Jester David
Hero
If you're using the numbers from the DDI group they don't change. That's not the current number of subscribers but the total number that have ever subscribed (and set-up their community account)
How many people subscribe to D&D stuff?
- Thread starter MerricB
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AbdulAlhazred
Legend
I think you can clearly see a progression in WotC's mastering of this whole equation over the 5 year life of 4e so far. At first they were selling splat books like Martial Power, just giant compendiums of powers and etc, 99% crunch, then they had DDI full of rather fluffy articles and such (there was a lot of crunch there too, but also a lot of fluff, history of this god or that country or etc).
The situation is almost reversed now. The books that have been put out for 4e recently include Heroes of the Feywild, Heroes of the Elemental Chaos, a drow book (with NO crunch), and various adventures and supplements. Meanwhile DDI is now the ONLY crunch delivery mechanism for 4e. There's still other stuff there, but its clear that WotC has discerned that the best equation is to sell you books full of art, ideas, some light crunch, but mostly fluff, which you cannot find in anything like the same quality and presentation on DDI, and which it is nice to be able to read from a book. Meanwhile the crunch goes right the heck into Compendium and skips even bothering with hardcopy that DDI cannibalizes anyway.
Of course 4e has aged over that time period as well, and other things have happened, but it certainly seems like WotC has been feeling its way towards a formula that would allow all its D&D products to fill different needs and not overlap too much. I think there are still some parts that IMHO have been missed, but some of that is technological too. PDF is a great format for people to download and read, but it is a horrible format to curate, and so far curation is DDI's one real failure, at least as far as anything beyond hard crunch goes (Compendium does that tolerably well).
Hussar
Legend
That is not true and has been verified. When your sub runs out, the DDI group number decreases by one.
Jester David
Hero
Has it ever dropped? Are there really over 17,000 more people subscribing to DDI each month than in 2011 when 4e was still being produced and the magazines were twice the size?
Obryn
Hero
I know it's unfathomable that 4e players still find DDI useful and that it's still attracting new players, but it seems to be so. Keep in mind - without new books, it's the only place for a 4e player to spend money.
As was mentioned above, the subscriber total has had small drops, but an overall upward trend.
-O
Jester David
Hero
True, but a 20% growth? When the benefit-to-cost ratio was at its lowest?
Storminator
First Post
Meh. My table has six subscriptions - which is one more than last year. That's 20% growth.
And I don't even read the articles.
PS
And I don't even read the articles.
PS
dd.stevenson
Super KY
Or to put it another way, the print books are no longer cannibalizing sales from DDI. Makes sense to me.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Meh. My table has six subscriptions - which is one more than last year. That's 20% growth.
And I don't even read the articles.
PS
Agreed, out of the 4 players in one group and 3 regulars in my other group, plus me, we have a total now of 3 active DDI subs that I know of, and I THINK one of the other people has one as well, but I'm not 100% sure. That's up from 5 players plus me with 2 subs total 3-4 years ago.
Remember, while some people may find DDI to be PUTTING OUT less stuff now, it has MORE STUFF EVERY YEAR, because nothing ever goes away. This is part of the reason I think the "magazine format" is kind of a mistake, it causes the wrong measuring stick to be used. It has good points too, but still. The other aspect is that there is a lot more stuff. 4 years ago you could just play and you had 3 core books and 2-3 supplements and a few Dragon articles. It wasn't hard to keep track of, and you could just build your character (and old CB didn't really require a subscription once you had it).
Come back now today and there's a vast array of stuff that CB and Compendium helps with, and a HUGE library of stuff on PDF in there from 5 years of Dragons and Dungeons, so why not sign up? Even if they DO put out a bunch less new articles every month you still have all that stuff to go through. (and yes, in theory you can download it all in a single month, good luck!). Overall I think it actually does make sense.
I'd also like to point out that there's no reason to believe that the number of people actively playing 4e has dwindled either. Surely as the game has become well-distributed and known the sales of books have fallen off. This is not at all related to how much the game is played. If you go to an Encounters or LA session there's plenty of people there. I have PLENTY of players available for both my online and offline groups. In fact I have more players right now than at any point except maybe one brief moment in 2008, but these are all ones that show up and play reliably every week. We buy far fewer books, more DDI, and play more than at any point in time. Its all anecdote, but I see no reason to believe that DDI should be smaller now than before or that it is a worse deal now than before. Quite the contrary.