Is DDI going to be retro?

[El Mahdi]

Does anyone have any word on how the DDI is even doing?
Aside from people who frequent message boards I havent met one person in real life that knows about it. Including game shop owners.

Personally Im not paying for something like the DDI, and if you cant get "back Issues" as a free download I sure as heck wont start. That and Im sure its all 4e crap.

As far as the Character Visualizer, Character Creator, Dungeon Maker and Virtual Gametable??? - they don't exist online yet, but I guess they had some working prototypes at GenCon. Right now DDI is just Dungeon, Dragon, the Compendium, and some small tool applications (thus it's reduced price for initial subscriptions).

I wouldn't want to get a subscription and not have access to back issues either, but I can see it from WoTC standpoint. We just aren't sure how they are going to do it yet.

Even though I'm not switching to 4E, I find a good adventure is good, irregardless of system. Also, good fluff, in the form of Dragon articles can give me ideas or inspiration despite the mechanics it was written for. I've always liked WoTC products, even if it's not in my preferred system, because of the overall quality they usually have (they are "The Show" after all). My personal jury is still out though on whether I'll get a subscription.

 

[CapnZapp]

*bump*

Now some time has passed since DDI went paysite, do anyone know?

To clarify, the question is if even the shortest access pass buys you access to everything on the site (including magazine back issues)?

Or if the site tracks your membership and in some way individually enables/disables content depending on whether you were a member at the time or not?

 

[Jack99]

*bump*

Now some time has passed since DDI went paysite, do anyone know?

To clarify, the question is if even the shortest access pass buys you access to everything on the site (including magazine back issues)?

Or if the site tracks your membership and in some way individually enables/disables content depending on whether you were a member at the time or not?

One of my players signed up 2 days ago and immediately got access to all back issues of Dragon and Dungeon. He did however sign up for a year, I believe.

 

[Caliber]

There was some talk about this when DDI first came out. At first there were plans on removing the older magazines from the site and requiring you to pay/ask to receive a copy, but since that system wasn't sorted out yet, they decided to just leave them up. If you have DDI access you can read about it on the Insider ... check around late November I think.

As to what they are planning to do now, I have no idea. If their goals haven't changed, I believe the eventual plan is that you can only see issues that came out during a period you were subbed, with others available for individual purchase.

Hope that helps guys.

 

[fba827]

The tentative plan was to make only up to the current and previous issue available at any given time. And older would have to pay-per-back-issue type thing.

BUT then in November (-ish?) one of those news articles said "for now you'll get all back issues, but that will change at some later time."

So, yes, you could theoretically sign up for a month right now and get all issues from last summer until now. But at some point the older issues will have an extra fee or something.

 

[CapnZapp]

Thanks. Okay, so hopefully I won't miss any "sign up now - soon old issues go pay-per-issue" communications WotC hopefully sends out...

(Holding off my decision to sign up for DDI until I know more about whether my fledgling campaign really takes off or not :/)

 

[Echohawk]

To clarify, the question is if even the shortest access pass buys you access to everything on the site (including magazine back issues)?

Yes, right now it does. But that won't necessarily always be the case.

WotC's plans in this regard have changed slightly over time...

I’ve seen a number of questions about how back issues will interact with D&DI subscriptions so I’d like to clarify things here: These full-issue PDFs will be posted for one month. At the end of November when Dragon 369 and Dungeon 160 are posted, we’ll be taking the October issues down. [...]

Meanwhile we do expect to put back issues on sale at some point so that folks who were not subscribers at the time those issues were published will be able to get access to them.

One follow-up to last week's column: We agree that the best way to handle back issues of the magazines is to have an automated system that allows each user to access all the issues from the length of their subscription through our website and then to also have a system that allows non-subscribers to purchase back issues if they want to. In fact, we already have exactly that functionality in the queue for future development. However, we've chosen to prioritize other things higher in the short-term (Character Builder, automated opting-out of auto-renew, etc.), and we won't have a back issues management system ready by December.

We’ve changed our short-term policy with respect to full issue compilations. Until we launch our long-term solution (which will give you access to exactly those magazine PDFs from the months when you were a subscriber), we’re just going to make all issues available to all subscribers. In other words, we’re not going to pull down the October issues when the November compilations go up at the end of this month.

 

[CapnZapp]

Of course, right now there's only a handful of magazines in the for-pay backlog, so it makes much sense to be generous now.

Right now, offering a "good deal" sounds like exactly what DDI needs - drawing in as many customers as possible. As hard as it is to keep a customer, it is still easier than to hook him or her in the first place.

As we approach summer, the number of "free back-log" magazines have grown to more than double, and somewhere along the line is when it would make financial sense to institute that "long-term solution", when the projected income from people buying back issues eclipses that of additional DDI subscribers.

What I'm saying is I don't believe the "we've chosen to prioritize other things higher in the short-term" spiel. It is far more likely they've simply decided activating any back issues management system would do more harm than good this early in the lifecycle of the DDI program.

 

[Rel]

It should be retro.

This kind of retro:

Laser Cleric: Old School

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Of course, right now there's only a handful of magazines in the for-pay backlog, so it makes much sense to be generous now.

Right now, offering a "good deal" sounds like exactly what DDI needs - drawing in as many customers as possible. As hard as it is to keep a customer, it is still easier than to hook him or her in the first place.

As we approach summer, the number of "free back-log" magazines have grown to more than double, and somewhere along the line is when it would make financial sense to institute that "long-term solution", when the projected income from people buying back issues eclipses that of additional DDI subscribers.

What I'm saying is I don't believe the "we've chosen to prioritize other things higher in the short-term" spiel. It is far more likely they've simply decided activating any back issues management system would do more harm than good this early in the lifecycle of the DDI program.

I'm not saying this is the case anymore than yours might be but don't leave out the possibility of incompetence to actually implent a pay for back issues system that works.