WOTC doing away with free online content?

[FnordBear]

I am fortunate enough to have one of those jobs where I can browse the net at work. Due to some applications I use however I have to keep popup blockers turned off. On a recent visit to Wizards D&D page I had a survey popup appear. Interested I took the survery and they seem to be fishing for intrest in adding pay content to the Wizards D&D page.

They included the following blurb as a preview of what they have in mind.

The Dungeons & Dragons Insider Package
Become a Dungeons & Dragons Insider and gain access to exclusive content designed specifically with D&D Dungeon Masters in mind. As part of your monthly subscription, you gain access to features designed to enhance your D&D experience, including:
D&D Insider Magazine, online magazine with new content updated daily, including:
-Product Previews (articles showcasing upcoming D&D products)
-Dungeon Master's Tower (articles and columns devoted to expanding and enhancing the fine art of Dungeon Mastering)
-Class Features (articles expanding existing character class options and debuting new character and prestige classes)
-Strategy and Tactics (articles relating to D&D roleplaying combat and spellcasting, and to D&D Miniatures Skirmish play)
-Design and Development (articles and columns exploring the many facets of the D&D experience, written by game designers in D&D R&D)
-Behind the Arcane Curtain (a special and exclusive section of the online magazine available only to Dungeon Masters)
-D&D Humor (comic strips devoted to the D&D experience)
D&D Product Enhancements (expanded content for D&D products you bought, including interactive content such as searchable indexes, extra features, behind the scenes articles, game designer and developer commentary, and more)
Exclusive Content that expands your favorite campaign world
-Eberron and Forgotten Realms ongoing content
-Interactive maps
-World events and adventure hooks
D&D University
-Rolling six-week course to help make you a better D&D player
-Course message boards
-Player tip of the week from D&D R&D
MyCampaign.Com pages that you can design and populate, dedicated to your ongoing D&D campaign, with a Premium Customization Kit that includes D&D art, frames, and icons
Create Private Groups so you can contact and communicate with your friends
Private Message Boards that give you a direct line to D&D R&D
Premium RPGA Membership Card mailed to you
Fast Lane Registration at all RPGA events (online and in the real world)
The Magic Shop, a virtual shop where you can outfit your D&D character
Private Playtests of D&D products currently in design
D&D Character Builder, a program that helps you create and manage your D&D characters. This program allows you to create a character for any D&D game, walking you through the process of rolling the dice and assigning your game statistics, as well as creating a visual version of your character using "paper doll" models and "drag and click" selections of armor and weapons. At the end, you can save your character and print out a character sheet, as well as go to any D&D tournament and call up your character for use, or use the character at the Virtual Gaming Table (see below). With this package, you get to create and store up to 3 different characters or up to 3 different versions of one character (your character at different levels).
DM Tools, a suite of online tools to help you manage and run your D&D games, including:
-Encounter Generators
-Dungeon Mapping Utility
-XP Calculators
-Treasure Generators
-Initiative Tracker
-and more!
Exclusive D&D-related novels and short stories written by your favorite authors
D&D Adventures at your fingertips. Choose 1 D&D adventure to download each month to use in your campaign.
Real-World D&D Search Engines (find D&D gamers, game stores, tournaments, and events in your area)
In-Game D&D Search Engines (find feats, spells, magic items, and other D&D-related topics)

Now I am open minded and tend to let companies do thier thing and pay money like a good little addict But this strikes me as crossing a line. Now this sounds "Really Niffty®" with some of the things mentioned, but it also seems this encompasses a large ammount of the currently free content on the wizards website becoming pay-only. That would make me a sad bear.

What are others thoughts on this?

 

[BOZ]

well, you can't make any money off of free content...

 

[Insight]

Where does it say WOTC is getting rid of free content? Looks like WOTC is adding new content that would be on a pay-as-you-go basis. Nothing wrong with that. If you want it, buy it. That's how capitalism works.

 

[Garnfellow]

Also being discussed over here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=176816

 

[mcrow]

Where does it say WOTC is getting rid of free content? Looks like WOTC is adding new content that would be on a pay-as-you-go basis. Nothing wrong with that. If you want it, buy it. That's how capitalism works.

That's how I read it. They are adding new content (most of it sounds cool), but you have to pay for it. Sure we mught see less free stuff because they will likely have those people doing stuff for their paying cutomers, but I don't think its going as a whole.

 

[FnordBear]

With apologizies I should probably clarify my position.

Just the wording of what they are offering seems to match up with a great deal of what is already offered for free. I am mostly concerned that this would lead to a reduction in the ammount/quality/availiblity of the free content that is currently the status quo.

Indeed if they implement the plan I would love to see this be added on top of what is allready offered. I am just an eternal pessimist and foresee bad things.

 

[SWBaxter]

well, you can't make any money off of free content...

You can indirectly, if the free content is driving sales of other products. This is the concept of a "loss leader".

 

[Mark CMG]

You can indirectly, if the free content is driving sales of other products. This is the concept of a "loss leader".

Yup. And every now and again someone comes along to a company that is doing great utilizing loss leaders and free content to maintain an almost perpetual buzz about their company and drive sales on their primary products, and that person gets it in their head that there is an intrinsic value to the freebies and loss leaders. They lose sight of the acquired value built up over time through the constant barrage of marketing and through their policy of benevolence, goodwill, and free counsel. It'll be interesting to watch what happens when that balance is upset. They not only risk the loss of the traffic to their direct marketing (when you go to them for the freebies, they can freely tell you about the other products and need not advertise elsewhere) but they also lose the ability to directly tap into your consciousness (through direct polling and surveying of their traffic and by indirectly assessing your activity on their site and elsewhere with cookies and whatnot). I'd imagine that upseting that balance can be devastating to some companies and nearly impossible to set back up again if it is shifted or lost.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

It would probably severely curtail my visiting the WotC site. I don't even like logging in to sites (and the fact that I've got my login set automatically here is probably the big reason I come here, myself).

It's a very very big hurdle to get anybody to pay for anything on the internet directly.

--fje

 

[takasi]

This is totally awesome. I wish Paizo would do this too.