Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[MerricB]

I have been watching the train wreck that is Wizards' handling of Essentials and the D&D Insider (+ Character Builder) and been getting more and more depressed at the sight. Wizards have been attempting to rebuild their credibility as the producer of D&D, and their latest mismanaged efforts may have destroyed that utterly.

There is no doubt that the roll-out of the new online CB is a disaster, but it is a disaster that could have been avoided. It is a disaster caused by terrible project management, coupled with corporate secrecy that has been its own worst enemy.

At this point of year, we await the latest set of lay-offs from Wizards of the Coast. For only the second time in my life, this is one set of lay-offs I'm looking forward to, hoping to see some of the incompetents responsible for this latest disaster going. (The second time? Indeed. The first time was when I hoped to see Randy Buehler laid off after his mismanagement of Gleemax; I was very happy to see that occur).

The sad thing is that the new CB isn't really that bad. I've been able to use it, as have many other people. Initial teething problems would have been forgiven if Wizards hadn't already spent their credibility in the months leading up to this.

But they did, and thus now this sorry situation.

Ultimately, it comes down to Wizards of the Coast deliberately deceiving us a couple of months ago when the September updates to the CB were missed. This was a deception forced by a disaster: their software team had not been able to finish the new online CB in time. I'm sure the timeline for the new CB was originally that it would be ready at the same time as the first Essentials books went on the shelves.

Let us look at the message they gave us in September:
"Unfortunately, we will not have a data update ready for the D&D Insider tools in September. The process of integrating the new changes from Dark Sun and Essentials is taking a bit longer than we expected, and we plan to update the Character Builder in early October. We will continue to keep you informed of any changes to the schedule, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

That states very clearly that the update will include Dark Sun and Essentials. It wasn't even ready in October, it was November we finally got it - and it wasn't an update to the existing program, it was an update to the new program. The statement possibly slides just on the side of honesty enough to keep Wizards out of legal trouble, but it reads differently in hindsight compared to how it was taken at the time.

Yes, this November release of the new CB should have occurred back in September, a disaster caused by the coding team not being good enough to fulfill the demands of the project's management team.

My sympathies lie with the coders. Writing a good CB is no easy task, especially when the ground rules keep shifting. Consider how wrong the Red Box is... now consider the different sets of rules the CB team would have to work with. That the new CB works as well as it does, even two months late and still buggy, is still something of an achievement.

Wizards have backed themselves into this corner because of their original (Randy Buelher) statements about what they wanted the DDi to achieve. His toxic legacy still lies across the D&D electronic tools. So much wasted effort went into Gleemax; we shudder to think of what might have been spent on the dead-before-arrival Game Table which was taken out and shot some time back. "Yes, you can have all this, and dancing girls too!" might have been a line from Wizards, as they were overly optimistic about what they could provide. (Incredibly, even a basic blogging site seemed beyond them). They then realised (correctly) that they shouldn't promise anything until it was ready. The Monster Builder was a wonderful surprise as a result.

However, the "don't promise something until it's ready" backfired spectacularly this time. It is quite obvious now that the Wizards coding team isn't really big enough to handle new projects at the same time as maintaining the old. In September, Wizards had the situation of...

* Character Builder version 2 wasn't ready,
* Character Builder version 1 couldn't be updated to Essentials because the team that would have done that were working on CB2
* They couldn't announce CB2 because it wasn't ready, by previous experience

They really did walk into that one.

Is this irreparable damage to D&D? I'd like to think not. However, they need to fix the problems with CB2 really, really quickly, and offer proper contrition. Wizards once had a great reservoir of good will: that reservoir is now dry, and they need to start doing good things again.

That's how I see the situation. Obviously, as I'm not omniscient, I might have things badly wrong, but I hope you find this post of some interest.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Let me jump in before the WoTC apologist get here.

1. Wizards never 'promised' us anything. Saying something on a message board isn't a promise.

2. We are not legally required to get monthly updates.

3. WoTC was giving too good of a deal. You couldn't honestly expect to be paying them cash for years and have all those dirty pirates stealing WoTC money could you?

4. Come on, you knew it was too good a deal.

5. WoTC was in a rock and a hard place. This is probably the best thing they could have done.

7. I don't know what you mean. I love the new CB! It works perfectly!

I'm sure I missed some but just getting those out of the way and off the table.

Mod Edit: I'm pretty disappointed by this post. I expect better from the members of ENWorld, especially somebody around as long as you have been, Joe. I believe we have the capacity to disagree without being so disagreeable. - Rel

 

[Flobby]

Haven't tried the new CB yet but why do you think Essentials a failure? I thought it was doing well(?)

 

[fba827]

eh, it's an interesting perspective (though i don't entirely agree with all of it - some of the things you've called failures or disasters have not appeared that way to me, though perhaps i am less invested in some aspects than other people).

and while i may question some business decisions, i try not to think too much about it because it just causes stress over questions that i don't fully know the answer to (WotC no doubt has many things going on behind their grand DM screen that we, as players, aren't privy to).

but, the way i see it, at the end of the day, the sky didn't fall, the world didn't end; i'm still able to play D&D and enjoy it. (no business plan, or lack thereof, can really change that)

 

[wedgeski]

I'm also a bit confused as to why you think Essentials was badly handled? Although I haven't purchased any Essentials products yet, my read of this community on the subject has been overwhelmingly positive. I'll be getting a couple of releases soon based on that alone. "Consider how wrong the Red Box is.."...huh?

I certainly considered Essentials a PR win for Wizards (not that I care terribly much about such things). The new CB, well, I haven't used it that much yet, but it seems it got released into the wild too early. With due apologies to JoeG, I have to say, the few chars I've created have all worked perfectly well.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Haven't tried the new CB yet but why do you think Essentials a failure? I thought it was doing well(?)

I am not sure what you are refering to - I think he talks about the differences between Red Box and the "actual" Essentials box and the fact that the Essentials weren't in the Character Builder at the normally scheduled time for such an update.

Let me jump in before the WoTC apologist get here.

Meh, I hate the term "WotC apologist".

The key thing is whether WotC produces something we (or you or anyone else) likes. For me, the new Online Builder isn't that. And that's the problem.
But I am not basing this on a "sense of entitlement" like "they have promised this" or "it is legally required to do so". Nor is the fact that they need to protect themselves against piracy a concern for me, or that it was always cheap.
They were probably caught between a rock and a hard place, but it wasn't my fault that they decided to switch to an online character builder and couldn't get it out in time.

I know what I want, and this software is further away from what I want then the old software was. Sure, I wanted Dark Sun support. Essential support is nice. But I wanted character building to stay a fun and enjoyable experience, and it's not, and it might not be for quite some time now until they fix all the issues.

At least I have an idea why they haven't come around to fix the www.wizards.com/dnd side for non-English users - they are busy squatting bugs in the CB. I kinda see that's more important.

 

[Imaro]

I am not sure what you are refering to - I think he talks about the differences between Red Box and the "actual" Essentials box and the fact that the Essentials weren't in the Character Builder at the normally scheduled time for such an update.

I believe he is referring to the fact that the red box is not compatible with the "essentials" line it was suppose to be an introductory to... at least not without a heavy dose of corrections. In a regular product for experienced roleplayers it might just be annoying, but I agree that in an introductory product meant for those brand new to the hobby, it is a fail.

EDIT: This is the major reason I started my son and nephew off with HotFL as opposed to two red boxes.

 

[Zaran]

I'm also a bit confused as to why you think Essentials was badly handled? Although I haven't purchased any Essentials products yet, my read of this community on the subject has been overwhelmingly positive. I'll be getting a couple of releases soon based on that alone. "Consider how wrong the Red Box is.."...huh?

He is talking about the fact that there are mistakes in some of the classes presented in the red box that did not make it into the other Essentials books. Like how magic missile has two targets.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Let me jump in before the WoTC apologist get here.

[...]

Blah blah blah.

Productive, really. Way to bring a lot to the discussion table.

Seriously, though - as one of these mystical "WotC apologists", I feel obligated to blow your mind and say that I understand the negativity directed towards Wizards. I just don't join in it, and tend to think people complain too much about pretty much everything - and this new CB, and Wizards handling of D&D as a whole, are no exception.

I'm the kind of guy who'd rather be happy about what I do have than complain about what I don't.

 

[jbear]

I have to share your sentiment at least Merric.

I could see this coming (the online CB) reading between a few of mudbunny's comments when a new and exciing web based tool was announced.

But I honestly thought that they could see the dangers that would arise, PR-wise, and hence they would release it with some cream and a cherry on top in the form of a new tool. This may be true, in so far as it is in the pipeline, to be announced in the future-as-near-as-possible, but that remains irrelevant today, because at the moment its no more than castles in the air.

I want DnD to have a long and healthy life. I like 4e and the changes come with it. Conceptually I like the refinements being made continually. I had the feeling 4e was beginning to receive some strongly positive public opinion, which I think is important and necessary. And when I saw the video of the online builder I thought, hey, sweet! It's going to be fast, user friendly ... a step up which I'm sure will assuage some of the rage.

And instead it's a mess. I haven't tried it because I don't currently have a subscription but just the reaction is so overwhelmingly negative even from fans of 4e and people as calm and level headed as PCat (jeesh!) that I don't need to.

I can stand back from it and see that it barely affects me. I've got a great tool and a life time's worth of gaming already. So nothing will change. But I do want the hobby to continue to grow. I do want 4e to continue to evolve. And such negative public opinion when WotC seemed to be finally turning the tide is very disappointing.

I hope they can pull this around. Staying on the fence ... but with my brow furrowed and my arms crossed waitng to see how this plays out.