Status of D&D Game Table?

[Kishin]

(As an aside, I've wondered what Blizzard would do if D&D ever really started having an online presence ... that would seem to be a strong motivation for Blizzard to simply squash WotC out of the online gaming market.)

Ignore them, like it does with the other MMO companies?

I can't imagine Blizzard ever feeling remotely threatened by WoTC. They've probably made more off WoW since its release than the last ten years of D&D.

With regards to the actual release of the Tabletop.... Well, after Chinese Democracy managed to actually get released (albeit after 14 years...) I guess anything's possible.

 

[Glyfair]

I mean, if WOW wanted to create a game table, couldn't they put together something that would be light years ahead of what WotC was considering?

Sure. They have the money. They could.

However, since they would have no hope of getting the money invested back, or even part of it. I know it's traditional to assume that WotC is skimping and not giving us even part of what we are "owed." However, we really aren't a blip on their radar, except as patrons of their game model. They don't want to delve into ours.

 

[Mythtify]

Didn't the makers of Fantasy Grounds file suit against WotC over some element of the game table?

 

[Glyfair]

Didn't the makers of Fantasy Grounds file suit against WotC over some element of the game table?

Some research shows it was just a cease and desist letter because WotC apparently used an image from the Fantasy Grounds website (the dice roller program). Not an actual part of the program.

 

[Stoat]

For those recommending alternatives, please don't forget about the excellent Klooge.Werks!

I really, really wanted to love Klooge. It has exactly every function that I'm interested in in a 2d VTT. But my group found it to be terribly unstable. We had continued problems getting it up and running, and it frequently crashed out during our games. Eventually, we had to give it up.

I'm using d20pro now, and it fulfills my needs.

I'm counting the WotC VTT as vaporware until I've actually played a game with it. It looks to me like they wanted to leap ahead of the existing VTT's by going 3D, adding light effects and adding some animation. In retrospect, they bit off more than they could chew, and would have been better off going with a less-ambitious product.

 

[Scribble]

I personally am skeptical that the virtual table top makes good business sense...

In addition, I'm not sure that the marginal dollar chasing is worth it (relative to better fleshing out of the magazines, updates to the compendium, etc or even in other DnD product lines).

One of the biggest "flaws" tabletop RPGs have compaired to MMOs is that you need to have a group willing to play the game with you.

By offering a VTT someone who just got the game can log on and get into a game in almost no time.

They won't have to spend a lot of time looking for a group, convincing peple to play, or any other number of things that could cause said future player to say: "Screw this Warcraft is easier."

Works for any gamer looking for a game as well. You could live in east bumbleschmuk and still find gamers willing to game.

The two biggest elements I see in it';s favor are:

1. The lobby- Most (all?) of the online game tools I;ve seen so far seem to need everyone involved to already know eachother. Someone is a host and everyone logs into his game etc... A lobby means you can simply log on, and say: "hey lets game."

2. It's on the WoTC website- Since the game is made by WoTC thats probably the first place someone will go looking for more info on the game. Which means more people seeing the fact that you can get into a game almost instantly.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Eventually you will get it (I would bet by the end of the year).

I can't remember where I read it, but I believe someone at WOTC said specifically not to expect it in 2009. From memory, I believe it was said that although the game table was mostly working, that it had severe stability issues. There was something about the fact that it was programmed by a 3rd party company without any sort of DRM and that there was an attempt by WOTC to add that feature into the program. It was causing large amounts of stability issues. WOTC wanted to verify that you were "authorized" to access each mini, stat block, map, and object on the screen. The idea is that they might want to sell minis or maps(either 2d copies or 3d copies), plus they wanted to allow you to search the compendium for information and attach stat blocks to minis. This would be allowed if you were paying for DDI but not if you were a "guest" user.

And, from what I heard, there were some fundamental issues with the way the program was written that made it easier to rewrite almost ALL the underlying code in order to get these rights working rather than attempt to fix it. Since it appeared to be such a large amount of work, they felt that it was best to put their effort into the character generator and visualizer.

So, the current plan appears to be Character Creator in "very early" 2009 with the implication that it'll be in the last 2 weeks of January. Then the visualizer appears to be mostly completed and likely it'll come next. After that, WOTC appears to be making no promises at all, except that we shouldn't expect the Game Table in 2009(in any form at all, including beta).

 

[Aeolius]

And, from what I heard, there were some fundamental issues with the way the program was written that made it easier to rewrite almost ALL the underlying code in order to get these rights working rather than attempt to fix it.

Then why not fix the REAL problem and make it cross-platform compatible from the start?

 

[Asmor]

Then why not fix the REAL problem and make it cross-platform compatible from the start?

They have enough trouble coding for one platform as it is. Do you want this thing released in time for 5th edition?

 

[wedgeski]

I see the game table as an investment for Wizards that they need to make good on before 4E is too deep into its life-cycle. In any case, they're designing it system-neutral so once it's up and running it should pay dividends through this edition and beyond.

I will expect it when I see it. I agree with the earlier poster who said that the GenCon and subsequent videos showed an app that seemed solid; the fact we haven't heard anything more about it could simply mean that they've diverted resources to other parts of the insider package. In any case, I've got what I really wanted out of the digital initiative, in the form of the compendium, the character builder, and the magazines, all of which are currently supreme value for money. If the VTT comes along, works well, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, I might dabble in another online game, but I won't lose any sleep over it if I don't!