D&D (2024) D&D Pre-orders; this is sad

[TiQuinn]

If you think extra backdrops and picture frames on a DDB character sheet are driving people's purchasing decisions, I think you're vastly overvaluing those things.

Yeah there’s not a single thing extra in those digital bundles that would make me want to buy up.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I was hoping for Neuromancer but all we got was Max Headroom.

 

[Cadence]

Uh, Whizbang? They recently removed the only real microtransactions in D&D Beyond worth the name - buying content from books a la carte. So, you are griping that they are moving to micro-transactions just as they are doing the opposite.

I always felt like the a la carte on DnD Beyond was one of the most customer friendly things WotC did. Not having it means I will likely be buying a lot fewer things to share with my players. (A few dollars here and there for the species and maybe some subclasses was great... paying for the full books I don't want much of, not so much. I will now be wrestling with my respect for IP and think about using what others enter in the Homebrew section).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If you think extra backdrops and picture frames on a DDB character sheet are driving people's purchasing decisions, I think you're vastly overvaluing those things.

I have not a single time used a backdrop.

And if WotC doesn't want people to buy books, then... why do they sell them, in stores even, where you're free to ignore any future new content if that's your desire?

They will sell books in 20 years still. If we look at predictions 20 years ago, noone uses paper anymore...

I'd say something about mountains and molehills, but this is like seeing Mons Olympus where there's a grain of sand.

At least!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Uh, Whizbang? They recently removed the only real microtransactions in D&D Beyond worth the name - buying content from books a la carte. So, you are griping that they are moving to micro-transactions just as they are doing the opposite.

You seem to be eager to pick fights with me, but I'm just explaining the OP's point. I'm not griping about anything -- I'm helping a non-native English speaker get his point across.

 

[billd91]

As mentioned above, the current state is not so terrible. I certainly don't like it. There's no need for these tiers; the only reason they exist is so they can put candies in bigger bundles and get people to climb the stairway. Ubisoft is notorious for it in the video game industry. You could buy the base game. But you could buy the other edition that gives you a rebate on four undisclosed expansion to come. Now's the only time to get this deal. Also, if you spend 50$ more, you get all this extra content that could have, and should have been in the main game, but we've split it to make you spend more.

I'm on board with respect to computer/console games and pre-orders as well as add-on deals because it lets the company bank the money now, only to deliver a buggy piece of crap on release day. Their drive to monetize the extras complicates the process of getting a quality project out the door on time. Sure, that's been a HUGE problem with the software game industry.

And while that might potentially be an issue with extras associated with D&D Beyond and the development of a quality VTT, I'm a bit comforted that it will be less of a problem for the game product as a whole since D&D is somewhat less subject to the bug issue of software. While poor designs have gotten through from time to time, the whole game doesn't crash if the skill check race condition math isn't bulletproof. The rest of the D&D game will still be playable on the tabletop even if the character builder isn't adding something right or the VTT is down while a patch is being produced and applied.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

You seem to be eager to pick fights with me, but I'm just explaining the OP's point. I'm not griping about anything -- I'm helping a non-native English speaker get his point across.

Which is polite. But I don't know there is one.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Microtransactions are only a problem if you are a person who is unable to control their need to own every little bit of something. This concern seems no different than the threads we got several months ago of some decrying that D&D Beyond was releasing a low-level module for free to those people who ordered Vecna: Eve of Ruin, and if you didn't order it on DDB then you couldn't get the module. And people thought that was a horrible practice... as though they were owed the right to buy or get the product themselves, despite the fact the module probably wouldn't have even been written for release unless they decided to make it as a special gift for Vecna pre-orders. So people were mad they couldn't get something they never would have gotten anyway.

We all have this really odd belief system that makes us think that every single thing should be made available for every single person, and that no one should ever get to get more by paying more. It's so weird. When did "spend more money you get more stuff"? become such a difficult thing to grasp or accept?

 

[DarkCrisis]

It will never not be sad to see so many praising a corp for their capitalism.

Explains a lot of the world actually.

 

[billd91]

Uh, Whizbang? They recently removed the only real microtransactions in D&D Beyond worth the name - buying content from books a la carte. So, you are griping that they are moving to micro-transactions just as they are doing the opposite.

For now. My bet is that as the VTT customer base grows, micro transactions will be back.