New Digital Games Studio announced by the president of Wizards of the Coast

Interesting. I look forward to seeing what comes of this - some thrilling ideas, no doubt, but I'm keeping myself reserved so as not to be let down should those thrilling ideas be brought into less-than-thrilling existence.

 

[Osgood]

I need another D&D video game like a need another nipple, but digital tools for the tabletop game are always welcome.

 

[Leatherhead]

I am very confused about what people think a VTT is, or more specifically, what the "VTT" part of a VTT is. People seem to be asking for everything out of a VTT but a dice roller, battle mat, and chat box.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It's a good sign that they're making their own studio for this, as it's definitely the case that other studios are generally more interested in their IP than in playing with yours. They can't build an empire with yours. Want someone to give your game their best work? Hire 'em.

You also don't necessarily need a tremendous budget to make a good game, but you do need a clear vision. Trend-chasing is kind of doomed - you can't be the next Pokemon Go. You won't replicate the same perfect storm of 90's nostalgia, "innovation," and media cycle attention (and if you mistake the success of that game for "There's this massive untapped audience for ARG's!" you're probably going to spend more money than you make).

But, there are things you could do with a well-designed D&D app or video game. I could even see certain kinds of ARG being kind of cool (assuming you can solve the battery use/lag problems that PkG had).

 

[Ashran]

You know, if I was in a situation to decide the future of video games about d&d, I would probably take a page of telltale's episodic game and think of a way to do a baldur's gate like game in episodic format. Not just on the FR, but on all worlds that was once a part of the publishing schedule of tsr/wotc all linked by planescape/spelljammer or time. That or I would develop an actual successor to neverwinter nights with a better code for sharing one's creations and also have a link to all worlds published.

 

[Grimjack99]

Past experience with WotC doing digital has left me skeptical/jaded. I want them to succeed but I am not sure they know how to as past offerings were either terrible, poorly handled or ruined once eventually come good.

Be aware that WOTC's D&D 4E digital launch was hampered by the project director's murder, and the 5E launch hampered by an overzealous, incompetent 3rd party provider. Third times the charm. I hope.

 

[Eubani]

Be aware that WOTC's D&D 4E digital launch was hampered by the project director's murder, and the 5E launch hampered by an overzealous, incompetent 3rd party provider. Third times the charm. I hope.

Those were two issues in a large bucket of them.

 

[Shemeska]

Be aware that WOTC's D&D 4E digital launch was hampered by the project director's murder

This gets mentioned a lot. But as horrific as that event was, it occurred relatively late in the timeline of the Digital Initiative/Gleemax. It happened AFAIK after the original project was pulled back from outsourcing, essentially junked, and restarted in-house with a smaller team.

 

[CM]

Official online tools utterly killed third party publishing in 4E.

If they do it in 5E it would kill DMs Guild. Which they don't want.

I thought it was lack of a suitable third-party license and the 4e ruleset itself that killed 3pp in 4e?

The 4e compendium was just quick & convenient access to official rules material that appeared in the PBH, DMG, MM, and splatbooks. Things that make running the game easier, not thing that replace 3rd party products. It's not a competitor to the DM's Guild at all. DM Guild publishers could even offer content packs for such an app, as another profit avenue. If anything it would cut into PHB sales, but I'd be willing to put up money for a usable compendium.

 

[Morrus]

If they do it in 5E it would kill DMs Guild. Which they don't want.


I thought it was lack of a suitable third-party license and the 4e ruleset itself that killed 3pp in 4e?

The 4e compendium was just quick & convenient access to official rules material that appeared in the PBH, DMG, MM, and splatbooks. Things that make running the game easier, not thing that replace 3rd party products. It's not a competitor to the DM's guild at all. DM Guild publishers could even offer content packs for such an app, as another profit avenue. If anything it would cut into PHB sales, but I'd be willing to put up money for a usable compendium.

The license was fine. We used it for years without any issues.

The tough part was the online tools. If you couldn't look it up in the online tools or if it didn't work with the official character builder, it was near impossible to sell stuff to people. Player options, in particular, just wouldn't sell, because the character builder only supported official material. A culture developed whereby pretty much everybody used the online CB to make their characters. WotC didn't allow third party material on it.

If WotC creates a dependency on official online tools again, the DMsG publishers will have the same problem so we third party publishers had. So will those of us who produce third party stuff outside then DMsG, of course.

Third party content packs? That would be cool, but they didn't do that last time no matter how much we said we wanted it.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

"cost a fortune for every AP".

The only official source of the AP in a digital form at Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 and they sell them for the same official price that WoTC does (FG runs regular sales).

So what was the price you wanted and why would WoTC sell at a discount?