The Casual group and online pay content

[Phasics]

Hmmm....contrary to popular online belief, hundreds upon thousands of man-hours are needed....along with copious amounts of money for authors & cartographers, licensing, taxes and other fees, support staff, and...wow....lots of other things. That little cable sticking out of the back of your computer connects to something far greater in the world. It doesn't pipe totally free magical images onto your computer screen from magic fairyland.

I'm sorry maybe I misunderstood you but where did I give the impression that I wanted it all for free ?

In the end I guess it makes little difference its worth what its worth and people will pay if its worth it to them and the rest of us will look at 3rd party alternatives like Fantasy Grounds

 

[Deverash]

In the end I guess it makes little difference its worth what its worth and people will pay if its worth it to them and the rest of us will look at 3rd party alternatives like Fantasy Grounds

THat's really going to be the key. Is it going to be that much better than the free/shareware products already out there? That's the iffy part to me.

 

[DM_Blake]

I'm sorry maybe I misunderstood you but where did I give the impression that I wanted it all for free ?

In the end I guess it makes little difference its worth what its worth and people will pay if its worth it to them and the rest of us will look at 3rd party alternatives like Fantasy Grounds

I believe it will be worth it for me.

I'm more than willing to pay $15 per month so that I can carry a laptop to the location where we play, rather than carrying a book bag with 20 books in it, and a separate carrying case for 100+ minis.

The older I get, the less I want to lug around all this stuff.

Also, I look forward to the virtual tabletop. That will be pretty cool. I hope it allows everyone to log in and use it (I foresee a bunch of laptops at the gaming table). I also hope that everyone doesn't have to subscribe - I would hate to limit my gaming group to only inviting players who subscribe. It seems enough that the DM subscribes. He should be able to open a gaming session that his friends can log into for no cost. That would be nice.

In addition, I hardly ever bought the Dungeon/Dragon magazines. Kinda expensive, often not much in them that I really wanted to use. I would buy an occasional issue if it had something cool in it. Now, I'll get that stuff for free. Well, not free, but I consider that I'll be paying for the other stuff, and gettng my money's worth right there, so the online magazines will be essentially free, since it's like they're throwing it in for no extra cost with what I really want.

 

[Phasics]

I believe it will be worth it for me.

I'm more than willing to pay $15 per month so that I can carry a laptop to the location where we play, rather than carrying a book bag with 20 books in it, and a separate carrying case for 100+ minis.

The older I get, the less I want to lug around all this stuff.

Also, I look forward to the virtual tabletop. That will be pretty cool. I hope it allows everyone to log in and use it (I foresee a bunch of laptops at the gaming table). I also hope that everyone doesn't have to subscribe - I would hate to limit my gaming group to only inviting players who subscribe. It seems enough that the DM subscribes. He should be able to open a gaming session that his friends can log into for no cost. That would be nice.

In addition, I hardly ever bought the Dungeon/Dragon magazines. Kinda expensive, often not much in them that I really wanted to use. I would buy an occasional issue if it had something cool in it. Now, I'll get that stuff for free. Well, not free, but I consider that I'll be paying for the other stuff, and gettng my money's worth right there, so the online magazines will be essentially free, since it's like they're throwing it in for no extra cost with what I really want.

Fair enough

On the plus side I've yet to see someone mention the T word yet.

 

[WayneLigon]

Seems a little presumptuous to me charging a monthly fee for access to the online content.
I mean the monthly fee looks close to MMO prices but do we need 24/7 access ?

It's not presumptuous at all. They have to both make the money back, and produce a profit at the same time, from in most terms a very small customer base to begin with. They might introduce other pricing structures in the future, but I'd say for the time being that a flat fee seems like the simplest way to go. I predict that within a year or two, they'll offer seperate membership plans for people who just want Dragon and Dungeon, or people who just want the online tabletop and rulebooks, etc. Depends on how much it winds up costing them.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

As long as you don't mind the lack of virtual books, character vault, official virtual minis and so on, OpenRPG is free......

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'm certainly interested in paying the one-off fee for enhanced online content, but unless I find myself doing more gaming than I am now then it's unlikely that I'll be going for paying every month.

However, I'm not opposed to the idea at all. In fact, I quite favour it - if I'm getting new stuff or access to something on a continuous basis, then I can spare some money for it. It's still going to be perfectly possible to play using just the books, after all, everything else is just extra.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I don't think it is presumptuous. I think they are offering a bunch of different things and it appears will offer it in an "all or none" style. Sure, if all you want is to game online once a month for a few hours with some friends, the price seems steep. On the other hand, if you game online a couple of times per month, access articles from Dungeon and Dragon magazines, use the Character Generator and other online tools during your tabletop game etc. it will seem like a good value.

They are trying this out. The single price, total access model is much easier to use when it comes to projecting revenue and demand in the process of designing the project. I guarantee that if they see it makes more business sense to have different levels of access, they will offer it at some point down the line.