D&D 5E Playtesting D&D Next: Reapers, Cantrips, Turnings, Rests...

[underfoot007ct]

As another one still on the receiving end of a denial-of-PDFs attack, it looks like Wizards haven't just screwed the pooch. They've left it unable to sit down for a week, and expecting a very large litter.

I've got a playtest game this weekend, so the longer I get that stupid Bad URL message, the more nervous I get.

The link really does work! I got in successfuly at 11:38Pm EST, after attempting to get in ALL afternoon in to evening. A friend got in lunchtime, on his first try. He didn't even know about all the problems.

So don't fret, I'm sure you will download the playtest docs soon. A little more reading for myself, then to bed, good luck.

 

[tomBitonti]

BTW love the word squeee

Quick, almost completely unrelated comment: My pathfinder goblin, a 3-armed alchemist, is name Quee! (And one day he will fly! Fly, gobbo fly!)

Would have put that in an exp box, but can't right now.

Right then, back to your regularly scheduled thread!

TomB

 

[Gorgoroth]

Hasbro probably has some sweetheart deal with microsoft for servers or something, and they gave them rebates (read: bribes) to use Silverlight for DDI.

But yeah, from a distribution POV, it's a little ridiculous to treat this playtest PDF suite as a hidden thingy, I would have read it with the same fervor had the PDF links been posted directly on their website. Ok, not as much, because I was at work at the time, but yeah. I will definitely fill out the comments and feedback for it...why make it hard to get feedback in? I make MMOs and we have stuff like staged Beta iterations with greater or less number of participants, due to load considerations in early server software, but that's a technical reason. They already did their "closed" beta, once it's open, just open it for real, none of this silly link obfuscation business.

//sigh

 

[tomBitonti]

1. Google "5E playtest"
2. Limit results to past 24 hours
3. Click the (as of this writing) third result

It's not that hard. Assuming you've signed up correctly and agreed to the terms and conditions, there's not even anything unethical about dling the materials from a functional, non-WotC server. It's the same exact materials, and you're still bound by the same exact playtest agreements.

tl;dr: google is your friend.

Perhaps not a practical problem, given the very probably very wide distribution of the playtest material. IANAL, etc., etc., legal is very probably only downloading from the official site. There is a lot of icky legalese in the license, which includes limitations on copying the material. (Actually, anyone who posts the material other than the official site is breaking the agreement in allowing it to be copied, so the download is, I would say, almost definitely breaking the license.)

TomB

 

[Ichneumon]

The link really does work! I got in successfuly at 11:38Pm EST, after attempting to get in ALL afternoon in to evening. A friend got in lunchtime, on his first try. He didn't even know about all the problems.

So don't fret, I'm sure you will download the playtest docs soon. A little more reading for myself, then to bed, good luck.

Finally got 'em! Right after posting the message. So that's karma. Or reverse karma. No matter, it's good to see the game in the flesh.

 

[underfoot007ct]

Hasbro probably has some sweetheart deal with microsoft for servers or something, and they gave them rebates (read: bribes) to use Silverlight for DDI.

But yeah, from a distribution POV, it's a little ridiculous to treat this playtest PDF suite as a hidden thingy, I would have read it with the same fervor had the PDF links been posted directly on their website. Ok, not as much, because I was at work at the time, but yeah. I will definitely fill out the comments and feedback for it...why make it hard to get feedback in? I make MMOs and we have stuff like staged Beta iterations with greater or less number of participants, due to load considerations in early server software, but that's a technical reason. They already did their "closed" beta, once it's open, just open it for real, none of this silly link obfuscation business.

//sigh

You might be correct on "silverlight". I just don't think WOTC understands gamers, and unyielding need to see a game sooner than now. I wonder how many DLs they will have had after say the first 48 hours.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I know roleplayers are usually stereotyped as lacking social skills, but maybe we should all try to have a little empathy with the poor software team working back at WotC trying to make this happen for us? It's easy to complain, it's not easy to do so constructively.

 

[KesselZero]

DDXP in January was the initial public playtest, not PAXEAST. But Yes, I believe that The Caves of Chaos was used in both.

Derp! You are correct, sir. I of course meant DDXP.

 

[filthgrinder]

You might be correct on "silverlight". I just don't think WOTC understands gamers, and unyielding need to see a game sooner than now. I wonder how many DLs they will have had after say the first 48 hours.

The DLs after the first 48 hours is basically the problem. I grabbed the playtest at 9:30AM yesterday morning, the servers were swamped, but they were fine around 11PM, so let's just say 15 hours. That traffic is probably on the order of 1,000 times their normal traffic. The resources required to be brought in to handle something like that is a poor business choice. They were probably hamstrung by legal to host the content themselves.

The easiest choice would have been to rent the resources from Amazon's EC2 environment, where they would have been able to scale gracefully to meet demands. However, there are concerns for using a public computing environment, and for a company not familiar with it, they may have been told to use their own resources.

This meant that they would have to spend alot of money on hardware and services to handle a 15 hour load. OR they could ride out the initial wave and deal with some playtesters not getting the playtest packet immediately.

I know nerdrage and entitlement are strong. The "I should get everything I want right now!" sentiment is powerful, but sometimes you just can't always get what you want. Especially for a free non-product.

If they were selling material, and people paid for it, then it would be inexcusable. However, thats not the case, so I think not getting your playtest packet right away is manageable.

 

[Ratskinner]

This meant that they would have to spend alot of money on hardware and services to handle a 15 hour load. OR they could ride out the initial wave and deal with some playtesters not getting the playtest packet immediately.

Right. Except that this is just the first round of the playtest. I hope we can expect better from them in the future. Somewhere, somehow, this is a fail for someone. Whether that someone is an IT person who incorrectly set up the program, or a manager who wouldn't let him or her do it...its still a fail, and an intentional 'dis' to their playtesters. I've worked in IT, its just not that hard. The fact that this situation was completely predictable only makes it worse.