DDI for $7.95

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think what you're going to find is a lot of people will cancel their subscriptions once the price goes up and the novelty of the DDI stuff wears off.

The novelty wearing off is only important for those that just buy into it out of interest to see what it's all about. Anyone that really wants to use the game table or read the magazines will stay on. It's not like Dungeon & Dragon steadily lost readership because the novelty wore off - or did they?
Of course, if the quality of the game table or the magazines leaves to be desired (or drops off, in case of the magazines), then the DDI will fail. But that's no surprise.

And you know the magazines will start showing up on torrents so a lot of people will just pick them up there.

Contrary to popular belief, I think most people that are willing to pay for magazines (or music, shows, or movies) will do so if they have the opportunity.

From some casual conversations with players, the interest level in the online play just isn't there. From them, not from me. I'd love to DM games on the net and gain access to players all around the world. Assuming, of course, that the end product works as promised. But to be brutally honest, I think only a very small fraction of players will shell out a monthly subscription. There'll be a lot more DMs than players. Which kinda sucks for running games.

I think every group that has a stable group that meets regularly in real life will not use the DDI much.
My group is on a certain "edge" here - we meet pretty regularly, but we have several former players that might still be interested in occasional online play with us, and the fact that we sometimes have trouble getting all players together because of the jobs with week-ends shift that two out of 5 players got recently.

Anyone seen how they are going to price the table top stuff? IE is it going to be $10/month per player? Or just $10/month for the DM?

If its $10 for the DM I'll likely buy into that, but if its $10 per player, then thats out too. Maptools is just too awesome of a free tool to pay that much for something with little value added.

Keef the Thief already said everything I know at the moment (including, unfortunately, the amount of links I am currently aware of on that matter ).

The guest pass idea is sure very nice if it will be done.