Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I have to share your sentiment at least Merric.

I could see this coming (the online CB) reading between a few of mudbunny's comments when a new and exciing web based tool was announced.

Well, I certainly didn't find it "new and exciting" to have a character builder, but online.

Maybe mudbunny (or rather WotC) overestimated the number of Mac users that couldn't use the CB or something. I mean, they sure were vocal in their dislike of it, and if I was a Mac-Only user, I'd want a CB, too (and probably wouldn't pay for DDI without it). But it doesn't do anything for a PC user, and there is a new subset of players that now can no longer benefit from the CB - anyone that used the CB in an "internet-free" environment. Fixing a long-standing systematic problem by introducing a new systematic problem is not really satisfying on the "new and exciting" scale.

That it's not really ready for prime time is another problem.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Is this irreparable damage to D&D? I'd like to think not. However, they need to fix the problems with CB2 really, really quickly, and offer proper contrition. Wizards once had a great reservoir of good will: that reservoir is now dry, and they need to start doing good things again.

Nope. I still have perfectly good D&D material going back 30 years that is in no way damaged by any of this mess.

I don't really care what Wizards wants to do from this point forward. As a hobbyist I will spend my gaming dollars where I believe the best value can be found. The direction Wizards has taken leads in the opposite direction from that for me.

Proper contrition? Everything they have done has been an effort to squeeze every bit of cash out of gamers that they can. Being part of a large company means that they owe it to the shareholders to do exactly that. Why apologize for attempting to achieve their main objective?

Making money is what companies are in business to do after all. With the old DDI system 5 out of our group of 7 had separate accounts. The 2 that didn't are kind of casual players so I built characters for them on my account. The ones with accounts could play around and try different combos then mail me their updated character file after deciding what they wanted. What is funny is that under the new system, if we all want to do what we have been doing then we will have to share an account. Keeping the same level of functionality as we had before involves giving WOTC less money than they were getting under the old model.

I don't mind paying for something but when value keeps getting stripped away and the price remains the same it's time to stop buying.

So, we will continue to use the old CB for now, which will involve paying nothing. You can't beat that for value.

 

[Kzach]

Not a post I would normally expect from Merric. But I have to agree on pretty much the entire thing.

As far as digital content goes, I have zero faith in anything WotC has done or ever will do. The reservoir is definitely empty on that one.

The problem with this is that they've opened a door they can't close. I now also have zero faith in printed product. Not because it's inferior (although there are arguments for that case as well), but because they become so quickly outdated.

As someone who has a limited budget, I simply cannot justify purchasing hard-copies anymore because I know that better will come out in digital form sooner rather than later. And because I have no faith in the digital form, I don't want to spend money on that either.

This leaves me spending no money at all on anything WotC produces. This isn't, IMO, a choice I'm making, but rather a situation that WotC has created; they have shot themselves in the literary foot.

 

[DonAdam]

The recent online disasters are especially sad given how much I love the Essentials line (except for the Red Box... bleh).

Essentials really revitalized my love of the game, and this is after being a full on 4e convert. I stopped playing about halfway through 3e and came back with 4e. After PHB 3 was disappointing I got excited about M&M 3/DCA only to be disappointed by that, but then Essentials came along and I was all jazzed up. It's great.

It would be even better if I could reliably mix it with the existing 4e stuff. But the existing 4e stuff is so complicated that I need a character builder. And the one character builder that works doesn't have the Essentials material.

So for now, it's Essentials only. Because I can do that with pen and paper.

 

[mudbunny]

[MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION] Excellent post. I will be including this in my weekly report to WotC.

Well, I certainly didn't find it "new and exciting" to have a character builder, but online.

Maybe mudbunny (or rather WotC) overestimated the number of Mac users that couldn't use the CB or something.

Just want to clarify - I do not work for WotC, nor am I privy to any of their internal data. I am just a volunteer on their boards.

 

[Imaro]

The recent online disasters are especially sad given how much I love the Essentials line (except for the Red Box... bleh).

Essentials really revitalized my love of the game, and this is after being a full on 4e convert. I stopped playing about halfway through 3e and came back with 4e. After PHB 3 was disappointing I got excited about M&M 3/DCA only to be disappointed by that, but then Essentials came along and I was all jazzed up. It's great.

It would be even better if I could reliably mix it with the existing 4e stuff. But the existing 4e stuff is so complicated that I need a character builder. And the one character builder that works doesn't have the Essentials material.

So for now, it's Essentials only. Because I can do that with pen and paper.

I'm in the same proverbial boat (without a paddle). I was looking forward to subscribing to use the CB, but I just can't do it with the reception it has gotten from the majority of users. Add that to the fact that HotFK isn't in yet and the final E-assasin is getting pretty badly trashed on the WotC boards as well... and I'm figuring this just isn't the month to start my subscription. It's also making me contemplate just stopping my purchases with the Heroes of books, DM Kit, RC and Monster Vault.

 

[Raunalyn]

Merric, while I understand your frustration, I have to disagree with you somewhat.

To me, this was the logical step in the process. The old CB was decent but had a few flaws, and correcting those flaws was taking a lot of effort to do (from what I've read). The updates were a lot of extra coding and writing, and it was logistically difficult to get all of them out on time. Then, add on top of that the Dark Sun and Essentials lines, and you add more difficulty (though, being a programmer, I could easily see a way to add that functionality to the old CB).

So, going with the online version wasn't a bad idea. Is it ready? Absolutely not. However, it does give me an idea of its potential. In my opinion, if we all come together as a community and offer Wizards our opinions and work with them to correct these problems, the new CB could be a fantastic tool. Already, I've noticed a few of the bugs being corrected.

I'm willing to give them a chance. I understand that some of you feel hesitant about the new direction, but I am confident that Wizards will pull through.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

@MerricB Excellent post. I will be including this in my weekly report to WotC.



Just want to clarify - I do not work for WotC, nor am I privy to any of their internal data. I am just a volunteer on their boards.

I know that. But you said you were excited, and I think WotC was excited about it too, and either of you expected others to be excited about this, too. And it seems that was... premature.
The saddest thing to me is that after the solid Character Builder and Monster Builder I was pretty optimstic. Not that I expect the Digital Gaming Table anytime soon, but I just thought - yeah, if they keep going this path, the next tool they will produce will be great. Continual refinement, a new tool every year or so. That would be nice.

Maybe in 2 years, we will all look back and laugh at the disappointment we felt "back then" and become aware of how much better things became soon and how all this enabled the awesome software tools we will have then. But that's not what I feel or believe right now. Currently I worry more that other tools will also make the same step back to get online and it will be a long time until we are up to what we had with the offline tools.

 

[Imaro]

Merric, while I understand your frustration, I have to disagree with you somewhat.

To me, this was the logical step in the process. The old CB was decent but had a few flaws, and correcting those flaws was taking a lot of effort to do (from what I've read). The updates were a lot of extra coding and writing, and it was logistically difficult to get all of them out on time. Then, add on top of that the Dark Sun and Essentials lines, and you add more difficulty (though, being a programmer, I could easily see a way to add that functionality to the old CB).

So, going with the online version wasn't a bad idea. Is it ready? Absolutely not. However, it does give me an idea of its potential. In my opinion, if we all come together as a community and offer Wizards our opinions and work with them to correct these problems, the new CB could be a fantastic tool. Already, I've noticed a few of the bugs being corrected.

I'm willing to give them a chance. I understand that some of you feel hesitant about the new direction, but I am confident that Wizards will pull through.

I guess it boils down to whether you feel like paying a fee to help WotC correct major bugs/functionality in their software is a good option? I won't fault anyone who feels that it's worth it, but for me personally, I feel like there has been way too much of this already with 4e... so I can't justify it, as I also feel that by continuing to do it we as consumers send a message that it is ok to put out a buggy, functionlity deficient product at our exspense (I know in my company testers are paid... they don't pay to test). Just my take though.

 

[Dragonblade]

As a paying DDI subscriber, my expectation is that the new CB can AT LEAST do everything the old builder can, especially in regards to implementing house rules and flexibility in determining which materials from different WotC books are or not allowed in a given campaign.

That is not an unreasonable expectation.