Can we please stop calling D&D Insider an MMORPG

[herald]

Here is the issue that I have with the DI.

I don't think that they can carry everything off that they say they can and if it gets canceled, it is really going to hurt them.

With the birth of 3.0 WOTC wanted a electronic tool to tie to D&D, and for the sake or brevity I will avoid the history of Mastertools. What we know is that the effort to make the program was too much for Fluid to take on and without too much time invested, WOTC and Fluid walked away from each other.

So this time around WOTC is bringing people inhouse to build online tools to allow subscribers to build characters online and house that information. Tentatively it has been mentioned that subscribers will put a code from the new books they will purchace into a webpage and that will record to a database. When you access D&D Insider you will then be able to get an online version the book and have it populate information at your will to other applications that are offered online.

There is a huge part of me that likes this idea. Thin client type access is something that many IT departments for so many industries are going to. Instead for programming for more than one OS, make the client work inside a browser window. As long as the browser works fine your good.

I'm not going to go on about virtual tabletop personally it really is the least of WOTC's workload. The fact of the matter, WOTC is going to have to create from wholecloth a backend that will be able to keep track of a clients purchaces, and program how that information applies to the character's that a user wants to create, and that client's custom information. If this doesn't work well right of the bat, they will have sometime to work it out, but if this part is buggy for the better part of 2 years, people will start to avoid the DI. IMHO.

Here is where it will get sticky. How do you prevent people from stealling the code from unpurchaced books. Shrinkwrap? Who owns the code if you sell/trade/loose the book? How many people are ready for that sort of EULA in a players handbook. (I know that there is copying restriction written into many books and that is a sort of a EULA, but are we all prepared for that and a software EULA in all gamebooks?)

The virtual tabletop pretty much needs the DI to present characters well. There are other Virtual Tabletops already out there. And honestly, they are more attractive.

How long will it take for information show up in D&D insider. I don't think it likely that a product will ship to the stores and the website will have that book's crunch ready for every application that will be available in D&D Insider. How long that sort of lag is going to be acceptable will be decided by the market. But since it will be online, more people will not want to wait for long.

There are going to be large costs getting a very complicated system up an going. I don't think that WOTC or Hasbro has fully thought this whole thing through. The database that this thing is going to need is going to need to be massive. It's also going to be a pain trying to protect it.

My head is swimming with other tech issues, but I have to pack to leave GenCon.

 

[Rangoric]

MMORPGs are intended to have multiple groups of people playing in the same shared environment with or without interaction with each other.

The DI fails in this in that it is NOT a shared environment, and is instead closer to how Guild Wars or Diablo 1/2 Work, with a small group at a time, not restricted to only playing with that group, in an instanced environment.

Hoowever, the DI is a Virtual Tabletop.

It's the same basic medium. The word MMORPG is a common enough part of our vocabulary now that it makes sense to use it, rather than to invent an entirely new phrase for something whose distinction is so hazy. "Non-persistent MMORPG?" "Non-persistent MORPG?" Please.

You are using a newly made phrase to refer to something that has been around for a while?

Virtual Tabletop. Thats what the DI is intended to be.

No, because they're purely text-based.

No they aren't MMORPGs because they are CHAT CLIENTS.

 

[Visceris]

If I am going to spend money I won't spend money on just zeroes and ones. I want tangible physical objects when I spend money. That is why I refuse to buy something that is just PDF or any online subscription fees. If WotC wants me to buy Dragon Magazine or Dungeon like I have in the past then they need to put it out on the newstand. Buy a computer file that can be easily erased or corrupted? Sorry, not going to happen.

 

[Asmor]

I don't understand how 10 people can qualify as a Massive number of people...

How else is Sony supposed to pass of the PS3 as a massive success?

Sorry, I had to.

 

[frankthedm]

If I am going to spend money I won't spend money on just zeroes and ones. I want tangible physical objects when I spend money. That is why I refuse to buy something that is just PDF or any online subscription fees. If WotC wants me to buy Dragon Magazine or Dungeon like I have in the past then they need to put it out on the newstand. Buy a computer file that can be easily erased or corrupted? Sorry, not going to happen.

TESTIFY!

 

[Asmor]

If I am going to spend money I won't spend money on just zeroes and ones. I want tangible physical objects when I spend money. That is why I refuse to buy something that is just PDF or any online subscription fees. If WotC wants me to buy Dragon Magazine or Dungeon like I have in the past then they need to put it out on the newstand. Buy a computer file that can be easily erased or corrupted? Sorry, not going to happen.

Pray tell, have you ever been to the movies? If so, what tangible, physical object did your likely $10 procure for you? Aside from sentimental value, the ticket stub's worthless... Also, what tangble, physical object does your ISP give you for your $10-$50 a month for internet access?

One distinction that needs to be made here is that of the difference between goods and services. A subscription, generally speaking, is to a service. Not always, of course... For example, a subscription to a magazine, while literally paying for the service of having the magazine delivered directly to you in a timely fashion, is essentially buying a product.

Not saying this distinction has any relevance to the situation at hand, mind you... But I'm also not saying that it doesn't.

In any case, getting caught up on the fact that a PDF isn't a tangible thing is somewhat... god, what's the adjective form of luddite? Ludditic? Luddic? Whatever, there it is. Thinking of a PDF, or other digital object, as not being real and not being worth purchasing is ludditic.

Especially given that it's trivial to turn almost any digital object into a physica object. Burn your music onto an audio CD, burn your video onto a DVD, print out pictures and documents... Really, there aren't many things that really are impossible to make physically manifest.

Actually, now that I think about it, it raises an interesting point... Ever bought any software? No, in all likelihood you have not. Aside from, say, Google buying Picasa (in which they literally acquired the company and product) and other such corporate acquisition, pretty much nobody on earth actually has the option to buy software. Rather, you buy a right to use the software. When you buy Gears of War for the Xbox 360, you're actually buying the right to play it. They were just kind enough to also give you a convenient way to play it in disc form (otherwise, who would buy it?).

Ah, but I digress... I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the distinction between the real and the virtual is just an illusion.

 

[frankthedm]

4 people is not massive.

That depends on the people!

 

[DonTadow]

Woot, new version of D&D! Awesome!

Want more neat web enhancements???

Sure! Just sign up for the MORPG (you can leave out the first M for "massively"). Even if you dont play the hip, new "multiplayer online roleplaying game" sidecar (which it basically is) we will let you download web enhancements anyway for a low monthly fee!!!

MORPG... hmm... D&D is multiplayer, now its online, and its a roleplaying game. Egads!™ it is an MORPG!!!!!!!!

I said it before, this digitial interactive stuff is nothing new. Wotc is pretending to reinvent the wheel but honestly, dmgenie, rptools, fantasy grounds, dm explorer. etc there are a host of software that already let us do this online. For many people d and d is already a multiplplayer online game. So stop freakin out about it. It's not mandatory.

All Wotc is doing is using their "our content is god" power and coming up with their own versions.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

That depends on the people!

Touche.

...you win this round!

 

[rjdafoe]

How long will it take for information show up in D&D insider. I don't think it likely that a product will ship to the stores and the website will have that book's crunch ready for every application that will be available in D&D Insider.

I have read about this, I forget where, but the idea behind this is a whole philosophy change to the way 4th edition product are created. The sinple description, the way I understand it, is they are going to more of a dataset mentality for everything. The product and dataset are created at the same time. We shall see how successfull this whole thing is as 4th edition products come out.

But you are right, there are technical issues. If handled as a part of the product, they should be able to go live at the same time as published.