D&D General Is D&D Beyond Exclusivity Bad for D&D?

[saviirkad]

Yes.

Do you mean items that were available for purchase no longer being purchaseable, or that purchased items are removed from our libraries?

Because I certainly don't recall the latter.

 

[Reynard]

I am of the opinion that anything online that someone spends money on is something that person knows they are "renting" not "buying". So if (general) you spend money on a subscription to DDB and spend money to access D&D books through DDB... you are doing so knowing that at some point in the future there is a possibility that you will lose access to it. But that's part of the cost of doing business wanting to use DDB, and people do it because the money they spend for the time they DO have access to all of it will have been worth it in the end. And for those that don't want to... (general) you don't HAVE to use DDB if the idea of "renting" things bothers you, which is exactly why a lot of (general) you don't. And that's great! You have chosen not to go into this particular line of product acquisition.

To be clear for my own part, I do not think there is anything wrong with using a service like Beyond or buying things in digital format that could (and probably will) go away at some point. I have a lot of money invested in Fantasy grounds VTT and I am sure someday that will all go up in smoke. But I do not own anything on FG that I can ONLY get on FG. When I buy a thing for FG, I am paying for the convenience of running it with the VTT. I can (and often do) buy it in another format. What I object to is Beyond exclusivity because you can't own it otherwise.

 

[Remathilis]

Are you suggesting that WotC has never removed items that folks have paid for. @SlyFlourish had a whole post upthread detailing the stuff they already have eliminated.

No I responded responded to your assertion that WotC will require a paid subscription to access items bought on Beyond. Which is not true currently and unless you have insider information, baseless speculation that they will.

The loss of access to material you have paid for is a separate issue which is important (I could show you a Steam library of games I paid for that can no longer be played due to servers going offline). But I'm responding specifically that buying Astarion's Book of Hungers doesn't require me to also have an active DDB subscription to access it, nor is there any indication one will be needed beyond "trust me bro."

 

[Reynard]

No I responded responded to your assertion that WotC will require a paid subscription to access items bought on Beyond.

I never made that assertion.

 

[AlViking]

Yes.

Such as? I can't say I'm an expert but I can't think of what you could be referring to.

 

[Keldryn]

I can't really say if it's a good or bad thing in general, but I don't like it. Yeah, there's the issue of owning vs renting, but when it comes down to it, I want my TTRPGs to remain a mostly analog experience. I'm a software developer and spend all day on the computer, so the last thing I want to do is spend the bulk of my leisure time on the computer. IMO if the game mechanics are complex enough that computer assistance is highly beneficial, then they're too complex.

 

[AlViking]

I can't really say if it's a good or bad thing in general, but I don't like it. Yeah, there's the issue of owning vs renting, but when it comes down to it, I want my TTRPGs to remain a mostly analog experience. I'm a software developer and spend all day on the computer, so the last thing I want to do is spend the bulk of my leisure time on the computer. IMO if the game mechanics are complex enough that computer assistance is highly beneficial, then they're too complex.

Then the good news is that 99% of what they produce is still available in physical format. You could always print out the few dozen pages they don't publish since they never would have been published in the past either except perhaps in the long gone Dungeon magazine.

 

[gban007]

I never made that assertion.

It sort of looked like you did, but i think it is talking about different parts/ taking different meanings.

I read Monsterenvys post as saying you dont need subscriptions to access this exclusive content, and so you wont lose access if you stop subscribing, as the subscriptions are for other functionality.

So when you said that 'as always, until you dont' it appeared to assert that at some point they will say you can only access your already purchased content if you subscribe, and if you don't subscribe you will lose access.

However , rereading initial post I could see it as Monsterenvy suggesting you will never lose access to the content full stop, will always have access as a definitive statement outside of subscriptions, which you are then responding to saying that at some point DDB may shutdown and you will lose access.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd have "liked" your post, because I agree with much of it, but this... This is absolutely left field.

I'm hardly the only person who thinks this lol. I mean, call me back in 2030 when we've either got 6E in our hands or more likely have extensive 6E previews. If you think 2024 is going another 10 years well buddy I dunno what to tell you but the ain't the way the world works. Sheesh by 2030, 2024 would have been out for 6 years, which is basically as long as 4E lasted. You really think 2024 will go longer than that?

 

[AlViking]

I'm hardly the only person who thinks this lol. I mean, call me back in 2030 when we've either got 6E in our hands or more likely have extensive 6E previews. If you think 2024 is going another 10 years well buddy I dunno what to tell you but the ain't the way the world works. Sheesh by 2030, 2024 would have been out for 6 years, which is basically as long as 4E lasted. You really think 2024 will go longer than that?

The only one who knows is WOTC, but 1-4 years? A new release by 2027? Nah. I think even 2030 is pushing it. They have a very different sales model now and don't need to release a new edition to get new revenue because they have subscriptions and a storefront with DDB.