D&D 4E 4E/5E Transition issues

[catastrophic]

Your concern may be well founded.

Actually it's not well-founded at all, don't be silly.

WotC won't want 4e grognards to badmouth and cut into 5e sales the way 3.5/Pathfinder did to 4e. Before there's a 5e - maybe a decade or more before (see above) - the plug will be well and truely pulled on 4e. It'll go out of print, it will not be liscenced out to third parties to support, and the digital tools will be taken down.

Wrong. Flat out 100% wrong. It's absurd to act like they'd deliberatly alienate a bunch of people who would otherwise pay them a monthly subscription fee in exchange for leaving a bunch of data on their server. Your scenario is typical wotc-bashing garbage.

There may not be a 5e in a convetional sense, but if there is, their tools are clearly set up to allow people to keep paying them to play 4e for a very long time. This, of course, will also reduce any backlash against 5e, as well it should- although few people will give them credit for it, least of all the kind of people who judge that scenario likely.

All their recent language has been pointing in this direction, as well.

I also don't think it's very plausible that hasbro will pull the plug.

 

[fuzzlewump]

Assuming a 5E, will we have to subscribe to DDI -and- the new shiny 5E DDI, if we want to play both? Or will it be essentially the same ddi with updates every month or so, but those updates happen to be 5E?

 

[Pilgrim]

As someone with a lot invested in a 4E campaign, which I anticipate may run for some years, I am quite unhappy at the prospect of the latest edition being given a comparatively short 'shelf-life', unless it is appropriately supported during a transition period which I fear - for marketing reasons - Wizards will not allow.

Quite honestly, I don't see any reason you should be unhappy at all. It sounds unwarranted, unfounded and unnecessary.

There are 3 PHBs, 2 DMGs, 3 MMs, 4 Campaign settings, a plethora of accessory books expanding the Material Planes to the Astral planes to the Elemental planes and everything in between, not to mention a year or two worth of Dungeon and Dragon Magazine articles. There is MORE THAN ENOUGH official material to support a group playing 4E from now until, well, forever pretty much.

If there are still players who are playing OD&D, BD&D, and AD&D, 30+ years later, then even if 5E hit shelves tomorrow, there is no reason fans of 4E can't continue to play and enjoy their edition just as long.

To suggest otherwise is a ridiculous notion.

 

[Randomthoughts]

But the problem is that we have got used to the CB, as Randomthoughts says.

<snip>

But on a more serious note, Randomthoughts is right to say that the manner in which WotC proceed is of the utmost importance for the future of our hobby. As a consumer I want to start a conversation that someone with his head screwed on (like Mearls) might overhear.

Hmm, I hope we all keep gideonpepys OP in perspective. I didn't get a sense that he's portraying a "doom and gloom" scenario unlike what is often (unfortunately) seen in 5e threads. But maybe I'm reading things wrong.

Anyway, to clarify my position here, I wouldn't go so far to say that WotC's approach is of "utmost importance for the future of our hobby." I frankly don't know. But DDI is certainly important to me and I suspect to a certain amount of 4e users (of course I don't know the extent of it, besides gideonpepys heh and Dice4Hire ).

I do think it's worthwhile, as 4e customers, to say what we'd like to see for the version of the game we are currently playing. For example, imagine if Mearls announced sometime in the future that as part of their long-term D&D strategy, WotC is committed in maintaining all of DDI's functionality and content for 4e so long as there is sufficient interest.*

I would find value in that statement since I would look forward to electronic support for 4e for a long time.

* So long as there is sufficient interest is a phrase the suits are going to want him to say, to avoid having to say "forever". Nothing lasts forever.

I actually see that the OP underscores something that WotC wanted to achieve: DDI is a value-add system, to the point where some folks are concerned about its ongoing support. It's a good thing IMHO.

Imagine if 4e users didn't care about it?

 

[Dice4Hire]

besides gideonpepys ).

How about me?

 

[Mirtek]

Wrong. Flat out 100% wrong. It's absurd to act like they'd deliberatly alienate a bunch of people who would otherwise pay them a monthly subscription fee in exchange for leaving a bunch of data on their server. Your scenario is typical wotc-bashing garbage.

Not at all, many companies have done so. It's simply a matter whether or not they thing that the gain from people switching the 5e rather than continuing 4e with frozen DDI tools is greater than the loss of those people that simply stop being customers once the plug is pulled from 4e DDI.

There may not be a 5e in a convetional sense, but if there is, their tools are clearly set up to allow people to keep paying them to play 4e for a very long time.

They are set up to allow this possibility, whether that is what they chose to do depends on many factors.

 

[Riastlin]

Obviously, all of this is speculation on our part at this point.

That being said, I personally believe that they will at least try to keep DDi up and running for 4ed users after the switch to the next edition. At the very least, they will want to see how much the added income from DDi will offset the "loss" of people who would have bought new books for a new edition were it not for DDi. (I put loss in quotes since that will be a very difficult figure to determine).

As it currently stands, a one year subscription to DDI cost $75 which is roughly equivalent to 2.5 books (depending on release, etc.). That's actually more books than I personally bought this past year. Now look at it in terms of those 3.x players who "left" WotC to join Pathfinder when 4ed was released. Think about if they could have paid for a DDi subscription to keep all of their 3.x materials in easy access including a CB, Monster Builder, etc. How many of those would have continued to pay WotC? How many would it take to offset the loss of people not buying into 4ed (considering that a lot of Pathfinder players have not bought into 4ed)?

It should be relatively cheap to maintain DDi for 4ed even after the new edition which is why I think that they will at least try. If it turns out that almost nobody is buying the new edition because everyone is so happy with 4ed, then they might bring DDi down in order to recoup their money. The bigger question (which was posed earlier) though is whether there will be different tiers of DDi. Can you pay a smaller fee to access just 4ed? Or just 5ed? Or is it one fee fits all? I think those are the more difficult questions for WotC to answer. Those are the questions that will determine how successful DDi is going forward. If it continues to be the same fee for everything (5ed and 4ed) then it almost seems like a no-brainer from the customer side. At the same time, there's a decent argument to be made by WotC that if they add to the quality of DDi, then they should raise the fee (keeping in mind inflation will factor in as well, etc.).

 

[gideonpepys]

Two things:

WotC haven't announced 5e. Isn't it premature to be talking as if the transition is imminent?

*Ahem*

Sorry, but I couldn't resist it.

 

[Piratecat]

This really worries me. I have bought very few books for 4e because I subscribe to DDI; it's been less expensive and handier to have digital access to the information. I'll be pissed if that goes away before I've finished my campaigns.

 

[Hassassin]

This really worries me. I have bought very few books for 4e because I subscribe to DDI; it's been less expensive and handier to have digital access to the information. I'll be pissed if that goes away before I've finished my campaigns.

Quite honestly, I'm surprised people are getting worried about it now. There's always the chance of losing what you paid for with "cloud" services like DDI (or e.g. Steam), and that's something the customers should take into account when deciding if they'll buy the digital or the physical product.