Do you DDI?

[Almacov]

As a side note at the end of my last 4E session (our group divides time for PF, 3.5 and 4E) there was a huge stack of 3.5 books on the floor under the table. Over a foot high. I asked about it and one of the playes said he was building his next 3.5 character and was using them for reference.

So for all of the CB haters. I still think the online CB is better than the 3.5 one.

I don't really want to derail this thread, but personally, the reason I don't plan on resubscribing isn't that I don't want to use the character builder.
It's that:
1) I don't want to rent it. At the time I subscribed, the character builder was a product that came with the service, and just happened to update every month if you were subscribed.

2) I want to be able to use it offline, as I usually don't have internet access where I play.

The beauty of your fellow player's situation is that regardless of WotC discontinuing support of 3.5 the books he payed for are all still there, and he can use them offline.

The ephemeral and server-tethered nature of the new character won't tip the scales to the "Not worth my money" side for everyone, but they do for me.

 

[Obryn]

Quarterly here, because while it's more overall per year, it's less at once - and thus easier for budgeting purposes.

Mine's set to expire in late November, and the quality of the new character builder will either sell another quarter to me, or mean I'm out for a while.

-O

 

[Nifft]

Annual here.

Cheers, -- N

 

[mudbunny]

From past comments of WotC employees (IIRC Trevor and/or mudbunny) the DDI group consists of DDI subscribers who also have a WotC forum account, so this group is (much?) smaller than the number of actual subscribers.

Just a minor correction: I am not an employee of WotC, I am but a volunteer on their forums.

 

[Argyle King]

No; I've never had a DDi account. A few times I was tempted, but I just couldn't justify it to my wallet when I mentally compared cost versus reward. A lot of people speak very highly of it, and I'm sure that -for them- it is an awesome deal. For me, I don't feel I'd use the tools enough to make me feel ok with having a subscription. Doubly so now that I've started to play other rpgs more.

 

[TirionAnthion]

Ddi

I have an annual subscription. My birthday is in October so my mother buys the subscription for me each year. I paid for the initial year but she has paid since then. Even if she did not pay for the subscription, I would pay for it myself.

While I feel that the value of the subscription is somewhat diminished compared to what it once was, I am still satisfied enough to resubscribe. As a DM I only use the CB occasionally. I primarily use Masterplan. I import the info from the Monster Builder into Masterplan. I am interested to see what, if any, DM tools are forth coming from WotC.

 

[Bagpuss]

From past comments of WotC employees (IIRC Trevor and/or mudbunny) the DDI group consists of DDI subscribers who also have a WotC forum account, so this group is (much?) smaller than the number of actual subscribers.

So they are making even more than $3,000,000 a year from the DDI and they still can't afford enough programmers to make one new tool a year and keep up to date with the updates?

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Just a minor correction: I am not an employee of WotC, I am but a volunteer on their forums.

Oh, that's right, my bad. So it's "people working for WotC", not employees. ;-)

Seriously, WotC should pay you for your good work.

 

[blalien]

I used to subscribe once every few months for the CB updates. Now I'm going to wait a few months to make sure the online tools aren't a complete train wreck.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

So they are making even more than $3,000,000 a year from the DDI and they still can't afford enough programmers to make one new tool a year and keep up to date with the updates?

Throwing more programmers at a project going off the rails does not speed up delivery, see the Mythical Man Month

Though in this case it was not so much going off the rails as salvaging what they could from the wreckage of Gleemax