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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenmarable" data-source="post: 4177941" data-attributes="member: 40359">I'd look up some facts before you claim others have history all wrong.Master Tools in fact was planned to be a lot of what DDI will be (though definitely not all, no character visualizer, no magazines online). <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_March_20/ai_71864632" target="_blank">Here's a press release</a> that was the first hit at Google for "Master Tools" and fluid. I don't know if it was Jim Bishop "mad with power", but it certainly wasn't Jim Butler (I've met him and can't really picture him ever "mad with power") and I know Jim Butler was laid off and running Bastion Press very early in the 3e days (I first published with Bastion in early 2001, and the Master Tools fiasco was still imploding long into 2002).The real train wreck was the "Dungeon Mapper" aspect. They sunk A LOT of effort into that (and not just egged on by messageboards, it was planned all along). I remember the beholder animations, and the giddiness they had over the sound effects - so it was not only well publicized, at the time it was largely the aspect they publicized the most. <a href="http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=3896" target="_blank">This press release</a> and <a href="http://ogrecave.com/2001/08/13/master-tools-gets-new-master/" target="_blank">this post</a> claim it didn't meet high enough standards, but also the deal with Hasbro and Infogrames (which happened AFTER Master Tools was well into development) is alluded to <a href="http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-17688.html" target="_blank">here</a> as killing off the mapper. Putting it all together, it sounds like it was intended for internet use (just like the VTT), but the Hasbro/Infogrames deal killed that, so they tried repurposing it as just a table top mapping aid and it kinda stunk at that.So, Master Tools was most certainly not just a Character Generator that had interactive portions added on at the behest of EN World. In fact, as I understand it, the original core of the VTT that they started with was from the aborted Master Tools Dungeon Mapper. That was one of the reasons for the Mac-only aspect was that they had existing DirectX engine to start with. So, it's pretty clear that a large part of the DDI is what Master Tools was supposed to be 8 years ago. That view of history is not all messed up.However, I agree that DDI probably won't follow the same track as Master Tools. Much more money behind it, no Hasbro deals gutting it, and so on. I'll admit that showing off how cool the Character Visualizer and Virtual Table Top are, while hardly demoing anything else sounds VERY reminiscent of the showing off of how cool the beholder animations were for Master Tools. It's hyping the showy stuff and not the real meat and potatoes. But I can understand that being a sexier demo than character generators and rule indexes. I just hope the nitty gritty, meat and potatoes useful tools are as far along as the showy visualizers (since I'll probably toy with the character visualizer, but I'm not really interested in paying for that - I want useful TOOLS even if they don't look sexy). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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