D&D 4E D&D 4E Presentation videos

[Mark]

Sorry, you guys can disagree with it, but its how people think.

Lets say you give me 5 things for $40, and I'm happy. Great.

Now give me 10 things for $40, but I don't want 5 of them. Now I'm unhappy. I feel like I got $20 worth of stuff, and was forced to pay extra for things I don't want. You ruined the deal.

This is how consumer expectations work. There's tons of ways you've seen these things happen. When a company announces that a product will be released in June, and it is, you're happy. When they announce it will be released in May, but they run a month behind and give it to you in June, you're unhappy. Even though you got the same thing!

The way you offer products crafts people's expectations about the products you offer. I think that including with every book the option to spend extra money to use the book in a particular way makes people feel like you're charging them for the book they already own. Even though previously they weren't able to use the book in that way at all, so really you're offering them something extra for extra money, you've shaped their expectations in such a way that they expect more for the same money.

As for including home brew in online play, they can't include all types of homebrew. If they did, you wouldn't need access codes at all. You could just enter in a real book as an alleged "homebrew" entry.

Oddly, the more people pay for a new car, the more happy they claim to be with their purchase.

 

[Waldorf]

Subscriptions? For D&D? WTF?

Please.

I think I'll stick with my 3.5 books, thank you.



Wizards will do anything to turn D&D into World of Warcraft.

(Hey kids, if you want World of Warcraft, then go PLAY World of Warcraft).

 

[Cadfan]

That's entirely different. There's two things going on there. First is conspicuous consumption. People who buy expensive cars do so EXACTLY BECAUSE the car is expensive, and they want other people to see that they can afford expensive vehicles. Merely by paying more (in a situation where other people can tell they paid more) they got what they were looking for. Its the same reason people are happier with bigger, more expensive diamond rings. The point isn't necessarily how pretty the ring is, its how ostentatiously decadent the ring is. Second is the way people perceive the value of cars. The idea there is, people believe that expensive cars are inherently better, and cheap cars are inherently crap. So people who buy an expe

 

[Mark]

That's entirely different. There's two things going on there. First is conspicuous consumption. People who buy expensive cars (. . .)

Not just expensive cars but any car at all.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Subscriptions? For D&D? WTF?

As far as I can tell, it's "subscriptions if you want extra stuff that's not in the book you bought, or want to use a digital tabletop instead of a physical one."

Your books won't immolate or your dice stop rolling anything but natural ones if you don't subscribe. Geez.

 

[Pbartender]

They are offering extra tools on the computer. You can use them or not. Some you may have to pay for because they are premium items.

...

The difference is that WotC is adding computer support for 4E. Almost since 3E was released, people have been lamenting the lack of official, quality tools for character and campaign management. WotC is finally adding these things and people are complaining? Ironic, but not unexpected. I wonder why WotC doesn't cave to everything said on the web.

Myself, I'll probably sign up for the DI. I have zero interest in the virtual tabletop or playing a live game through the web -- ever. But, I really, really like getting a digital copy of my book that is automatically errataed and searchable. And, get this: WotC said months ago that all DI subscription content would be downloadable and maintainable even if you ended your subscription.

I my one biggest complaint about the DI business model is that using those tools requires three things... A) the internet, B) a subscription, and C) possibly paying for things you don't want to get the things you do.

Say that I just want to pick up the pdfs of the core rulebooks, and am completely uninterested in anything else the DI has to offer. As it stands, I have to pay $10/mo. for a year to get them. $120 for three pdfs -- even the core books -- is awfully expensive. I'd rather they offered a CD-ROM containing tools that you can use off-line.

 

[Horacio]

As far as I can tell, it's "subscriptions if you want extra stuff that's not in the book you bought, or want to use a digital tabletop instead of a physical one."

Your books won't immolate or your dice stop rolling anything but natural ones if you don't subscribe. Geez.

Why are you spoiling all the angst and wrath with your cold and factual logic?

 

[RigaMortus2]

LOL! About 80% of the people I play with don't mind plunking down a one-time payment for a PHB, but $10 a month?? I'd have to start playing D&D online with strangers...

I'm the furthest thing from a technophobe, but I don't like this DI thing, and I'll just stick with my low tech 3.5E (that I play with a laptop).

You do know you aren't required to sign up for DI to get and play 4E, right?

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Why are you spoiling all the angst and wrath with your cold and factual logic?

Because gamers are haters, to quote someone from RPG.net (StephenLS?), and as a gamer, I hate that.

 

[Agamon]

You do know you aren't required to sign up for DI to get and play 4E, right?

Not required, no, of course not. I'm not required to put gas in my car either.

LOL, silly analogy, sorry. You kinda get my meaning, though? I'm still waiting to see if the digital additions to books are completely unnecessary fluff or a chapter that might have nice to have in the book...