D&D: Insider Tools - will they succeed?

[pallen]

This is simply not true. The tool set is NOT being developed internally by WotC themselves. What on earth made you think that? Just an iota of research would show that the tool set is being developed by Radiant Machine a daughter company of Solutions IQ.

I searched through ENworld's "Unofficial Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Info Page" and Wizards' own D&D Insider fact sheet. The only mention of Radiant Machine on either is in an answer to a question about QA testing.

"Radiant Machine" also gets no hits on the entire WotC website.

I've read several Q&A threads from Wizards' employees where they answer questions about D&D:Insider, and I've never seen more than a cursory mention of Radiant Machine (like the one above).

But since you seem to know something about Radiant Machine, what have they done before? How much experience do they have? Because the only thing their website mentions is Gleemax and D&D: Insider stuff.

 

[Mercule]

DMs seeking ego-gratification and self-actualisation in the worldbuilding and semi-autistic reality-control departments (DM psychology would be an interesting thesis topic - there's some beautiful stuff in there).

Just wondering if that was a typo, Freudian slip, or intentional. I'm assuming you meant "artistic".

 

[Irda Ranger]

The more useful of the D&D Insider Tools, the character generator and dungeon creator, will not work on the Mac platform; making them less useful than garbage.

Yeah, my two platforms of choice are Mac and Ubuntu, but I didn't even mention that. I would never use DDI for that reason, but it can certainly be a success without me. I think it's going to fail on the merits.

 

[Tquirky]

Just wondering if that was a typo, Freudian slip, or intentional. I'm assuming you meant "artistic".

Heh, no, I meant what I said. Thinking of savants in particular here. I gather that it's common for them to specialise in something akin to worldbuilding (with strict boundaries), such as the guy who conceived an entire imaginary european city in his head.

Autism (and to a lesser extent, Asperger's syndrome, and lesser again, nerds in general) is all about systems thinking, and worldbuilding is a very pure form of that. DIY planet, universe, reality? You can control that, the real world is a scary place where taking things literally (another autistic trait) doesn't get you very far. No wonder it's so attractive (if your brain is wired this way) to retreat into a microcosm of your own creating.

I'm not saying DMs are autistic, but it's a tip of the hat in that direction.

 

[Irda Ranger]

This is simply not true. The tool set is NOT being developed internally by WotC themselves. What on earth made you think that? Just an iota of research would show that the tool set is being developed by Radiant Machine a daughter company of Solutions IQ.

Dude, I've been following the 4E news as closely as anyone, and I have never heard of Radiant Machine before. So I think you're a little overboard here with this "iota of research" language. IMO, I think you need to tone it down.

Having looked at Radiant Machine's website now (thanks for the tip), they only have two items in their portfolio - Gleemax and D&D Insider. They may claim to be a general purpose software developer, but so far the only shipping product to their name is a big stinking pile of crap (by which I mean Gleemax is a big stinking pile of crap).

Now, it just so happens that Gleemax's deplorable condition may not be Radiant Machine's fault. It's very possible that WotC demanded their website perform in certain (crapalicious) ways. After all, they're the same corporate culture that brought us the technological FUBAR's that are eTools and the Wizards of the Coast website. But that doesn't make me feel any better about D&D Insider's prospects. If D&D Insider has the readability, usability and overall design philosophy of Gleemax, it won't be worth my time to download the free trial software (assuming there is such a thing) over my fiber-optic home internet connection. Sure, it only takes me 10 minutes to download a 700 Mb Linux distro, but still, it'll take me less than five minutes to realize its worth.

 

[Mercule]

But since you seem to know something about Radiant Machine, what have they done before? How much experience do they have? Because the only thing their website mentions is Gleemax and D&D: Insider stuff.

Right. Which really doesn't do much to inspire confidence.

In the end, though, neither Gleemax nor DDI are horrible compared to some sites that somehow stay in business. Go check out the Sprint site sometime. It's been essentially unchanged for 2-3 years (shortly after the Nextel merger) and could serve as a poster-child of web-site DON'Ts.

My concerns are:

1) Subscription service. This makes sense for the Dragon/Dungeon content, but subscription software (outside of enterprise maintanence agreements, virus definition updates, etc.) is one of my big peeves. It bugs me at a pretty basic level the same way DRM on music and documents does. Depending on the final implementation, this may get a bye because of the sourcebook updates.

2) Internet connection required for the tools. See point #1. I know it's ironic for a web application developer to hate web-based applications, but I do. It's different if there's a reason for the app to be connected (I enterprise tools), but there really isn't for a chargen app. Requiring the app to phone home really is DRM -- if I end my subscription, my app is toast.

I think the Dragon/Dungeon part will be fine and I've been a big supporter of the idea. It's the tools that I'll have to wait and see about. Even if they are untouchable for performance and features, there's still a bit of a pseudo-ethical objection they're going to have to overcome as far as I'm concerned. Currently, I have a flat-out "no buy" policy for any software that does the above.

 

[KoshPWNZYou]

Just an iota of research would show that the tool set is being developed by Radiant Machine

Homepage consisting entirely of a gigantic Flash applet.

That tells me pretty much all I need to know about Radiant Machine.

 

[cougent]

Anyway, does anyone else suspect that the D&D Digital Initiative is headed for a rocky start?

I can answer your question with one word: ETOOLS!

If that doesn't make everyone cringe at the idea of a WotC backed digital product, then nothing will.

Having said that though, I actually hope they will price it low ($10 or less) and I *might* subscribe for the Ezine content, if it improves between now and June.

"Rocky" does not even begin to describe the initial launch of this fiasco-in-training.

 

[Alan Shutko]

FWIW: http://www.wizards.com/company/downloads/Announcing_Radiant_Machine_Entertainment.pdf

New arm of a business consultancy doing game work. Their website does say it's composed of veterans from a number of game companies, but their management are from the business consultant side, and it's still a brand new team which will take time to gel.

I'd expect the DI tools to be delayed, decreased in scope, and/or buggy. But hopefully, enough management has their bonuses riding on the success of the DI to force them to persevere.

 

[Hussar]

Now...as for the tools part. First thing needs to be gotten off of my chest: "collectible" digital miniatures that cost money in the same fashion as boxes of physical minis??? I really hope this was a drunken thought abandoned with the next morning's clear mind.

Yes. It was abandoned. It's been repeatedly stated that it's been abandoned.

Unfortunately, I'm in the camp that thinks that the VTT is going to have some serious problems. I want it to work, but, I think that it won't. Bundling the VTT to the subscription is a serious mistake. The VTT allows people to game who may not be able to currently and allows those who can to game even more.

More people gaming=more books being sold.

Make the VTT free and people will use it. The more people that use it and game regularly, the more interested they'll be in buying a physical book and getting the bennies from unlocking that book in the VTT.

Tying it to Dungeon and Dragon is a bad idea. There's loads of people who might want to game, but, do all of them want to read Dungeon and/or Dragon? Why would I pay 120 bucks a year to use a VTT when there are fantastic VTT programs already out there for half that or even free?

I'm not understanding this idea.