When is D&D Insider actually launching?

[Hussar]

On the WOTC forums:

I've posted this elsewhere, but, I really gotta ask, how are they worse than any other RPG site's forums? En World has been up and down like a toilet seat for about a year. Paizo's forums can't access the archives and haven't been able to for about a year. White Wolf's site is incredibly bad. Green Ronin's is a nightmare to navigate.

So, how is Gleemax so much worse than any of that?

 

[ProfessorCirno]

To answer the question stated in the title, judging Wizard's past experiences with online content and their current online content that they have available: never. DDI will never actually happen.

 

[Fifth Element]

What?

There is Dungeon:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dungeon

There is Dragon:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dragon

And there is the Compendium:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/compendium

Was there supposed to be more to it then that?

Virtual tabletop. Character visualizer. Probably something else I'm forgetting.

 

[DM_Jeff]

..............

Did anyone actually beleive this would be out on time? C'mon.

-DM Jeff

 

[jeffh]

WARNING: RANT MODE INITIATED

Anyone who gives WOTC one red cent for this "service" an overly optimistic fool. WOTC has failed at every single attempt at co-marketing a software product along side its physical product.

I haven't tried the new version, but there hasn't historically been anything major wrong with MTGO. People whine about bugs and trot out what are admittedly long lists of them, but most complaints of MTGO bugs that I've seen are user errors (often born of misunderstanding the actual game rules), and legitimate MTGO bugs affect only very obscure things, are fixed quickly, or both. It's certainly no worse than any other software of comparable complexity that I've tried, at least in the sub-$1000 price range.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

..............

Did anyone actually beleive this would be out on time? C'mon.

-DM Jeff

I don't think the question is so much "When will this be out" so much as "Will this be out?"

 

[Hussar]

See, not understanding the whole vaporware thing at all.

Rules Compendium has been out for a couple of weeks. Word is, each feature will likely roll out 1/month.

 

[Cwheeler]

I must say that I'm quite happy with how things are going at the moment: I won't be getting exited about the virtual tabletop or the character visualiser, unless they ever choose to release a mac compatable version (fat chance), and I like the situation at the moment of getting dragon and dungeon content for free ,even if it's arguably not a full two magazenes worth of material.

Somehow, the prospect of paying $15 US/month for just the magazene content doesn't exactly appeal to me... I think that my slight frustration at the software being made exclusivley for windows is compounded by the clause in the GSL that helps to prevent people from making any third party software.

 

[renau1g]

I must say that I'm quite happy with how things are going at the moment: I won't be getting exited about the virtual tabletop or the character visualiser, unless they ever choose to release a mac compatable version (fat chance), and I like the situation at the moment of getting dragon and dungeon content for free ,even if it's arguably not a full two magazenes worth of material.

Somehow, the prospect of paying $15 US/month for just the magazene content doesn't exactly appeal to me... I think that my slight frustration at the software being made exclusivley for windows is compounded by the clause in the GSL that helps to prevent people from making any third party software.

It's not that I mind getting Dungeon & Dragon (If you can actually call them that) for free, but there was a promise of a certain product being available (character visualizer, online tabletop), which were demoed over a year ago... printed in the PLayer's Handbook (which I'm guessing went to print sometime this spring....I'm not too familiar with printing requirements, but definitely not earlier) and they had an advertisement for the visualizer specifically

That's why I'm upset with WOTC, it won't stop me from buying any other sourcebooks from them. I actually enjoy 4e, my players do as well, and so it's just disappointment that a promised feature hasn't been released and they don't appear to be all that concerned (at least based on a lack of any announcements, etc. on their webpage).

 

[phloog]

One thing that I'm wondering is this - - are they charging now, and is it locked down to non-paying viewers?

My concern is that they told people time and time again that even though it was a monthly investment roughly the same as an MMORPG, there would be a 'grace period' where people could try it out, then it would go subscription only and you'd have to pay.

If they're rolling things out one feature or fewer per month, at what point (if they haven't already) do they close the (free) doors?

If they do it before the full functionality is online or in final form, they're still asking people to pay for something before they know if it's any good (in total). But if they don't, then they're going to go for quite a few more months without incoming cash.

I find the visualizer laughable to an extreme. The virtual tabletop is interesting, but since it adjudicates no rules it doesn't really help as much as many other tools that are available for a one time fee (like Klooge and Fantasy grounds, which are admittedly not 3d but that's more flash than substance) - - though that opinion might change when / IF I ever see it. The point is if they haven't already locked folks out, I'm worried that they will have to do that before people can actually see what they're expecting to buy.