D&D General When dnd celebrities don't understand technology

[IvyDragons]

The "augmented reality" from Joe Manganiello makes me a little sad and also reminds me of another dnd fail, demi plane.

Picture this, you have people who are not software developers, running dndbeyond, they get a contract with wotc who also don't understand software, and host content and work on a character builder. Its slow, so slow to build things, they are using technologies that were abandoned 20 years ago and their team are what software developers call "programmers". For every drop down in the application they create another table in the database, so after 5 years they proudly say "we have 1600 tables !". Its that level of incompetence.

So then the main face of development leaves the company and hooks up with a dnd celeb DM hook up to create "Demi Plane".
Demiplane is the most bizarre piece of technology I have ever seen. It has no idea what it is (dnd match making????), no idea what it wants(write your game log????), and neither do the 20 people on its forum...

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Better than when WotC decided to ditch the 4e Tools for the Silverlight fiasco.

 

[Jer]

Better than when WotC decided to ditch the 4e Tools for the Silverlight fiasco.

Oh man - Silverlight. There's something I haven't thought of in years.

Why did Wizards do that? I still have no idea all these years later.

 

[Oofta]

Oh man - Silverlight. There's something I haven't thought of in years.

Why did Wizards do that? I still have no idea all these years later.

At the time it was being pushed as the next best thing. IT folks have a tendency to run with things that are bright and shiny. I looked into it for some stuff but held off long enough for it to die.

 

[Jer]

At the time it was being pushed as the next best thing. II folks have a tendency to run with things that are bright and shiny. I looked into it for some stuff but held off long enough for it to die.

I keep wondering if Wizards proximity to Microsoft had their folks going all in on it earlier. I know there's a lot of cross-pollenation between Microsoft and pretty much every other company in the Seattle area.

 

[Umbran]

Why did Wizards do that? I still have no idea all these years later.

Because they are not, nor have they ever been, particularly tech savvy.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Because they are not, nor have they ever been, particularly tech savvy.

To be fair, they are Wizards of the Coast, not Artificers of the Coast!

 

[Umbran]

To be fair, they are Wizards of the Coast, not Artificers of the Coast!

Yes, well, getting into business that you're not particularly competent in is... dicey.

 

[MarkB]

Yes, well, getting into business that you're not particularly competent in is... dicey.

Which is well within their wheelhouse.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Yes, well, getting into business that you're not particularly competent in is... dicey.

If WotC is competent in anything, it's got to be dice! They have a very dicey business model.