New Character Builder from WotC!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

It may please many mac users, but most of the comment I've seen were that now it'd be easier to work with rather than use the various ways to boot Windows on Macs. I haven't seen any people who didn't already subscribe saying this will push them to jump on board.

Well, I don't know if anecdotal evidence does it for you, but we have a mac user in my gaming group who fully intends to start subscribing when it become available on the Mac.

I'm also a Mac user but am already a subscriber - I use it on my work computer. I look forward to being able to having monster builder on my mac - though my mac is so old, I fear I may not be able to run the new tools. That said, I should be getting a newer computer next year, which should fix that issue.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the change. From what I could see, the old CB was becoming increasingly rigid and simply couldn't impliment the new changes to characters without being significantly reworked. I'm glad they decided to spend that money/effort on instead developing a system that was more flexible and would more easily allow 4e to try other new and interesting character design philosophies. The fact that it allows mac support (something my gaming group has wanted from day 1) is an added bonus.

I'm particularly eager to see what the new MB is like - for me, its the biggest "value item" of my subscription (dragon/dungeon might as well not exist, personally), and the changes that were implemented to allow MM3 monsters simply weren't very compatible with many earlier monsters.

 

[renau1g]

How many times does WotC have to say "the VTT is not something we are working on at that this time" before people like you stop trying to use it as an excuse to justify your opinions?

I want those hologramed hardcovers you mentioned in the other thread. Those sound awesome .

 

[DEFCON 1]

I want those hologramed hardcovers you mentioned in the other thread. Those sound awesome .

I'm sorry, reanu1g... I got word from James Wyatt that those also got cancelled. But they will be offering an option in the new Character Builder to display it in 3D.

 

[Arlough]

How many times does WotC have to say "the VTT is not something we are working on at that this time" before people like you stop trying to use it as an excuse to justify your opinions?

The VTT has NOTHING to do with the current situation. If you choose or not choose to subscribe to DDI... it should be because of what you CURRENTLY CAN GET FOR THE MONEY YOU SPEND ON IT. That's all.

If you currently subscribe to DDI EVEN THOUGH at one point they said two years ago that a VTT was in the works (and then subsequently cancelled)... it says that you did so because you wanted it for the PRODUCTS YOU WERE GETTING AT THE TIME YOU SIGNED UP. So man up and stop using the VTT as a piece of ammo in your barrage aimed at WotC.

I look at it as being more along the lines of WotC is now promising (or at the very least, heavily implying) that, though the functionality of this tool will be limited at launch, good things are coming down the line for all those who sign up.
This, to me, is suspiciously similar to the line they used when they first released DDI and the line they used when they bumped the cost of DDI up $20 or so bucks (the latter being more of a slap in the face, because they justified the bump by saying they were on the brink of releasing something amazing [heard those words recently too...])

Now, I would like to say here that I am not at all effected by this, but I am bothered by it.
It is indicative to me that WotC's profit model is less concerned about producing and selling content (settings, modules, etc.) and more concerned with producing and selling rules (books, errata, books of errata, subscriptions to the latest errata, new more powerful rulebooks, etc.)
It bothers me because I thought they really had something good going for them where they could recover from the broken promises of the 3e & 3.5e OGL system, but instead they went with the M:tG model again. Selling power-creep and litigation.

It is just a sad litany of lost opportunities.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I've seen a couple of comments about IP.

Really? Do you actually give a rats petoot about your character's name and whatnot, to the point where it should be protected IP?

Do you ever store your characters in any other online format? There's already a bajillion online character vaults all over the Net. Why is it when WOTC does it, suddenly there's this hue and cry about IP? Wander over to pretty much any online gaming forum and they have vaults there. Does anyone start complaining about Obsidian Portal? Heck, doesn't En World have a character vault floating around here somewhere?

I'm thinking that WOTC has bigger fish to fry than your dual dagger wielding heavily tanned elf.

that's pretty short sighted no?

What if it allows you to build monsters? And then your mosnters become WoTC IP.

I mean, does no one remember gleemax and all of the awesome jobs WoTC did there?

Stop thinking of it as just the now and open your eyes to the potential, just the potential mind you, that whatever you do with not just the CB, but all the tools, is WoTC to do with as they please.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

How many times does WotC have to say "the VTT is not something we are working on at that this time" before people like you stop trying to use it as an excuse to justify your opinions?

The VTT has NOTHING to do with the current situation. If you choose or not choose to subscribe to DDI... it should be because of what you CURRENTLY CAN GET FOR THE MONEY YOU SPEND ON IT. That's all.

If you currently subscribe to DDI EVEN THOUGH at one point they said two years ago that a VTT was in the works (and then subsequently cancelled)... it says that you did so because you wanted it for the PRODUCTS YOU WERE GETTING AT THE TIME YOU SIGNED UP. So man up and stop using the VTT as a piece of ammo in your barrage aimed at WotC.

You want to be pissed off because you signed up for DDI to get an updated offline Character Builder, and that is not something you will be getting anymore? That's cool. Fine with me. Well within your right and nothing I can fault you for. But getting pissed off because they still aren't producing stuff they told you there weren't producing? Ridiculous. And many of us will call you on that.

You have a point here but again, if you take the post you're answering in context, I think he was referring more to a history of WotC disappointments (in response to a previous post again). The historical accumulation of shot feet as it were that WotC is racking up does seem to be a significant issue for a section of customers. WotC have been pretty hit and miss in delivering what they say they are delivering.

[Besides which, I think a lot of us really like(d) the idea of the VTT; having it vaporized was and still is a huge disappointment.]

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Do you actually give a rats petoot about your character's name and whatnot, to the point where it should be protected IP?

Personally, yes. But then again, I'm an entertainment lawyer who also does all kinds of things like write, paint, etc., so I'm kind of a stickler.

Do you ever store your characters in any other online format?

Nope, except for those that are inseparably stored as part of some game, such as a character in a MMORPG.

 

[JoeGKushner]

It is a history of either not knowing what your talking about or essentially lying to the customer and rarely following up on it.

While I loved the Rouse being here, after the whole PDF thing for a dollar or two when you buy the hardcover book, did anyone from WoTC come out and go, "Hey, we too love the Rouse but really, that just isnt' going to happen because we're not smart enough to figure out a way to do it. But hey, TRUST on on THIS!"

It's great that there are so many people willing to take WoTC at face value.

After being told months ago that Dark Sun and Essentials was coming to the CB but not being told, hey, it's not the CB you use, I don't believe a word they say.

 

[mudbunny]

While I loved the Rouse being here, after the whole PDF thing for a dollar or two when you buy the hardcover book, did anyone from WoTC come out and go, "Hey, we too love the Rouse but really, that just isnt' going to happen because we're not smart enough to figure out a way to do it. But hey, TRUST on on THIS!"

Actually, they did come out and say (paraphrased) "while this is a nice idea, it is not feasible for us to do. The checks it would require to make sure that the right person got the right code (and no more) would be overly complicated."

 

[JoeGKushner]

Actually, they did come out and say (paraphrased) "while this is a nice idea, it is not feasible for us to do. The checks it would require to make sure that the right person got the right code (and no more) would be overly complicated."

Alrighty then. One in their favor.

And I'll be honest, the negative stuff is easier to recall.

Because it seems to happen often and with big things that have big results.

I already shut off my auto-renewal.

I'll wait to see for a few months how the new CB rolls out. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be missing much with Dungeon and Dragon magazines outside of some previews which, since I don't have the CB, won't matter much to me at all at that point.

I hope, seriously, I hope that the people who are projecting light and WoTC having technical expertise and that WoTC soon is actually 'soon' but...