New Character Builder from WotC!

[Dumnbunny]

The Silverlight strategy ignores the explosive growth in the tablet market. It is not a long-term strategy.

The Gartner Group published this press release earlier this month: Gartner to CEOs: Seize the iPad Opportunity Now. Here are a couple choice quotes:

“[The iPad] is more than just the latest consumer gadget; and CEOs and business leaders should initiate a dialogue with their CIOs about if they have not already done so.”

Gartner forecasts worldwide media tablet sales to end users to reach 19.5 million units in 2010, driven by sales of the iPad. Media tablets are poised for strong growth with worldwide end user sales projected to total 54.8 million units in 2011, up 181 percent from 2010, and surpass 208 million units in 2014.

WotC can ignore the way the market is shifting, or they can capitalize on it. The former is a poor IT strategy, and Silverlight won't let them do the latter.

Just for the record, I'm not anti-Microsoft. My company had made good money writing C# software. I'm just a firm believer in the right tool for the right job. While there are compelling use-cases for Silverlight, it's a simple fact, supported by statements from senior executives at Microsoft, that these use cases do not include the phrase "It’s ultimately portable. I can use it on any computer or computer-like device, wherever I am".

I'm not angry they chose Silverlight. I'm disappointed at the wasted opportunity.

 

[garyh]

Export would come at a later date, yes?

So they're claiming, yes. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Export would come at a later date, yes?

Right after Dark Sun and Essentials hits the original CB.... oh wait...

 

[renau1g]

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Home (D&D Character Builder)

This appears to be the link for the CB when it launches, it's currently not ready but Isuppose sometime tomorrow afternoon (EST) it'll be active.

 

[wedgeski]

While there are compelling use-cases for Silverlight, it's a simple fact, supported by statements from senior executives at Microsoft, that these use cases do not include the phrase "It’s ultimately portable. I can use it on any computer or computer-like device, wherever I am".

No but they do include, for WotC at least, "we can leverage much of the work, experience, and domain knowledge accumulated in the construction of the existing CB, and reduce the development time of the online version by 50%*".

* This is a guess, but I'm in the business too, so it's an educated one.

 

[Dumnbunny]

No but they do include, for WotC at least, "we can leverage much of the work, experience, and domain knowledge accumulated in the construction of the existing CB, and reduce the development time of the online version by 50%*".

* This is a guess, but I'm in the business too, so it's an educated one.

Keeping in mind that .NET is also a web-development framework, and they'd be able to leverage all that work, experience and the rest while making a web-app, I'm going to stick with my position that choosing Silverlight was wasting an opportunity.

As an aside, I'm not personally fond of using .NET as a web-development framework, but for developers strictly used to desktop development it makes a lot of things easier by letting them stick with those comfortable desktop development methodologies.

 

[Walking Dad]

...

Here's the secret - your books don't go "out of date" any faster today than they did thirty years ago. It's just that, unlike thirty years ago, they actually ARE correcting the rules regularly, instead of letting each group stumble around in the dark trying to find their own corrections.

...

DID the other games need rules update just the other month? And there are companies that give you the pdf for free if you order the book by them. And the right to download pdfs with incorporated errata later.

I'm mostly playing online. Just saying: 'Hey, just let us use the non-errated version...' is not as easily possible as in a smaller local group.

I understand why the new model is better for Hasbro, but I would say that there are more consumer friendly methods. I don't like to 'lease' my games. If I could get a guaranty that I got an offline CB and companion of the last version once 5e comes out, I would certainly pay for the service.

If not, I'm just paying money to use something that belongs to someone else and I, for example, prefer to buy a DVD than just rent it for a month from a video store.

 

[evilref]

WotC can ignore the way the market is shifting, or they can capitalize on it. The former is a poor IT strategy, and Silverlight won't let them do the latter.

So what should they have used? Flash...doesn't work on the ipad. Java...doesn't work on the ipad. HTML5...not there yet (and certainly wasn't when they began developing the new tool). There is/was no ideal solution for them here.

 

[WalterKovacs]

So they're claiming, yes. I'll believe it when I see it.

They probably could have included it at launch, but that would probably mean further delaying the release, and thus the Dark Sun and Essential updates to the character builder. I'm sure that no one would complain if they chose to do that ...

 

[Kzach]

There is/was no ideal solution for them here.

Sure there is; it's called HTML 4.01 Transitional.

There is nothing about the CB that couldn't be done with JavaScripting, XML and a solid MySQL dB. It's simply not that complex. But then, expecting good design from WotC's website development team is like expecting the Mets to win.