advice to anyone still wondering if they should purchase a DDI subscription today

[Zaukrie]

YMMV

The character builder is so far beyond beta at this point that I don't know what you are expecting. I think it is one of the most useful products I've ever used.

The compendum is the must have for any DM. It saves me hours and hours of work.

I just don't agree with your assessment of those two tools at all at this point.

 

[JohnnyQuest]

Yep, I have to agree. DDI is well worth the money for me.

 

[Filcher]

The builder alone is worth the price of admission. It rocks on toast.

 

[Kzach]

Yeah, I wouldn't call the Character Builder a beta. It's got a few irritating bugs, but none are deal-breakers. More just things that need to be smoothed out, like a feat here and there that doesn't add it's modifiers properly, or sometimes text is cut off on the character sheet for the racial or class powers.

Other than that, there are a few features I'd like to see implemented, but without them it's still a cool program that I would hardly call a beta.

 

[malraux]

Yeah, I wouldn't call the Character Builder a beta. It's got a few irritating bugs, but none are deal-breakers. More just things that need to be smoothed out, like a feat here and there that doesn't add it's modifiers properly, or sometimes text is cut off on the character sheet for the racial or class powers.

Other than that, there are a few features I'd like to see implemented, but without them it's still a cool program that I would hardly call a beta.

I honestly don't know what people are expecting when they call CB a beta. It certainly strikes me as a 1.0 version of software, but for a monthly updated program, I don't see that as too problematic.

 

[Scribble]

I'm a little confused by this sentiment... do you plan on playing 4e beyond WotC supporting it? I mean I'm not buying into 4e, but if I was I would still rather have books I own and that can't be taken away when 5e hits... than digital info that will vanish once it is no longer feasible for WotC to support it... especially since WotC will destroy the surplus stock of books, like they did with 3e/3.5... or am I thinking to far ahead?

Best of both worlds. Once 5e hits the 4e books will probably start showing up at HUGE discounts at the game stores. Just like the 3e books are now.

So if said person wanted physical copies at that time, they could probably do so pretty inexpensively.

 

[evilbob]

Yeah, I wouldn't call the Character Builder a beta. It's got a few irritating bugs, but none are deal-breakers.

Really? So over 5 pages of user-generated bug lists in a week doesn't irritate you? And really, that's just one forum thread: I'm sure there are more. Honestly, I have made about 8 full characters on it so far, and of those, 100% have had something wrong or missing.

I am certainly willing to admit that I am apparently standing alone on this one, but the number of bugs in what is supposed to be a released product is staggering to me. There are a wide range of features that do not work and have not worked for some time: and frankly, this isn't really shocking, because D&D is a hard game to code! There are a billion exceptions and rules and additions all the time, so of course it's going to be hard - but to get something maybe 75-80% done and push it out the door is pretty bad, in my opinion.

But as others have said: your millage may vary. And to those who like the product so far and are willing to forgive: fair enough. I think this thread is useful no matter which stand you take.

 

[Harlekin]

Really? So over 5 pages of user-generated bug lists in a week doesn't irritate you? And really, that's just one forum thread: I'm sure there are more. Honestly, I have made about 8 full characters on it so far, and of those, 100% have had something wrong or missing.

I am certainly willing to admit that I am apparently standing alone on this one, but the number of bugs in what is supposed to be a released product is staggering to me. There are a wide range of features that do not work and have not worked for some time: and frankly, this isn't really shocking, because D&D is a hard game to code! There are a billion exceptions and rules and additions all the time, so of course it's going to be hard - but to get something maybe 75-80% done and push it out the door is pretty bad, in my opinion.

But as others have said: your millage may vary. And to those who like the product so far and are willing to forgive: fair enough. I think this thread is useful no matter which stand you take.

Have you actually used the program or are you just going by the list of reported bugs? Because if you did, I would be curious about the "wide range of features" that you claim don't work. I have created about 10-20 characters and the program supported all features necessary for this purpose. All bugs reported so far seem to be in the minor annoyance category.

Comparing this program or the DDI to products created for millions of users such as WoW is useless, clearly any product for pnp rpgs has to live with a low economy of scale. So it makes more sense to compare this product to other products produced for the pnp market. And in my opinion, this program is heads and shoulders above comparable 3.x programs such as rpgxplorer.

 

[Kzach]

Really? So over 5 pages of user-generated bug lists in a week doesn't irritate you? And really, that's just one forum thread: I'm sure there are more. Honestly, I have made about 8 full characters on it so far, and of those, 100% have had something wrong or missing.

Well, five pages of people whining, bitching and moaning, doesn't really count as 5 pages full of bugs. But I digress...

I guess my stance is that the bugs that are in it, are of a level that are just annoying. None of them are deal-breakers for me. Of those eight characters, what bugs are you experiencing? If it's just one feat not adding itself, or if it's a little bit of text missing or something, then is it really that big a deal?

Would I expect these issues to be fixed? Of course! Do I consider these minor bugs to make the program a beta? Hell no.

If it was Apple putting out the product, I'd expect a much higher standard and little to no bugs. If it was MS, then I'd expect bugs and for it to have major annoyances. My expectations of WotC's software development capabilities have been lowered such that I accept that the CB is a decent effort.

 

[Cam Banks]

As a Mac user, which applications and features on DDI are unusable for me? This would reduce the value of the subscription depending on how much is affected by not being a Windows user.

Cheers,
Cam