D&D 5E Are You Planning on Subscribing to D&D Beyond

[cbwjm]

If you don't want electronic aids for your table, then it also seems odd to exclaim in lofty tones that you're not going to buy any; I don't go around crowing about the fact that I don't use a projector at my table.

You find it odd that in a thread asking if you intend to subscribe to a service that people who answer no are mentioning it in the thread?

 

[Charles Rampant]

You find it odd that in a thread asking if you intend to subscribe to a service that people who answer no are mentioning it in the thread?

Yeah, you're right. I was making a point that really didn't need to be made! I think that I mentally assumed I was in the other thread on this same topic. My bad.

 

[Obryn]

I'm surprised that people are so enraged by the concept that electronic tools would cost money.

That's not remotely what I'm saying. A paid subscription model is a workable way to go about a service like this.

I am saying the price point is absurd, particularly when I compare/contrast what we got with DDI.

You're pretty much right up until the last sentence. For me, with the $6 tier, I'm gifting and allowing access to my players who otherwise cannot afford the books on their own, like my player who is on disability and raising his 12 year old sister on his own.

I will grant that the tier where you can share everything is a much better deal than the rest, in relative terms.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I am saying the price point is absurd, particularly when I compare/contrast what we got with DDI.

Yeah, and there were metric tons of people saying that what they had to pay for DDI was absurd as well. So your complaints about the price are no more valid or invalid as anyone else's.

The thing that makes me roll me eyes me in all of this are the people who are TRYING to act all self-righteous when they make statements like because of the pricing, WotC is creating a "culture" of piracy. That they don't WANT to pirate anything... that they'd LIKE to be reasonable and pay a reasonable price... but WotC is basically FORCING people to pirate their materials because they won't release them for a reasonable price.

You know what? Just shut the hell up. If you want to pirate the material because you want the material in the format for which you want them material, THEN JUST DO IT. Grow a pair and pirate it. Take what you want in the manner you want it.

But don't then turn around and act like some southern belle waving a fan in front of her face saying "Oh my goodness, I'm so FLUSH!" because you want us to not think bad about you for doing it because heavens to be it's not YOUR fault you did it! You HAD to do it because it was the only way! You behaved poorly because it's the CULTURE that WotC has created! You'd NEVER behave in such an uncouth manner ordinarily, but this time you had NO CHOICE! WotC won't be REASONABLE!

Just stop. All of you sound like idiots when you use that as the reason why your opinion that the price should be lower is the correct one. Again, your opinions are no more valid or invalid as anyone else's. So if you want PDFs or any other D&D crap and don't want to pay what these companies charge, then just pirate the material and accept the fact you are stealing it. Accept it, become okay with it, and stop trying to bullschtick us.

 

[Charles Rampant]

That's not remotely what I'm saying. A paid subscription model is a workable way to go about a service like this.

I am saying the price point is absurd, particularly when I compare/contrast what we got with DDI.

Okay, well it seems that the logical way to approach this is to analyse the two things. I never used DDI much, but I vaguely recall that it was an online-only character builder and monster database, and that it cost about £4 a month per person. Is this correct? The two things worth comparing here are:

1) Price, probably done per person and per group over the course of a month and a year.
2) Content, including suitability for use at the table and for game preparation.

On point one, I can't run the numbers since I don't really know how much DDI cost. On point two, we'd certainly need to discuss the problematic delivery of the content for DDI (i.e. the online-only website thing), but give it props for being a subscription that let you avoid buying books. (Since I think that the ground around the idea that this feature turned out to be bad for the company's ability to make profits is well trodden, we can probably pass over that as irrelevant and likely to start arguments rather than helpfully advance the conversation.)

 

[Obryn]

Yeah, and there were metric tons of people saying that what they had to pay for DDI was absurd as well. So your complaints about the price are no more valid or invalid as anyone else's.

But I'm not one of those 'metric tons' of people. Hi, I'm me.

IMO, comparisons to other digital offerings are completely fair - both for other RPGs right now, and for the previous edition.

The thing that makes me roll me eyes me in all of this are the people who are TRYING to act all self-righteous when they make statements like because of the pricing, WotC is creating a "culture" of piracy. That they don't WANT to pirate anything... that they'd LIKE to be reasonable and pay a reasonable price... but WotC is basically FORCING people to pirate their materials because they won't release them for a reasonable price.

You know what? Just shut the hell up. If you want to pirate the material because you want the material in the format for which you want them material, THEN JUST DO IT. Grow a pair and pirate it. Take what you want in the manner you want it.

But don't then turn around and act like some southern belle waving a fan in front of her face saying "Oh my goodness, I'm so FLUSH!" because you want us to not think bad about you for doing it because heavens to be it's not YOUR fault you did it! You HAD to do it because it was the only way! You behaved poorly because it's the CULTURE that WotC has created! You'd NEVER behave in such an uncouth manner ordinarily, but this time you had NO CHOICE! WotC won't be REASONABLE!

Just stop. All of you sound like idiots when you use that as the reason why your opinion that the price should be lower is the correct one. Again, your opinions are no more valid or invalid as anyone else's. So if you want PDFs or any other D&D crap and don't want to pay what these companies charge, then just pirate the material and accept the fact you are stealing it. Accept it, become okay with it, and stop trying to bullschtick us.

Uhhhhh.... Okay.....?

Seriously, does that have anything to do with what I've been saying?

 

[Obryn]

Okay, well it seems that the logical way to approach this is to analyse the two things. I never used DDI much, but I vaguely recall that it was an online-only character builder and monster database, and that it cost about £4 a month per person. Is this correct? The two things worth comparing here are:

1) Price, probably done per person and per group over the course of a month and a year.
2) Content, including suitability for use at the table and for game preparation.

On point one, I can't run the numbers since I don't really know how much DDI cost. On point two, we'd certainly need to discuss the problematic delivery of the content for DDI (i.e. the online-only website thing), but give it props for being a subscription that let you avoid buying books. (Since I think that the ground around the idea that this feature turned out to be bad for the company's ability to make profits is well trodden, we can probably pass over that as irrelevant and likely to start arguments rather than helpfully advance the conversation.)

It was $70/year - not going to check the conversion rates. Sharing for a group was the norm, not the exception.

The earlier builders were thick clients which ran on PCs. (These still run today, btw, and have been updated by fans; my table still uses them.) These received, AFAIR, universally positive reviews.

The later ones were web-based, using (ugh) Silverlight because WotC is phyiscally near Microsoft, and there were a lot of Silverlight developers looking for work after MS started to drop support for the platform. (Yes, this is was bad idea, but I suppose when you're looking for developers on the cheap...) They are nevertheless very functional and contain all the content - and they are still available, today.

There was no app support at the time, but it was also a different marketplace from today - smartphones and tablets weren't as ubiquitous in 2008-2009, after all, and those that existed were a lot less powerful. Mobile support, OTOH, is essential for a new product offering, today. So any comparison of platform is going to be shaky; PC (and later PC/Mac browser) was sufficient at the time of its release, just as a cross-platform app is sufficient today.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Is that $70 per year accounting for inflation?

 

[ssvegeta555]

Is WotC smart enough to bundle codes with accompanying hard covers if anything to get people on the platform? Would be useful for maybe just the PHB. A door buster of sorts. Steam does the same offering DoTa 2 and Team Fortress 2 for free because it's more valuable to people to install the program and be new potential customers than charge for access.

But for the question of the thread. No. Maybe when the offline capabilities are up and running. I do like the idea of a polished, easy to use digital toolset, but not at the current offering and prices.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using EN World mobile app

 

[Morrus]

Is WotC smart enough to bundle codes with accompanying hard covers if anything to get people on the platform?

Wouldn’t they then have to then pay Curse the cost of the electronic version themselves? After al, that’s how Curse gets paid in this setup. Which, if it’s the same as be cost of the physical book, means a net zero revenue from selling books.