Is DDI going to be retro?

[Dire Bare]

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...

The best answer in the whole thread! Thanks for posting truth rather than half-remembered speculation.

The last word from WotC on this is that at some future point you won't be able to access back issues from outside of your subscription . . . . I'm really hoping they change their minds on this one . . .

Going from the current model from where you get everything to a future model where there are limits is just asking for trouble and upset current and prospective customers. Besides, all the crunchy bits will be in the Compendium and Character Builder anyway, so why place limits on the magazines?

Besides, as Ruin Explorer pointed out, if they want this to succeed they need to focus on excellent service and awesome new content every month. Wasting time with limits on past content is a very bad idea and could hurt DDI's ability to succeed.

If the new monthly content (the mags, basically) start to become mediocre, then more people will try to find a way to get it cheaper/free/unethically (or just ignore it entirely). If the magazine content instead becomes stellar and a major selling point every month, then only a small handful of cheapasses will try to circumvent the system and WotC should have plenty of eager subscribers willing to pony up a monthly fee.

I don't see this actually becoming an issue until the Visualizer and Game Table have launched hopefully sometime next year and WotC has checked off the "higher priorities" than messing with the back issue situation. By then the customer base will be used to roughly a year's worth (give or take) of no "DRM" hassles (cause that's essentially what we're talking about, is a form of DRM).

 

[CapnZapp]

Regardless of what we might wish for, Wizards will put the mag handling system in place when they think they will profit from it.

Or so we can hope...

 

[Nymrohd]

The chance someone will download pirated content is inversly proportional to his perception of his treatment by the legal distributor and producer (allowing for factors of personal ethics and availability). That's the maxim I go for. If WotC decides not to play nice, they will probably end up loosing even more money to internet piracy (and they most likely lose some already).
Still even if we assume that one would download any and all pirated content that was available, at least DMs would still have a very good reason to keep a constant subscription to the DDI for the utility of the Compendium and the encounter/monster builder (especially if they work some more on the latter), regardless of the quality of Dragon and Dungeon.

 

[jgerman]

No matter what's been said in the past or present by WotC I honestly don't think they really know what's going to happen at this point. Plans have changed so much and portions of the system are half implemented (with regards to various plans) that they're digging a hole that they'll likely find difficult to climb out of.

I wish they would just go back to print versions of Dragon and Dungeon, but since that's not going to happen just put the pdfs up for $2-3 a piece when they are compiled each month... bonus points for emailing me when new ones are posted. I'm, personally, not interested in subscribing to DDI, it's seems silly to me.

I would collect the magazines if they were available in a reasonable way.

 

[CapnZapp]

No matter what's been said in the past or present by WotC I honestly don't think they really know what's going to happen at this point. Plans have changed so much and portions of the system are half implemented (with regards to various plans) that they're digging a hole that they'll likely find difficult to climb out of.

I wish they would just go back to print versions of Dragon and Dungeon, but since that's not going to happen just put the pdfs up for $2-3 a piece when they are compiled each month... bonus points for emailing me when new ones are posted. I'm, personally, not interested in subscribing to DDI, it's seems silly to me.

I would collect the magazines if they were available in a reasonable way.

Eh... if you subscribe three months a time, you get both a Dragon and a Dungeon each month, for $6.65 a month.

How is that not putting up the pdfs up for $2-3 a piece in a reasonable way?

Lower if you go for a yearly subscription. And, currently, lower still because the back issues since DDI went paysite don't cost extra.

(Whether you can get email remainders on when each number's released I don't know. Perhaps they have an RSS feed?)

 

[jgerman]

Eh... if you subscribe three months a time, you get both a Dragon and a Dungeon each month, for $6.65 a month.

How is that not putting up the pdfs up for $2-3 a piece in a reasonable way?

Lower if you go for a yearly subscription. And, currently, lower still because the back issues since DDI went paysite don't cost extra.

(Whether you can get email remainders on when each number's released I don't know. Perhaps they have an RSS feed?)

My personal reasons are:

- The horrible customer service that comes along with the subscription. Particularly in regards to cancellation.

- The fact that we don't know that the "web content" price will stay around.

- We don't know how back issues will work at all. All of the ideas that are being thrown around with how to handle them just seem bound to fail to me. An a la carte version for the magazines seems to me like it solves all of those problems.

For me, DDI carries a lot of baggage. I'm just not interested in dealing with it. They'd be much more likely to get my money if they gave me options that I felt comfortable with. DDI is just not cutting it right now. I don't really have much faith in WotCs ability to deliver.

As far as I'm concerned, the simplest, smartest, solution is to send the compiled magazines off to RPGNow to be put on sale. Leave DDI for those that want incremental content throughout the month.

 

[Hussar]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, don't you get a compiled pdf at the end of every month with a DDI subscription? If that's true, how is it different than offering it at RPGNow, other than the fact that lots more people will see it at the WOTC site?

Also, and correct me if I'm wrong, haven't the cancellation issues been ironed out? Or are they still in the process of ironing them out?

 

[Dire Bare]

Also, and correct me if I'm wrong, haven't the cancellation issues been ironed out? Or are they still in the process of ironing them out?

WotC has workarounds for all such issues, but the processes themselves are still wierd, wonky, and frustrating.

I think feeling frustrated over how WotC initially handled the financial transaction end of things is reasonable . . . . but not subscribing to content you want at a more-than-reasonable price because of these hassles is a bit silly IMO. Or, at least, a bit silly when the workarounds have been discussed over and over again on a message board forum you frequent.

If you want to cancel your DDI account at any time, you can. You just can't simply press a "cancel" button but rather have to have a 2-3 email exchange with customer service over it. I'm sure these types of issues will be fixed and made "easy" eventually.

WotC actually has EXCELLENT customer service . . . . it's the design of the financial backend to the product that is screwball. I really hope WotC fixes this crap right fast though, because it IS costing them customers and may hurt the viability of DDI in the longterm. First impressions and all . . . .

 

[jgerman]

If that's true, how is it different than offering it at RPGNow

I'm pretty sure I gave my reasons in the post above. I'll just refer you to those.

Also, and correct me if I'm wrong, haven't the cancellation issues been ironed out? Or are they still in the process of ironing them out?

Cancellation isn't the only issue, however, as long as you cannot manage your cancellation yourself via an account page there are issues to resolve. There is absolutely no excuse for the process in place now: submitting a "request" for cancellation and waiting 2 days for a response.

 

[Monte At Home]

Laser Cleric: Old School

Cleric?!?!?

Bite your tongue, man. Emirikol was a wizard.

And yes, by the way: