NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9410660" data-attributes="member: 6801845">While I appreciate the response, I still don't see an issue.  Yes the VTT will have bells and whistles.  They will compete with other VTTs for users, primarily by offering a tool that distinguishes itself from other offerings.  Business as usual, gives people other options. I think competition is a good thing.  Will they present it in a positive light?  Of course!  Just like every other company that sells anything.But all you seem to be saying is that they'll build a tool people want to use. I'm saying that I, as with a significant portion of the player base, will never use a VTT. A significant percentage of people that use a VTT won't switch over.  Let's be generous and say 60% of people play D&D online.  Of that 60%, of course none of them currently use the WotC VTT today.  Nobody knows how well accepted their tool will be, but lets say eventually the majority of people that play online are now using the WotC version ... so 50% of people playing D&D are using WotC's VTT and the other 10% use something else (and I think I'm being quite generous here).So my best case scenario, we get to the point where half the players of D&D use WotC's VTT.  Hopefully we can agree they aren't going to just eliminate half their player base just because VTT is more profitable, right?So what could entice people to use the VTT?  Let's say they release Otto's Obviously Fantastic Academy (OOFTA).  Now OOFTA is really, really good.  People like it.  What happens if they only target online?  Initially anyway, they're missing out on 50% of their target.  But even then, no matter how incredible OOFTA is, and it really truly is trust me, how is it really any different from any other supplement?  There's a significant percentage of the people that never bought XGtE.  Swashbuckler is my favorite rogue class, but if I didn't have Sword Coast's Adventurers Guide, I'd just play something else like an Arcane Trickster.Would some people miss out on some cool content?  Sure. Just like some people missed out on cool content when we had Dungeon and Dragon magazines.  Just like I've never seen Game of Thrones because I've never bothered subscribing to Max. GoT simply isn't enough motivation for me to spend money on another streaming service.  OOFTA, no matter <s>how handsome he is</s> how amazing a supplement it is, will never convince me to use a VTT.Somehow you go from "they want the VTT to be successful" to "a slow constriction among said base with regard to the boundless nature of imaginative play".  Phew.  First of all, I see no evidence that will ever happen.  Second if it does, it will only happen to people using the VTT.  Third even if I did use the VTT there's nothing wrong with me using some substitute functionality (e.g. use a fog cloud animation to indicate a swarm of screaming souls), I'll just tell people what's going on and that I don't have the proper animation.   If there's damage or associated conditions, we'll handle it manually.  Done.  It's no different from how we play the game now.  I like to use minis at the table and if I have the proper mini I use it but if not I just put down an approximation and describe what they see.  A VTT is not a video game, there's still a DM running everything and they've stated there will be ways to manually apply damage and conditions.All I can say is that I see no way to connect the dots between "VTT" and "VTT taking over the world to the detriment of the game" and you haven't really provided anything convincing.  They're selling a new product they hope will be successful.  Just like they're licensing or building video games they hope to make a profit on.  But those things don't have any significant impact on the core game.</blockquote>

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