The End of the World as We Know it?

[Danzauker]

Most users will see it as annoying and superfluous, but many marketing people see it as an opportunity to funnel you through more advertisements, for new products. It's the same logic that has stores like Ikea funnel you through literally every product department, before you can buy that one 'Bjorkefall' candle holder you were looking for.

Sure as hell, but when I go to Ikea, I can just walk through the whole store and not buy anything. When I subscribe to DDI, I'm already paying for a service.

I perfectly understand Ikea's sale model, but I don't like to see it applied to this case. It's ok for non subscribers to end to the generic page telling "this is a snippet of the article, sorry, but to get it, you need to subscribe).

What is missing is a way for me, subscriber, to avoid the annoyance of going throug the same path.

I'm sure WotC has a lot of professional marketing people working for them. I hope thay have taken into account that this marketing model, while may generate revenue by forcing customers through advertisement, also has the side effect of turning away some other which don't want it, because they are already paying for a service.

 

[Ryujin]

Sure as hell, but when I go to Ikea, I can just walk through the whole store and not buy anything. When I subscribe to DDI, I'm already paying for a service.

I perfectly understand Ikea's sale model, but I don't like to see it applied to this case. It's ok for non subscribers to end to the generic page telling "this is a snippet of the article, sorry, but to get it, you need to subscribe).

What is missing is a way for me, subscriber, to avoid the annoyance of going throug the same path.

I'm sure WotC has a lot of professional marketing people working for them. I hope thay have taken into account that this marketing model, while may generate revenue by forcing customers through advertisement, also has the side effect of turning away some other which don't want it, because they are already paying for a service.

In a world where marketing people actively look for ways to annoy you with adverts, to make them more 'memorable', unfortunately that's not very likely.

 

[Danzauker]

In a world where marketing people actively look for ways to annoy you with adverts, to make them more 'memorable', unfortunately that's not very likely.

Well, a lot of programs and apps I use, stopped nagging me with adverts once I registered or licensed the trial version...

 

[Ryujin]

Well, a lot of programs and apps I use, stopped nagging me with adverts once I registered or licensed the trial version...

But software, that is downloaded and installed to your PC, isn't using a 'medium' that can be 'leveraged.' If it kept bugging you every time that you launched it, then you might well uninstall it and stop using it, at all.

The new web-based model is going to be used to constantly hit us, to buy more product.

 

[Danzauker]

But software, that is downloaded and installed to your PC, isn't using a 'medium' that can be 'leveraged.' If it kept bugging you every time that you launched it, then you might well uninstall it and stop using it, at all.

The new web-based model is going to be used to constantly hit us, to buy more product.

The BAD new web-based model. It's not the only web-based model.

ENWorld, after I registered, on top of letting me download PDF, opened some new functionalities that made my experience better, including taking away some nagging banners.

Why shouldn't WotC do the same?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Why shouldn't WotC do the same?

Why should they?

If DDI has stuff you want despite the ads... then you're going to subscribe regardless. Part of the "reward" for subscribing to ENWorld is to gain the ability to shut off ads. That's not a part of DDI's service. So to expect them to is kind of silly. And if the ads bother you so much, I'm pretty sure WotC would just as soon lose your $7.00 a month subscription fee than lose the money or advertising they gain from ads.

 

[Scribble]

Ads unfortunately are a way of life. You can't drive on a highway without ads, you can't watch tv or a movie without ads, you can't even go into a sports arena (except like 1 or maybe 2) without it being one giant product placement.

There were ads in the magazines before they turned into a digital whatever they wanna call it, and there will be ads in for the foreseeable future.

 

[Danzauker]

Why should they?

If DDI has stuff you want despite the ads... then you're going to subscribe regardless. Part of the "reward" for subscribing to ENWorld is to gain the ability to shut off ads. That's not a part of DDI's service. So to expect them to is kind of silly. And if the ads bother you so much, I'm pretty sure WotC would just as soon lose your $7.00 a month subscription fee than lose the money or advertising they gain from ads.

Which is exactly what's going to happen.

Just exactly as I have to strike a balance between how much I want the PDFs and how much I'm annoyed by the bad user experience to get them, they'll have to make do with some people deciding that at the end the first is not worth the second.

It's just a matter of how many people think like me and how many don't.

Honestly, with the old dead tree subscription way, once I subscibed, I didn't have to do anything but wait for the magazine to get in my hands (actually, not living in the USA I "subscribed" with my game store, so I had to get there once a month, but you get the idea).

Now I have to check daily, wade through the site and download a dozen files and print them all at my expenses if I want the same end product.

For the same price? Not worth it.

 

[Stoat]

Unless those discs contain file formats that are literally unreadable on any current operating system platform (and, frankly, there aren't many such formats), I'd say you're one $0.50 3.5" drive and one $0.50 5.25" drive away from being able to read those.

I don't have any idea why, but I had several 3.5 floppies just up and die on me several years ago. When I ran 'em in the drive, I either got a weird error message or nothing.

 

[Ryujin]

I don't have any idea why, but I had several 3.5 floppies just up and die on me several years ago. When I ran 'em in the drive, I either got a weird error message or nothing.

Because storage conditions (temperature and humidity), wear and tear, and magnetic fields mess with magnetic media. I've had clients who used the same diskette exclusively, for a few years straight, then wondered why they lost their data.

Wait until people start to realize that CD/DVD disks aren't forever, either.