Disappointed D&D Insider Customer

[JoeGKushner]

No one knows better than Mearls and his team what the blemishes are. To assume they don't know exactly what's wrong (strategicially - I'm not talking about widget C doesn't work with widget A, B and X) would make the unfair assumption that a team responsible for a million dollar property is incapable of any sort of management.

That sort of thing only happens when completely inexperienced people get put in high levels of management. Not the case with their team.

I will grant though that every publishing team learning their way around digital content is more or less making some serious mistakes at the moment. I know we just replaced our entire high-level IT management team to move to SaaS or e-book with our offerings.

How much errata have we had?

has there been a major shift?

Where's the DMG3 and other products that were out right cancelled?

I make no unfair assumption. I make my assumtpiosn based on the actions taken in the past and what look to be coming down the pipeline.

 

[tfwoods3]

I got a little use out of D & D Insider during my game, mainly using the monster manual for encounters. But I did not renew the subscription.

Fantasy Comic! War of the Nine Gods

 

[Kobold Boots]

How much errata have we had?

has there been a major shift?

Where's the DMG3 and other products that were out right cancelled?

I make no unfair assumption. I make my assumtpiosn based on the actions taken in the past and what look to be coming down the pipeline.

Offering a quick reply.

How much errata have we had?

-Quite a bit. Very similar question to "How many Windows Patches have been released since Vista or 7 rolled out?"

Where's the products that were cancelled?

-Uncertain, though were I to guess I'd say that the material will see print through Essentials or Dragon articles. Funny thing about content is that once it's written it generally sees print as the costs are already sunk and the material can fluff up what would otherwise be a light production schedule.

If I were to guess about "where the products are" I'd say that the money to improve the web delivery of products and the DDI tools had to come from somewhere and it may have come from the budget publishing DMG3 and other products.

While I'm not an insider to WoTC I do know quite a bit about the pressures the publishing industry is facing in general as I'm an IT person working in the publishing sector. Last time I looked WoTC was the number 5 publisher in the SciFi/Fantasy space. In terms of our own stuff we are:

1. Working hard to develop the infrastructure to push content on demand to an ever-changing and evolving list of devices that people are carrying.

2. Working hard to go from analog to digital workflow in order to speed up the publishing process from contract to editorial to art to printers. Never mind inventory control and supply chain for products that don't exist in a tangible way.

3. Working hard to understand and mitigate the legal risks and changes to contracts required in terms of who owns the rights to content published in different markets when technology is involved (again, who gets royalties on a PDF that is hosted in the US and purchased in China or India?) Is it published in the US or at point of sale?

Note that all of these things impact the D&D brand. Most people on the forums say things like "Why does this platform not work with iPad" or "Why can't you publish book and pdf as one package"

The blunt answer is: As a business there are many decisions that need to be made to put products out to as many people as possible and create a supply chain that gets product out to as many different technology platforms as possible. WoTC appears to be further along than some publishers, but about 2 years behind the market leaders.

Additionally, they're a game company that has a lot of ground to cover to change its culture (most likely) from a dice and paper company to a digital gaming giant. Mistakes are going to happen and we need to be understanding of that.

Specifically to the iPad: Silverlight works just fine under Firefox on the Mac. The fact that it doesn't work on the iPad is more of an Apple thing than a WoTC thing. As we all know the iPad doesn't support Flash or a real web browser either at time of this writing.

So, if you make a choice to support the iPad, you're making a choice to limit your tools for the iPad, and as such forcing the decision to build two separate products in parallel, up to doubling your digital production costs. Margins on books are collapsing due to pressure from discounters like Amazon and it's entirely necessary to control costs until the economy improves and the market for publishers stabilizes.

Ergo, regardless of iPad fans: It makes no sense for a game company with margin concerns to publish for the iPad if they can still get on the mac through Firefox and on PCs via the same product.

Specifically to the PDF and book as a package:

Could be done. However, it's not wise to do until the digital rights management questions are answered and I'd bet that there's some team at WoTC working that. I'd be surprised if it's not in play and resolved within a year or two. But make no mistake, a global drm legal project takes a good amount of time for a small company that uses multiple distribution methods. Especially if they're dealing with cultural issues internally.

Two cents. I really have no idea what the culture is over there or what they're working on, but I get what could be in the way of stuff, hence why I'm just not sweating it and playing my game.

 

[Ryujin]

Offering a quick reply.

How much errata have we had?

-Quite a bit. Very similar question to "How many Windows Patches have been released since Vista or 7 rolled out?"

I can't remember the last time that I tried to create a MS Word document by reading the Windows 7 manual

 

[Kobold Boots]

I can't remember the last time that I tried to create a MS Word document by reading the Windows 7 manual

Two points I was trying to make with that analogy.

1. Any content delivered by any firm is not going to be perfect until you let people interact with and use it. If you're making the errata argument about WoTC, the similar argument has to be made about any other content vendor.

Sides, if they didn't do errata, people would be complaining about the lack of errata or lack of clarity

2. People keep thinking of WoTC or any publisher as a book company or a game company, which is fair, that's the public face. What all content providers are becoming in order to meet the needs of consumers is/are technology companies

For some firms that's a lot further of a trip than others, but in order to be fair to them, we have to recognize that as the new business model.

 

[jbear]

I did send this letter to WotC customer service, I did post it on their forums, and I posted it here to get an idea of what this smaller, more reasonable community thinks of what I said and how I said it.

I can appreciate that it was long, and many people won't read it because of that, but if you are going to go on your own rant, you could at least read the posts on the thread you are ranting on, or start a new thread.

I'm not going to read four pages worth of thread, because I don't find the topic interesting enough.

I do find your letter interesting however, as I'm sure WotC must at least to some degree. What I mean by that is, they must have weighed up this foreseeable negative backlash, from a substantial amount of customers, before they released this news. I guess whatever was on the other end of the scale outweighed it for them. What I find curious is they did not announce this with some other tool to soften the effect. I guess time was against them and they knew they had to update Dark Sun and Essentials, but they wanted to keep that exclusive to a Character Builder they could protect.

I read another unhappy customer's complaints directed at WotC when the CB missed last months update and I was very critical of the 'whiney-blowing-steam-in-the-wrong-place', irrelevant nature of the post.

I don't find your letter to be whiney in any degree. My reaction: those are your feelings and they seem valid. You express yourself well. I don't think you are way off base.

Nevertheless, I do think this is a measure they may have seen as necessary. I do think they value customers like yourself. A lot. I do believe they will go to every effort to appease the masses currently heaving with fury as soon as possible. I'm sure they will want you back as a happy customer as soon as possible.

To remain positive: You still have all that you need to keep playing for years and years on end with all those books you have aquired. In the end what makes a great game is good friends, limitless imagination and ... dice (okay, and a pencil).

(and a few sheets of paper)

 

[SteveC]

Can we get 'upset' because none of the bugs in the system are going to be fixed in existing builds?

I think this only arbiter of whether or not you can get upset about the situation is you, regardless of what others might say.

I'm laughing more than a little at the notions some have of the 'rights' to be upset by this or any other decision that WotC makes.

Now the question is, how can someone be productive with their concerns? I think you let WotC know, and start discussions on boards like this about concerns, to share with others, but after all that, vote with your wallet.

I was very happy with the old character builder (despite the bugs you raise here, and other issues) and I considered it the gold standard for the industry. The new software is not something I can support at all, because it goes from being something I can keep but need to subscribe to update, to something I need a continuous subscription and a continuous connection to the internet to use at all. For me that's a full stop and something I won't pay for.

I expect that your situation, indeed everyone's situation is different, but the right to complain remains the same. To do something positive, with an eye on keeping you happy as a customer and making the game better is the key.

I'd love to stay a DDI customer, and I'm going to try and stay as positive as I can about what can be done, and what I'd like to see. I just don't see it as likely to happen, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try.

--Steve

 

[DEFCON 1]

Can we get 'upset' because none of the bugs in the system are going to be fixed in existing builds?

Sure thing. In fact, I said as much in one of my follow-up posts. If any of you folks just wrote to WotC saying that you signed up for DDI for a functioning, off-line, downloadable Character Builder... the fact that you won't be getting that anymore means that you'd be well within your right to write to them about this one issue and ask for your money back on the remainder of your subscription.

It's all the other stuff that ISN'T that one issue that everyone keeps going on and on about that makes me respond in this way.

Although, with ALL the complaining you've been doing about this, Joe... I really have to wonder why in the heck you're even playing 4E or subscribing to DDI in the first place? You seem to be taking all of this crap harder than virtually every other person here on ENWorld. If you hate WotC this much, why are you playing their game?

 

[rjdafoe]

Sure thing. In fact, I said as much in one of my follow-up posts. If any of you folks just wrote to WotC saying that you signed up for DDI for a functioning, off-line, downloadable Character Builder... the fact that you won't be getting that anymore means that you'd be well within your right to write to them about this one issue and ask for your money back on the remainder of your subscription.

It's all the other stuff that ISN'T that one issue that everyone keeps going on and on about that makes me respond in this way.

Although, with ALL the complaining you've been doing about this, Joe... I really have to wonder why in the heck you're even playing 4E or subscribing to DDI in the first place? You seem to be taking all of this crap harder than virtually every other person here on ENWorld. If you hate WotC this much, why are you playing their game?

I think for alot of people, it is the final straw. Things just add up sometimes and when you look behind and then ahead, nothing seems to be changing. The game you have come to love is changing midstream into something you don't love anymore.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Slow your roll pilgrim.

I'm not 'angry' at WoTC. I'm highly inconviencinced and have yet to hear anything that would make me go, "Man, awesome. WoTC is doing the right thing." But as I've posted in other threads, I'll wait a few months and see how the new CB actually rolls out.

When I say I'm not angry at WoTC though, I certainly don't trust WoTC. I don't think they know what's best for the brand. I don't think they know how to manage it in today's market. WoTC has allowed Paizo to have an equal selling product using their old rules. I see WoTC not realizing, even after the PDF bit, that data wants to be free and that they think they can conqueror the internet.

How that effects my 4e gaming? Not at all. My character, Red or Rus, short for Rusty, continues to use his fullblade at peak mercenary prices every Friday night at Black Sun Games.

Hate WoTC.... some people read way too much into internet postings.

Sure thing. In fact, I said as much in one of my follow-up posts. If any of you folks just wrote to WotC saying that you signed up for DDI for a functioning, off-line, downloadable Character Builder... the fact that you won't be getting that anymore means that you'd be well within your right to write to them about this one issue and ask for your money back on the remainder of your subscription.

It's all the other stuff that ISN'T that one issue that everyone keeps going on and on about that makes me respond in this way.

Although, with ALL the complaining you've been doing about this, Joe... I really have to wonder why in the heck you're even playing 4E or subscribing to DDI in the first place? You seem to be taking all of this crap harder than virtually every other person here on ENWorld. If you hate WotC this much, why are you playing their game?