herald
First Post
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.
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.