Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[Piratecat]

The lastest incarnation of this product is called Essentials.

No, I disagree with that. Wizards has certainly used end-of-product-life-but-we-still-need-cash-flow products before, of course. That isn't Essentials. As far as I can tell, Essentials is a mid-life product line really nicely designed to make it easier for new players and disaffected older players to get back into the game. Heck, if I was starting my game now I'd definitely emphasize Essentials; the several years of design experience means that they're mechanically well constructed and fun to play.

We're getting off topic, though. I'd rather leave this thread focused on the CB rollout.

 

[drothgery]

And does anyone remember Windows ME?

Last-gasp release of Win9x that was basically forced on MS by hardware vendors whose failure to write Windows 2000 drivers and insistence on selling PCs with 32 MB of RAM delayed the consumer-market version of Win2K (that's Windows XP) for a year?

Exactly what kind of parallel are you drawing here, because I'm just not seeing one.

 

[Shazman]

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

I wasn't poisoning anything. I rarely complained during games. It was other people I play that have been complaining about errata, combat length ,etc. I'm glad the mod made a comment about your post because it was incredibly rude.

 

[Shazman]

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.

Show me in my post where I stated that everyone that plays D&D feels this way. I was just relating my personal experiences, and I think even the most die hard defenders of WotC should be able to understand how moving to an online character builder that you have to have internet access to use and doesn't even allow you to have ownership of your characters is going to tick off a lot of 4E players. For many, it may be the last straw.

 

[renau1g]

You'll have ownership of them. The ToS aren't a license for Wizards to steal you IP. If you create the next Drizzt and they take, well call DannyAlcatraz, he'll steer you in the right direction.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

"Moral"?? How is right a moral judgement in this case? I wasn't talking about giving alms to the poor here. I was talking about commercial success. And of course it's my opinion - that's why I phrased it the way I did. This is all about opinions. But the track record of WotC in the digital arena is not very good, and not getting better.

The track record of WotC in the digital arena was getting better, IMO. The Character Builder got continual improvements and was well-liked by most of its user. It wasn't perfect, but you could see how stuff got added and how useful it was. I was happy and I was confident further software might come that would be of similar quality. I was looking forward to extensions to the Adventure Tools that might allow building encounters and printing them out and more.

But instead, what I first got was the announcement of the discontinuation of the best product in their line-up, and the release of a tool serving the same purpose but - for the start at least - with less functionality. That already annoyed me. I didn't want less functionality. But okay, with time it will come, I thought, so fine.

But now I get a product that's not just lacking functionality compared to what I had, but also is less stable and has worse performance with a questionable UI design.

That creates the worry in me that the "track record" I had started to see and bet on (they're getting better! Yay!) was just a fluke.

 

[Incendax]

Meh, I hate the term "WotC apologist".

I love the term Apologist. They makes up the backbone of any D&D adventuring party. You've got the Striker, the Leader, the Controller, and the Apologist.

 

[jonesy]

I love the term Apologist. It makes up the backbone of any D&D adventuring party. You've got the Striker, the Leader, the Controller, and the Apologist.

"I punch him in the stomach."
"No. I say when to punch him."
"You two! Stop fighting."
"Excuse my friends. Now what where you saying about the quest?"

 

[El Mahdi]

No, I disagree with that. Wizards has certainly used end-of-product-life-but-we-still-need-cash-flow products before, of course. That isn't Essentials. As far as I can tell, Essentials is a mid-life product line really nicely designed to make it easier for new players and disaffected older players to get back into the game. Heck, if I was starting my game now I'd definitely emphasize Essentials; the several years of design experience means that they're mechanically well constructed and fun to play...

I agree with this. It's just too bad that what even I think is a pretty cool product line (and I don't play 4E) has been so tainted by everything else WotC has fumbled with.

Like the VTT and the online CB (just to name the current fumbles).

If the online CB was only about adding functionality for players/customers, as their advertising/PR attempts to spin it, then they would have simply added online functionality while maintaining/updating the autonomous off-line application. They could have made an online CB that could update and coordinate with your downloaded version. But they didn't. This just reinforces to me that WotC just wants to keep everything under their control as far as digital products are concerned.

I think what they really want is to make DDI the pen-and-paper RPG equivalent of online WoW, and have it completely under their control. If you want a VTT that works seamlessly with 4E, you have to go to WotC. If you want 3pp material, it's available, but of course it's considerably restricted, and we will never allow it to work with all of our cool digital tools...

 

[Alhambra]

I don't know, maybe there's something wrong with me. Every time I think my community is finally getting used to 4e... WoTC spasms uncontrollably. It's almost like Tourette's Syndrome or maybe it's something more concerning. I'm not an expert.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with random outbursts. Some are harmless, even interesting or funny in ways. It's just... it's hard to gauge exactly how much they love us as customers anymore. They tell us they do, and I want to believe them, but sometimes I feel like the disorder has taken over. I feel like my both my pleas and praise fall on deaf ears as they continue to strap marshmallows to house cats and offer them up to statues of Robert Mitchum.

What I'm asking is: Am I hoping for too much as a regular customer? Will WoTC get better with the right help? Am I relying too heavily on their support? Should I just take what's good and build up with my own ideas?

This may not be the worst thing that's happened to DnD... but it certainly doesn't help me as a player.

Edit: Also, does anyone remember when WotC stated a release of a Maptools-like program to DDI subscribers? I'm not complaining. I just can't find any trace of its mention anywhere and I feel as if I had dreamed it up like a crazy person.