Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[ggroy]

I'm in the same proverbial boat (without a paddle). I was looking forward to subscribing to use the CB, but I just can't do it with the reception it has gotten from the majority of users. Add that to the fact that HotFK isn't in yet and the final E-assasin is getting pretty badly trashed on the WotC boards as well... and I'm figuring this just isn't the month to start my subscription. It's also making me contemplate just stopping my purchases with the Heroes of books, DM Kit, RC and Monster Vault.

At the moment, I'm kinda glad I didn't buy any further 4EE titles other than the RC and "Heroes of the Fallen Lands" (HotFL). For an evening beer & pretzels pickup one-shot type game, the RC + HotFL would be ideal for short heroic tier level games with just pen and paper without DDI.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I share the overall feeling of disappointment with the new online CB (or CB2 as Merric put it, which I'll adopt).

Thinking back to the very first release of CB1, it...
* Took a long time to download.
* Crashed my computer several times as I tried to install .Net
* Was extremely limited.
* Had many bugs.

But all that said, when I finally got CB1 working, my thought was, "They've knocked this one out of the park." CB1 may have been clearly in larval form, but it was an awesome tool.

CB2 does not seem awesome to me, even in larval form. But, maybe my expectations have been raised by a long time using the CB1.

I'd be interested to hear what someone who had never used CB1 before thinks of CB2. Maybe he'd be as excited about CB2 as I was about CB1?

 

[Scribble]

I'm in a strange spot...

On the one hand I'm annoyed that the thing has as many bugs as it apparently has, and is missing as many features as it is...

On the other I'm excited by the potential the thing has.


I'm hoping for WoTC's sake if nothing else, that by next update they add at least:

Export
Inherent Bonuses
Grandmaster Training

They also need to up the number of saves. Especially since you apparently can't view the new CB characters at different levels...

I have a feeling that the fact that inherent bonuses are missing, as well as house ruled elements, means they are working on a DM side tool... If thats true it needs to come out quickly.

 

[Imaro]

I share the overall feeling of disappointment with the new online CB (or CB2 as Merric put it, which I'll adopt).

Thinking back to the very first release of CB1, it...
* Took a long time to download.
* Crashed my computer several times as I tried to install .Net
* Was extremely limited.
* Had many bugs.

But all that said, when I finally got CB1 working, my thought was, "They've knocked this one out of the park." CB1 may have been clearly in larval form, but it was an awesome tool.

CB2 does not seem awesome to me, even in larval form. But, maybe my expectations have been raised by a long time using the CB1.

I'd be interested to hear what someone who had never used CB1 before thinks of CB2. Maybe he'd be as excited about CB2 as I was about CB1?

And I think this herein lies WotC biggest problem with selling people on the new CB... no one wants to pay the same price for an inferior product. WotC is charging the same amount for replacing a tool they had gotten to a relative levelof stability and that much of their customer base had become use to and proficient in it's use... with something that is less.

IMO, it would have been a better marketing plan to announce it as a Beta product in a final "testing" stage that was free to use in order to log defects on it for a month than to release it the way they did.

 

[Imaro]

I'm in a strange spot...

On the one hand I'm annoyed that the thing has as many bugs as it apparently has, and is missing as many features as it is...

On the other I'm excited by the potential the thing has.


I'm hoping for WoTC's sake if nothing else, that by next update they add at least:

Export
Inherent Bonuses
Grandmaster Training

They also need to up the number of saves. Especially since you apparently can't view the new CB characters at different levels...

I have a feeling that the fact that inherent bonuses are missing, as well as house ruled elements, means they are working on a DM side tool... If thats true it needs to come out quickly.

Eh,potential is great and all but seriously, WotC needs to step their game up if they want people to pay for the "potential" their products have... At the end of roughly 2 + years of 4e/DDI we have exactly two tools (3 I guess if you count the Compendium)... the CB (which has been ultimately scraped) and a buggy MB... that's not impressive, and it doesn't instill faith in many as far as their ability to capitalize on potential.

 

[rjdafoe]

I have been thinking about this and reading about the classic cb.

It is of my opinion, when you look at everything that wizards has not been honest about essentials support in the old cb. I believe that this new cb is only there to protect their content. As I read about people taking apart the old cb and seeing support for what they said they were having a hard time with and then I read their statements and listen to their podcasts.

The hard part of what they were trying to do with the old cb was protecting their content.

Think about it for a moment. Programs that reside on your computer can talk to each other and share data. When it resides on your computer though it opened a hole for someone to intercept that data.

I believe that this is the only reason we are in the situation that we are in right now. Protect the content at all costs.

 

[webrunner]

I am usually a wizards apologist, but this is just too much.. I can't even import my players' characters as their stats are above some imaginary threshold (they rolled) and won't lock in and generate power cards as a result.

 

[Scribble]

Eh,potential is great and all but seriously, WotC needs to step their game up if they want people to pay for the "potential" their products have... At the end of roughly 2 + years of 4e/DDI we have exactly two tools (3 I guess if you count the Compendium)... the CB (which has been ultimately scraped) and a buggy MB... that's not impressive, and it doesn't instill faith in many as far as their ability to capitalize on potential.

Eh... I'm not upset really that they haven't come out with a lot of tools in DDI...

Well Maybe that's not the right wording... I'm upset from a "bummer" perspective...

But not from a feel like I've been ripped off perspective. All in all I find the DDI to be pretty inexpensive for what it IS...

I'm not upset about the online only shift, but I AM annoyed at the removal of other features, and I want them added back.

If they add them back, I'll be for the most part happy with what I have again, and hoping to see more soon.

(I do, as I said have a feeling why some of the features are are missing...)

 

[jbear]

Well, I certainly didn't find it "new and exciting" to have a character builder, but online.

Maybe mudbunny (or rather WotC) overestimated the number of Mac users that couldn't use the CB or something. I mean, they sure were vocal in their dislike of it, and if I was a Mac-Only user, I'd want a CB, too (and probably wouldn't pay for DDI without it). But it doesn't do anything for a PC user, and there is a new subset of players that now can no longer benefit from the CB - anyone that used the CB in an "internet-free" environment. Fixing a long-standing systematic problem by introducing a new systematic problem is not really satisfying on the "new and exciting" scale.

That it's not really ready for prime time is another problem.

Sorry, I don't think I expressed myself clearly or accurately. I actually agree with you whole heartedly.

What I meant to express was this: When WotC announced they were releasing a new and exciting web based tool and mudbunny commented on a few of other poster enquiries and theories, I read in between the lines that the CB was going fully web based. I didn't think this would qualify for something either new or exciting either. In fact I was pretty sure they would have to be aware that lots of their customers were likely going to have their nose put out of joint by that. Which lead me to think they must intend to deliver it with another tool, the cream with cherry on top that would make the announcement of a web based CB less controversial, something that would qualify the announcement as new and exciting.

This didn't happen. And now this.

That was what I meant, which is along the lines of what you said. Hope that clears up my meaning a little.

 

[Imaro]

Eh... I'm not upset really that they haven't come out with a lot of tools in DDI...

Well Maybe that's not the right wording... I'm upset from a "bummer" perspective...

But not from a feel like I've been ripped off perspective. All in all I find the DDI to be pretty inexpensive for what it IS...

I'm not upset about the online only shift, but I AM annoyed at the removal of other features, and I want them added back.

If they add them back, I'll be for the most part happy with what I have again, and hoping to see more soon.

(I do, as I said have a feeling why some of the features are are missing...)

Well I wasn't talking about you, you've made it quite clear that in general you've been pretty happy with WotC, their practices and their products for awhile now... but there are quite a few who don't feel this way and I was just giving some reasons why.