Any DDI News?

[DEFCON 1]

I am owed it. I pay for the right to complain every few days because I have a DDI subscription in which they flat out told us that it was to pay for the development of the tools such as that gaming table.

No you aren't. You are paying for the tools you currently receive. And each month you pay again for the tools you currently receive. If you stop paying for a DDI subscription tomorrow, you won't be given the Virtual Table if/when it is ever released just because you were a DDI subscriber at the time they mentioned they were planning on making it.

You are owed nothing, because you receive each month the product that was produced for that month for DDI subscribers. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Dannager]

No you aren't. You are paying for the tools you currently receive. And each month you pay again for the tools you currently receive. If you stop paying for a DDI subscription tomorrow, you won't be given the Virtual Table if/when it is ever released just because you were a DDI subscriber at the time they mentioned they were planning on making it.

You are owed nothing, because you receive each month the product that was produced for that month for DDI subscribers. Nothing more, nothing less.

This.

The sooner we're rid of this ugly sense of entitlement we as a community possess, the better.

 

[Stoat]

The products I have seen are not that simple to use. Maybe they are for you. Ironic that you don't need them. I happen to want something that I can use with online friends and when some of my regular group friends move away. I have yet to find anything that I can use with ease. I'd be happy just to use the tiles they give me.

In addition, I do not have alot of minatures. We use printed tiles or dry-erase for our monsters. Maybe the online gaming table isn't for those who have the resources you do or the time to make your own . I happen to think that the market is out there.

I know what you're saying about the difficulty of learning to use a VTT. I tried Klooge and Fantasy Grounds and found them to have a very steep learning curve. It's also a hassle to get the initial connection established -- at least it was for me.

For the last several years, I've been using d20 pro:

d20Pro Virtual Game Table - Online Pen &amp Paper Tabletop Gaming

It's relatively easy to figure out. It makes heavy use of drop down menus and radio buttons to cut down on data entry, and it's basically programmed by default to implement 3.5 mechanics (frex, it automatically calculates a character's strength bonus and adds it to all melee attacks). It's also pretty easy to use for 4E.

 

[doctorhook]

I'm sorry but I'm sure they are making a ton of money from DDI subsriptions. And that money was supposed to go to the gaming tools. If they only have a handful of people who have to update the builders, do the mags AND work on the gaming table then WotC is yanking our chains.

They should hire a big video game company and get us what they said they would before 4e was even shipped.

You're "sure" they're making a ton of money from D&DI subscriptions? Care to offer the basis for your logic?

Also, weird fonts aren't cool on the eyes. Please, no more of that.

I am owed it. I pay for the right to complain every few days because I have a DDI subscription in which they flat out told us that it was to pay for the development of the tools such as that gaming table.

Why do keep saying that the money from D&DI subscriptions was supposed to go to developing new tools? When did WotC announce how it was going to spend its revenue? And how do you know that revenue isn't being used for developing new tools already, or are you just speculating? Have you considered the possibility that the money earned from subscriptions might be only marginally enough to cover the cost of monthly updates to the tools we already have?

You aren't owed a damn thing beyond what you already get. You paid for D&DI subscription to get the content that was already available, and for new content released for each month of your subscription. If you paid for it in order to get the Virtual Game Table, you should have waited until it was already available. Yes, WotC screwed up by advertising it as an imminent release when it wasn't ready, but they never told you it was already finished, and they never forced you to buy a subscription. Consumers have a responsibility too, ya know.

No you aren't. You are paying for the tools you currently receive. And each month you pay again for the tools you currently receive. If you stop paying for a DDI subscription tomorrow, you won't be given the Virtual Table if/when it is ever released just because you were a DDI subscriber at the time they mentioned they were planning on making it.

You are owed nothing, because you receive each month the product that was produced for that month for DDI subscribers. Nothing more, nothing less.

This.

The sooner we're rid of this ugly sense of entitlement we as a community possess, the better.

Preach on, brothers!

 

[MrMyth]

You're "sure" they're making a ton of money from D&DI subscriptions? Care to offer the basis for your logic?

Given the number of subscribers, it seems very likely that a decent amount of money has come in from DDI.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the money will instantly be returned to the program for developing more digital material. Especially given the issues with the original Virtual Game Table falling through, they likely moved to a more limited arrangement for the DDI staff. Hopefully, after a year of it being a very successful program with some quality releases, management might start pouring money back into it.

But these things aren't nearly as linear as many expect them to be. A profit with one element doesn't guarantee the time or money to fully invest in other elements.

I'm certainly hopeful good news will be coming along soon, but as always, I think a lot of the demands and proclamations about how DDI should work or what the fans are owed... are rooted in simply wishes, false assumptions about how the industry works, and an unfortunate degree of fan entitlement.

 

[mudbunny]

I am owed it. I pay for the right to complain every few days because I have a DDI subscription in which they flat out told us that it was to pay for the development of the tools such as that gaming table.

Could you point to that? I have been a subscriber since day 1, and fairly active in the DDI community since before that, and do not remember anyone from WotC saying that.

There have been lots of other subscribers saying things to that effect.

As for money from the subscriptions, some quick numbers:

• Current # of subscribers - ~34,000.
• Subscription revenue: between $200k and $338k/month.
• Those numbers only include the people who both have a DDI subscription and who have registered an account on the WotC community site. According to people I have talked with in WotC, the number of people who have a community account is a fraction of the total number of people who have DDI accounts.
• Assume, for arguments sake, that that means that the number of people with community accounts is only a third of the total number of subscribers.
• That means that that there are around 100k subscribers.
• That works out to between $600k and 1 million dollars from DDI subscriptions.

A month.

 

[Zaran]

I looked for it. I couldn't find it. I believe it was in one of the monthly DDI news articles that they used to do. Also, when they were trying to get subscribers they would say it's to make DDI better.

It really doesn't matter. I feel these guys who are saying WotC doesn't owe us anything are just stating the same sentiment as WotC.

They stopped giving us news because they aren't making anything that is newsworthy. We might as well stop hoping for anything besides formatting changes and updates from printed material.

 

[korjik]

Could you point to that? I have been a subscriber since day 1, and fairly active in the DDI community since before that, and do not remember anyone from WotC saying that.

There have been lots of other subscribers saying things to that effect.

As for money from the subscriptions, some quick numbers:

• Current # of subscribers - ~34,000.
• Subscription revenue: between $200k and $338k/month.
• Those numbers only include the people who both have a DDI subscription and who have registered an account on the WotC community site. According to people I have talked with in WotC, the number of people who have a community account is a fraction of the total number of people who have DDI accounts.
• Assume, for arguments sake, that that means that the number of people with community accounts is only a third of the total number of subscribers.
• That means that that there are around 100k subscribers.
• That works out to between $600k and 1 million dollars from DDI subscriptions.

A month.

For those keeping track:

The numbers that Zar was using to say DDI had good revenue were mine. I based my estimation pretty much what is presented here. Other than using the low end numbers because I assume that most of the subscribers are longer term users, I got the exact same numbers as mudbunny has presented here.

I think that these numbers are robust. If you look at it another way, if 1% of people in the US play D&D, and 1% of those get DDI, that is 30k subscribers.

So, using the very low end numbers is $150k/mo=$1.8mil per year. That is what? 4 full time masters level computer science grad employees full time, with support and profit? Or two full time programmers and half a dozen data entry types?

Using the high end numbers we get around $12 million a year. $12 mil and they cant get a decent programmer to make a couple apps?!?

So, there is the show the math minute for today

 

[korjik]

Given the number of subscribers, it seems very likely that a decent amount of money has come in from DDI.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the money will instantly be returned to the program for developing more digital material. Especially given the issues with the original Virtual Game Table falling through, they likely moved to a more limited arrangement for the DDI staff. Hopefully, after a year of it being a very successful program with some quality releases, management might start pouring money back into it.

But these things aren't nearly as linear as many expect them to be. A profit with one element doesn't guarantee the time or money to fully invest in other elements.

I'm certainly hopeful good news will be coming along soon, but as always, I think a lot of the demands and proclamations about how DDI should work or what the fans are owed... are rooted in simply wishes, false assumptions about how the industry works, and an unfortunate degree of fan entitlement.

I see your point on this, and agree, but I also think it shows some really bad management.

This goes all the way back to the inital realease of 3e. They stuck that disk with the trial of what became etools, and people were amazed. However, due to bad management (not automatically WOTCs) what we ended up with was an app so buggy it caused a swarm attack when loaded.

Now here comes 4e, and they show a whole suite of tools for D&D. Peoples eyes bugged out. Pants were wet. It was the only truly cool thing about the whole announcement. Nearly a year later, the game is released, and the tools are nowhere to be found. A year after that, and they are getting close. Now a year after that, and there is a nice CB, and a monster tool. I guess they got the buggy problem solved, but no offence, in nearly 3 years, I could have programmed the bloody table myself.

So if a physicist moonlighting as a programmer could do it, why the heck cant WOTC find a professional to do it?

 

[DEFCON 1]

They stopped giving us news because they aren't making anything that is newsworthy. We might as well stop hoping for anything besides formatting changes and updates from printed material.

*DING-DING-DING* We have a winner!

This is exactly the attitude you should have. You pay for a DDI subscription each month because you want to read the Dragon and Dungeon Magazine for the month, and you want access to the Character Builder and the Adventure Tools with fully-updated information. Four items that for me personally, are more than worth the money I pay for them. And I don't give a rat's ass about what might be coming down the pipe, because I made the decision to pay for the month's DDI for the items I get for that month's DDI.

To throw away money on DDI each month on the expectation that something I want will eventually show up is complete folly. And if this is what you are doing... do yourself and all of us a favor and stop paying for it. If DDI as it currently stands doesn't give you want you want... DON'T PAY FOR IT ANYMORE. WAIT UNTIL YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT FOR THE MONEY YOU SPEND.