you DON'T NEED THE MINIS. You can create your own tokens and use them. Sure, they won't be in 3d, but, who cares? You can pick the best art you can find on the web and create your own minis. Or, if you are artistic enough, you can make your own.
The only thing you are paying for is if you want 3d customized minis. The VTT will come with minis for all the standard stuff in the MM and PHB. So, if you want a dragonborn mini, they'll have that. What they won't have is a left handed dragonborn rogue wielding a flaming knife. That you'll have to fork over for.
Say it with me now. Virtual Tabletop is NOT a MMORPG. It is not a complete game. It is simply an online space that you can use to play D&D. Or whatever rpg tickles your fancy. You do not need 3d minis to use the VTT. You do not need custom minis to use the VTT. You do not have to pay anything more to use the VTT than your basic subscription.
People really have to get out of the idea that a virtual tabletop is a complete game. It's not. It's simply exactly as advertised - a virtual tabletop. Does your tabletop come with custom minis that look precisely like your character? Probably not. So, neither will the Virtual Tabletop.
See, the trick is, you DON'T NEED THE MINIS. You can create your own tokens and use them. Sure, they won't be in 3d, but, who cares? You can pick the best art you can find on the web and create your own minis. Or, if you are artistic enough, you can make your own.
The only thing you are paying for is if you want 3d customized minis. The VTT will come with minis for all the standard stuff in the MM and PHB. So, if you want a dragonborn mini, they'll have that. What they won't have is a left handed dragonborn rogue wielding a flaming knife. That you'll have to fork over for.
Say it with me now. Virtual Tabletop is NOT a MMORPG. It is not a complete game. It is simply an online space that you can use to play D&D. Or whatever rpg tickles your fancy. You do not need 3d minis to use the VTT. You do not need custom minis to use the VTT. You do not have to pay anything more to use the VTT than your basic subscription.
mcrow
Explorer
I gave them a 5. I'm thinking historically though.
I think 3E saved and re-energized the hobby and while 3e was not my favorite system at the time, it was innovative. Add to that they clearly have the best writers, layout, art combo of anyone.
Up until 4E I would have given them a 6, they are the premier RPG publisher and are the overall best at what they do. However, delays and poor communication regarding 4E has them slipping to 5 and maybe lower depending on if they rebound or not.
I think 3E saved and re-energized the hobby and while 3e was not my favorite system at the time, it was innovative. Add to that they clearly have the best writers, layout, art combo of anyone.
Up until 4E I would have given them a 6, they are the premier RPG publisher and are the overall best at what they do. However, delays and poor communication regarding 4E has them slipping to 5 and maybe lower depending on if they rebound or not.
The Little Raven
First Post
The character visualizer is where you make custom minis for PCs. The visualizer is part of the core package, so you do not have to pay for custom minis that are created with it.
wedgeski
Adventurer
Rhetoric aside, this is demonstrably wrong.
Xbox Live! for example. Yearly subscription to gain 'Gold' status and be able to play online multiplayer, then micro-payment XBox 'points' for just about everything else. Examples: new songs for Guitar Hero/Rock Band, game-related themes for your XBox interface, extra in-game property and quests, and so-on. This example has been taken up by Sony and no doubt Nintendo will as well.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but tiered subscription combined with micro-payment precedents already exist.
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