D&D 4E A thought on WotC's imperative to continue to digitally support 4e.

[Cadfan]

First, about loyalty. You want WotC to show loyalty to the 4E fans. From their perspective, they are showing you loyalty by designing a new game for you. They want to please you. If you don't play 5E then that's on you, not them. From their perspective, at least.

I've also thought of another reason that DDI will drop 4E eventually. Because the people paying for DDI will get sick of paying for the subscription every month for so little. People are going to put up/use alternatives online, create their own programs, pirate the information. If they refuse to move on to 5E, many are eventually going to refuse to pay the monthly subscription. In that scenario, WotC ends 4E support because the 4E players simply move on.

Really, how many years are you going to pay for your subscription after 4E is no longer a living game?

Well, one possibility is that they'll use the DDi for 5e just like for 4e. And so the only cost associated with leaving 4e on the DDI will be the negligible cost of server space, leveraged against the benefit of whatever number of 4e players maintain their subscriptions.

 

[Number48]

Right, but the real question is how long are people going to pay a subscription when they receive almost nothing?

 

[Umbran]

Well, one possibility is that they'll use the DDi for 5e just like for 4e. And so the only cost associated with leaving 4e on the DDI will be the negligible cost of server space, leveraged against the benefit of whatever number of 4e players maintain their subscriptions.

5e, having a different ruleset, is going to need it's own applications, which will need their own separate support.

And, really, if you're going to build a new application for a new game, you're not bright if you base it on Silverlight at this time.

 

[Tony Vargas]

On one hand, it would be foolish to turn off an income stream. OTOH, ongoing support for a past ed is what enabled the 4e/Pathfinder split in the community. WotC has committed to keeping 4e tools, but they will have to shut them down, eventually. Maybe with an 'upgrade' path, maybe by giving everyone with a 4e DDI 5e DDI, with 4e as a 'legacy' bonus. I'm not sure what would work best for them, and it may prove tricky, but if 4e continues getting support, even if it's just the odd dragon or dungeon, it'll form a core of resistance to 5e. It's not a matter of whether WotC will or should pull the trigger and quash 4e, it's only a question of when and how it'll be spun.

 

[bss]

On one hand, it would be foolish to turn off an income stream. OTOH, ongoing support for a past ed is what enabled the 4e/Pathfinder split in the community. WotC has committed to keeping 4e tools, but they will have to shut them down, eventually. Maybe with an 'upgrade' path, maybe by giving everyone with a 4e DDI 5e DDI, with 4e as a 'legacy' bonus. I'm not sure what would work best for them, and it may prove tricky, but if 4e continues getting support, even if it's just the odd dragon or dungeon, it'll form a core of resistance to 5e. It's not a matter of whether WotC will or should pull the trigger and quash 4e, it's only a question of when and how it'll be spun.

While I think you are ultimately right, there is a third option: Wizards wants customers regardless of the edition they're playing and thus don't see people paying good money for 4e DDI as "resistance". Especially viable if there were no difference between 5e and 4e DDI subscriptions. I can imagine a world where I keep giving money to Wizards for 4e DDI despite not caring about 5e. If subs are self-sustaining and thus they're happy with the revenue, and I'm happy with the content, how much do they care what edition I'm playing?

I think that is a potentially-realizable future for Wizards: they are satisfied enough with one of a DDI sub or consistent book sales.

 

[WheresMyD20]

Hey people said that about 3.5 too. Guess how that turned out? If WotC isn't going to show us any loyalty, why should we show it to WotC? It's condescending and patronizing comments that led to the rift between Pathfinder and 4E fans in the first place. So please if you feel like making comments like these, stow them, the fanbase is fractured enough already.

"Don't worry. No one from WotC is going to show up to take your <insert favorite edition> books away. You can keep playing <insert favorite edition> for as long as you like." is the standard advice to fans of older editions. It's time to welcome the 4e crowd to the club.

 

[bss]

Then the standard advice is condescending, especially when support via DDI is a huge part of 4e for many people. To take 4e DDI away and then say "well, the unerrataed, decentralized books still work" is akin to coming across someone who cannot hear and stating "well, you can still see, what's the big deal". I'm not saying it's a moral or ethical crime to remove 4e DDI support, but don't think it's the same as if Wizards were merely focusing on another product.

 

[Mark CMG]

Is DDI such an integral part of 4E that 4E fans would find 4E so vastly diminished that it would greatly change their play experience? Is the feeling that 5E will be as integrated or more so?

 

[Ratinyourwalls]

Is DDI such an integral part of 4E that 4E fans would find 4E so vastly diminished that it would greatly change their play experience? Is the feeling that 5E will be as integrated or more so?

Yeah DDI is a pretty big part of 4E. A huge chunk of material and errata would be missing without it. Plus the monster builder is such a god send. It makes 4E adventure design, which is much better than most previous editions, so much better.

Losing DDI would be a much bigger hit than previous editions losing the production of their books.

 

[Windjammer]

Is DDI such an integral part of 4E that 4E fans would find 4E so vastly diminished that it would greatly change their play experience? Is the feeling that 5E will be as integrated or more so?

For those who build their characters with DDI, for those DMs who run their monsters out of the Monster Compendium, and for those groups who must be 'up to date' on the errata: yes, for them the D&D ruleset basically is DDI.

Luckily, for my groups 4E still was a a thoroughly and exclusively book-based edition of D&D. This caused friction with a couple of players who insisted on using DDI (these are - several - different versions of the ruleset), but it didn't detract from the play experience one bit.

I understand people who are upset about the potential discontinuation of DDI, but I also want to say that I think the game plays equally fine (if not better, IME) if you run it from the books. And thans to the 5E craze, these books will be very cheap to pick up.