D&D 5E What’s next for DDI

[Festivus]

First your players got to have their character sheets locked away from them! But now, as a DM, you get that chance too!

As DMs, all the countless hours -- years even! -- that you spent developing your campaign stories, backgrounds, adventure logs, maps, and monsters, will all get to become virtually property of Wotc, so that you will need to pay into perpetuity (unless we decide to delete your account for some future unknown reason) to maintain access to your own campaign! Isn't Web 2.0 exciting! Who'd a thunk that online cloud hosting could be so great for web services companies and so <s>terrible</s> awesome for consumers!

Here's a simple pictogram of the brave new exciting world of "your campaign are now belong to us!" :

"Your ideas/maps/stories/villains/creatures/backgrounds"
-> "Upload to the cloud"
-> Organize and store for 9.99 or more! a month
-> Print out
-> Never be able to download to another, exportable, open format! Just keep paying us! Trust us, it'll be great. We promise to never let you down, to never lose your campaign notes you're worked on for 20 years already, to never share your data, read it, pilfer a few ideas from it, mine it for data to sell to third parties, use it to sell you stuff and junk...we swear!

-> Plus, when 5th edition comes out, we'll turn off the taps and possibly cut off development 1/2 way through your next campaign! And leave the builder in a state where you can't purchase magic items, for example.

-> Oh, and any new books that renders 1/2 your characters useless or "houseruled" i.e. double-plus ungood (unprintable), when we come out with new rules that change how barbarians attack, or rogues hit in melee, or whatnot, even if you don't like them -- we do! And we know better than you, or you wouldn't be subscribing to Dnd Insider, wouldn't you. We know what's more convenient for you, an offline product that worked well until we ruined it and pulled it off the shelves, or an online-only, subscription based product that doesn't allow you to own your own data. Trust us! You have nothing to fear.

Repeat the mantra of Web 2.0 ! Services -- and thoughts -- high up in the clouds.

*taps his crystal ball* Man, your's must work better than mine, I don't see anything in the future.

I don't see this AT ALL. First, I have printed books, functional dice and a pad of paper and a pencil. That's never going to change. While they might be errata, it seems like books like the rules compendium patch that very well.

Second, there are so many tools out there that I can use for free... today... that replicate exactly what all your concerns listed are.

Third, what is wrong with paying for a service if it's all tightly integrated and works well together? I don't mind paying a fee for service like that. Heck, I run a meetup site, I pay a service fee for that... don't complain much that all the function leaves if I don't pay the bill. Same goes for any number of other services out there... cancel netflix... no more streaming movies.

I really don't understand this mentality that you HAVE to subscribe. You don't, you always have that choice. Don't want to pay it, don't. But if you want the enhanced functionality of the DDI services, then pay up.

edit: PS, thanks for keeping it constructive per the OP's request

 

[Dice4Hire]

First your players got to have their character sheets locked away from them! But now, as a DM, you get that chance too!

...

Repeat the mantra of Web 2.0 ! Services -- and thoughts -- high up in the clouds.

What part of "positive" didn't you understand?

For me, I think it will all depend on how many subscribers are around at the beginning of 2011. Jan 1, 2011 has got to be a big day for WOTC, as with essentials and the new DDI, they are waiting to see what the customer response is. If it is positive, I think a lot of tools will roll out, and if not, then things will not be as pretty.

 

[RLBURNSIDE]

For not keeping it positive :

"I'm sorry!" - BP Executive

To Wotc : We're sorry.

Glance upwards; you've already received a moderator warning to turn down the snark. Please do so. - PCat

 

[Raunalyn]

First your players got to have their character sheets locked away from them! But now, as a DM, you get that chance too!

As DMs, all the countless hours -- years even! -- that you spent developing your campaign stories, backgrounds, adventure logs, maps, and monsters, will all get to become virtually property of Wotc, so that you will need to pay into perpetuity (unless we decide to delete your account for some future unknown reason) to maintain access to your own campaign! Isn't Web 2.0 exciting! Who'd a thunk that online cloud hosting could be so great for web services companies and so <s>terrible</s> awesome for consumers!

Here's a simple pictogram of the brave new exciting world of "your campaign are now belong to us!" :

"Your ideas/maps/stories/villains/creatures/backgrounds"
-> "Upload to the cloud"
-> Organize and store for 9.99 or more! a month
-> Print out
-> Never be able to download to another, exportable, open format! Just keep paying us! Trust us, it'll be great. We promise to never let you down, to never lose your campaign notes you're worked on for 20 years already, to never share your data, read it, pilfer a few ideas from it, mine it for data to sell to third parties, use it to sell you stuff and junk...we swear!

-> Plus, when 5th edition comes out, we'll turn off the taps and possibly cut off development 1/2 way through your next campaign! And leave the builder in a state where you can't purchase magic items, for example.

-> Oh, and any new books that renders 1/2 your characters useless or "houseruled" i.e. double-plus ungood (unprintable), when we come out with new rules that change how barbarians attack, or rogues hit in melee, or whatnot, even if you don't like them -- we do! And we know better than you, or you wouldn't be subscribing to Dnd Insider, wouldn't you. We know what's more convenient for you, an offline product that worked well until we ruined it and pulled it off the shelves, or an online-only, subscription based product that doesn't allow you to own your own data. Trust us! You have nothing to fear.

Repeat the mantra of Web 2.0 ! Services -- and thoughts -- high up in the clouds.

Post edited by admin. We've already addressed this; being rude accomplishes nothing. Discuss ideas, please, instead of insulting people. ~ PCat

Look, you may not like it, but this is the direction that WoTC decided to take. They did this to both protect their intellectual property and interests and also to provide their interpretation of a useful tool that their consumers need. If you don't like it, I'm pretty sure that WoTC won't send a angry Orc to your house with a nasty battleaxe who will threaten to cut off body parts if you don't buy their products. Of course, that does not stop anyone from complaining.

The way I see it is this;

Since the gaming community has branched out from the basement/dining room circle of friends and gone onto the interwebz, the game developers have woken up to that fact and have chosen to provide a common set of tools that will be available to groups who span the country. Since 100% of my gaming takes place online, I see this as a good thing. I, for one, look forward to the new CB, and I will make sure that WoTC continues to get my money. I am aware that not all functionality will be available at launch, and I accept that. But, I am confident that WoTC will continue to release quality products that I will continue to use as I have used them for the past 25 years.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Ya know one thing I would like WOTC to do, it is not strictly DDI more a web site thing but a automated index of all available adventures by level with a brief description. I would also like to be able to filter by campaign and adventure path.
In fact including the printed ones would be nice also and mkae it more likely to buy one now and again.

 

[mudbunny]

Ya know one thing I would like WOTC to do, it is not strictly DDI more a web site thing but a automated index of all available adventures by level with a brief description. I would also like to be able to filter by campaign and adventure path.
In fact including the printed ones would be nice also and mkae it more likely to buy one now and again.

Check the DDI group on the WotC community site. There is a wiki that has exactly that.

 

[evilref]

I've posted similar on their boards but dragging it here:

1) Exporting of characters. These will hook into iplay4e, maptools etc either smoothly or with minimal modification. If iplay4e haven't done their offline tool by then, there'll be an offline viewer by someone relatively early.

2) Monster Builder Online. I think this will be the next 'thing'

3) House Rules for characters. Probably starting small to begin with (being able to add another feat - hello expertise feat tax) and so forth. The extent of houseruling available is less certain, I think no matter what they add there'll be people who want 'more'.

4) Treasure parcel generator. Possibly tying into characters being able to generate their own want lists for items.

5) Encounter builder - tying straight into the monster builder. Ideally also including terrain, traps, skill challenges and so forth.

6) Campaign manager/planner


On the subject of a VTT I think it greatly depends on form and function. Something along the lines of maptool or fantasyground is going to take a lot less time to develop than anything 3d. Not least because of the art resources involved (as I don't see them allowing you to drop your own pngs into maps).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Check the DDI group on the WotC community site. There is a wiki that has exactly that.

OK, I may be a little on the thick side but it took me four minutes or more to actually find the page, and i presisted only because you had assured me as to its existance.
When I got there it is not quite what I really want, though in the absense of nothing it will do for now.
However, it brings up my main problem with the WoTC site.
Its is hard to find things, the search engine requires exact spelling. I know search is hard but they need to do better here or buy in a decent search engine. I do not spell well.

Thanks, now that I know I will definitly make more use of it.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Actually I think RLBURNSIDE has a very legitimate point.

I've been DMing since 1976 or so. I have probably 10 three-ring binders full of character sheets, notes, hand-outs, adventures, etc etc etc. Basically most everything is there from the earliest days up to now. It really is a HUGE resource (and the main reason I don't create a lot of new settings all the time or use a lot of published background material).

Now I do have a TWiki where a LOT of that stuff has been transferred and rewritten and whatnot, but ALL of it is on my hard drive and well backed up, so it really isn't a significant transition. When I make a monster in MB or a PC in CB I can put the file up there, I can import it into some other tools, etc. Still, it is under my control, even if I stop paying for the server that the TWiki is hosted on I can just tarball the files and move them to another server somewhere.

Now, I don't think all the gnashing of teeth is necessarily warranted, but it is worth it for some of us to consider the implications of using a totally online system where your data is captive. For example I don't use any of the Wiki hosting services because you really can't get your stuff out of them. WotC could make a lot of nice features for something like that which tied right into the online CB and whatever, but unless I can extract and port the data to somewhere else I will continue to prefer to keep my campaign materials on my own server. I'd also like to be able to have things like .dnd4e files and monster XML and whatnot that I generate available to me.

Overall it is a mixed bag. A really well integrated system would of course be really sweet. The thing is it needs to NOT create lock-in. Honestly I think if the people at WotC are REALLY clever they would make it an open source extensible system that anyone can run. 99.9% of the people are going to opt to pay WotC to run the best "4e Community Server" there is, and they'd get all the advantage of all the 3rd party widgets and whatnot that some of us would produce for that. We OTOH would get the option to be able to pull up stakes and run our own server if we REALLY wanted to. That isn't free and would cut us off from other people etc, so we probably wouldn't do it. However we'd like the option so in some hypothetical future when Hasbro grows tired of D&D or things take a direction we don't like we have the option.

I strongly doubt WotC is quite visionary enough (or Hasbro is) to do something like that, but it would really be the ideal solution. They'd still get my $9.99 a month, I'd get a better tool set, and we'd all have peace of mind. Sadly most of the corporate world simply cannot grasp that kind of idea, though it is slowly gaining ground.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

OK, I may be a little on the thick side but it took me four minutes or more to actually find the page, and i presisted only because you had assured me as to its existance.
When I got there it is not quite what I really want, though in the absense of nothing it will do for now.
However, it brings up my main problem with the WoTC site.
Its is hard to find things, the search engine requires exact spelling. I know search is hard but they need to do better here or buy in a decent search engine. I do not spell well.

Thanks, now that I know I will definitly make more use of it.

Yeah, WotC's web presence bites. It is typical corporate web-foo. Try for instance to find the staff blogs. There is just no way anyone finds stuff unless someone else tells you where it is. I'd say this is highly critical, except nobody else does it much better. They seriously should put one person completely in charge of their web presence and not design by committee. Oh well. At least there is a decent amount of good stuff in there. Maybe one day they'll make it possible to find it...