D&D Beyond executives explain why subscribers can't share Drops content

D&D Beyond executives claim that content sharing isn't enabled for their new Drops material because they want to make sure designers get paid. On Friday, D&D Beyond's executive producer Brian Perry and new head of Drops content Jay Jani answered questions on Reddit about D&D Beyond Drops, a new compendium of maps, images, and rules exclusive to D&D Beyond subscribers. Unsurprisingly, the biggest question on many users' minds were why Drops content wasn't sharable via the Master tier subscription like other material. In several posts, Perry stated that the reason was monetary in nature.

"We need to pay the great designers, artists, and developers working on D&D Beyond Drops," Perry said in a comment. "We also really think it's important to make the entire subscriber content library accessible to Hero Tier subscribers (as well as Master Tier). Not making Drops content eligible for content sharing was a necessary tradeoff to hit these goals."

However, given the amount of feedback among fans about making Drops content sharable among players, Perry said they were actively looking at alternative solutions. "With that said, I hear and really appreciate the feedback on being able to share Drops content with players in your group that don't have the disposable income for a Hero Tier subscription," Perry said. "The team is taking another look at the tradeoffs and considering other solutions."

 

[SothFan]

You seem to dislike digital gaming

No, I dislike scam artists. I had my books taken from my Kindle. I will trust no company with a rental service at purchase price ever again.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

No, I dislike scam artists. I had my books taken from my Kindle. I will trust no company with a rental service at purchase price ever again.

I really can't see anything taken away from us.

Hero tier subscription until now had no real value. Now they are experimenting to add some without taking away something from master tier.

 

[Scribe]

Be happy with this content.

Own nothing, and be happy. Just pay forever.

No thanks.

 

[SothFan]

I really can't see anything taken away from us.

Not yet, but they gave you something that can be rendered useless by the click of another user. Then what value is added for the $26 price?

 

[Clint_L]

No, I dislike scam artists. I had my books taken from my Kindle. I will trust no company with a rental service at purchase price ever again.

See, my kindle could vanish tomorrow and it would have paid for itself many times over, along with all the benefits of saving space, convenience, helping the environment, etc. in fact, I lost my Kindle recently and had a new one at my door the next day. I had to pay for my foolishness, but I’m still WAY ahead. And it’s not like I’ve never lost or ruined a book before.

And if my Kindle library suddenly went away, I wouldn’t care. It’s a bunch of books I’ve already read. If there were any I desperately needed to raid again I would just buy them again. It’d still be cheaper than buying physical copies to begin with. And that’s assuming that, as older books, I can’t just get them from Kindle Unlimited.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience. Mine has been amazing. And DDB, which you have an awful lot of opinions about for something you’ve never used for a game you don’t play, has been even better value.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Not yet, but they gave you something that can be rendered useless by the click of another user. Then what value is added for the $26 price?

That you could use it for the time you paid for.

It is not 26 dollars. It is 2 dollars per month.

Do you drive a car? You have to put gasoline in it. After you have driven somewhere, the gasoline is used up.
Or did you ever buy a cup of coffee instead of making it yourself? You paid the service.
There are so many things people buy to use for a limited amount of time but somehow if a company dares to charge for something on the Internet, it is all doom and gloom.

Servers cost money and energy. Designers cost money. 2 dollars per month is a negligible amount compared to even the two things I mentioned above.

So yeah. If they take the subscription perks away after I stopped subscribing, that is OK.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Not yet, but they gave you something that can be rendered useless by the click of another user. Then what value is added for the $26 price?

it's a 2 or 5 $ price

 

[orial]

Who of all the people here do their jobs for free? i monetize my work. Blame me.

 

[mamba]

Who of all the people here do their jobs for free? i monetize my work. Blame me.

and you think getting money from the existing subscribers does not pay for that work? Or that it would not be able to attract new subscribers? Or that given its 50%+ (probably closer to 70%) profit margin for DDB is not enough to pay for this on its own?

 

[Morrus]

I think for me--and I don't really use the platform, so my insight isn't really worth much--the issue would come about when some people in a group have access to material that others don't have access to. With a book in physical space, you can just share the book, so everybody (in theory) has access to the material, but that's not the same if the material is locked into a platform.