Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[Herschel]

Here I had my pitchfork sharpened and a fresh batch of torches when I went on to the CB last night, and I tell you what....

It worked fine. Gray screen for no more than a second, imported characters in under 3 seconds, no crashes, nothing. The only "issue" was having trouble figuring out how to do the human stat bonus on an imported character because that didn't carry over. Otherwise, no problem. Heck, I can even access ithere from work now if I forget my character sheet on a game night.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The Assassin thing is something I wouldn't bother much about (though it seems it means we effectively have one article less in this month's dragon). This sort of error can happen and is not particularly tragic, and I do not think it's related to other quality issues.

The CB is a different matter.

 

[Shazman]

He knows. Pretty sure it was Shaz on every single occassion

Very funny. The only reason I started playing 4E is because a number of people I gamed with like playing LFR. I grudgingly played because I like the people I played with. Since this spring, a lot of them have grown quite upset over the constant errata and overly long combats. Little by little WotC has moved the game and their management of the game in a direction that has alienated a lot of my friends and, of course, myself. It looks like it's coming to a head and we may well be abandoning 4E completely. I am looking forward to leaving 4E behind because Pathfinder and other systems are so much more enjoyable.

 

[Herschel]

Your group must be pretty tolerant because I'd have sent you packing long ago rather than poisoning my game.

Don't let the door hit ya on the way out.

And don't let the door hit ya on the way out of this thread. News flash, folks: whether you like or dislike someone's posts, we expect you to treat them with respect and discuss issues with them. If you don't want to do that, then use ignore. Insulting is never okay. ~ PCat

 

[DEFCON 1]

Very funny. The only reason I started playing 4E is because a number of people I gamed with like playing LFR. I grudgingly played because I like the people I played with. Since this spring, a lot of them have grown quite upset over the constant errata and overly long combats. Little by little WotC has moved the game and their management of the game in a direction that has alienated a lot of my friends and, of course, myself. It looks like it's coming to a head and we may well be abandoning 4E completely. I am looking forward to leaving 4E behind because Pathfinder and other systems are so much more enjoyable.

Hey that's fine, Shazman... if you begrudgingly started playing 4E because of your friends wanting to play, and now even your friends are moving away from the game, making your desire to play even less... that's fine and I have no problem with that.

Do not, however, mistake your own feelings on how the game is for you with how the game is for everybody else, the state of WotC the company and the game as a whole. Just because you don't like what is going on does not mean ipso facto that the company is therefore going under or is dying. And every time you and others bring up the fact that WotC is "alienating their customers" and "thumbing their nose at their devoted fanbase", and all you have to go on to justify that stance is how you personally feel about it... myself and others like me will point out that you might just be a little too emotionally connected to the situation to necessarily be making a more rational macro-view of the whole deal. That's all.

 

[darkwing]

You know, I read all the various responses about how terrible DDI is, how it's a ripoff, and how people are done with 4E because of the character builder stuff, and quite frankly it baffles me.

I don't like the new CB compared to the old one but I still like 4e. It's still one of the most fun games there is (imo of course). I even like Essentials. They just need to go forward rather than backwards in terms of their tools (which, as you've noted, are optional anyway).

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't like the new CB compared to the old one but I still like 4e. It's still one of the most fun games there is (imo of course). I even like Essentials. They just need to go forward rather than backwards in terms of their tools (which, as you've noted, are optional anyway).

Well, for all we know the digital department is just like the book department in that they might be working on more than one project at a time. I know the prevalent feeling is to believe that they can only work on a single item because the department "just isn't very good" and "we have no faith in what they do", and thus the work done to create the online CB means that nothing else is being done for new tools and thus we're being "screwed"... but we have absolutely no evidence to support this idea. It's a wonderful idea for those of us looking for an excuse to get all worked up and allow us to rant... but it might not be coming from a genuine place.

Now maybe it is... maybe most of the folks here going on about the WotC digital tools department are correct... but maybe, just maybe, they aren't. I just know that I, for one, will not be putting all my eggs in one basket in claiming which side is correct.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Could we all agree that the debate over IP in this context is largely moot since no one, least of all WOTC, wants your character? I have no idea whether or not the picture you draw on a urinal wall with your own feces has some sort of implied copyright. But I can say for certain that, at at least in terms of entertainment value, it has more value than any character currently residing in anyone's character builder.

The thing is, just like a penny, it DOES have value in the real world.

In the music biz, copyright lawsuits have been brought and won over bits as small as a hook or beat...sometimes over demo tapes sent to a record company you and have never heard. Conceivably, the same potential exists here: nobody wants to be sitting around in a run-down trailer eating pork & beans from a can 2 meals a day when a novel about their 1000 foot tall Halfling thief just got greenlighted for a 3 movie deal.

So, the concern is justified...a little. But mere ToS isn't going to transfer your rights. The ToS is more like a "Beware of Dog!" sign so that when said novels and movies come out, they don't have to face lawsuits from the hundreds of people who have all used CB to make 1000 foot tall Halfling thieves.

IOW, it's a deterrent.

 

[Scribble]

The thing is, just like a penny, it DOES have value in the real world.

In the music biz, copyright lawsuits have been brought and won over bits as small as a hook or beat...sometimes over demo tapes sent to a record company you and have never heard. Conceivably, the same potential exists here: nobody wants to be sitting around in a run-down trailer eating pork & beans from a can 2 meals a day when a novel about their 1000 foot tall Halfling thief just got greenlighted for a 3 movie deal.

So, the concern is justified...a little. But mere ToS isn't going to transfer your rights. The ToS is more like a "Beware of Dog!" sign so that when said novels and movies come out, they don't have to face lawsuits from the hundreds of people who have all used CB to make 1000 foot tall Halfling thieves.

IOW, it's a deterrent.

Wait WHAT????

My 1000' Tall Halfling Thief is in a movie?!?!?! I was never notified!!! WTH!!!!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Wait WHAT????

My 1000' Tall Halfling Thief is in a movie?!?!?! I was never notified!!! WTH!!!!

I'll take the case...but be warned: it's an Alan Smithee directed film, from a sceenplay by Alan Smithee, produced by Alan Smithee, with Alan Smithee in the lead role, and also writing the score...

You might just want to hold off a while so that later on down the road, you can start a rant thread about how you were playing 1000 foot tall Halfling thieves before the books & movies came out, and it annoys you how many people think you're just another character cloner.