Is DDI going to be retro?

[Scribble]

I seem to remember something indicating they won't be offering access to back issues, and that if you have a gap in your service the back issue stuff you have will be gone when you re-subscribe...

If that remains the case, I will be annoyed. Not so much about the not getting access to issues before my subscription started, but the system should be "smart" enough to remember what SHOULD be in my account, no matter if there is a gap or not.

As far as back issues... I don't think they care much about pirating. I mean Im sure they DO care, but it's not going to cause them to make some elaborate plan to combat it... They don't have the resources. "Most" of the rules will be available in the compendium, and didn';t they mention selling PDFs of the back issues of the mags?

 

[El Mahdi]

Sadly, I thought the OP was going to ask about Dragon publishing articles for 1e/2e/3e/OD&D, etc...

That's not a bad idea though. It would be cool if they could eventually have every Dungeon and Dragon magazine issue in an accessible archive. Of course, this would ruin Paizo's ability to sell back issues. I wonder what the state of their agreement with Paizo is? (Does Paizo have ownership of issues they printed? Can WoTC take away Paizo's right to sell back issues and pdf's?)

Maybe they could do this as a reference archive without the ability to download?

 

[fletch137]

If I remember right, Paizo can sell the issues they currently have stock of and can sell pdfs of the rest (just like they're selling pdfs of older edition TSR stuff). For some reason, though, they can't sell pdfs of magazines the currently have on stock, so they have to wait until they run out of Dragon issue 349 (fer instance) before they can sell it as a pdf.

As far as I remember.

I also recall seeing a product notice for 'Best of' compilations of Dragon and Dungeon articles. In hindsight, having open access to all past articles for the price of a single month's subscription would kill a lot of the potential for products like that.

 

[Shemeska]

What I would suggest is a good idea for Wizards, and what they seem to intend to do, is bundling their services, and not parcelling them out. This is more likely to encourage people into trying services they'd not considered, and more likely to ensure long-term subscription.

That might work, but I also think it exposes a flaw in their business model for the DDI. If the portions of the DDI outside of the e-magazines end up delayed more and more, or end up not being up to snuff once released, why subsidize those portions of the DDI if you only signed up to get Dragon and/or Dungeon? If you're forced to pay for extra items you don't want or don't use, there's a greater incentive to get the magazines via less than legal methods.

And if the e-mags end up being the primary draw to the DDI, they're also the most vulnerable to getting nailed by piracy. If WotC doesn't handle customer concerns with kid gloves and continually knock folks socks off with new content, they're going to see the whole thing's achilles heel getting hamstrung month by month. It's a really risky thing, business-wise, and I really wonder if they're concerned about it.

 

[Hussar]

I think Ruin Explorer has the right of it. If you cannot keep people subscribed, it just doesn't matter, your monthly periodical is finished.

On the reproduction of older Dragons. I believe that there are a number of copyright issues here. I know when the Compilation CD came out, there was all sorts of problems because a number of the fiction writers still hold the copyright to their stories. Trying to find these people would be extremely difficult after all this time. A lot of that old stuff is basically fanfic and, looking at some of the review threads for Dragon going on right now, they published stories without even knowing who wrote it.

 

[Staffan]

That might work, but I also think it exposes a flaw in their business model for the DDI. If the portions of the DDI outside of the e-magazines end up delayed more and more, or end up not being up to snuff once released, why subsidize those portions of the DDI if you only signed up to get Dragon and/or Dungeon?

From what I understand, they've changed their minds and are going to offer at least two tiers of DDI subscriptions: one for web content (Dungeon, Dragon, various "bonus tools" like the encounter calculator, and IIRC the Rules Compendium), and one that also includes software (character generator, visualizer, game table). So people subscribing for Dragon/Dungeon don't have to fear "subsidizing" the software portions, at least not any more than buying the books does.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

From what I understand, they've changed their minds and are going to offer at least two tiers of DDI subscriptions: one for web content (Dungeon, Dragon, various "bonus tools" like the encounter calculator, and IIRC the Rules Compendium), and one that also includes software (character generator, visualizer, game table). So people subscribing for Dragon/Dungeon don't have to fear "subsidizing" the software portions, at least not any more than buying the books does.

The thing though is that change only came about because the couldn't justify the price they wanted to charge without the tools and they were losing money as long as the tools remain unfinished.

 

[Asmor]

1. There is a perception that customers are getting products for free [who might otherwise pay for the products].

2. There is a perception that some customers will pay the minimum to get access to products, and then pay no more.

3. Therefore, we will prevent customers from getting full access to content until they have "paid enough."

I don't see how 3 follows from 1 and 2. I do, however, see how 4 follows from 2 and 3.

4. Some customers who would have payed a bit for all our content will instead choose to download the content for free rather than wait N months to get access to it legitimately.

 

[Umbran]

DDI is going to be retro - the UI will be done in art deco style, and all the monsters will be depicted wearing zoot suits...

 

[El Mahdi]

DDI is going to be retro - the UI will be done in art deco style, and all the monsters will be depicted wearing zoot suits...

Do you mean like this?

View attachment 36561