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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 5368213" data-attributes="member: 9053">I just wanted to address one point, as someone who's been a member of DDI for almost as long as he could be. Folks seem to be saying "it's a service? How could you possibly expect to keep a service after you drop it?"The thing is, that's very much the way they're heading, but that is not the way it was back in the beginning. I know this because I never would have subscribed if that was the pitch. I'm a guy who doesn't subscribe to services where I don't get something real--a purchase to keep--unless it's absolutely necessary.So when the DDI came along, the thing that ultimately sold me was the character builder. The way they did it was to say, here's a free builder for you to download and try. If you subscribe, you can update it with the latest info. When you walk away, you can no longer update it.For me, that was an instant sale (a no-brainer!) The magazines and the compendium are things that I have barely touched, mostly because I was not impressed with the first Adventure Path they produced, and the compendium was slow and much harder to use than the features of the character builder. If I want to know about an item, power or feat, it's MUCH faster to use the CB, and I don't need an internet connection to use it. Yes, some of us don't have constant Internet connections. If free wi-fi hadn't been provided at last Gen Con, for instance, no one would have been able to update their characters in the convention hall without an additional costly purchase!If they had pitched DDI the way they're doing it now to me back then, I never would have subscribed, and I know for certain that I'm not the only one.For me, the ability to get the CB and something that I could ultimately walk away from if I so chose, made getting a subscription a no-brainer to me. That and the fact that I wanted to show my support for the folks at WotC who were making a darn fine game.The problem, to me, is that they're changing the rules of the road and then trying to tell me things were never any different. That's garbage. You were always able to download and use the character builder for free with the core rules (and still can now, unless it's been pulled). The only "subscription" you had was to get new material.Am I stealing from WotC? No. I don't give out my copy of the CB or download PDFs of the books--and I have purchased quite a few books until the Essentials series came along. The net result is that I'm no longer getting something that has any value to me, and as a paying customer I'll tell you that's a poor attitude for any company to take.Will this new CB prevent piracy? As long as you can log in more than one place at a given time it will not put a dent into the big problem of sharing the CB. If there is a limit to how you can log into it, I daresay this will be a problem when you connection doesn't reset properly and you have to log back on repeatedly.But all that's ultimately not the point, which to me is: the DDI is becoming something new, and those of us who have subscribed to it under the old rules aren't being gripey whiners for complaining about how it's changing. --Steve</blockquote>

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