advice to anyone still wondering if they should purchase a DDI subscription today

[Mournblade94]

Agreed. That said, its also significantly more expensive. So DDI is offers less, but is also around half to a third as pricey. And certainly its as least as fair as the xbox live comparison.

Right, that was my point.

I see no problem with DDI being $8, maybe even $10 because as you say there are magazine publications for online services in that price range.

But DDI though for gaming, should never cross the threshold of the price for the online games.

 

[Hellzon]

I'm a little confused by this sentiment... do you plan on playing 4e beyond WotC supporting it?

I dunno about him, but I save the Compendium stuff to disk. Even if I unsubscribe, I got one years crunch out of it.

(Bit of a hassle, I admit.)

 

[mach1.9pants]

advice to anyone still wondering if they should purchase a DDI subscription today....

...I say [ame=http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=lmUZGdi7Ty4]Just do it, do it now[/ame]

 

[vagabundo]

It's been great for me and I haven't even used that much of the stuff - Dragon, Dungeon et al - in my games.

I really look forward to the constant flow of content, I browse the articles and the compendium is a handy dandy tool. I get a good bit of time during work to browse and read the articles. I feel more connected with what is going on and it gives me a better understanding of how to play 4e.

It's cheap for the amount of time I spend on the thing, yet I'm still buying books and stuff. Mostly for the table as we are an electronic-free-table.

I've found it well worth it and I've gone for the 3 monthly option.

 

[Emryys]

I just got a 1 year Sub. I waited until the full CB was available, then I figured it was a good deal...
Compendium, CB software and 24 magazines... not bad...
Now if the encounter builder made print-outs with full stat blocks like the Delve sheets they have, we'd be in business!

I also used a Visa Gift card, so they can auto renew all they like...

 

[Kzach]

I think anything beyond $8 would be robbery. Most services out there that are not online games cost around $8 a month, just look at XBOX live. It is not a direct comparison, but XBOX live is at least as useful as DDI. I think with the competition for net money DDI needs to stay about $8.

I really think you're failing to put it into the right perspective.

Firstly, it isn't the game. It's delivering new content and a database access to old content without having to own any of the freaking books. On that alone, it's amazing value for money.

Secondly, you're comparing apples and oranges. X-Box Live and WoW are completely different offerings. Both only network you with other people. Hell, you can run a WoW server of your own if you want, and not pay Blizzard a cent. The only reason you're subscribing is to join others who are playing at the same time. DDI is offering a huge amount of content, content which needs to be produced, play-tested, edited, etc. which takes a lot of creative energy and costs a lot more (comparatively) than networking a few servers.

Thirdly, there's the market to consider. WoW has 11 million subscribers. Blizzard could probably afford to drop their price to $5 a month and still make a killing. X-Box has a bajillion people as well, all pumping money into the system.

WotC is probably lucky if they have a couple of thousand subscribers to DDI. I would be willing to bet good money that they're currently running DDI at a massive loss.

Quite frankly, you should expect more from X-Box Live and WoW, based on the mere fact that there are a thousand times as many people contributing cash flow to it.

 

[PeelSeel2]

I love it. Easy to use, I get Dragon and Dungeon (and when I subscribed to those back in the early to mid 80's early 90's I paid just about as much as the DDI subscription), plus an encompassing rules compendium, and a GREAT character generator.

It's hard to get beyond that value.

 

[Umbran]

This is what most of this thread sounds like

Right. So then you have a choice - you could have made a constructive addition, but you chose, instead, to post this stuff that you should have realized would only annoy people rather than improve anything.

Folks, if you don't like what is being said, think carefully about what you're going to say in reply, and consider whether peopleare actually going to respond positively to it, or it if will only make matters worse.

 

[Hussar]

WotC is probably lucky if they have a couple of thousand subscribers to DDI. I would be willing to bet good money that they're currently running DDI at a massive loss.

I'll betcha they have more than a couple of thousand subscribers. Heck, PRINT Dungeon and Dragon had fifty thousand subs in its last year. I doubt they are much behind that. But, then, that's just a gut feeling on my part.

 

[Zaukrie]

I couldn't DM w/o DDI. It saves me numerous hours of prep time. It allows me to easily cut and paste things from one monster to another to create something new. The character builder is great for creating monsters based on classes (I can say I want a 7th level warlock, and build one out in 5 minutes, make some adjustments, cut out the things she won't be using in this encounter, and print out a major NPC baddie in less than 10 minutes). The content in dragon and dungeon is icing on the cake for me (though I do complain about the number - not quality - of articles in Dragon).