I seem to be missing the point on the online CB

[renau1g]

I think the move was actually prompted for a number of reasons, most likely piracy, and problems with the older builder architecture than a simple attempt to grab more cash. Although the new model certainly is less, for more money.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (D&D Podcast: Monster Vault, Character Builder)

Listening to the podcast the #1 reason (or maybe just the first) that was mentioned was piracy, then it was mentioned again part way through regarding iplay4e. Oh and they briefly touched on Mac support.

 

[Grabuto138]

Otherwise the answer is no. It's actually going to make things worse, the new builder has less utility than the old one, and disappears as soon as you stop paying for it.

Say's you. We play with paper character sheets. Too many gadgets are distracting, at least in our game. At most we keep my netbook around to use the Compendium (mostly because, thanks to the DDi, I have not had to buy all the books I use.)

Tranfering characters from my desktop to my laptop, from my friend's computer to my computer, etc. is a pain. Having everything in the "cloud" is an advantage for us.

 

[Imaro]

Say's you. We play with paper character sheets. Too many gadgets are distracting, at least in our game. At most we keep my netbook around to use the Compendium (mostly because, thanks to the DDi, I have not had to buy all the books I use.)

Tranfering characters from my desktop to my laptop, from my friend's computer to my computer, etc. is a pain. Having everything in the "cloud" is an advantage for us.

Couldn't you just email the files back and forth... and with no export function out the gate how is this any more convenient since you will all have to create the characters under the same account. In fact maybe I'm just not understanding what issue this actually solved for you? Why did you all have to transfer these characters back and forth if the sheets were printed up?

 

[Scribble]

Couldn't you just email the files back and forth... and with no export function out the gate how is this any more convenient since you will all have to create the characters under the same account. In fact maybe I'm just not understanding what issue this actually solved for you? Why did you all have to transfer these characters back and forth if the sheets were printed up?

Dunno about him, but I know in my games there were a number of times someone forgot to bring their newly leveled character, or just forgot the copy of their character in general.

Having it in the cloud would have meant they could just log on, and print it out, as opposed to re-doing the character before the game.

 

[Bagpuss]

Tranfering characters from my desktop to my laptop, from my friend's computer to my computer, etc. is a pain. Having everything in the "cloud" is an advantage for us.

Except currently there is no sharing in the cloud, even after export is introduce the only way of sharing will be exporting and re-importing so the same as things are now.

Sure if and when they introduce sharing character between accounts their will be some added value. There is a slight amount of added value in that you can access your character anywhere (except many popular mobile devices) without having to install the builder.

But I hardly think that balances the number of features that have been removed, the 20 character limit, the lack of any form of sharing, or the fact it all disappears as soon as you stop forking over cash, etc.

The vast majority of the benefits (at this point) are to WotC, there is very little benefit to the customers (except Mac users) at this time. However I seriously hope that this isn't the only web-tool they were talking about when they spoke about new web-tools a couple of months ago. If they come soon and by soon I mean the standard English meaning of the word, not the WotC meaning, then it could work out better in the long term.

 

[Imaro]

Dunno about him, but I know in my games there were a number of times someone forgot to bring their newly leveled character, or just forgot the copy of their character in general.

Having it in the cloud would have meant they could just log on, and print it out, as opposed to re-doing the character before the game.

This wasn't the issue he brought up though.

As to your issue how is it not just as easy for each player to have a copy of their character at the house of whoever hosts the game, either on a USB or as a file that you email (or even just save in your own email account ) when you finish creating/leveling up your character? This just doesn't seem like "added" value so much as a different way of doing things.

 

[Scribble]

This wasn't the issue he brought up though.

Hence why I said "dunno about him"

As to your issue how is it not just as easy for each player to have a copy of their character at the house of whoever hosts the game, either on a USB or as a file that you email (or even just save in your own email account ) when you finish creating/leveling up?

Remembering to bring the file, or email the file is the same as remembering to bring the character in the first place.

In the cloud based situation, you don't have to remember anything... (except your login info I guess. ) Just log on, and print.

I wasn't saying there weren't ways to digitally transfer characters from one place to another- only that in the instances of my game where someone forgot their character, having the character in the cloud would have solved it, more quickly/easily then we did.

It's a personal "This is what happened to me, and how it would effect me." situation. It is by no means universal.

 

[Imaro]

Hence why I said "dunno about him"



Remembering to bring the file, or email the file is the same as remembering to bring the character in the first place.

In the cloud based situation, you don't have to remember anything... (except your login info I guess. ) Just log on, and print.

I wasn't saying there weren't ways to digitally transfer characters from one place to another- only that in the instances of my game where someone forgot their character, having the character in the cloud would have solved it, more quickly/easily then we did.

It's a personal "This is what happened to me, and how it would effect me." situation. It is by no means universal.

Cool, perhaps I was trying to hard to draw a connection between it and the post of mine that you quoted. Though even in your situation, server outages would be a problem as well.

 

[Grabuto138]

Couldn't you just email the files back and forth... and with no export function out the gate how is this any more convenient since you will all have to create the characters under the same account. In fact maybe I'm just not understanding what issue this actually solved for you? Why did you all have to transfer these characters back and forth if the sheets were printed up?

That is what we do. Its a minor hassle and if someone forgets to email it, or more likely wants to make the character with group input, they just recreate it on my computer before we play. And then I have to remember if the authoritative version is on my desktop, my laptop, as attachment in my email or whatever.

Nothing is perfect. I suppose we could even fax the character sheets. Even better, jump on my computer, type in a user name and password and take care of your business.
Obviously if my connection is down, and if there is no character sheet available for manual updates then someone has to bust out the pencil and paper and do it old school.

Edit: Just to be clear, I was responding to a definitive "the answer in no" statement. I understand why some people are annoyed at the change but speaking only for me and my group I much prefer a web-based solution. It helps that we are all subscribers (aside for Mac guy) and we tend the buy books and otherwise support the game, WOTC and the local game store.

 

[Imaro]

That is what we do. Its a minor hassle and if someone forgets to email it, or more likely wants to make the character with group input, they just recreate it on my computer before we play. And then I have to remember if the authoritative version is on my desktop, my laptop, as attachment in my email or whatever.

Nothing is perfect. I suppose we could even fax the character sheets. Even better, jump on my computer, type in a user name and password and take care of your business.
Obviously if my connection is down, and if there is no character sheet available for manual updates then someone has to bust out the pencil and paper and do it old school. Life ain't prefect.

Well personally I didn't find having a single folder on my computer with everyone's sheet (that we updated when the party leveled up) all that hard, confusing or time consuming... and I definitely felt it was a slight inconvenience that was worth it to actually own the software I was paying for... but that's just me.