TSR, WotC and Electronic Support: a loveless marriage

[Remathilis]

I'll begin with my question: Why has WotC generally dropped the ball on electronic support for D&D?

TSR, before being bought by WotC, had a fairly good track record of connecting the AD&D rules with electronic support. It did a good job of licensing the franchise to various video game companies (from SSI to Konami to Bioware) as well as creating the best campaign tool ever invented: D&D Core Rules. (Okay, CR1 sucked, but CR 2.0 was amazing, and the expansion is the definitive 2e supplement). One assumed WotC would simply follow suit.

We got a taste of that in the Master Tools demo which came with our 3.0 PHB. Yet that was the beginning of the end: Master Tools suffered from too-much-meddling which turned a simple character generator into a massive online-play tool, one that lost usefulness as a game-prep tool and increasingly became too expensive to finish. WotC eventually cut its losses and released E-tools but it was too late: the program was unfinished (I recall a plead to buy it anyway and we'll patch it to make it better) AND it came out on the cusp of 3.5 anyways and thus outdated. While Code Monkeys would make it usable (for a cost) WotC had lost the electronic edge during 3e, an edition that could have VERY much benefited from a simple, easy to use character/monster generator!

WotC has tried again in the 4e era with DDi, but again has shown a vision too big and a lack of commitment. They're crown jewels are the Char Builder and Monster Builder, the backbones of any electronic RPG support. They were tools sorely lacking in the 3e era, but still don't reach the level of TSR's CR2+E. (The latter offered deep customization of game elements, two mapping programs, 20 books online, and even a dice-roller). So WotC gets props for completing the project they started 10 years ago and making Master Tools v.4e.

Yet the rest of the DDi tools are DOA. Online Table? Portrait Generator? Campaign Builder? Map-making tool? All silent. Chances are, we won't see a single one. Again, WotC has shown lack of commitment to electronic tools.

I can only wonder why WotC has had such lofty goals (for two editions now) that include mappers, online play, etc but yet have appeared as vaporware (or merely as partial packages). Yet TSR, notorious for excess, created the best and most complete electronic campaign suite. Go figure.

When WotC becomes truly devoted to the concept of electonic tools, it will be amazing. So far, they have provided the bare minimums and a lot of promises.

POST SCRIPT: There is one area WotC might have an advantage over TSR in: online/web presence. Yet this isn't all that revolutionary either. Sure Dragon/Dungeon is online, but thats mostly to avoid printing/shipping costs of dead-tree versions (which are getting harder to afford, esp. for smaller publications.) The bright gem is the Compendium; a way to quickly reference everything. Its the most useful web-tool they have, but it didn't require a lot of programming know-how; just Html/scripting. (Aka not a lot of resources needed in developing new software). So WotC again shows some promise, but they aren't re-inventing the wheel with pdfs and web-tools.

 

[Umbran]

Well, first off, I think some folks are going to try to rip you a new orifice - I'll quietly suggest right now that they should rethink that idea.

Second, I think your assessment is... not in tune with reality.

Computer games do not count as "electronic support" - they don't assist tabletop play in the least. They are a separate product, a marketing and merchandising opportunity, but not support. So, as far as I am concerned, you can strike all the CRPGs right off the list for this consideration. And TSR electronic support basically began and ended with Core Rules.

The old Core Rules and current DDI cover approximately the same functionality - listing of rules and character builder. Core Rules also had a map-creation tool, but I never heard anyone consider that a major selling point. In terms of actual usefulness to the players, I think current DDi offering far outstrips the old Core Rules.

Did WotC fall down on a lot of other possible functionality? Sure. But it isn't like TSR offered that functionality either, so by that measure they're doing about the same.

In the end, WotC is not a software shop, and neither was TSR. Building software isn't something they do well. Until and unless they hire on (or contract to) a real pack of solid developers, QA, PMs, and so on who know software, their offerings will always be second rate.

 

[Dausuul]

Put simply, WotC's 4E electronic tools are what happens when you try to build this stuff in-house. It's got nothing to do with "devotion" and everything to do with recognizing your corporate strengths and weaknesses. WotC is not a software company and should be outsourcing all software development beyond basic website work.

I'm not familiar with the 2E or 3E electronic tools, so I can't speak to any differences in quality there.

Edit: Yeah, what Umbran said.

 

[JediSoth]

Software piracy wasn't quite in the forefront of the news back when the AD&D Core Rules 2.0 was released and I wonder if the lawyer's at Hasbro and their fixation on preventing piracy of their IP has anything to do with the lackluster electronic support?

 

[fanboy2000]

You're selling E-Tools short. It was imperfect at first, but the Code Monkey Publishing had that thing doing backflips fairly quickly. You had rules customization built it, with more flexibility as a free add-on (E-Toolls helper). I once made a "Call of Chulhu d20" rules set. E-Tools supported both 3e and 3.5, it also had treasure generation, random table creation/rolling, new PC race creation, and all the rule books in it's online help. You could even create base and prestige classes in it. Buy the end, you could customize it pretty heavily.

You didn't mention it, but do you remember TSR's Forgotten Realms interactive Atlas? Wizards put out one for Eberron via Code Monkey.

Also haven't there been D&D video games since Wizard's took over? Neverwinter Nights springs to mind.

That said, E-Tools took far to long to be awesome, and 4e simply hasn't delivered the flexibility E-Tools once had, or the flexibility CR 2.0 had.

I think there are several reasons.

1. Choice of partner. They've consistently teamed-up with partners who couldn't deliver.

2. They don't want their computer programs to look like regular window's programs. The user interfaces on those programs don't write themselves. Maybe .NET makes it easy to create ridiculously styled UIs, but to me it often seems like style over substance.

3. In order to write a good computer program, you need to know what the rules are. If Wizards wanted a good program at launch, they'd have to delay the product while the programers used the finished, but unreleased, product to design the programs. This takes time.

 

[Andramelech]

Just one look at the price of a DDI subscription made me laugh my ass off. These overpriced utilities should come with the price of the books. I feel sorry for people who paid and are not going to get all the utilities that were promised. You may say, well someone has to program those utilities and maintain them, so why shouldn't we pay? Because it's too expensive, that's why. The programs aren't all that amazing. I wonder how many people they have working on it, 5, maybe 10? You pay less money for subscriptions to games that took hundreds of times more effort than these rip offs. I understand the need to make money, but when you set the price too high, people will just find a way to steal them. I buy books all the time that have web content for free. It's included in the book price to persuade you to buy the book. A DDI subsciption is one of the biggest rip-offs I've ever seen. If it really had all the promised programs, it might be worth half of what they're charging.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

[MENTION=94747]Andramelech[/MENTION]: You seem to have missed what DDI includes. Apart from the Character Builder and the as-yet-unfinished Adventure Tools, the DDI subscription includes full access to the Compendium (which includes all the crunch for 4e published by WotC ever) as well as the DRAGON and DUNGEON magazines (not just the current ones, but all digital issues for 4e).

All in all, DDI offers a lot of value for the money. YMMV, obviously.

 

[Shemeska]

Put simply, WotC's 4E electronic tools are what happens when you try to build this stuff in-house. It's got nothing to do with "devotion" and everything to do with recognizing your corporate strengths and weaknesses. WotC is not a software company and should be outsourcing all software development beyond basic website work.[/i]

That's what got them into such trouble however in the first place. It was the in-house group that actually managed to produce what made it to market (albeit the folks who coded the majority of the builder are no longer there). Of course part of not being a software company is also knowing how to manage outsourcing and ensure accountability, how much you're spending on what, etc.

 

[Umbran]

Just one look at the price of a DDI subscription made me laugh my ass off.

$6 a month made you do that? Geeze, your butt must not be attached very well. Either that, or your gauge of what things cost these days needs calibration.

I mean, really, you have to search to get a decent sandwich for $6. It's what, maybe two coffees at Starbucks? Less than what you pay for a movie, never mind popcorn and a soda to go with it. If you play weekly, it's half what you'd pay to bring a bag of chips to every session.

Welcome to the 21st century.

 

[delericho]

TSR, before being bought by WotC, had a fairly good track record of connecting the AD&D rules with electronic support... (Okay, CR1 sucked, but CR 2.0 was amazing, and the expansion is the definitive 2e supplement).

IIRC, CR2.0 (or at least the expansion) was a WotC-driven product. Peter Atkison was incensed at the poor quality of previous offerings, and ordered them to do better when he took charge.

WotC has tried again in the 4e era with DDi, but again has shown a vision too big and a lack of commitment. They're crown jewels are the Char Builder and Monster Builder, the backbones of any electronic RPG support. They were tools sorely lacking in the 3e era, but still don't reach the level of TSR's CR2+E.

While I consider the Character Builder to be poor software (awful, awful interface!), it is an absolutely marvellous tool. Simply put, I would not even consider playing 4e without it.

Yet the rest of the DDi tools are DOA. Online Table? Portrait Generator? Campaign Builder? Map-making tool?

I agree that we will probably never see any of these. I am rather disappointed by this, especially the loss of the Online Table. However, I always included them in the category of "nice to have". So, not the worst loss.

And, to be honest, other people already produce tools that do all of these things, probably better than WotC would anyway.