D&D 4E Are the 4E previews like turning it up to 11?

[MoogleEmpMog]

I mean, when you wait for a computergame, do you expect getting a free demo of it, before release?

For a PC game? Of course! This is absolutely CENTRAL to at least the online business model of PC gaming today. Good luck finding a game you CAN'T find a free demo of. That's not even mentioning open betas.

For an X-Box 360 or PS3 game? Probably. It's new to consoles, and speaks to a 'beta test' vs. 'internal test' attitude that I fear will make them as buggy, patchy and almost as poorly coded as their PC kin. Still, it's becoming more common.

For any other system? No. They don't have the infrastructure yet.

Now, anything other than an open beta is likely to release at or near launch (say, 2-3 weeks ahead of time), not half a year ahead of time.

When you are waiting for the new G. R. R. Martin book, do you expect to get multiple free chapters, so that you can better evaluate if you want to buy the book?

Expect, no, but it would certainly be an effective marketing tactic. Also, I've seen it done several times - prologue or first chapter given away, the rest. For example, most e-publishers do this nowadays. Certainly if I were self-publishing a novel I would make the first few chapters available free online; I mean, why NOT do so?

But, this doesn't happen until the book is done with the editing stage, and is less useful before the book is available for purchase.

 

[broghammerj]

This is what you said.

If I didn't have access to one of the greatest collection of DND facts on this site then most of the stuff they have released on DND insider wouldn't have told me much of anything.​

So you can continue carping on about the stuff released on D&D Insider, or you can accept that information comes out of WotC via various channels.

I can accept that information comes from various channels. I contend that the main channel has some poor information. I don't see how anything I am saying is mutually exclusive from your points. Simply put DND Insider appears to be the main outlet for 4E info and I have personal opinions regarding its quality. Perhaps you have derived something from my posts that I did not intend which is a failure on my part to communicate properly through my posts.

This is an excellent website in that many individuals collect information to make an amalgam of DnD news. (By the way thanks Morrus. I know you and I may have a disagreement within this post, I do appreciate all the work you put into this site and actually getting all this news together). The DND Insider is far from having the inside info compared to EnWorld. I don't think that bodes well for WotC.

 

[king_ghidorah]

The only thing that worries me is how incomplete the info they are giving us seems. This game is about to be playtested and according to blogs main issues are still being debated. It doesn't seem like fine points are being worked on. We are talking some main issues here

The game is about to go into open playtesting, but it is clear in their posts that it is being and has been playtested internally already for a while. Issues about what makes the final cut are being debated, which will probably range from minor details to big issues that looked good on paper and felt good when played by the designers and their group, but may not work as well once other people try to figure out what seemed obvious on paper.