D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[mamba]

I'm just looking at video game project size numbers and making guesses based at how many people they employ and the nature of the product they produce. I'd be surprised if the majority of people hired are working on the VTT. But neither one of us has hard numbers, I just don't understand on why you're so stuck on this idea that 300+ people are working on the VTT. We're both guessing.

and what do video game sizes tell you? Which of the two is more comparable to a video game, the VTT or DDB?

There is a simple answer to why I am at 300+ devs for the VTT, it makes much more sense to me

The VTT needs tons of assets, etc., it is basically a game without computer controlled NPCs, DDB on the other hand is basically a database app, that needs a lot fewer developers by definition

 

[mamba]

Which is why in order to stand out they need to do something different.

my point is they do not really need to stand out to capture a sizeable portion of the market. The VTT integrates with DDB and is made by WotC, that alone gives it a sizable share

 

[Oofta]

my point is they do not really need to stand out to capture a sizeable portion of the market. The VTT integrates with DDB and is made by WotC, that alone gives it a sizable share

You can integrate DDB with existing VTTs, I did it with Roll20.

 

[Parmandur]

my point is they do not really need to stand out to capture a sizeable portion of the market. The VTT integrates with DDB and is made by WotC, that alone gives it a sizable share

But if theyvwant to grow that market, something flashy and more mainstream that gets people attention is what they want.

 

[mamba]

Sorry, I thought that was obvious: the reason is the high reward. Go big or go home.

the way I see it, they still get that reward in my approach too, just a little later and with more information and some income along the way, with that income compensating for the delay and the steps limiting the risk

Inwouldnsaybyour proposal is attempting to rush something outnand get there faster.

I very much disagree with that understanding, I get to the first release faster, but the full release is later than in WotC’s approach. I am going for a few deliberate steps over one huge jump to cross the stream.

The approach they are taking seems to me to treat the product like a video game in terms ofndevelopment and hire up properly and give several years to make a full product

yes, and games too are being developed in all kinds of ways, case in point: BG3 is more in line with the approach I am talking about

 

[mamba]

Many people tend to be like a dog with a bone on certain topics and simply won't take "We made the best decision we could" as an answer

that sounds like it should be the starting assumption going in, I see these discussions more like a ‘I would like to understand what lead to your decision’ rather than a ‘you do not know anything, how could you possibly go for this’

The problem is that without some actual responses all we have is us going back and forth because one side sees some issue and the other side does not really have a counterargument, because ‘WotC knows best’ is not really an argument

That and it always strikes me as odd how people making criticisms of a game I happen to enjoy regularly take the victim route any time someone disagrees. If you don't like X and I do, why should I not say I like X? It's fine that you don't like some aspect of the game, I don't like everything they've decided either.

that sounds more like a matter of taste, at that point anything is equally valid (within reason). I try to stay away from such arguments because of that and prefer ones that can be based on facts, at least in theory, even if in practice we miss some facts for that

Well, this has gone on long enough, WotC clearly can do whatever they want, they might even have a good reason that I am not aware of, but they also might not. No need to go in circles / continue this (the way your example conversation did)

 

[mamba]

You can integrate DDB with existing VTTs, I did it with Roll20.

you can, but it is less convenient and esp. if DDB changes the backend, that is bound to break, as there is no real API for that (afaik)

 

[mamba]

But if theyvwant to grow that market, something flashy and more mainstream that gets people attention is what they want.

again, I am not arguing for another Roll20, only for a different approach to the VTT they are building - or maybe they manage to be much farther behind than I am expecting and they otherwise follow that approach, they just are not there yet, the future will tell

 

[Oofta]

you can, but it is less convenient and esp. if DDB changes the backend, that is bound to break, as there is no real API for that (afaik)

There is not, it will be interesting to see if they open one up to other VTTs. I assume they're working on one for their VTT, likely even Maps.

 

[Micah Sweet]

pretty much all commercial VTTs today exist in that in-between space


this is the part I very much doubt, which probably explains our different perspectives

It needs to say, "Dungeons & Dragons" on it to compete. Sadly, that's it.