New Character Builder from WotC!

[Dice4Hire]

As I said, why on earth would any RPG company want to keep these customers?

Well, first, they are customers, and WOTC has to ask whether 10 buck every few months is worth nothing all the time. Will the 10 bucks every so often people join the full program or quit? Time will tell.

But we, as always, have to realize that DDI has lots of customers that are not here, and are apparently not on WOTC's forums either.

 

[rjdafoe]

So you feel entitled to cheat the system because you don't want to pay for a tool or service you want to use and you're upset WotC is taking steps to make that harder? The problem isn't WotC here.

I wish this would just die. I really do.

You are not going to stop people from sharing their accounts if they want to.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You cannot stop cheating a system, you can only hope to contain it.

There is in economics a concept of "optimal level of criminal behavior"- the level at which it becomes more expensive to stop criminal behavior and enforce the law than it is to let the behavior happen. That same kind of analysis can be applied to any behavior you wish to monitor or modify, and is the kind of mental economic calculus goes into policies that tell store clerks not to try to stop shoplifters & thieves, leaving that duty to store security and police.

Here we have a product that by its very nature is very easy to break the terms of use by sharing accounts. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't make sense to safeguard against that behavior.

Simply put, do an analysis of estimated losses due to cheating on these accounts, figure out some reasonable and affordable security measures, and set a price for the service that takes all of that into account (just like any other product) and just accept the income stream you're getting.

This may increase the price, which may cause a rise or even spike in cheating the system, but eventually, this kind of behavior will normalize into a constant level.

 

[Hussar]

Well, first, they are customers, and WOTC has to ask whether 10 buck every few months is worth nothing all the time. Will the 10 bucks every so often people join the full program or quit? Time will tell.

But we, as always, have to realize that DDI has lots of customers that are not here, and are apparently not on WOTC's forums either.

There comes a time when nickel and dime customers are simply not worth the time and effort. If all WOTC is getting out of someone is twenty bucks a year, and that person in turn is getting WOTC's entire library, well, why bother?

To JoeGKushner - I would say that they did not want them before. The way things were set up, some people took advantage of what was being offered, but, I highly doubt that WOTC was specifically courting someone who would buy, for example, a Basic boxed set (more or less a loss leader) then spend ten bucks to download the entire D&D library.

I'm thinking that they were more interested in the guys who were regular customers. We've seen it in this thread already - people complaining that they can no longer get the entire library for ten bucks every six months or so. And then turning around and complaining that the hobby will be too expensive.

How much money do you think it takes for WOTC to get a single hardback supplement out the door? How many of these twenty bucks a year "customers" would it take to make that profitable?

At some point, you have to say, "No, no more. We are simply not making enough money off of this to continue." That's just smart business.

 

[Saracenus]

Well, first, they are customers, and WOTC has to ask whether 10 buck every few months is worth nothing all the time. Will the 10 bucks every so often people join the full program or quit? Time will tell.

But we, as always, have to realize that DDI has lots of customers that are not here, and are apparently not on WOTC's forums either.

You are looking at the cost equation from a vary narrow focus here.

The cold hard truth is not all customers are equal, nor are all customers necessarily desired. If all customers were the only desired outcome then what you posit would be material to WotC's business strategy for D&D.

On the other hand development costs (to both create and maintain) a service (DDI) in support of their main product (Printed D&D) have upsides and downsides.

It's not just a mater of anti-piracy or a constant revenue stream that WotC is moving their service into the cloud. The cost of designing stand alone products that contain elements of your database and distributing them to a lot of different locations is inefficient and wasteful. For the size team they have having all the data in one place (one DB) vs. multiple locations reduces the complexity of their task.

Imagine having to create 4 or 5 programs, each with their own database, that have to work flawlessly together in order to interact with one another. If the databases shared any data, they would have to be updated separately (meaning you enter the data multiple times). The users have to make sure all programs are updated concurrently for them to interact.

Now imagine having a single location for all that data (no duplication of the data) and you just have to design a user interface to interact with the data. Further any information created using the data (characters, monsters, traps, new feats, new powers, etc.) is in this single location. I want new functionality, I design a new UI (or update an old one) that interacts with the data.

There are tons of reasons to move to the cloud data model and the benefits of it probably outweigh the continued patronage of those that have been getting an out sized reward for intermittent revenue that WotC gets from them.

The fact is, they only need a few folks that subscribe twice a year to commit to a full year to make up for the ones that leave (1 customer adopting for every 5 that leave).

I am going to bet that WotC's plans for increased functionality of the DDI tools means they believe that more people are going to want the tools. A sneak peak is easy to do, just offer a free weekend were folks can come try them out (no more brain dead and outdated "free" version of CB) you can show them the whole ball of wax all at once. Then close the wall and see who comes back with dollars in hand.

So, in short, yep WotC isn't stupid in regards to costing out their products. They know what targets they have to hit and for the most part they can hit them.

Unfortunately their communication of why these choices they made are better in the long term for customers is pretty dismal. Instead the narrative is about people's fear and anger at the changes. They could have done a hell of a better job of this and they haven't.

My two coppers,

 

[Herschel]

I wish this would just die. I really do.

You are not going to stop people from sharing their accounts if they want to.

Yet many of those same people are complaining because of the 20 character limit, etc. which is likely being implemented in part because of people sharing accounts.

Cheap gamers and their feelings of entitlement are a problem. At some point, a product needs to change or be discarded when too many are taking advantage of the system.

WotC is a business, and in order to provide products/services, businesses need to make money. Why should they provide a service/product with insufficient RoI? Cheap people have a negative effect on those of us who aren't, yet claim some sort of superiority for doing so.

If someone provides you with a product or service you find useful, then pay for it. Quit expecting something for (near) nothing or something will not be provided for long.

 

[Imaro]

Yet many of those same people are complaining because of the 20 character limit, etc. which is likely being implemented in part because of people sharing accounts.

Cheap gamers and their feelings of entitlement are a problem. At some point, a product needs to change or be discarded when too many are taking advantage of the system.

WotC is a business, and in order to provide products/services, businesses need to make money. Why should they provide a service/product with insufficient RoI? Cheap people have a negative effect on those of us who aren't, yet claim some sort of superiority for doing so.

If someone provides you with a product or service you find useful, then pay for it. Quit expecting something for (near) nothing or something will not be provided for long.

I find this a weird philosophy that you keep espousing. WotC is a company, and they should be concerned with making as much profit as they can... yet I as a consumer shouldn't look for the best deal for my money with the product and system they have offered... just seems like a double standard there to me.

 

[Arlough]

I find this a weird philosophy that you keep espousing. WotC is a company, and they should be concerned with making as much profit as they can... yet I as a consumer shouldn't look for the best deal for my money with the product and system they have offered... just seems like a double standard there to me.

The entire premise of the free market model that he is mentioning is founded on 4 base assumptions. Three that economists all teach, and one that they probably would all agree on, but that I think still needs to actually be stated and not implied.

Consumers are...

1. Rational
2. Well informed
3. Self Maximizing

and the fourth assumption is that companies are as well.

I personally believe that the model falls apart, because the first three assumptions are incorrect, but doesn't completely collapse because the fourth assumption is also incorrect.

In this case, I believe that Hasbro is asking for short term (less than 5 year) profit maximization. This may work or it may drive people away. That really depends on luck, and how rational and self maximizing they are. Since there is no way, with the current model, for consumers to be well informed, we are really just playing the odds.

I, on the other hand, have decided to stick with 4e pre-Essentials, because I don't want to continue buying rules, I would rather spend my money on content. And since WotC is appears to be much more interested in selling rules over selling content, then I probably will not buy any more products from them once I get Psionic Power. That is my self maximization.

 

[Herschel]

The point is a company can only be expected to provide a product or service when it's profitable to do so.

If you want a product or service, pay for it or lose it. They don't owe you a product, they produce a product you may want so they can make a living.

The best 'deal for your money' is paying for the product or service you use/enjoy the most, not 'stealing' what you can.

 

[Sunseeker]

The entire premise of the free market model that he is mentioning is founded on 4 base assumptions. Three that economists all teach, and one that they probably would all agree on, but that I think still needs to actually be stated and not implied.


Consumers are...

1. Rational
2. Well informed
3. Self Maximizing

and the fourth assumption is that companies are as well.

I personally believe that the model falls apart, because the first three assumptions are incorrect, but doesn't completely collapse because the fourth assumption is also incorrect.

From my retail experience, I tend to agree. Customers DO try to get the best deal, but it is usually through guilt-tripping, bullying, or complaining. Rarely is it though rational thought and good information, the few customers who actually go and get well informed, usually do get the better deal. The same is usually true for companies, though in reverse, as they generally try to cheat, lie, and abuse the customer though emotional responses, not through sound and rational tactics.

I, on the other hand, have decided to stick with 4e pre-Essentials, because I don't want to continue buying rules, I would rather spend my money on content. And since WotC is appears to be much more interested in selling rules over selling content, then I probably will not buy any more products from them once I get Psionic Power. That is my self maximization.

I really don't buy content and I don't buy many rules either. Partially, because as one of my GMs taught me, "if you wanna play it, buy the book", which is really a cool and fair deal. I wanted to play a deva, so I bought PHB2 and Divine Power, it was unreasonable of me to expect him to buy all the books, and between me and 3 other players, we bought a variety of different books and now have quite a group collection for our DM to use in games.
I don't buy content because I think it's dumb. I can create a fantasy setting, why pay $30 for a book with one? Sure, it's got all the encounters and stuff pre-designed, but hey, I love to do that.

In regards to essentials, I'm still on the fence. I'll likely integrate some aspects of it into a game at some point if people want to use them, otherwise there's enough of it I don't like to not buy it.

Although all of this is good self-maximization, the rational thought part of the equation means that if we want to keep getting anything, WotC needs to see the interest. Which warrants the occassional impulse buy in my book, be it on Minis, books, or what have you.