An open letter to WoTC

[mudbunny]

Considering mobile is such a large portion of the Web right now, and likely to become even larger, yes, a shame indeed.

When WotC designed DDI, and then re-released it, mobile gaming was a very, very small portion of the population, and no-one (except perhaps Apple) thought that it would take off the way that it did.

Also, to respond to an earlier poster, when DDI was first designed, Windows 7 was just in the beta stage. Expecting WotC to be able to successfully predict what MS was going to do with Windows 8 is, to be blunt, unrealistic.

 

[IronWolf]

When WotC designed DDI, and then re-released it, mobile gaming was a very, very small portion of the population, and no-one (except perhaps Apple) thought that it would take off the way that it did.

Designed initially, yes. The re-lease though was already seeing more people trying to use smartphones at the table and such and lower powered netbooks as well.

I've said before, though they might not have wanted to design for the mobile market or low powered device market at the time, they should have at least chosen technology that would be flexible enough to support it to allow for greater adaptability.

Also, to respond to an earlier poster, when DDI was first designed, Windows 7 was just in the beta stage. Expecting WotC to be able to successfully predict what MS was going to do with Windows 8 is, to be blunt, unrealistic.

Yeah, hard to predict what MS is going to do. Which is also why you generally want to be sure the technology they are pushing today as the latest greatest thing is one that people are actually going to adopt.

You and I have discussed this before though. Hindsight is always 20/20 making it much easier to armchair quarterback.

 

[Vicente]

Designed initially, yes. The re-lease though was already seeing more people trying to use smartphones at the table and such and lower powered netbooks as well.

I've said before, though they might not have wanted to design for the mobile market or low powered device market at the time, they should have at least chosen technology that would be flexible enough to support it to allow for greater adaptability.

Which they did, as .NET/C# works on every smartphone platform out there (except Blackberry).

 

[IronWolf]

Which they did, as .NET/C# works on every smartphone platform out there (except Blackberry).

The current Character Builder is done in Silverlight. That does not work on some of the more predominant mobile devices or tablets these days, like say the iPhone or the iPad.

 

[Vicente]

The current Character Builder is done in Silverlight. That does not work on some of the more predominant mobile devices or tablets these days, like say the iPhone or the iPad.

That's why I said they would only need to rewrite the UI part, which would have happened with nearly any language as the UI toolkits of Android and iPhone for example are totally different.

 

[IronWolf]

That's why I said they would only need to rewrite the UI part, which would have happened with nearly any language as the UI toolkits of Android and iPhone for example are totally different.

At this point even a mobile web based UI would suffice.

The fact of the matter is that here are with tablets becoming more pervasive at the table and we still can't use the character builder from tablets at the table.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

This is the five point plan I champion for DDI

1. End the monthly subscription to the product.
2. Give away the Core Tools for free (Character Builder, Compendium, Monster Builder). The only material that would be included in these would be the Player's Handbook 1, Dungeon Master's Guide 1, and Monster Manual 1
3. Upon the release of each new book / product, I would sell that products info. Example, Complete Warrior comes out. For $X, you purchase the Complete Warrior Digital Rules and that data is added to your Core Tools. Once purchased, that rule set is yours forever and is always associated with your Core Tools.
4. Dungeon and Dragon would continue being published as is, but cost $Y to purchase and add the content to your Core Tools. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the two publications for a discounted rate.
5. As time went by, I would add older editions to the Core Tools with the same model to make revenue on WotC's back catalog.

 

[Vicente]

At this point even a mobile web based UI would suffice.

Not every platform out there renders HTML5 the same way (and it was worse when they started all of this). Which means, again, different UIs (although on a smaller scale than going with native apps). And a Web app can't usually deliver the same experience of a native application.

The fact of the matter is that here are with tablets becoming more pervasive at the table and we still can't use the character builder from tablets at the table.

This is true, but has nothing to do with their choice of technology. They would need to work to support those platforms no matter what they choose to build their apps with. No app is going to work magically in a new platform without putting dev hours to port it.

 

[IronWolf]

Not every platform out there renders HTML5 the same way (and it was worse when they started all of this). Which means, again, different UIs (although on a smaller scale than going with native apps). And a Web app can't usually deliver the same experience of a native application.

Nope, you are right - not every platform does. But there are lots of companies coming up with a mobile version of their site that does work on a multitude of devices.

And I agree - a native app would be great (and preferred), but in reality a decent mobile web version would be just fine. At this point we are about a year and a half in and no signs of anything that will work on the tablets I am seeing more and more of at the gaming table.

This is true, but has nothing to do with their choice of technology. They would need to work to support those platforms no matter what they choose to build their apps with. No app is going to work magically in a new platform without putting dev hours to port it.

Correct. But there are choices that would minimize the development hours needed to make the adjustments and provide a choice in platforms to access the data.

Anything can be done with enough development hours. Smart choices and a strategy just require fewer development hours.

 

[Tuft]

I wonder why you would consider .Net to be outdated tech?

There were a lot of hullabaloo about MS de-emphasizing .NET and emphasizing HTML5 and Javascript instead for Windows 8 application development some time ago:

Microsoft's high-risk Windows 8 .NET switch ? The Register