How will you DDI

[Mystical Forest]

Can't use it no matter what it offers

Since DDI isn't Macintosh compatible, I'm pretty much ignoring it in toto. Not only am I on a Mac but enough of my friends are too that there's no point in looking at DDI...

 

[Grazzt]

I won't use the DDI. Nothing there (at least thus far) warrants the $$ they plan on charging.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

What to do with DDI?

I'll check every day to see if and when it actually goes up.

Mmmmyep.

 

[Flobby]

Voted No. I'd actually to use it but I have a Mac!!!

mac-hating bastards...

 

[EtanMoonstar]

Frankly, while I was initially very excited about the DDI, as time passes (and MapTool keeps on getting better!) I'm starting to suspect that my players and I might not want to pay the subscription fee for it. A lot of it will likely depend on how many guest passes the DM gets with his subscription and how much play time they allow, and also on the pricing scheme on the virtual minis--not sure that I care to have to buy minis MtG-Online style when my current program lets me turn any image I can find into a virtual mini.

Frankly, I really think that after showing great promise with the initial announcement, Wizards dropped the ball big time on this. I've already got a system-neutral (both OS and rpg system) virtual game table, with a lot of power, flexibility, and features (and more being added on a regular basis), that costs me and my players absolutely nothing to use. It might not have 3-D dungeon tiles and miniatures, but it does have the option that you mentioned to add dice roll macros to miniatures accessible via right-clicking on them (hello 4E powers and skill checks)--and no, it doesn't degenerate into an MMO at all, it just speeds things up a lot so we can get in more fun during a given session.

What we've seen so far with the online Dragon and Dungeon (since 4E launched, anyway) has been good, though. If they have a reasonable subscription rate for just accessing this material, I'll likely subscribe to it.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I would use it, sure, but I have a Mac. So I won't.

 

[shadewest]

I'm a Mac guy, so Bill Slavicek and the rest of the DDI dev team can act on a rude suggestion I'm not allowed to say here.

 

[Kaffis]

All of the above.

I currently have a Star Wars: Saga Edition play-by-post game that is currently on hiatus because dealing with combat and position was becoming too time consuming. Depending on how the DDI's tabletop works (most specifically, the subscription model -- if just the DM needs one, and it can hold a persistent state for viewing anytime, I'm golden), I'd love to resume this with some tabletop support to aid in the round-by-round. If I really luck out, the character creator will be able to do good approximations of Star Wars mood with glowing weapons and my (mostly) human/near-human party.

I'm about to start a 4e game (this afternoon, actually) that I would love to be able to supplement with DDI features. When the tools become available, I imagine at least a few of my players will go wild with the character creator, and I plan to abuse the hell out of it to create visual aids for interesting villains and the like. Depending on how easy/fast the tabletop is to use, it's conceivable that sometime in the future, we may eschew the battlemat and minis (or, more likely, battlemat and a frankensteined combination of minis, inappropriate minis, and pocket-foraged markers, to judge historically) in favor of a projected setup with my laptop, simply to replace the grid-bound stuff.

Furthermore, I've got a few friends I've made over the internet that I'd love to hook on D&D (including a couple that are already D&D veterans that I'd love to play with). I see the digital tabletop as potentially a great, comprehensive facilitator for just that. I'd love to add a weekly or semi-weekly online game on, say, Saturday nights to my regular in-person Sunday afternoon game.

Finally, if the tabletop's good, I could see killing an idle evening by rolling up a character for a one-off encounter or three with strangers. It's something I always wanted to have fun doing in NWN, but ended up dissatisfied with the rigidity of the system and the limitations of relying on typing speed and the game's UI when it came to facilitating roleplay or dealing with encounters. NWN really demanded a pre-scripted module, it's on-the-fly abilities were kind of disappointing.

 

[Wombat]

I simply can't even imagine using it.

I only game face to face.

 

[RefinedBean]

I've liked the quality of what I've seen so far, but I'm waiting to see how the actual "launch" goes, and then go with the majority and act like that was my original opinion in the first place.