D&D 5E Should I bother to subscribe to DDI if 5e is coming?

[zoroaster100]

Hearing that the online character generator continues improvement and that the monster generation is finally approaching useability, and with the updating of more monsters to the new math on DDI articles, I was strongly considering finally coming back to DDI and subscribing again.

But then I heard that 5e was thought to be in the works. My concern is that if WOTC launches 5e, they will immediately take down the current 4e character generator and monster generator to try to force customers to switch to 5e, and my subscription will become near-useless if I want to stay with 4e.

 

[Shroomy]

It's not like 5e is coming out tomorrow.

 

[zoroaster100]

No, but I was thinking of starting up a group again, as DM, and I don't want to invest a lot of time and energy into learning the new tools and loading characters and monsters into the tools to run a 4e campaign only to find out half way through the campaign that the tools will be yanked from me because WOTC decides to put out a new edition.

 

[blalien]

I can guarantee you that D&D 5e will not even be announced until at least 2013, and that's being generous. Most likely 5e will be released around 2015.

And when D&D 4e was released, Wizards did not remove their content supporting 3.5.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

next time someone says there is no harm in speculating... remember this.

Infact if you really dislike a company enough to really want to see them fail in this buisness... start a good rumor of a new edtion.

 

[WalterKovacs]

There is always a chance, but you will hear about the launch of 5e with plenty of time to find a solution. Odds are, they won't want a repeat of 4e from the online tools perspective, so they would probably want to leverage the existing system to save time on developing. Whether or not they cut off access to the old stuff is questionable, but it would be a bit of a bad move on their part. If they wanted to, they could just keep the old stuff up and running without needing to do any more upgrading, and just keep charging a low subscription fee (or a one time 'permanent' access payment, or making it free with a sub to the 5e DDi, etc).

But, basically, 5e would need to be hyped before release, so there would be plenty of lead time to know when it is coming out. There is still 4e products scheduled to the end of the year, and more titles in the future that don't have firm dates like Elemental Heroes, etc. Gen Con is generally when they announce stuff, so next summer would likely be the first inkling of something new coming out, and even then, it would be a while more after that.

So, it's up to you how long you expect to run, etc. No mtter what happens, there will always be another edition in the horizon in a long enough term. But you are assuming that (a) 5e is coming soon, (b) the 4e tools will be removed when 5e comes out, and very soon after, etc.

 

[drothgery]

I can guarantee you that D&D 5e will not even be announced until at least 2013

No one -- not even WotC insiders -- could possibly make such a guarantee; there's still more than enough time for Hasbro to fire the current D&D execs, hire new people, and direct them to make 5e for a 2013 launch (particularly if 5e were '4.5' all but in name). It's extremely unlikley 5e will be announced before GenCon 2012 because WotC almost always makes major D&D announcments at GenCon, but projecting beyond that? We're already farther out from the 4e launch than 3.5 was, and I think it's fair to say that all the high-volume 4e supplements have already been released.

 

[Jack99]

I doubt that WotC will drop the current DDI just because 5e comes out. They know that making a new edition loses them customers, because they stay with the old edition. By keeping the DDI up and running, they might lose some more, but they also ensure a steady revenue from those players, something they have been unable to do with prior edition changes.

 

[Dannager]

Hearing that the online character generator continues improvement and that the monster generation is finally approaching useability, and with the updating of more monsters to the new math on DDI articles, I was strongly considering finally coming back to DDI and subscribing again.

But then I heard that 5e was thought to be in the works. My concern is that if WOTC launches 5e, they will immediately take down the current 4e character generator and monster generator to try to force customers to switch to 5e, and my subscription will become near-useless if I want to stay with 4e.

5e, even if it's under development now, won't come out for years in all likelihood. If you'd rather not play D&D for years while you wait for 5e, go for it. If, however, you would like to play D&D for the next couple of years, subscribe already.

If you go looking for reasons not to do something, you'll always find one.

 

[Nikosandros]

5e, even if it's under development now, won't come out for years in all likelihood. If you'd rather not play D&D for years while you wait for 5e, go for it. If, however, you would like to play D&D for the next couple of years, subscribe already.

If you go looking for reasons not to do something, you'll always find one.

Indeed. Even if 5e were to come out in a year (something that I consider ludicrously unlikely), you'd have one full year in which to enjoy the game and your subscription. Besides, if you're running 4e, a subscription to DDI is, IMO, a very good idea. I have several issues with the CB and the MB, but they are still useful applications, many of the PDf articles coming out are well done and the Compendium is a really great resource.