As far as downloading vrs accessing a library I guess it's a personal taste thing in what you feel comfortable paying for. I pay for library access in other ways, Zune, Netflix... For me- the ability to access a huge library is worth it, for others it's not.
If you think the change in the way the CB works reduces the value, I'm curious, since the library is essentially updated each month with more and more stuff- could you ever see it being more valuable again?
To me it does slightly reduce the value (since you are effectively renting rather than paying a mortgage, you have nothing to show for it at the end), but as an issue it is hardly worth mentioning, since if I considered the D&DI worth it I'd be subscribing every month anyway.
I see lots in this thread that echoes my feelings, but this specific point I see deprecated a fair amount and it matters to me
a lot, so I just want to try to explain why.
Bagpuss says "if I considered the D&DI worth it I'd be subscribing every month anyway"; I agree, and I did subscribe for two years straight. But it's not purely about whether or not I subscribe with the new model - WotC has to "subscribe", too. That is the issue for me - and it's perhaps most easily seen as one of control.
With the new scheme, Wizards has just about
all of the control. In part they have valid reason to want it - "it is their IP" they would say. But - (a) all of that IP is published in any case, in books, so it's not "hidden" IP in the sense that the workings of some clever software might be, and (b) it relates to a "moving" product brand that should need to stand on its own merits with the customer, rather than be force-fed by denying support tools to it if the customer feels they (Wizards) have lost the plot as the brand develops.
Consider: if WotC change the direction of the brand in some way you don't like (Essentials is proof that this can happen, even though I like much of what they have done with it), or "upgrade" the brand in a major way (to 5E, for example), or decide to stop offering support tools for the brand - or even just decide that the price needs to double - then, with the CBC, you have an "opt-out" available. With the new CB, you dont - although, of course, you "can always do it with pencil and paper, like we did back in the day". Yeah - I can also give up spectacles and thus no longer be able to drive or work like they did "back in the day" - forgive me if it doesn't appeal.
In accounting practice, a product that will continue to give utility into the future is naturally considered more valuable than one that doesn't. This is not just because you won't need to pay for it again in the future - it's because of the increased security it offers. If, for whatever reason, the product becomes unavailable next year, a lasting product will make you immune to that risk. I value the time I spend playing RPGs; my friends and I invest a lot of valuable time in rpg campaigns. To have one disrupted part-way through would be a bad experience. The offline CB insures us against that. The web-CB doesn't.
On top of all that there is one more, admittedly rather ephemeral, consideration, which is what this says about the confidence of WotC. Large organisations - be they corporations, governments or whatever - are usually most trustworthy when they permit their customers, citizens or what-have-you the maximum of freedom they can allow. With the new CB (and MB, assuming it's web-based), Wizards will impose their vision of "how D&D should be" on the tools as well as the rules, so that any who want to continue to use the brand with convenience will have to "toe the line". This seems to me to bespeak a lack of confidence - the simple need to control not only what the "official" version is but whether or not any other version can be supported seems to suggest a lack of trust that their vision will be seen as "the best". A company that gives me, the customer, the control - the ability to take what I want and leave what I don't, instead of trying to tie the whole thing up as a "package deal" - gives me far more confidence that
they believe in what they are producing. If they are happy to give
me the tools, to give
me control, and
trust that what they offer is good enough that I will want it all - I am far more happy to give them my unreserved (and unforced!) support than if they try to claim that "if you're not with us, you're against us". So my message to WotC is trust your
paying customers, and trust your product; you don't need to tie it all up to get us to swallow it, and if you did it wouldn't help, anyway.
As for the pirates - don't let them dictate how you do business. Prosecute them where you can, and use the advantages you have as the originator of the core rules to offer a better product than they ever will. Other than that, they really are not worth your time.
