DDI 1/18 Update Delayed

[Mengu]

It's a pretty usual procedure in software QA, though: someone opens a bug, a software developer fixes it, and a tester decides whether this bug can be closed or has to be re-opened. Your process description gives you a quota of re-opened bugs to be tolerated. If you exceed this quota, the Lead Test Engineer won't sign the release off.

I guess it depends on how much you need to respect your deadline. For instance close to the release date, our QA/Dev/Support managers will go through open issues, and push stuff that can't be closed in a timely matter to the next release. We finish up the more trivial stuff and get the release out. When you're making regular releases, postponing of some features and fixes is often better than missing your deadline.

But it's worth noting, I don't consider a couple days delay to exactly be missing your deadline, especially in small scale software like this, so if they make the release this week, it's no big deal. I just don't know why they feel they need to make excuses.

Every now and then I'll get emails about some of the updates to products I use that get delayed. They never give me excuses. They just say, the release of such and such has been delayed for 3 weeks, the new release date is X/Y/Z. I don't look for message boards to complain about the delay, or demand reasons.

But I know... Gaming is serious business.

 

[moxcamel]

/more snark

I'm sure they have office assistants designing the new character builder and not software development professionals.

Snark guuud. I'm sure WotC have hired some very talented software engineers, actually. If you take the new CB for example (and setting aside the debate on whether it was a good idea or not), it's missing a lot of features and there's some criticisms to be leveled at some of their design decisions, but for a v1.0 product it's actually pretty decent, especially when compared to the first release of the original character builder.

But for all that, the software engineering talent pool (good as it may be) at WotC is a drop in the bucket compared to the talent pool available in the community. If WotC were smart, they'd put their in-house talents into producing an API that could then be leveraged by hundreds (thousands?) of talented programmers that WotC could never afford to leverage otherwise.

What you'd wind up with would be more than just everybody and his brother's character builders. You'd also see people develop Facebook apps, Wordpress plugins, iPhone and Android apps, and applications we haven't even thought of yet.

WotC are never going to develop a Wordpress or Twitter plugin because they don't have the manpower for it. But if they just put all their efforts into an API, and even license it as they see fit, they'd have access to coverage they'd never have been able to pull off by themselves. Then they wouldn't have to worry about keeping a big team of software developers, and could instead focus on their core strength of game and world design.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Perhaps he is just happy to see you? As in "where is smoke there is fire" or "where is snark there is Kushner"?
I have certainly reached the point where i couldn't imagine threads like this without your contribution.

I like it.

"Where there is snark, there is Kushner." I can't xp Keefe. Can someone take care of that for me?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Do you have a DDI subscription, Joe? Have you been dissatisfied with the current level of service? Have you requested a refund for the months in which you feel they have forced their customers to engage in 'beta testing'? If not, you may want to pursue one - WotC has been pretty forthcoming with providing them to those who are dissatisfied.

All I know is that the online CB has issues, but does get the job done. During the months that it didn't, WotC provided me with refunds when I requested them.

Yes, they've botched a lot of things with the release and the program itself. But they haven't really forced anyone to pay to beta-test stuff - if you genuinely don't feel like the service has been acceptable, you can get a refund or cancel your subscription entirely.

I let mine run out the month they switched over. I got about two weeks of play time and decide I wasn't paying for beta testing and Dragon and Dungeon are not worth the subscription.

I keep waiting to hear how AWESOME the new one is.

Outside of a few very recent Dragon articles, still waiting.
And hey, the way I used to download the articles, the whole issue, yeah, that's gone too. Less incentive I'm afraid.

I would love to hear that WoTC is on top of this. That this product, that people are paying for, is top notch. That it is content rich. that it has many exclusives. That is is quickly updated and has an interface that is easy to us, organize, customize, etc...

So far I haven't renewed.

 

[malraux]

I let mine run out the month they switched over. I got about two weeks of play time and decide I wasn't paying for beta testing and Dragon and Dungeon are not worth the subscription.

I keep waiting to hear how AWESOME the new one is.

Outside of a few very recent Dragon articles, still waiting.
And hey, the way I used to download the articles, the whole issue, yeah, that's gone too. Less incentive I'm afraid.

I would love to hear that WoTC is on top of this. That this product, that people are paying for, is top notch. That it is content rich. that it has many exclusives. That is is quickly updated and has an interface that is easy to us, organize, customize, etc...

So far I haven't renewed.

Welcome to my boat. Just about any good news would get me to renew. A working Monster Builder that supports any of the features asked of it since it was released, good reviews of the character builder, lots of new content in the compendium, heck, if they still had the monthly articles "bound" in a single PDF I'd re-subscribe.

 

[the Jester]

Edit: Meh, removing "don't be a douchebag" comment. I see Rel already made the point.

Is there any word on the damn Monster Builder yet?

 

[renau1g]

Is there any word on the damn Monster Builder yet?

They mentioned that they'll announce something soon-ish.

"We also have the web-based Adventure Tools beta that we’re still working on – expect to hear more news on this in the coming weeks."

Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible

 

[fanboy2000]

if they make the release this week, it's no big deal. I just don't know why they feel they need to make excuses.

The reason their making excuses is because there are many people who want them to make excuses. There have been many, many, threads and posts where people complain that Wizards doesn't communicate enough. In fact, there was a post up thread that said "I applaud them for being frank about it, finally."

Every now and then I'll get emails about some of the updates to products I use that get delayed. They never give me excuses. They just say, the release of such and such has been delayed for 3 weeks, the new release date is X/Y/Z. I don't look for message boards to complain about the delay, or demand reasons.

Of course, some people do. Personally, I don't care if they give me a reason or an excuse. But I understand why they did so.

 

[MrMyth]

I let mine run out the month they switched over. I got about two weeks of play time and decide I wasn't paying for beta testing and Dragon and Dungeon are not worth the subscription.

I keep waiting to hear how AWESOME the new one is.

Yeah, I'm guessing it will still be several months before it really surpasses the old one. I think the potential is there, and it has gained some nice features - the excellent search/filter - to make up for what it lost. But some key features still are absent, and there are quite a few bug fixes to go.

They managed to fix a bunch today, I think - but I haven't had a chance to actually try it out since. So I'm not sure if they addressed the two biggest ones - the abysmal print times (due to Silverlight) and the slowness of the web interface in adjusting ability scores and similar areas.

 

[malraux]

So I'm not sure if they addressed the two biggest ones - the abysmal print times (due to Silverlight) and the slowness of the web interface in adjusting ability scores and similar areas.

I'm not sure either of those are fixable though.