Are you buying a DDI subscription?
- Thread starter El Mahdi
- Start date
Shemeska
Adventurer
Nope. They haven't demonstrated a level of routine quality or usability for me with the material in Dragon and Dungeon, especially since I don't plan on switching to 4e. Even if I just wasn't using the core PoL setting, but was still playing FR, they've rendered down that setting in 4e to conform to the core flavor assumptions as much as possible to the point of absurdity. As such they've really hurt any chance of ever getting me to subscribe, which was already going to be difficult given the bad taste in my mouth after they killed the print magazines at the height of what amounted to the magazines' second golden age.
I will however reserve the price of a month's subscription in a jar on my desk at work and use it to buy a beer with which to toast them if the major digital tools of the DDI that were already supposed to be out end up getting canned or out-sourced. Call me doom and gloom, I prefer to call it pragmatic based on what we've seen so far with the current DDI progress and in previous digital efforts.
I will however reserve the price of a month's subscription in a jar on my desk at work and use it to buy a beer with which to toast them if the major digital tools of the DDI that were already supposed to be out end up getting canned or out-sourced. Call me doom and gloom, I prefer to call it pragmatic based on what we've seen so far with the current DDI progress and in previous digital efforts.
So you are talking about the compendium? So renting a book for $60 per year for the compendium is OK for you with potential inaccessibility to the materials (server downtime, no internet access, etc), missing material from said rented book, inability to print in any cost effective manner.
I would much rather buy the books than all that. Even the PDF versions of the books will have the functionality and then some over the compendium.
Not to mention you get material in the compendium one month after everyone else IIRC. If all the material for the book is included. With the latest major update to it, it is still missing many things and complete sections of some books.
I agree that is cheap, but not pricewise; more like cheap quality data management. the conpedium should be setting the standard for other companies, not lagging behind fansite capabilities that have less funds to throw into it, and less people to work on it, and can offer the same thing for free, if they had the legal option to do so.
The_Gneech
Explorer
I wouldn't mind a Dungeon subscription if it were a print magazine...
But since that's not an option, no.
-The Gneech
But since that's not an option, no.
-The Gneech
Asmor
First Post
Money's kind of tight right now, or else I'd get the year subscription. Even though it's more expensive in the long run, for the time being I need to settle with the $8 a month option.
Still totally worth it, imho.
Oh, just thought I'd point out that as of my vote, the split is perfectly even: 45 yes, 45 no. That's interesting, considering that we are WotC's target audience (i.e. internet-friendly D&D players). That seems like a decent adoption rate to me, though I'm no expert.
Still totally worth it, imho.
Oh, just thought I'd point out that as of my vote, the split is perfectly even: 45 yes, 45 no. That's interesting, considering that we are WotC's target audience (i.e. internet-friendly D&D players). That seems like a decent adoption rate to me, though I'm no expert.
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Not playing 4e, never really used the magazines much beforehand anyway, not much reason to subscribe.
Not renting a book, renting all books ever. And also getting the magazines.
Right, that's why they cost more.
Compare what I could get by spending $60 each year on D&D books with spending $60 each year on the DDI. I think I get more with the DDI, especially considering that, frequently, all I want from a particular D&D book is small portions of the crunch. I may not get it as fast as other people, or in as accessible a form, but what do I care? If or when a book comes out that I actually want in physical form, I'll buy it, but that happens about once a year at most based on experience with 3e. Meanwhile I'll be able to loot the other 11 hardcover books from WOTC's yearly cycle for all the feats and powers, which are what I want anyways.
Yeah you would get more in that sense if/when it all starts working correctly, so long as you have internet access and the website is working. Not being accessible offline though cuts into that unless you save every page of it on a constant basis, then you time equals cost spent on using the DDI. I am just not trusting the website to be working often enough to be of value including the magazines. The bonus tools as not something I would have claimed to written.
How much do you figure the actual cost of using the compendium to be over a month at the cheapest subscription rate for curiosity's sake?
How much do you figure the actual cost of using the compendium to be over a month at the cheapest subscription rate for curiosity's sake?
Vyvyan Basterd
Adventurer
I'm with Cadfan. Compendium + Magazines = What a DM needs. Let my players buy whatever books they want (at least one of them has bought AV and FRPG). When they ask me about a specific thing from those books I can access the Compendium between game nights instead of wasting time during the game or buying a book that I may not use much.
