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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brax" data-source="post: 5366973" data-attributes="member: 29608">Here is a letter I wrote to WotCWizards of the Coast Customer Service:I am writing this to inform you of why I am not continuing my subscription to D&D Insider.  I suspect your department is being inundated with this sort of thing, and hope that you will read this letter and act upon, or pass along the information here within.Here is a brief summary of what kind of customer I am.  I have played D&D since about 1981.  In that time I’ve played D&D (Basic, Expert, Master, Immortals), AD&D, 2nd Edition AD&D (including the revisions with Player’s Option and the like), 3rd Edition D&D, 3.5, and now 4th Edition D&D.  Of the products that your company has been responsible for (3rd Edition and on), I estimate I purchased a total of $1500 worth of books, miniatures, software, and online services from you.  This includes two years worth of the D&D Insider subscription paid in advance.I love this game.  I look forward to meeting with my friends every week to play.  The most recent edition, 4th, is the most fun yet to play (at least tactically).  The exceptions based rules, however, make it very difficult to make and maintain a character.  There are so many options and interdependencies that playing only with pen and paper became too much of a hassle for me.  Your character builder became indispensable for me.Over the last two years, however, the subscription to DDI has lost its appeal.  After some amazing software preview videos, and a few months of amazing Dragon and Dungeon magazine content, I figured I would spring for a whole year of the DDI service, figuring that it was worth the money despite my strong aversion to the software-as-a-subscription model of pricing.  I can’t stress how much I dislike that business model.  As a customer, I like to own things, not rent or lease them.  When it was announced that pricing was going up, seeing how good the first tools turned out, I signed up for another year to get the best bang for my buck, so to speak.In those two years, your DDI team disappointed me several times.  No virtual tabletop, no 3d character visualizer (not as big of a deal, but needed for a good VTT), no campaign manager, several oddly missing features to the existing character builder (not all feats and items implemented fully, house rules not interacting with the character’s statistics, incomplete tracking of conditions and current state of the character), several delays, and declining content in the magazines.I own so many books, that they stopped fitting on the table after the first year of 4th edition, so I switched to using a laptop and tracking everything with that.  I currently use a few purchased PDFs, the compendium, the character builder, and iplay4e to play at the table.  With the shortcomings of the current character builder, I needed to make my own custom dice rolls using Crystal Ball Lite.  The table is much less cluttered now with everything electronic.The changes announced in the new version of the character builder concern me, and frankly I don’t have any faith left in your software division to implement all of the missing features in a timely manner if ever.  My subscription is up as of 11/7, and I won’t be renewing.  WotC won’t see any more of my money until one or more of the following happen, in order of my personal preference:•    You release a working virtual tabletop.•    The new character builder is improved to the point where I can play with my laptop at our real table without using any physical books or paper.  This would mean that I can use only the character builder, or some combination of it plus 3rd party sites (like iplay4e).  Being able to export a character and manipulate it outside of your service will be needed, since you won’t be able to think of every want the community has. •    You start selling PDF versions of your books again.  I’d ultimately like to see you sell a physical book and the PDF together for one price, or possible a small amount more ($5 or less) than just the physical product.  I like to read a physical book when going cover to cover, but like the PDF when referencing at the table.  Honestly, if I buy the physical book, the PDF version costs pennies to distribute to me as I’ve paid for the content in other form.•    The Dragon and Dungeon content quality improves to what it was before.•    You release a campaign manager.•    You finish the monster builder.I know this is a long email, and I appreciate you reading it.  I hope to see these changes made to DDI soon, and would appreciate notification if any of this comes to pass.  I have money, and I want to give it to you, but you have to deserve it again.Sincerely,[real name withheld]I rarely post, as you can see in my info, but was moved to share this to get the communities feedback.  Am I way off base, or do you share my concerns?</blockquote>

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