DDI Survey Results posted

[catsclaw227]

I do find it hilarious that people are acting like this is a great move by WotC... when it isn't an actual commitment to anything. Also some feel that by actually calling WotC out on this, one is a naysayer... there's nothing to actually naysay. Oh, well... whatever.

Actually, sharing the results of a poll like this really IS a good move.

I made the naysayer comment, and it was in context to people in the past saying that WOTC doesn't listen to their customers.

(As opposed to the "WOTC always babbles in corporate speak and never says anything" style of naysayers.)

They polled. They displayed the results of the poll (not really all that common in the corporate world) and they stated what they are now working on. Just because they weren't specific or give any dates doesn't mean that they didn't say anything concrete.

 

[darjr]

Darned if they do and darned if they don't.

The poll numbers pretty much match up to what I answered. Good for me.

Much of the current anger was because they supposedly promised stuff they couldn't deliver on. Why on earth would they want to do that again? If any thing they have learned the very very hard way, under promise and over deliver, or at least try.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

I'd kind of like a virtual tabletop, preferably one connected to the DDI and connected to a tool for meeting other DDI users who want to play games on the virtual tabletop.

Don't know if it will ever happen, but it would be neat.

At this point, I'd settle for a working chatbox with voice capabilities that has a dice roller/auto post attached.

I mean anything more than nothing would make me happy now.

 

[Zaukrie]

One of the regulars on the DDM forums once posted that if WotC put money in the booster that people would complain that it was folded wrong.....

 

[merelycompetent]

Darned if they do and darned if they don't.

The poll numbers pretty much match up to what I answered. Good for me.

Much of the current nerd rage was because they supposedly promised stuff they couldn't deliver on. Why on earth would they want to do that again? If any thing they have learned the very very hard way, under promise and over deliver, or at least try.

I strongly agree with darjr's comments above. For the foreseeable future, I am not going to be a 4E player or DM. I did not participate in the survey - I wasn't even aware that it was going on (which says something about how distant I and my local gaming acquaintances are from the target customer base). But I draw the line at taking everything WotC reps say, do, or post in the worst possible light.

They ran a survey. Gamers - subscribers and non-subscribers - responded. WotC appears to be listening to the responses, and reacting accordingly. If you were expecting a detailed outline of their plans for the coming months/years, get used to disappointment. No sane company would be so stupid as to publish such plans.

They ran their survey. They put up a response. Time will now tell if they're BSing or not. Given my current understanding and interpretation of the information available, their generalized response is appropriate economy-wise, technically, business-wise, and timeline-wise. These tools don't just appear out of whole-cloth. As pointed out, they've over-promised before - and been smacked hard in the face, repeatedly, for it.

It is very early in this part of the hobby's lifecycle to villify the primary economic organization funding - and hopefully profiting from - the hobby. Constructive criticism is invaluable at times like this - for gamers and for WotC. Dumping buckets of vitriolic tar is not helpful, even if it is scented with attar of roses. It is much better to save those buckets, and their contents, for real screwups. A week or two of patience and moderation now costs nothing. Refilling those buckets and using them will quickly clog and seal the most valuable thing we have: Communication.

I, for one, would LOVE to discuss certain ideas with the game designers - why they decided to do or not do certain things with 4E. I don't think that opportunity will arise now, and it certainly can't happen while there is such a hate going on. That is an opportunity lost.

TSR made these mistakes with their buckets. I hope history does NOT repeat itself, especially with the community playing the part of TSR. Fortunately, we aren't there yet.

 

[Lanefan]

I, for one, would LOVE to discuss certain ideas with the game designers - why they decided to do or not do certain things with 4E. I don't think that opportunity will arise now, and it certainly can't happen while there is such a hate going on. That is an opportunity lost.

The opportunity for this particular discussion was, unfortunately, lost shortly before 4e came out; at the time its design was finalized. They're not going to make any changes now.

Instead, we need to find out who's going to be designing *5e*, and talk to them.

Lan-"I thought there were more questions in that survey"-efan

 

[Shemeska]

Lan-"I thought there were more questions in that survey"-efan

Yeah, I wonder what the % was on the question of "Do you trust Wizards to produce quality digital products in a prompt manner?"

 

[mevers]

Darned if they do and darned if they don't.

The poll numbers pretty much match up to what I answered. Good for me.

Much of the current nerd rage was because they supposedly promised stuff they couldn't deliver on. Why on earth would they want to do that again? If any thing they have learned the very very hard way, under promise and over deliver, or at least try.

I couldn't say it any better, so I'll just quote it again.

What I would really like to see (and I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it in the hope they actually listen), is a proper encounter builder.

One that allows me to change the level of the monsters up or down, and add a template (or two) to add an elite (or solo), and then the capability to print that all on one (or 2) pages nicely formatted that I can then use to run my campaigns. This alone would be worth the subscription rate for me.

The frustrating thing for me is I can not see what this hasn't already been done. They have all the monster info in the compendium. And the customization is just simple arithmetic, so it should be a piece of cake. In fact, I could probably knock something up in Excel in a couple of hours except for actually entering and formatting all the monster data.

Once they have that up and running, I would love to also be able to add custom monsters to those encounters.

Then a way to save custom monsters I build so I can use them again in later encounters. This way I can add monsters from 3rd Parties (ie Goodman Games Critter Caches) to my encounters as well (and change the levels, add templates etc).

If you could also then save those encounters in xml or some other format, it would make sharing conversions of modules astronomically easier. Although that might be a reason against such a development.

On another note, going by the results they published, it seems as if DMs are the big users of DDI, which perhaps was a surprise for WotC given their previous focus on player tools (Character Visualizer, Character Builder etc).

 

[Darrin Drader]

This must mean that WOTC... [gasp] ...listens to their customers sometimes?

What will the naysayers think?

Say what you want about some of WotC's business decisions, but one thing that has always been a strong point with them is listening to their customers. In fact I've seen them go to some extraordinary lengths in the name of customer service.

 

[darjr]

The opportunity for this particular discussion was, unfortunately, lost shortly before 4e came out; at the time its design was finalized. They're not going to make any changes now.

Instead, we need to find out who's going to be designing *5e*, and talk to them.

Lan-"I thought there were more questions in that survey"-efan

Uh, have you seen the hybrid class article? It really seems to me to be a signal that they heard the folks that want more traditional dual class like mechanics. It really seems like a zig right when they were zagging. Sorta like the 'design' isn't quite... uh... set in stone yet. Almost like they're listening to what people want and trying to adjust a bit.