Playtest: The Invoker?

[Nahat Anoj]

I bet the invoker will be a divine controller as well.

Now, having released a bit of preview info for the barbarian, druid, bard, and (upcoming) invoker, clearly they now need to release previews of the sorcerer, shaman, and warden ...

 

[MrMyth]

In other words, an early excerpt that you pay for.

As a subscriber, I'm more than happy to receive a bonus preview of upcoming content, along with the standard number of articles and columns provided every month.

Seriously, how is this a bad thing? People have been wanting to see a preview of the druid since before 4E hit - how is giving this to the subscribers in any way not a cool bonus? Sure, complain about the editorial calendar confusion or the hiccups posting the article, but I really don't see any reason to to complain about extra content - especially content in high demand.

 

[Knight Otu]

Seriously, how is this a bad thing?

I'm not saying it's a bad thing per se. It is, however, a change to have pay-for excerpts, even if they appear alongside the traditional free excerpts. I'd also say that they are a bit counter-productive - excerpts are meant to whet your appetite for the book, they're essentially advertising. Sure, that stuff appears in pay-for media, but when you have a medium that reaches many potential customers versus a medium that reaches a smaller subset of those customers, then it is usually a better idea to reach more customers.

 

[Rechan]

An "Excerpt" consists of a few paragraphs. I'll gladly pay for the first few levels of a class three months in advance. That's 1/10th of the class, right there.

Hell, when the Ampersand article posted the first ten levels of a single build of the Bard (1/6th of the class), I felt my DDI subscription had been worth it.

 

[Knight Otu]

An "Excerpt" consists of a few paragraphs. I'll gladly pay for the first few levels of a class three months in advance. That's 1/10th of the class, right there.

Hell, when the Ampersand article posted the first ten levels of a single build of the Bard (1/6th of the class), I felt my DDI subscription had been worth it.

The bard preview (and by extension, the playtest versions of other classes, though they aren't previews) is far beyond what I'd consider a reasonable excerpt. I have no problem with it being for-pay.