DDI Online Gametable - Reality or Myth?

[Dire Bare]

Deadlines you say? You mean like, say, the launch of 4th ed?

Do I detect some snark? But, yes, exactly like the 4th Ed launch. Whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to the current edition of the game, it's hard to make an argument that the 4e launch wasn't seriously mishandled.

And WotC would agree! They promised not only an awesome new edition, but a suite of awesome new tools and an awesome new GSL . . . all on launch day. The fact that much of this was seriously delayed and some of it still isn't available is embarrassing for the company and they've been burned.

That's exactly why we didn't learn much about the Monster Builder until it was practically in our laps. And the new website design. And when, not if (IMO), we get the gametable, it'll drop quickly as well.

And this is a good thing! Why snark when a company seems to have learned from its mistakes and taken efforts to improve?

 

[Dire Bare]

In short, don't expect the VTT for this edition.

I disagree. I'm confident that we will see the gametable most likely at some point next year, or early 2011. I'd stake my reputation as a random dude commenting on the internet on this!

 

[Shemeska]

Why snark when a company seems to have learned from its mistakes and taken efforts to improve?

They totally hashed things originally. They've done -much- better since moving everything in house, but please be realistic here on the resources they have. The internal pool of developers and testers has shrunk since the character builder was released, and unless they can convince Hasbro to provide them the funds to outsource to someone to make the VTT for them (which Hasbro would be dumb to do a second time), they'll have to do it all in-house.

They don't have the resources from everything I've heard to do something that large, especially if they have to junk the original code and start over from scratch, doubly so when you include the additional resources and funding that they would need to get to add in graphics for all the new 4e "core" elements that have appeared since they had graphics being actively produced by outsourced folks (and hiring people to do that in-house might not be possible given the hiring freeze).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I disagree. I'm confident that we will see the gametable most likely at some point next year, or early 2011. I'd stake my reputation as a random dude commenting on the internet on this!

I totally stand by your reputation as a random dude.

 

[Mercutio01]

Basing the decision whether to subscribe to DDI or not on the VTT would be nothing but foolish right now.

Call me foolish then. I won't be subscribing until there's a VTT. The VTT was what would allow me to actually play 4E other than as a play-by-post and was the specific product that was previewed that made me excited to play. Without a VTT, my time constraints simply don't allow me to play (I work overnights 10PM to 6:30AM). Hence, I won't subscribe until there's a VTT. I hardly call that foolish.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Call me foolish then. I won't be subscribing until there's a VTT. The VTT was what would allow me to actually play 4E other than as a play-by-post and was the specific product that was previewed that made me excited to play. Without a VTT, my time constraints simply don't allow me to play (I work overnights 10PM to 6:30AM). Hence, I won't subscribe until there's a VTT. I hardly call that foolish.

You should try Fantasy Grounds. There is a very good fan created 4E ruleset for it, and you only pay once. You buy the program, get the ruleset for free, and you are ready to go. Also, there is a fairly impressive LFR group dedicated to playing 4E over Fantasy Grounds.

I subscribe to DDi, but even if the VTT is released soon, it will have to be quite impressive to take me away from Fantasy Grounds.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Kzach]

I think it is in the long-term works, but they won't breath a word about it until it's mostly complete. Because every time they tell people something is coming, and they miss a deadline, all hell breaks loose.

As it should be.

We didn't know about it until it practically happened, and it's turned out pretty darned awesome so far!

I can't believe people are saying this site update is a good thing. It's barely even a slight improvement over the original and has brought many new problems with it.

 

[Hussar]

Mercurious - In addition to FG, I'd suggest MapTools. The frameworks already built for 4e means you can pretty much plug and play 4e very quickly. The character builder they have also builds tokens for Maptools complete with macros.

I'd love to have a WOTC maptool, but, then again, if they ever do produce it, they'll likely shut down every 4e map program out there. C&D's all the way around, the same way they did with that site that built character sheets.

Since the community has created VTT's that are as good or better than anything that will likely come out of WOTC, I'm pretty happy with the delay.

 

[Dannager]

Call me foolish then. I won't be subscribing until there's a VTT. The VTT was what would allow me to actually play 4E other than as a play-by-post and was the specific product that was previewed that made me excited to play. Without a VTT, my time constraints simply don't allow me to play (I work overnights 10PM to 6:30AM). Hence, I won't subscribe until there's a VTT. I hardly call that foolish.

You're missing out on the opportunity to take advantage of the Character Builder, Monster Builder, Compendium, and magazines. Unless money is prohibitively tight, I can't see a solid reason why a regular 4e player or DM wouldn't want to have access to a subscription.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

While I could see them shutting down the fan create edition specific add ons, I see no basis on which they could shut down the underlying software.