DDI Subscribers: Are you satisfied with your subscription?

[Timeboxer]

I'm merely somewhat satisfied, but that's because it's a mixed bag for me.

Character Builder: Amazingly useful, despite having some significant flaws.
Compendium: Also amazingly useful, but a horrible horrible user interface.
Dragon and Dungeon: I was really impressed the first few months, but I feel like the quality and amount of content has gone down since the layoffs late last year. With any luck things will improve.

 

[catsclaw227]

The results are interesting. I hope someone from Wizards has seen this and can pass it on to the team. There aren't any specifics, but it can give the developers some idea of what is causing a drop in satisfaction for some people.

Maybe the preview material will drop off a bit and give some people an extra article or two. I like some of the preview material, and because of it, I have a Barbarian and a Druid in my current game (2nd level).

The short version is that I don't really care about "preview" information and the character builder is somewhat disappointing (I really hate paying to beta test a product).

Personally, I haven't see the bugs people are talking about with the CharBuilder, so in my experience, I wouldn't call it beta software anymore. I've used far buggier commercial software before, but that's not really the point.

What issues are you seeing that you feel still make it beta software?

 

[Mistwell]

I voted "A bit Unsatisfied" and my reasons are pretty much summed up in the thread I started here:

advice to anyone still wondering if they should purchase a DDI subscription today

The short version is that I don't really care about "preview" information and the character builder is somewhat disappointing (I really hate paying to beta test a product). Everything else is nice, but not worth $60/year - at least, not yet. But I still have hope that my $$$ won't have been wasted... eventually.

Bob, you have been claiming the character generator is beta for a while, and others have nearly universally been disagreeing with you on that point for a while, and asking you to clarify.

Here was your last clarification:

Really? So over 5 pages of user-generated bug lists in a week doesn't irritate you? And really, that's just one forum thread: I'm sure there are more. Honestly, I have made about 8 full characters on it so far, and of those, 100% have had something wrong or missing.

I am certainly willing to admit that I am apparently standing alone on this one, but the number of bugs in what is supposed to be a released product is staggering to me. There are a wide range of features that do not work and have not worked for some time: and frankly, this isn't really shocking, because D&D is a hard game to code! There are a billion exceptions and rules and additions all the time, so of course it's going to be hard - but to get something maybe 75-80% done and push it out the door is pretty bad, in my opinion.

But as others have said: your millage may vary. And to those who like the product so far and are willing to forgive: fair enough. I think this thread is useful no matter which stand you take.

5 pages of user-generated bugs for a new piece of software is astonishingly SMALL. Have you looked at the bug forums for more mainstream business software? It's THOUSANDS of small bugs at first, for the first full non-beta version of most software.

Your claim that it is 75%-80% done is just patently false. I and others have asked you to try and back up that claim with anything, and so far we have not gotten a non-vague answer. So from my perspective, yeah, I think you are standing nearly alone on those sorts of claims.

 

[Spatula]

The follow-up, of course, is will people still be as satisfied should the price rise to $9.99/month, as was originally announced? (Though I presume it will not rise that high until the whole thing - including the game table - is done.)

I thought they said the subscription fee was going up after the character builder was released.

Anyway, Dragon & Dungeon are worth $10 a month to me - the print versions were $6-7 each - although if you're not a DM, the Dungeon articles are a waste. The compendium, char builder, and whatever else comes down the road is just icing on the cake.

Now if only I didn't have to constantly log back in...

 

[evilbob]

Bob, you have been claiming the character generator is beta for a while, and others have nearly universally been disagreeing with you on that point for a while, and asking you to clarify.

Wow, Mist, I didn't realize you actually cared what my points were!

Fair enough: I haven't given a specific list of bugs because I haven't been in a thread dedicated to listing bugs in this product (at least not at EN World) and I haven't wanted to derail anything with nit-picky conversations. If you want me to list my specific bugs for you, I can; but suffice to say for the purposes of this thread, I have tried many times to make characters with the thing and every single time I've run into a bug. These bugs range from "vexing" (wizard spellbook spells print twice) to "annoying but I can rewrite it" (item bonuses not added appropriately to stats) to "I cannot use the power attack/damage calculator at all" (ruthless ruffian rogues cannot use maces with rogue powers). There are also powers missing, which can make finishing a character impossible. These are big bugs, at least in my opinion. I'm really glad that many, MANY people have not run into many bugs. But I've hit LOTS. And so have many other people, too. To me, saying that this product is 80% complete is generous, since it cannot actually create 100% of the characters I've tried to make.

Have you looked at the bug forums for more mainstream business software? It's THOUSANDS of small bugs at first, for the first full non-beta version of most software.

My point: this is unacceptable on any level, be it huge multi-million dollar developers who have teams of hundreds, or $5/mo software that was programmed by a small team. Paying for beta products is something the PC world is far too accustomed to, and the only way this trend will stop is to stop supporting it. But that's a separate soapbox.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

What issues are you seeing that you feel still make it beta software?

Formatting of power cards is my only technical problem so far. It is pretty annoying, though. It looks ugly and of course sometimes you need the actual description of the power.

But that's not really a software bug, it's a problem with their data files. The app seems pretty sound, they just have to polish their rules database and fix these issues. (Unless they have been introduced by an error in their parser or renderer)

 

[Wormwood]

Very Satisfied overall.

The generator is my favorite feature, followed closely by the magazines (I've never used so much Dragon content in my games. Ever).

4e is already very easy to DM, yet the DDI tools somehow make it even easier. So much so that we now have rotating DMs in my Sunday game because everyone wants their turn behind the screen.

 

[Spatula]

ruthless ruffian rogues cannot use maces with rogue powers.

You must have the broken version then, because the ruthless ruffian build works perfectly fine on my copy. Never tried to print anything out and your other points aren't specific, so I can't comment on the rest.

My point: this is unacceptable on any level, be it huge multi-million dollar developers who have teams of hundreds, or $5/mo software that was programmed by a small team. Paying for beta products is something the PC world is far too accustomed to, and the only way this trend will stop is to stop supporting it. But that's a separate soapbox.

...and a very unrealistic one.

 

[PeelSeel2]

Very satisfied. Players love it, I love it.

I am also very satisfied with Asmor's Monster Maker. That could be just a good a value as the whole DDI if he could code the monster powers into it!

 

[Asmor]

Very satisfied. Players love it, I love it.

I am also very satisfied with Asmor's Monster Maker. That could be just a good a value as the whole DDI if he could code the monster powers into it!

I don't quite follow what you're asking.

I use my email to keep track of suggestions and bugs, so please email me with a bit more detail. My address is itoltz@gmail.com.