Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 5314792" data-attributes="member: 7635">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a plead to buy it anyway and we'll patch it to make it better) AND it came out on the cusp of 3.5 anyways and thus outdated.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.</blockquote>

Verification