Here's my problem with purchasing virtual minis, random or not...
What if I stop paying for DDI?
They've already said that they are working on a way for subscribers to access all the Dungeon/Dragon material that they had previously had a subscription for. For instance, you pay for 6 months of DDI, you have access to all the articles released during the time you paid.
But that would be impossible with the Gaming Table and purchased V-minis.
The Game Table itself is a service, not a product, so it's okay to not access it without a subscription. However, the V-minis would be a "product", purchased to add value to a service. I don't want to pay money for a product that I can no longer use if I cancel a service.
See, MMO's like WoW, require TIME to gain additional abilities/powers/equipment.. not real world money. If a player quits the service, they are only out time-invested. It's no real loss because players now have "time" to do whatever else they want.
With the Game Table and V-minis, if you quit, you are out real, hard-earned money. You do not get that money back. They only way to make use of that money is to pay the subscription. With real minis, even if I never play D&D with them, they are physical product with which I can do (or not do) anything I want. There is no
additional expense to use the things I
already paid for.
Also, to compare D&D V-minis to V-magic-cards is unfair. Magic Online has no subscription fee!
That being said, I would pay for V-minis under four conditions:
1) Minis are non-random.
2) Minis are dramatically cheaper than the plastic ones.
3) We have unlimited "copies" of minis purchased.
4) Rare minis are not priced by Scrye magazine.
I'm not paying $20 for virtual beholder that I can no longer use/hand/look-at if I quit paying the $10-15 a month service fee.
As an aside, using 2D monster tokens with 3D PC minis on a 3D battlefield is... anti-climatic to say the least. Just throw away the dynamic lighting, get rid of 3D PC minis, etc.
"Oooo... the eerie glow of this cave really makes that flat drawing of a dragon very scary. My PC, which towers over said dragon, is really quite frightened."
