Pre-Order DLC comes to D&D with Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Anyone who plays videos games knows pre-order bonuses for those willing to pay in advance of product launch. WotC's official toolset, D&D Beyond, is adopting this practice with 16 bonus feats exclusive to those who pre-order Xanathar's Guide to Everything on D&D Beyond.

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Here's what they're offering:

We're excited to announce the bonuses you will receive for pre-ordering Xanathar's Guide to Everything on D&D Beyond:
[h=4]Expanded Racial Feats[/h]You'll get access to 16 new racial feats for all the races available on D&D Beyond outside the Player's Handbook - from the aaracokra to the yuan-ti pureblood. Created by the D&D Beyond team, these feats can be used in your home games or as inspiration for your own upcoming homebrew racial feats.
[h=4]Digital Character Sheet Customization[/h]Get access to new digital character sheet image backgrounds and portrait frame options from artwork in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
[h=4]Alpha Access to the D&D Beyond Mobile App[/h]Get early alpha access to the D&D Beyond mobile app release later this year, which will include compendium/reader offline access for all the sources you've unlocked on D&D Beyond. Be among the first to help us test an exciting part of D&D Beyond's future!

The book comes out on 10th November, 2017.
[h=3][/h]

 

[Dualazi]

I swear there are a lot of new accounts popping up that specifically criticise DDB and nothing else, not only here, but on DDB's forums as well. They all seem to use the exact same logic and phrasing.

I wonder if they all have Russian IP's?

The guy you quoted has 284 posts. I'm not sure if "russian" spambots have that kind of time to while away on forums for niche hobbies. I think the more likely scenario is that people who might comment less often are feeling obligated to speak out about industry practices they find concerning. Less mysterious, I know, but such is life.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

The guy you quoted has 284 posts. I'm not sure if "russian" spambots have that kind of time to while away on forums for niche hobbies. I think the more likely scenario is that people who might comment less often are feeling obligated to speak out about industry practices they find concerning. Less mysterious, I know, but such is life.

Before you criticise someone you might actually want to make sure you're right:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?6911177-Divad-Drofnud

 

[Dualazi]

Before you criticise someone you might actually want to make sure you're right:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?6911177-Divad-Drofnud

Huh, that's bizarre. I know it said 284 when I checked earlier, and none of the surrounding posts have numbers close to that. Are there any known forum bugs that could cause a post count to be misrepresented? As it stands it seems I am in error, and that is an extremely new account only commenting on this topic.

 

[Shasarak]

If you're going to put your money down sight-unseen, you deserve a risk premium, maybe even an equity interest (depending on how much you're putting down): that's how investment works. Kickstarter says, "No, no, ignore all that sound business and financial decision-making. Have this promise of some cheap shiny toys instead; a promise that may be delayed or even go unfulfilled." And we're expected to think that's okay. It's not. Being expected to buy into something sight-unseen is never okay, especially if those who don't throw money at a product of indeterminable quality are then denied game content, or have to pay extra for it, because they won't just throw money at anything bearing the D&D logo.

TL;DR, Kickstarter may be helpful for some smaller projects or enterprises, but Kickstarter is immensely stupid; as is paying for something before you see the quality of it, that's why tipping is done at the end of the meal instead of before you sit down to eat.

I have to admit that the ROI on my Kickstarter investments has been pretty poor.

 

[Evenglare]

For the people saying if you don't like it don't buy it. Protip, its actually possible to be critical of a company and still support them. Its seems that over the past few years people have developed this binary mindset of either. I HATE IT ITS THE WORST EVER or OMG I LOVE IT ITS THE BEST EVER. There is a middle ground, you can disagree with policies and still support a company overall. Its amazing to me how few people actually understand this. I don't have to participate in white knighting and circle jerking WOTC every decision they make, and if you want to still push the "If you don't like it don't buy it" agenda, im certainly not going to spend 30 bucks on this digital copy. So, yeah im not buying it but not because of their preorder bonuses, but because I don't like buying digital things whenever there's a physical copy available.

And even then if I did buy digital, I absolutely won't support preorder bonuses. I don't on videogames and I wont here. I refuse to let them know its OK to do this, therefore im not going to preorder anything to feed into that practice. Its seriously messed up that as a consumer, my options are...

1.Blindly pay money for a book that I have little to not concrete information on, much less know the whole package to make an informed decision.
2. Wait until it comes out, research it, make an informed decision if I want the book or not, and then get screwed out of material people got because they preordered.

If you don't understand my reasoning for being annoyed by this practice, I'm sorry this is as basic of an explanation I can give, and it seems pretty clear to me anyway.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

For the people saying if you don't like it don't buy it. Protip, its actually possible to be critical of a company and still support them.

There is a vast difference between legitimate criticism and the utterly ridiculous and profoundly unfounded and illogical arguments that are being expressed here. The fact that none of them are backed up by any evidence which proves that either the people haven't done even a casual amount of investigation (like, literally, less than two minutes worth is all that's needed to prove their arguments wrong), or are being deliberately disingenuous to disparage a company for some bizarre nefarious reason.

When there is a legitimate criticism, like all the damn typos in the documents and the sparsity of links, and the anchors not anchoring properly in links and searches not being able to be limited to certain books and a host of other issues with DDB, I'll happily discuss them and agree. But all I see here is a lot of people making a big deal out of absolutely nothing and yet painting it as the crime of the century. It's absurd. Is this The Onion? Are we being punked? Trolled? What drives people to make such ridiculous assertions and attacks on a company that they obviously have no interest in using the products of?

 

[fantasmamore]

2. Wait until it comes out, research it, make an informed decision if I want the book or not, and then get screwed out of material people got because they preordered.

You are going to buy all the content everybody else got on a variety of formats / apps. Just some of the people using one specific app (DDB) are going to get some extra feats created by a third party.
Every company is trying to sell more WotC's products than the next one.
I bought Curse of Strahd in FG for 20$ (on offer).
Roll20 was giving for free extra maps designed exclusively for them but the cost was two times more.
I also bought the physical book from bookdepository because of the free delivery in my country that made it overall cheaper than using Amazon + paying shipping fees.
But the book alone was cheaper in Amazon so for someone living in the U.S. I think it would be the obvious choice.
Every company gives something in order to become more appealing to its customers. Extra content, lower price, a warm smile (yeah, your FLGS is the only WotC "partner" to offer a smile and that makes it kind of rare ). Just choose what's best for you!
I'm with you on the "therefore im not going to preorder anything to feed into that practice" line. Buying something is a conscious choice that shapes our world to the extent that it deserves. Doesn't matter if I agree or not with your choice, this is the most responsible way to think!

 

[Ovinomancer]

For the people saying if you don't like it don't buy it. Protip, its actually possible to be critical of a company and still support them. Its seems that over the past few years people have developed this binary mindset of either. I HATE IT ITS THE WORST EVER or OMG I LOVE IT ITS THE BEST EVER. There is a middle ground, you can disagree with policies and still support a company overall. Its amazing to me how few people actually understand this. I don't have to participate in white knighting and circle jerking WOTC every decision they make, and if you want to still push the "If you don't like it don't buy it" agenda, im certainly not going to spend 30 bucks on this digital copy. So, yeah im not buying it but not because of their preorder bonuses, but because I don't like buying digital things whenever there's a physical copy available.

And even then if I did buy digital, I absolutely won't support preorder bonuses. I don't on videogames and I wont here. I refuse to let them know its OK to do this, therefore im not going to preorder anything to feed into that practice. Its seriously messed up that as a consumer, my options are...

1.Blindly pay money for a book that I have little to not concrete information on, much less know the whole package to make an informed decision.
2. Wait until it comes out, research it, make an informed decision if I want the book or not, and then get screwed out of material people got because they preordered.

If you don't understand my reasoning for being annoyed by this practice, I'm sorry this is as basic of an explanation I can give, and it seems pretty clear to me anyway.

I don't understand your reasoning. What I mean is, I understand it, I just don't get how you think it's rational that you should be given the same rewards for waiting as those that essentially take the risk to subsidize the product offering. Pre-ordering is a risk, one you feel isn't worthwhile due to the chance that you pay full price for a bum product. That's rational. What's not is then becoming upset that incentives provided for pre-ordering should also be offered to you for not pre-ordering, and that not doing so is somehow screwing you over. That's just ridiculous.

And pre-ordering is a very useful tool for product developers -- it helps define the needed infrastructure and delivery costs they'll have to lay out before they get any return. If they get strong pre-orders, it helps defray the cash flow issues they face manufacturing and delivering the product. This is true in digital space as well, as it helps understand the needed bandwidth for content delivery (and even allows pre-delivery that's time locked, which reduces server stress on release as well). Granted, D&D products have low digital overhead, being print products, but even then it helps Curse understand how much they need to have on hand for bandwidth on release and also helps them cement their new service all while defraying cashflow issues. The incentives for pre-order are entirely rational from the company's point of view -- loss of revenue from the offer is offset by guaranteed and immediate revenue and better understanding of the delivery scale and costs.

What you're doing here is insisting that not only should the company offering the products you want take all of the risks and operate in an uncertain delivery model (which can lead to shortages and overages, both costly to the company) while you demand that you should also get all of the incentives the company might offer for pre-order. It's petulant and selfish.

You might not like having to make a choice of pre-ordering something you might not like or being sure you'll like it but missing out on the incentives, and that's fine, but I have to warn you that life is going to be very disappointing for you, what with the constant stream of choices about risks, rewards, and opportunity costs. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too.

 

[ddaley]

For the people saying if you don't like it don't buy it. Protip, its actually possible to be critical of a company and still support them. Its seems that over the past few years people have developed this binary mindset of either. I HATE IT ITS THE WORST EVER or OMG I LOVE IT ITS THE BEST EVER. There is a middle ground, you can disagree with policies and still support a company overall. Its amazing to me how few people actually understand this. I don't have to participate in white knighting and circle jerking WOTC every decision they make, and if you want to still push the "If you don't like it don't buy it" agenda, im certainly not going to spend 30 bucks on this digital copy. So, yeah im not buying it but not because of their preorder bonuses, but because I don't like buying digital things whenever there's a physical copy available.

And even then if I did buy digital, I absolutely won't support preorder bonuses. I don't on videogames and I wont here. I refuse to let them know its OK to do this, therefore im not going to preorder anything to feed into that practice. Its seriously messed up that as a consumer, my options are...

1.Blindly pay money for a book that I have little to not concrete information on, much less know the whole package to make an informed decision.
2. Wait until it comes out, research it, make an informed decision if I want the book or not, and then get screwed out of material people got because they preordered.

If you don't understand my reasoning for being annoyed by this practice, I'm sorry this is as basic of an explanation I can give, and it seems pretty clear to me anyway.

Wow... it's a $30 book. It isn't like you are pre-ordering a car or house. You are that concerned about possibly spending $30 on a book which may not be as good as you expected? You really need to wait for it to be released and then research it? I guess you have much more time than money. I will take my chances and pre-order.... partially just to annoy the haters.

 

[Morrus]

So, were paying for Homebrew stuff now eh?

I don’t know. Are you?