DDI Monster Builder

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

That you have to keep paying for. That is something I ain't ever gonna do.

Turning DnD into a subscription service has been a goal for most of 4th Edition. This model isn't a good or bad thing, it's just a thing.

Personally, I'd prefer a microtransacton structure. Want access to MM3 or Psionic Power, pay X amount and your electronic tools (character builder, monster builder, compendium) have access to it. Several MMOs have gone this route (here is the tool, to do anything you'll need to spend some money). It's essentialy the way the books work. Pay $30 bucks and you own it unless WotC ninjas come for it on a night with no moon. Is that Rodney Thompson and Mike Mearls outside your window?

One bonus / pitfall of the subscription only model is that WotC can discontinue it at any time. If they ever produce a 5th Edition, I would expect that access to the 4th Edition online tools suite to be phased out.

 

[the Jester]

I would argue that if you don't think the Compendium, Character Builder, magazine content, and beta access are worth $6 a month, you're probably not the perfect target audience.

Actually, if the CB was worthwhile to my group (it's not, because of its inability to let you homebrew anything) I would resubscribe. If the magazines had a meaningful amount of content I would resubscribe. But I won't pay for a beta, and the Compendium is of limited usefulness to me since we don't have Internet access at the table. It's okay for prepping, but not compelling; I like to page through the books and read random bits as I look for just the right monster or seed for an adventure.

A good MB would sell me in a red hot second, but it has to be able to actually build monsters. Also, I have to be able to save or export them to my hard drive. Also, I need to be able to paste them in an Open Office document. If the MB doesn't accomplish these three things, it is essentially useless to me- I can't use it to make monsters for my adventures without it being more of a pain in the ass than it is to do them 'by hand'.

I say I'm their perfect target customer because I have an almost full collection of 4e books, am eager to spend what disposable income I have on products for my game and am actively looking for a reason to resubscribe... and god damn it, I can't find one. So instead I do stuff like buy colored pipe cleaners that we can use to make zones out of, or consider buying a mold so I can build some terrain. That $6 a month is a very tiny drop of cash, but it has been about 9 months since I got my money's worth. (My sub expired in February.) I'm not willing to throw my money away or to reward a horrendous decrease in quality.

I suppose if DDI hadn't been doing so well, many people might be less outraged. I know that's part of the issue for me- a combination of misleading statements sometimes verging on outright lies coming from WotC since the Essentials update fiasco (which was actually a new CB entirely, one that basically didn't work at all at the time) and the replacement of quality tools, articles and content with seriously inferior quality and quantity.

For the same price. With very little sign of improvement- just a bunch more misleading statements about the new Monster Builder leading to yet another round of disappointment.

Many many many of us keep saying the same thing: Give it to us straight, WotC. Stop shoveling crap about how the new MB will build monsters when it won't. Stop sending us misleading information that just pisses everyone off. Good communication would go miles towards mollifying the customers you are driving away with this stuff.

 

[the Jester]

Turning DnD into a subscription service has been a goal for most of 4th Edition. This model isn't a good or bad thing, it's just a thing.

Well, it might not be a good or bad thing for WotC, but it's a terrible thing for gamers that use it instead of books.

Eventually, there may come a 5e, in which case all the online 4e stuff will go away. Sucks to be mid-campaign and no longer have access to things like, you know, powers, monsters, items, rituals, feats, etc.

I don't know how this can be "not a bad thing" for the poor guys in that campaign. Sure, you can say, "Shoulda bought them books, shouldntchahave?", but that doesn't address the fact that some groups "buy in" via subscription only.

Imagine those guys when DDI 4e gets cut off. Talk about firing your customers! Where's their motivation to ever play D&D again? They can't finish their campaign, they can either start over (learning curve, higher sub fee?) or just pick up a board game or something.

 

[IanB]

The only real thing they did wrong with this is mischaracterizing it as a launch instead of a feature-incomplete beta, IMO.

 

[malraux]

A good MB would sell me in a red hot second, but it has to be able to actually build monsters. Also, I have to be able to save or export them to my hard drive. Also, I need to be able to paste them in an Open Office document. If the MB doesn't accomplish these three things, it is essentially useless to me- I can't use it to make monsters for my adventures without it being more of a pain in the ass than it is to do them 'by hand'.

I say I'm their perfect target customer because I have an almost full collection of 4e books, am eager to spend what disposable income I have on products for my game and am actively looking for a reason to resubscribe... and god damn it, I can't find one.

That's me in a nutshell. The money isn't all that important, its the absolutely abysmal decrease in quality in the tools that I use that has kept me from re-subscribing.

This also helps justify my idea that the VTT as a primary goal for DDI was a horrible choice. all the software resources for the last 2 years have been sunk into the VTT and its still not in a usable state.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Jeez as an ex-subscriber I got the email, still can't find a way to unsubscribe (need to klog in to unsubscribe, but I no longer have an account so cannot log in... pretty indicative of WotCs online skills) so was interested to see a review but "Users at this time are not able to add, edit, or remove powers, traits, stat blocks, saving throws, action points, skills, languages, alignment, equipment, or perception." That is not a monster builder. And in no way did the email say anything that this is a BETA. So it is either a PR/release cock up of huge proportions or just a reactive BETA tag cos it is so poor


Glad to be an ex-subscriber. Call me in a few years when (if) they have this sorted out!

 

[nnms]

Eventually, there may come a 5e, in which case all the online 4e stuff will go away. Sucks to be mid-campaign and no longer have access to things like, you know, powers, monsters, items, rituals, feats, etc.

That would be so terrible.

I know that in the pirate scene, there's a well developed process for scraping the compendium and constructing an offline local backup. But since that's a violation of the EULA for a DDI account, it's obviously not a real solution.

My own solution has been to make my own back up documents in a non automated process. Each day, as part of my hobby reading time, I pull some new stuff up in the compendium and save it to a local document.

Assuming the compendium doesn't go away in the next few months, I imagine I'm going to have a pretty good set of documents to support me in playing 4E for a long, long time.

And it's fun to read things that weren't on my radar because they were in some old dragon article or something.

 

[Stoat]

This also helps justify my idea that the VTT as a primary goal for DDI was a horrible choice. all the software resources for the last 2 years have been sunk into the VTT and its still not in a usable state.

Is that true? I was under the impression that the VTT was usable, just still in beta.

 

[malraux]

Is that true? I was under the impression that the VTT was usable, just still in beta.

Isn't it still in limited access only?

 

[Stoat]

Isn't it still in limited access only?

As far as I know, yes. It's in a limited access beta. But also as far as I know, the beta VTT works, which is all I mean by usable.

I pulled up the online "monster builder" at home on my lunch break, and I was unimpressed. It isn't a builder, and they ought to be ashamed of it.