DDI September/October Update info

[Scribble]

Wait... you think they read every thread?

Also you canceled your renewal based on an entirely unsubstantiated rumor?

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[renau1g]

That and the declining quality of the online content and the lack of updates for months and the lack of communication. Do I expect them to read every thread? Nope, but I also expect them to announce important things (like say the delay of Essentials/DS) on their main page rather than buried in their forums, which they did. mudbunny and the other guys (forget their titles) were pretty active in those threads and from my understanding passed along the questions to the staff so they decided not to answer. There was even a Outstanding question thread stickied by mudbunny... one of the unresolved questions was that. You really thing they didn't hear all that flak from the community about this issue? Almost 90% of the posts were about that and/or the lack of communication.

 

[Merkuri]

Wow....so they could have squelched the rumor of no future offline CB with 5 seconds (assuming that is indeed the case, based on the Human having a racial option now), but instead chose to allow rumours to run rampant and have many (myself included) cancel their auto-renewal because of the lack of info. Again, it'd take 5 seconds to Trevor (or someone) to say yea or nay for future support of offline CB, but instead they've chosen to not post any info and then have rumours take hold. Another excellent job Wotc... damn...

Like Scribble said, they probably do not read every post of every thread.

And even if they do, part of the whole nondisclosure thing is not negating every rumor. Imagine if they did negate every incorrect rumor. If they suddenly got silent for one rumor and didn't negate it then everybody would know that this was the "correct" rumor, or that it was close. If WotC doesn't give us any information then we can't play a game of "hot or cold" with them.

You may not like it, but companies have very good reasons for keeping us in the dark about upcoming products. Think of the mystery web tool like a birthday present you haven't unwrapped yet and let yourself be surprised when it gets here. And if you find out it's a lump of coal, THEN you can start complaining.

 

[renau1g]

Like Scribble said, they probably do not read every post of every thread.

And even if they do, part of the whole nondisclosure thing is not negating every rumor. Imagine if they did negate every incorrect rumor. If they suddenly got silent for one rumor and didn't negate it then everybody would know that this was the "correct" rumor, or that it was close. If WotC doesn't give us any information then we can't play a game of "hot or cold" with them.

You may not like it, but companies have very good reasons for keeping us in the dark about upcoming products. Think of the mystery web tool like a birthday present you haven't unwrapped yet and let yourself be surprised when it gets here. And if you find out it's a lump of coal, THEN you can start complaining.

And as I said, they don't have to read every post of every thread, but thanks for implying I meant that I said that mudbunny and the VCL or whatever they're called were active in those threads and many posters did say those things. Now, maybe they think "hey, who cares if we lose subscribers over this, the tool will be awesome and we'll get them back" which is fine. Now, your analogy to a birthday present should be fleshed out a bit more, say that uncle always gets you a lump of coal for Christmas, and one year he's like "let me make it up to you, I'll buy you an XBOX 360, a PS3, an Alienware PC, and a bunch of other really awesome stuff" and then Christmas rolls around and instead he gives you one thing and says "Oh man it's way too much work for all those things, be happy with this". The thing you get is really useful, but you always remember that your uncle promised so many cool things and failed to deliver, plus he always gave you crap before. "This time" he promises "the new cool thing I got will be really awesome" and the present is there, but you don't know when you can open it and based on your past experiences... well let's say your hopes aren't too high.

I'm a huge fan of 4e, the CB, even the monster builder despite its flaws, but damn it would be nice if they finished something (like the aforementioned MB) before rushing off to something new and shiny...

Edit: Just wanted to add that while WOTC doesn't keep their customers informed of what they are working on with any details there are many companies that do. Car companies, video game developers, movie companies, yeah... it build excitement for your product. Heck, wotc really doesn't have any competition in their market space that would "steal" their project and develop it on their own.

 

[Jhaelen]

Edit: Just wanted to add that while WOTC doesn't keep their customers informed of what they are working on with any details there are many companies that do. Car companies, video game developers, movie companies, yeah... it build excitement for your product. Heck, wotc really doesn't have any competition in their market space that would "steal" their project and develop it on their own.

Do they? In my experience, all of the company branches you mention (except maybe for the video game developers) take (sometimes extreme) measures to prevent information getting leaked before the product in question is actually done.

Particularly car companies are super-paranoid and typically behave as if they're working on fission bombs. Heads will roll if the slightest hint of their top-secret projects is leaked.

 

[AllisterH]

I think honestly WOTC is actually doing the right thing and following the BLIZZARD model.

Blizzard will deny anything and EVERYTHING about a game UNTIL they pretty much rolling out the beta in a week.

And even then, they won't say when the final version is to be released until a couple months/several weeks before they're ready to ship...

re: Months of non0update?

Um, prior to last month, hasn't the DDI been updated regularly and only missed 1 month?

To my knowledge, it's only been this month and several months ago where the DDI update didn't happen....

 

[Scribble]

And as I said, they don't have to read every post of every thread, but thanks for implying I meant that I said that mudbunny and the VCL or whatever they're called were active in those threads and many posters did say those things. Now, maybe they think "hey, who cares if we lose subscribers over this, the tool will be awesome and we'll get them back" which is fine.

I doubt they think that... Of all things I think that's the furthest from the truth.

I think it's probably which is better damage control when no matter what you do, people will complain, and behave as if the company just killed their puppy.

Do we say nothing, and cause anger, which will most likely be forgotten once the cool thing comes out... Or... Do we say things which then get misconstrued and spend an enormous amount of energy dispelling the misinfo, and fighting the "you didn't do what you promised!" comments...

Sounds like they find the later to be better damage control, when there is no way to escape the damage to begin with.

As for the delays... I honestly think they're trying their best to get things out as soon as possible and holding off a delay announcement until they absolutely have to admit defeat.

It sucks, but from my own limited work with programming software often seems like it's working perfectly, and then you notice a small bug that you need to actually do a ton of work to fix.

I'm a huge fan of 4e, the CB, even the monster builder despite its flaws, but damn it would be nice if they finished something (like the aforementioned MB) before rushing off to something new and shiny...

I agree for the most part... But part of not having info is not knowing at all what the new and shiny is... It could very well be the rest of the MB, along with whatever the "web tools" are.

 

[mudbunny]

And as I said, they don't have to read every post of every thread, but thanks for implying I meant that I said that mudbunny and the VCL or whatever they're called were active in those threads and many posters did say those things.

WotC *is* aware of the feelings of the customers, both those that are disappointed with the happenings over the past couple months as well as those who it didn't bother.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Anyone know if WotC had any plans to make the encounter builder an off-line tool in the Adventure Tools?

 

[Mirtek]

Wait... you think they read every thread?

Also you canceled your renewal based on an entirely unsubstantiated rumor?

Rather because we're so unhappy with the service that WotC is providing that we're willing to believe such a rumor because it's perfectly in line with the past dissatisfaction about WotC. If it were about a company I actually trust I wouldn't have given such rumors a second thought.