Sage Advice: How much does the D&D Insider subscription cost?

[The Little Raven]

As I see people waste $40 a month on cell phones with features they never use (roll-over minutes exist to make people feel better about paying $40 for 800 minutes when they only use 200 a month), or $12 a month on movies they only see once (or even on a meal at some restaurant), I don't see $15 a month as a high price for 2 magazines, a virtual gaming table, a small set of e-miniatures/tokens, character creation utilities, campaign utilities, and a large community of fellow gamers.

 

[Wolfspider]

As I see people waste $40 a month on cell phones with features they never use (roll-over minutes exist to make people feel better about paying $40 for 800 minutes when they only use 200 a month), or $12 a month on movies they only see once (or even on a meal at some restaurant), I don't see $15 a month as a high price for 2 magazines, a virtual gaming table, a small set of e-miniatures/tokens, character creation utilities, campaign utilities, and a large community of fellow gamers.

Excellent observation. Unfortunately, your powers of reason aren't going to change the fact that a lot of people will probably still see $15 as too much to spend.

If D&D 4e turns out to be a game that I am interested in, I will definitely check ou the DI. If the DI is able to do everything it promises, then I would gladly pay $15 a month for it. I have the kind of disposable income these days to justify such a purchase to myself.

Those are a couple big "ifs" though....

 

[The Little Raven]

Excellent observation. Unfortunately, your powers of reason aren't going to change the fact that a lot of people will probably still see $15 as too much to spend.

Yeah, reason is usually completely unrelated to perception, unfortunately.

If D&D 4e turns out to be a game that I am interested in, I will definitely check ou the DI. If the DI is able to do everything it promises, then I would gladly pay $15 a month for it. I have the kind of disposable income these days to justify such a purchase to myself.

I'll check out the DI, just to see what it is actually like. I prefer to have a first-hand experience with something before I make a real decision about whether to adopt it or not. I did the same with Magic Online, because I enjoyed the game, but didn't have time to play in real life. If it's worth it, I'll continue subscribing and use it, and if not... well... no sweat off my back, and there goes $15 I would have spent on junk food (or, God forbid, a d20 product ).

 

[Wolfspider]

Yeah, reason is usually completely unrelated to perception, unfortunately.

You and I are in complete agreement here. Rare, so cue the inspirational music!

I'll check out the DI, just to see what it is actually like. I prefer to have a first-hand experience with something before I make a real decision about whether to adopt it or not. I did the same with Magic Online, because I enjoyed the game, but didn't have time to play in real life. If it's worth it, I'll continue subscribing and use it, and if not... well... no sweat off my back, and there goes $15 I would have spent on junk food (or, God forbid, a d20 product ).

One of my New Year's resolutions is to give up all junk food, so I figure I will have plenty of money to funnel into my gaming hobby. Oh joyous new year!

 

[The Little Raven]

You and I are in complete agreement here. Rare, so cue the inspirational music!

This is like an astronomical event of some kind. I need to check to I Ching.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to give up all junk food, so I figure I will have plenty of money to funnel into my gaming hobby. Oh joyous new year!

Same here. The ol' waistline has gotten a bit thick in the past year, and I need to get more days in the gym each week.

 

[Campbell]

Excellent observation. Unfortunately, your powers of reason aren't going to change the fact that a lot of people will probably still see $15 as too much to spend.

If D&D 4e turns out to be a game that I am interested in, I will definitely check ou the DI. If the DI is able to do everything it promises, then I would gladly pay $15 a month for it. I have the kind of disposable income these days to justify such a purchase to myself.

Those are a couple big "ifs" though....

What you're witnessing here is Cheap Ass Gamer Syndrome, wherein many of the same people who spend $100 bucks a month on video games and likely own expensive plasma or LCD television sets balk at paying $30 for a gaming book. Even though I doubt I'll be a D&D Insider subscriber, it most likely won't come down to price for me.

 

[Valamyr]

I dont understand why they arent providing free access to all virtual mignatures for subscribers of this service.

I mean, monthly fees like that for what amounts to a online gaming table that i can get for free from 3rd party apps is pretty steep. They should sweeten the deal by making it as good as possible.

Hell, if they really wanted to get aggressive with that, they could allow subscribers unlimited access to ALL published 4th edition books in pdf format for the duration of their subscription. Now, that would be a seller. But at least, the mignatures, sold separately? ..

 

[I'm A Banana]

Same here. The ol' waistline has gotten a bit thick in the past year, and I need to get more days in the gym each week.

GO TO THE GYM, OLD MAN!!!!!!

I dont understand why they arent providing free access to all virtual mignatures for subscribers of this service.

Because Capitalism.

​

Aaaah, that's gooooood 'what the market will bear'...

 

[The Little Raven]

GO TO THE GYM, OLD MAN!!!!!!

The saddest part is that I'm not old, I'm just sedentary. I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep with a pint of fudge brownie ice-cream.

[/self-awareness]

 

[Oldtimer]

I saw this in the latest Sage Advice Column dated 1/4/2008

"Q: How much does the D&D Insider subscription cost?

The real answer seems to be "too much". :\

Considering the "Critical Hits" article broke the Dragon archive and that the thread indexer on the gleemax forums died shortly after that (making them next to unusable) and none of this has been fixed yet (thirteen hours later) I really don't think we should expect much from DDI either.

I wouldn't pay much for a subscription service, if it works that badly.