No Character Builder Update

[JoeGKushner]

I (and, presumably, every DDI subscriber with a WotC Community account) just received notification that adding the new rules systems to incorporate Dark Sun (presumably Themes) and Essentials builds hasn't been possible in time for a 21st September update, so it doesn't look as if there'll be a September update at all. The message says that they hope to update in 'early October'.

If only they had known months ago what the Essentials books and Dark Sun book would have in it.

I hope that WoTC extends everyone's subscription by a month because of this.

 

[Dire Bare]

Here come the screams of entitlement.

Man, did you call it! Not that it was a hard call to make.

Somehow, I think I'll survive one month without a CB update. My life will go on, my game will go on, and I will remain a satisfied WotC customer.

You'd think all this hyperbolic entitlement would be bad for folks health, unnecessarily rising blood pressures, etc . . . life is so much more enjoyable when you don't bother to sweat the small stuff.

OUCH! What, was that a piece of sky falling on my head?

 

[Festivus]

No, the ship date on this update was 9/1. Its already been delayed for 3 weeks to allow for Essentials. Now the Sept Update has been Cancelled and they are hoping to actually get the OCT out on time.
This, combined with the collapse of the Dragon release schedule this month, should lead to every DDI subscriber demanding a refund of this months fees.

I was thinking I needed to write a letter to complain about that very thing.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Here come the screams of entitlement.

Uh... you do now that's not share ware and people pay for it right?

Can you define what you think entitlement means in this instance?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Curse and hate are strong words.

People are paying for a service. WoTC is failing to provide.

How WoTC will make that up, if at all, remains to be seen.

For all the complainers, how would you like it if several hundred people started screaming at you every time something went wrong at your job? What jobs do you have where everything runs perfectly and no one is ever sick or management doesn't meddle so projects never get delayed? Maybe you should set up a forum discussing your job so I can post about how incompetent you are every time you slip up or are the victim of outside circumstances.

If you've ever worked in software development you've lived through what's going on at WotC many times. The character builder seems impressively flexible, but adding exceptions and new behaviors will usually hit snags you didn't anticipate. Then there's testing. If a release went out with major bugs they'd get three times the amount of grief they are getting now.

I was looking forward to the update as well, but I don't think WotC owes me anything from this except their intent to get things done right. All of the existing DDI infrastructure is still up and running properly. Unless this stretches out for way too long I still think I'm getting my money's worth.

And accusations of fraud? Really? My understanding is that takes intent. This is just a snafu that could happen to any business.

Where is your humanity? Is this how you treat your friends, significant other, or children? Do you hold them to impossibly high standards? Do you curse and hate them when they make a mistake?

 

[MerricB]

People are paying for a service. WoTC is failing to provide.

How WoTC will make that up, if at all, remains to be seen.

I hope they do. Despite the update being problematic, they should have it ready.

Cheers!

 

[Goonalan]

I'm sorry... updating the Character Builder with Essentials is not a programming job? You really have no clue, do you?

The changes in D&D Essentials make a fundamental change to how D&D character creation works. It might look similar, but it isn't. I'm very glad I don't have the job of programming it, because it'd be a major task. I'm tremendously disappointed that it isn't ready yet, but I'm not going to dismiss the scale of the task.

Conversely, the D&D Compendium *should* be ready. As it is just a database with a simple set of filters, that should really just be a case of data entry.

No, I too have no clue as to how long the task will take, I know when they said it would be done- I figure they know what the task involves...

I guess you do too, and I guess you know all about programming- perhaps they should get some more programmers in, better management- whatever it takes really to prevent this kind of thing happening again.

I'm not dismissing the size of the task, I'm just saying that this month, for whatever reason, they weren't up to it. I think that's what some other people are remarking upon in this thread too- including the OP.

This is the 'I'm disappointed in WOTC not updating the CB thread', isn't it?

Them, I believe, are the facts.

By the way thanks for the reports on the Ravenloft game, and a myriad other posts here and elsewhere- top work.

Oh, and a game related question, as I said in a previous post I'm struggling with some of the new rules (updates)- and I'm the only D&D savvy guy in all of the games I play- do you know for a fact that the compendium will be up to date with the new rules? Any idea when?

Thanks again.

Cheers Goonalan

 

[Baumi]

Man Psionics must really be unpopular, I have not seen one post so far mentioning the missing Psionic Power Books which should also be updated.

By the way I'm close to canceling the subscription not because of this incident but the DDI is constantly getting worse instead of better.

The Dragon Articles are getting more and more uninteresting (short and full of problematic crunch), the Dungeon seems to include only low Heroic and very short Adventures anymore, the Monster Builder is extremely buggy, is missing important features and still beta after a year, the Compendium doesn't work on my Android-Phone and the Scheduling of the CB was already too late (in the Beginning of DDI it was nearly on the same day as the book-Release!).

P.S.: But I'm at least thankful that they announced it openly this time instead of hiding important things in Blog- or Forum-Postings.

 

[Nork]

If they don't get the Dark Sun stuff in at least...

Then I think they shouldn't charge for the month, or at least knock a significant amount off the monthly.

Wizards isn't entitled to money.

They had enough time to get it done, with plenty of "oops we screwed up, Plan B" time as well.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

Right. WotC is a corporation that makes a product and we are consumers and not friends. I can stop giving them money if I don't feel like I'm getting a good value or they are acting in bad faith.

At the same time, how many other corporations of any decent size have employees interact with the customers as directly as WotC? Mike Mearls is someone I've never met, but he's still a person with a day job. We may think it's the greatest job in the world, but it's still work. There are deadlines and problems like any other job as well as a personal life to deal with.

How do you think it feels to be in that office right now? Nobody wants things to be delayed. They've been working their butts off for months to get Essentials done, and who knows what pressured them into creating it in the first place. Whatever it was, it wasn't some conspiracy to make you irate.

I'm also tired of hearing that it's "just the internet and I'm venting" from all the internet tough-guys. There's lots of behaviors that used to be acceptable (they're only slaves) that we don't tolerate today. The culture was altered because one group of people called out the other on their brutishness. Would you actually read some of these posts to the people at Wizards if you were looking them in the face?

So yeah, corporations aren't people. Most corps don't pretend to be people (legal status aside) or even pretend to care. We've seen the authors respond personally here and on other message boards. Would you rather read some lip service reply written by a marketer and a lawyer via a twitter post like other corps give you?

It's good to be a knowledgeable consumer and not be taken advantage of by a company operating in bad faith. Have some perspective though. Consider how many people there are working at WotC and just how few gamers there really are compared to something like iPhone owners and employees at Apple. Even Steve Jobs slips up and has to delay a release from time to time.