WotC's D&D Virtual Table Cancelled

Fifth Element · Jul 13, 2012

Hussar said:
Sorry, stupid question, but, what is an "api"?

Iosue · Jul 13, 2012

mudbunny said:
They did. Originally, they had it completely contracted out to a company called Radiant Machine. They did not provide anything useful and, from what I have been able to determine, WotC ended up scrapping everything that they did and starting over, completely in-house. That provided the Compendium, Character Builder and Monster Builder.

At some point in time, WotC realized that they could not put out a VT solely with in-house programmers. Thus, they went to GameTable Online and licensed their platform for the VT. They grabbed it and did a fair number of modifications to allow the VT to pull data directly from the cloud saves from the CB and MB, as well as macros derived from the powers that the monsters and PCs had.

They then recently (I would guess between a month and 2 weeks ago) decided that the number of users actually using the VT wasn't enough for WotC to continue to devote man-hours on attempting to bring it out of beta, so they decided to cancel it.

Precisely. The issue with the VTT was not just the tabletop interface, per se. That worked pretty well in the Beta. The problem came in trying to seamlessly integrate it into the Character and Monster Builders, which is really what the main draw of any official DDI VTT would be.

Then there's the issue of getting their server capacity up to speed. Given what happened with something as relatively straightforward as the playtest download, I'm guessing they never had the ability to run a full version of the VTT at the levels they wanted.

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 13, 2012

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D'karr · Jul 13, 2012

When the first VTT for D&D was announced I was excited. Not because it was a VTT, but because it looked like they were working on a 3D VTT. Something new in that respect.

When the Beta VTT came out, I was much less excited. The major advantage of the Beta one was that it worked right out of the gate, without resorting to convoluted client/server side configuration changes to routers, etc. Besides that, there was nothing spectacular about the VTT. When the VTT went 2D my enthusiasm for it went south. The fact that it was several years late was also not a big selling point.

I used the VTT twice to test it out, but free VTTs out there already did a lot more than this one did. Just the Fog of War and Lighting effects in MapTools were a bigger selling point than most of the "features" of the Beta. The lack of support of user created maps and tokens was simply another nail in the coffin for my enthusiasm. Since the original Beta did not even have support for characters and monsters from DDI it was a complete waste of time. I understand it was a Beta, but there were so many features "missing" that it had no "hook" to keep me even mildly interested.

I'm not sad to see it go, but I was never very excited about it in its current "gimped" form.

hemera · Jul 13, 2012

I was excited for this feature when I first signed up for a DDI subscription. Of course it wasn't available for the longest time, and by the time it was both of my groups had abandoned 4th (mostly, we do use it to play amethyst in one group). And then it dies in beta before most of the useful features could even be added to it to even be considered as a useful tool for your group.

I didn't mind the original character generator you downloaded. It was kind of slow, but it worked. The original dragon and dungeon articles were frequent and lengthy. Sure I didn't care for every one of them, but I never did when it was published either. I don't care for every article in Wired either. I'm a bit worried with the death of this tool, combined with the decline in quality of the other online services for the outlook of ANY digital offerings they may have in the next/5e generation.

mudbunny · Jul 13, 2012

darjr said:
I thought this already existed? Isn't it how some of the 3pp projects out there now use it? Doesn't Masterplan use it?

It's been a long while since I played 4e or used masterplan but I was sure it used something like this.

There used to be an API for one of the earlier incarnations of the DDI compendium that people could use. I do not know if MP uses the API in its current configuration, or if the current Compendium still has the same API tools available.

What I would like to see for the Next version of DDI is something a lot more detailed.

Compendium - API that allows you to call up information, run searches (perhaps slowed so that external users cannot overwhelm and unintentionally DDOS the server, or on a separate server), etc.

Monster Builder and Character Builder - On the DDI website, very basic, bare-bones builders. No fuss, no muss, but also no flashy bits or anything. However, it would also have a detailed API attached to it so that external websites could also access it and run their own character builder which pulls the information from the DDI builder.

Note, in both of the above cases, people would still require a DDI subscription to use the external site, and the external site would require their application to be designed in way such that it does not negatively affect the servers by accessing the APIs inappropriately, etc.

Basically, have WotC provide the data as well as very basic tools, but allow for other sites to provide a deeper experience.

Uller · Jul 13, 2012

mudbunny said:
Basically, have WotC provide the data as well as very basic tools, but allow for other sites to provide a deeper experience.

Right. Let WotC do what WotC does well...provide D&D 4e content. Let 3rd parties provide tools and applications to access that content.

I have been enjoying my DDI subscription immensely because the VT is integrated with it. If WotC can't make this work with gametableonline then I will let my DDI subscription expire.

renau1g · Jul 13, 2012

Uller said:
Right. Let WotC do what WotC does well...provide D&D 4e content. Let 3rd parties provide tools and applications to access that content.

I have been enjoying my DDI subscription immensely because the VT is integrated with it. If WotC can't make this work with gametableonline then I will let my DDI subscription expire.

I liked their 3.xe model of just handling rules and letting someone else handle Dungeon/Dragon but sadly that ship has long sailed.

I wish they'd leverage their IP more though, they should be able to make a solid RPG game out of the material available ala Baldur's Gate (which I can't wait to get on Ipad)

wbcreighton · Jul 14, 2012

avin said:
I would license it to a solid established tabletop company, like Fantasy Grounds, and get a part of the package's selling.

"Official D&D support", not the model Wotc tried so far.

Agreed. Of course the community of FG users has come up with a way to use the information that you access with your DDI account in the FG VTT, and play DnD 4e.

They are running a virtual convention next weekend July20-22 where you can try out the program for free.

Convention details - Fantasy Grounds Message Boards