New D&D Website

[Dannager]

IN next month there are 10 "free" articles. There are 31 articles that require payment. The wallpaper galleries have 1 piece of art.

Really? This one? This one? This one? This one? This one? I could go on, but you get the point.

One - every art asset from every book was never available online. Two - the art assets are not the art themselves. They are small low-dpi images. Three - You think it's a weak argument. I can point to my bookshelf, again, to point it out. Four - established policy for 9 years--let's say that again, 9 years--led to a "sense of entitlement" if you want to call it that. Let's say your cable company has had ESPN, USA, FX, and Discovery Channel (the channels you get the most use of) as part of the basic cable package for 9 years. Then you wake up Monday morning to find that those channels have now gone behind a subscription wall requiring you to pony up $10 more dollars a month to have access to channels you had yesterday. Are you stoic and happy? Or are you angry and considering that since cable no longer provides the service you want, you take your money elsewhere?

You see, in that example you were paying for the service originally. When they remove part of the service, the responsible thing to do is to reevaluate whether that service continues to be worth the money you pay for it.

The problem is, you weren't paying for what WotC was providing you with. You can't reevaluate whether that service continues to be worth it, because you weren't part of any paid service to begin with. The idea of a service being worth something necessitates that you give up something to obtain it. You give up nothing to use their free service. If you were a D&D Insider customer and they suddenly removed a feature you were previously paying for, then you might have legitimate cause for concern.

Do you know what it means to act like a condescending know-it-all?

And, apparently, we've left the realm of civil discourse. That's kind of a shame.

 

[avin]

Wizards of the Coast: inventing new and exciting ways to tell their customers to go ****** themselves every day!

In all seriuosness... are you a Wotc customer? I mean, do you play 4E and buy the books? I'm paying for DDI and I'm satisfied at this moment.

 

[Dannager]

In all seriuosness... are you a Wotc customer? I mean, do you play 4E and buy the books? I'm paying for DDI and I'm satisfied at this moment.

I am, too. As are the other 4e DMs I know.

He's not, though. It would be swell if people who hate a game and the company who makes it would stick to their games instead of trying to make happy customers feel like they shouldn't be happy.

 

[Mercutio01]

You see, in that example you were paying for the service originally. When they remove part of the service, the responsible thing to do is to reevaluate whether that service continues to be worth the money you pay for it.

The problem is, you weren't paying for what WotC was providing you with. You can't reevaluate whether that service continues to be worth it, because you weren't part of any paid service to begin with.

I was paying for it. I bought two dozen products all from Wizards over that 9 years. 25 books at 20 bucks a pop amounts to $500 dollars. That's four years worth of DDI at the monthly price. And that's a lowball estimate because the books were all higher than 20 bucks and I have 30 or so miniatures, Dragon Dice, and Three Dragon Ante. Now, with 4th Edition I bought three 4E books at $35 bucks a pop, oh, and I forgot KOTS at $30 - that's $135 dollars. That would be 13 months of DDI. I suppose that's about what I got, in all actuality, but I was going to buy the 4E Eberron books. That'd be another 6 months of DDI. I suppose I could just subscribe to DDI and get "more" stuff, but I refuse to do so until the products I wanted to see are published. Since they were axed, I won't be subscribing.

The "free" argument is lame because it ignores facts.

Now, back to the cable analogy. Like I said, the art and map galleries were the only reason I went to Wizards website. Since those are gone, I have done the responsible reevaluation and decided that their website is not worth my time anymore. And since the free content (which we've established wasn't really free since I was buying books) is now gone, I don't have that either.

And, apparently, we've left the realm of civil discourse. That's kind of a shame.

Civil discourse left the minute the snark and the "entitlement" as epithet argument entered. People love to ignore snark as though it isn't the direct end of civil debate. The minute labels and assumptions are made and bandied about, people have stopped having an open mind.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Actually, right up until pdfs were made banned, yes, I was a WotC customer :U

I can be a customer without playing 4e, you know.\

I love how I've been catagorized into this bizarro D&D hating monster. I don't hate WotC. I think WotC is hilariously inept at marketing and at customer service.

I know this may be a huge shock, but you're allowed to disagree with a company and still like them. OH MAN! YOUR WORLD MUST BE SHATTERED!

 

[Obryn]

I love how I've been catagorized into this bizarro D&D hating monster.

Naah, more like a provocateur. "I don't hate [Whatever], but I'm perfectly willing to foment anger towards it! I'm above all this, really!"

-O

 

[Dannager]

And since the free content (which we've established wasn't really free since I was buying books) is now gone, I don't have that either.

A gas station offers free car washes as a promotion, regardless of whether or not you buy gas there.

You go, buy gas, and get your car washed.

Other people go and just get their car washed.

They end the promotion. You complain that you were paying for those car washes because you bought gas there. The company is doing you injury by removing a service you were paying for!

Except you weren't paying for those car washes. They were free. Plenty of people got car washes without paying for gas.

Now, replace "gas" with "books" and "car wash promotion" with "free art galleries."

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Naah, more like a provocateur. "I don't hate [Whatever], but I'm perfectly willing to foment anger towards it! I'm above all this, really!"

-O

Well, I find it bizarre that some people on these forums hold this outlook that you should never criticize WotC, ever.

WotC makes a bad move, people should call them on it.

This was a bad move.

 

[Woas]

Did they hire that guy who was around here claiming he could make a better website like.. a year ago? Cause the new websites looks almost exactly like one of those mock-up ones he did.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

The funny thing is that all this nerdrage about what's free and what isn't is going down on a forum that's currently running a drive for paid subscriptions. The forum owner is talking about transforming the site into a sustainable business. Look out. Something that was formerly free might be moved behind a paywall.