Ampersand: 2011 releases officially gutted

[SlyDoubt]

I think splat-books are a waste and should be something handled by DDI but the books announced and then cut weren't quite the same as the powers books.

Seemed like organizing the original PHB content into essentials format and adding proper well explained rules for multi-classing and maybe even hybrid classing of essentials builds. For those of us who don't use DDI and were reinvigorated by the look and design of essentials this was a very desirable book. To see it cut and most likely thrown onto DDI which I find mixed value in is unfortunate.

I wanted a properly updated, reformatted and less expensive PHB to let players peruse and explore. My players will not subscribe to DDI. I myself haven't but I feel this is forcing my hand. Want an updated PHB with rules for handling essentials multi-classing and hybrids? Buy a DDI subscription and have those rules spread out over months and months. As opposed to simply buying the book for $15 and being done with it.

Whatever. Out with the old and in with the new I suppose.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Said it years ago, but it bears repeating: even though I can foresee a time when the game could go entirely digital, I'm not convinced that this is the proper time, that the market is that wired.

Personally, I spend enough of my day in front of screens & keyboards of various types, so I don't want to spend my gaming time in the same situation. This means the more D&D goes digital, the less I buy, simple equation. And I'm not alone in this, judging from my own group and the posts of others here.

So, if we continue to see physical PHBs (of some kind), Dragon Compendiums and so forth in bookstores, I'm OK with that. If not, so be it- they won't get my $$$.

Not that this is some kind of demand or anything, just a statement of the way it is.

 

[Mirtek]

A little piece of extra news - WotC_Huscarl has blogged about the reason for the delays with Dungeon & Dragon content.

Yeah, starting the process, which is basically what was marketed as an advantage of the new online format from the day they announced pulling the license from Paizo and moving them online, totally explains all their past delays

 

[Mirtek]

Anyone still disagreeing with the excellent D&D in it's death spiral analysis from 2 years ago?

If I hadn't seen most of these prediction already come true last year, I would now be shocked how true they turned out to be

 

[DEFCON 1]

...but killing the magazine format seriously blows my mind.

Ironically... it's not the loss of the 'magazine format' that bothers me. I was actually more saddened when the Dragon and Dungeon archives stopped having everything split up by category beneath the weekly listings.

All the magazine format does is make it more difficult to find those articles I want and need. I need to go into each Table of Contents and scan it to see if it has the article I'm looking for. When we had the "by category" listings... if I wanted to look at the Miniatures Galleries I could just click on that category and every gallery would appear in a list. Or if I wanted to look at all the Eberron articles written for Dragon, one click brought all of them together for me to scan through. Or all the Domains of Dread. Or all the Bazaar of the Bizarre articles. Etc. etc.

I don't need my content artificially bound together based on nothing but what month it happened to be released in. I need my content easily searchable and found.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Said it years ago, but it bears repeating: even though I can foresee a time when the game could go entirely digital, I'm not convinced that this is the proper time, that the market is that wired.

Barnes & Noble stating that their sales of NOOKcolor and E-Ink devices this Christmas was their biggest best-selling item of all time and their digital sales were 78% higher than last Christmas indicates that we are perhaps further along than you're giving credit for.

Another year and all e-reader devices and tablet computers going full color and able to produce images-- and I think seeing the D&D product line being sold for them will not be far behind.

 

[SlyDoubt]

Said it years ago, but it bears repeating: even though I can foresee a time when the game could go entirely digital, I'm not convinced that this is the proper time, that the market is that wired.

Personally, I spend enough of my day in front of screens & keyboards of various types, so I don't want to spend my gaming time in the same situation. This means the more D&D goes digital, the less I buy, simple equation. And I'm not alone in this, judging from my own group and the posts of others here.

So, if we continue to see physical PHBs (of some kind), Dragon Compendiums and so forth in bookstores, I'm OK with that. If not, so be it- they won't get my $$$.

Not that this is some kind of demand or anything, just a statement of the way it is.

I feel exactly the same. I spend my working hours in front of a screen and plenty of my fun time too. Part of why I specifically like D&D is because it isn't digital. I like sitting down with the players, pulling out the PHB, some photocopied sheets and pencils and writing up characters.

I guess now I'm in the minority if WoTC feels no need to cater to those like myself.

 

[Mummolus]

Barnes & Noble stating that their sales of NOOKcolor and E-Ink devices this Christmas was their biggest best-selling item of all time and their digital sales were 78% higher than last Christmas indicates that we are perhaps further along than you're giving credit for.

Another year and all e-reader devices and tablet computers going full color and able to produce images-- and I think seeing the D&D product line being sold for them will not be far behind.

Most e-readers are monochrome right now on purpose, because they're trying to replicate the look and feel of a real book. Their market isn't built around full-color, it's built around being as close to a book as possible but better. It's the same reason they're not usually backlit.

(I work for Indigo, fourth largest bookseller in North America - one of the core parts of my job is selling these damned things)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Barnes & Noble stating that their sales of NOOKcolor and E-Ink devices this Christmas was their biggest best-selling item of all time and their digital sales were 78% higher than last Christmas indicates that we are perhaps further along than you're giving credit for.

Hell, I'm planning on obtaining 3 high-end eReaders/tablet computers in the coming year. (Plus a top-end iPod Classic- so I can tote around my 5K+ CD collection with me- and a Verizon iPhone along the way as well.)

That doesn't mean I want to game with one. And I say THAT having used a Palm PDA- recently replaced by a top-end iPod Touch- for my PCs of the past few years.

But I still want books, not PDFs and the like, for my gaming. I have enough stuff plugged into the wall being charged, etc. to irrevocably tie my gaming experience to some lithium batteries. I don't want to be playing a game and get that little warning message, "Battery at 20%."

There is something to be said for having a physical product.

 

[The Halfling]

Most e-readers are monochrome right now on purpose, because they're trying to replicate the look and feel of a real book. Their market isn't built around full-color, it's built around being as close to a book as possible but better. It's the same reason they're not usually backlit.

(I work for Indigo, fourth largest bookseller in North America - one of the core parts of my job is selling these damned things)

Where as I bought the nookcolor so I can read my pdfs in addition to it's normal e-reader capablilties.

I'm nearly a pure digital DM. I use Masterplan for all my adventure work. I find that my netbook takes up less space, and is less obtrusive than a standard GM screen, module/adventure notes, and a pad of paper. Though you will have to pry my dice from my dead hands.

While I love books, I find myself reading less and less of the hard copies that I have sitting on my shelves. I would rather pick up my e-reader, tablet, or netbook. I used to be a completionist myself, and while cost hasn't been a factor for a while (esp with Amazon, etc.) I found less and less need to have every book with DDi.

That said, I think we are at a crossroads, and WotC needs to make a firm and decisive decision as to the course D&D will take with regards to the digital environment. It will be painful, and definitely, regardless of the course chosen, a portion of the existing client bases will be left behind or disgruntled and leave.

It's this waffling that irks me. hell, they now tout the 100's of ebooks now available for both the Kindle and Nook, on the home page. If the novels are ok to distibute digitally, why the hell is the game content, from ALL editions, taking to long. If it's IP protection, then that reason does not jive. The novels are nothing if not pure IP content.