How Wizards of the Coast Could Slay in Profit

[Matt James]

Have you looked at the virtual table recently? When creating a campaign you can select which edition you are running, to include "other"...

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It gives me hope.

 

[Umbran]

The costs are negligible when considering the benefit.

Well, that depends what you mean by "DDI support".

If you mean, "Provide searchable, well bookmarked, high quality pdf copies of old content downloadable through DDI", then the costs aren't exactly negligible, but the benefits may outweigh the costs.

If you mean, "Provide all the same functionality for all editions that DDI currently gives to 4e," then you're probably wrong. The thing you miss is that things like character building are not just publishing content in static form - there's a layer of rules-dependent logic, and different mechanics for each game to deal with. And that means coding, and coding means testing, and now you're talking a notable development effort for each edition supported. That is not a negligible cost.

 

[D'karr]

I'd love them to SLAY in profit. That would be a very Conanesque thing to do.

 

[Matt James]

Well, that depends what you mean by "DDI support".

If you mean, "Provide searchable, well bookmarked, high quality pdf copies of old content downloadable through DDI", then the costs aren't exactly negligible, but the benefits may outweigh the costs.

If you mean, "Provide all the same functionality for all editions that DDI currently gives to 4e," then you're probably wrong. The thing you miss is that things like character building are not just publishing content in static form - there's a layer of rules-dependent logic, and different mechanics for each game to deal with. And that means coding, and coding means testing, and now you're talking a notable development effort for each edition supported. That is not a negligible cost.

I'm just talking about article support.

 

[Falstaff]

I'm an old school gamer. I'm 41 and have been gaming since I was 9 (started with Star Frontiers). If I play D&D it is with my AD&D books and notes.

However, even if WotC added all the old stuff to D&D Insider, I still wouldn't join.

 

[Matt James]

I'm an old school gamer. I'm 41 and have been gaming since I was 9 (started with Star Frontiers). If I play D&D it is with my AD&D books and notes.

However, even if WotC added all the old stuff to D&D Insider, I still wouldn't join.

Curious, what brings you to EN World?

 

[El Mahdi]

I don't think Pathfinder fans will move on...

Why would they need to move on...? WotC can support Pathfinder on DDI also. I think there'd be a lot of Pathfinder Players and GM's that would be interested in a 4E'esque Character Builder, Monster/NPC Builder, and Encounter Builder with rules support for the Virtual Table Top. They just wouldn't be able to use Golarion without an agreement with Paizo. Is there an online resource that bundles all those functions in one place and does it with the completeness that DDI does for 4E...?

Pathfinder is OGL after all, and 95% of it was created by WotC in the first place...

 

[Falstaff]

Curious, what brings you to EN World?

To see what ridiculous stuff other gamers are talking about, of course.

 

[El Mahdi]

I'm just talking about article support.

I don't think support that was limited to only articles would do the trick. It would have to be rules support. Compendiums, Character Builders, Monster/NPC Builders, Encounter Builders, and VTT support.

Otherwise I really don't see it being worth the trouble. Even right now, I keep reading how 4E players are seriously divided on the articles content of Dragon and Dungeon. The only thing that seems to universally grab them is the 4E play support products.

I think it would be the same for players of other editions also.

 

[Incenjucar]

Sadly, I can't see it working.

Yep. You only get profit after factoring in cost, and the cost of getting the old editions running again would pop the profit like a minion in a lava pit. WotC can't even manage to keep the pagecounts up on one edition's worth of books.