Pathfinder 1E Would You Buy DDI-Pathfinder?

[Azgulor]

I know a lot of folks simply would never buy anything from WOTC again. Fair enough, I'm not going to begrudge that opinion.

But assume WOTC and Paizo entered into a joint venture called DDI-Pathfinder. WOTC's current set of D&D tools, such as the character generator, compendium, monster builder, bonus tools such as the encounter builder and ability generator and other stuff, and future DDI tool products (but not the magazines) are adapted to work well with Pathfinder.

It's a separate product from the existing WOTC DDI, sold on its own, through the Paizo website, for a different price and different terms than the WOTC DDI.

And assume also that both WOTC and Paizo get a share of your subscription fees for this DDI, as agreed between those two parties, representing the use of the WOTC technology and the use of the Paizo content.

Is that something you would consider purchasing, if the price and terms of use were fair in your opinion?

Hell no.

1. I'm not a fan of the subsciption for electronic content model. I'll subscribe to APs and book lines.

2. On the off chance Paizo took leave of their senses and went down this path, I would not encourage it by spending my money on it. I don't want Paizo to ever again be in a situation where WotC is in the position to negatively impact them b/c the prior business arrangement no longer works for them. See Dragon*. See Dungeon*.

*The fact that WotC was fully within their rights to pull back the magazines counts for squat in my book. While it may have been incredibly smart for them from a business perspective, unless I'm a WotC employee, I'm going to view it through the lens of a customer that had something taken away.

3. IF Paizo were to entertain such products, why would they need to rely on WotC to do it?

Nope. No thanks. No sir.

 

[Azgulor]

That being said, a monthly subscription for online tools does not appeal to me. I'd much rather just buy a single program to do what I might want, maybe with the ability to purchase addons later.

Ditto this.

 

[kitsune9]

I would prefer a single software package instead of a subscription model. I do see a lot of the strengths of DDI and think it's cool, but the problem is that I have to $X per month to maintain access to what I have. If I pay $45 for a base program, at least I will have those rules, character creator and so on and it won't go away. Granted, I won't get updates unless I pay for those as well whereas in a DDI model, updates are made immediately and get access to the latest stuff, but I'd still prefer the software license.

Happy Gaming!

 

[Serphet]

I already have 4 pathfinder subscription :/ my g/f would murder me and bury me under the shed if I got another.

 

[Rokes]

I was a subscriber for the first year for DDI. I didn't renew this year and was mostly underwhelmed by the content. If a Pathfinder DDI offered the same things as the D&D one, I would likely not subscribe.

 

[delericho]

Is that something you would consider purchasing, if the price and terms of use were fair in your opinion?

No.

For the DDI, there were two things that would have compelled me to buy in (assuming an interest in 4e which I don't actually have): the Virtual Tabletop and a vibrant community to go with it. In the absence of either of these, I'm not interested.

(By "a vibrant community", I mean a density of players such that I can arrange a game for basically whenever I want to play, built of people I mostly want to play with. The best way to achieve that is to have lots of subscribers. As it is, DDI probably has that, but it doesn't have the VT, rendering the community issue moot. It is doubtful that anyone other than WoTC, or any game other than D&D, could assemble such a community, making the existence of a VT moot.)

 

[Mistwell]

Much of the attraction for me of the subscription portion, in addition to updates to the character generator and monster building and compendium, would be the Virtual Tabletop.

I imagine, if this were successful, that you could log on to a Battle.net type system (or at least what Battle.net used to look like, since I have not used the recent version) and see something like this:

I'd pay a reasonable subscription fee to be able to log on any time and play from a choice of a variety of d20 and D&D type games on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

And I'd pay to be able to play a private game online with my existing group that has members that moved away.

That's not a replacement for your tabletop game, it's in addition to it.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I imagine, if this were successful, that you could log on to a Battle.net type system (or at least what Battle.net used to look like, since I have not used the recent version) and see something like this:

Well, I still play Diablo 2 online through battle.net for some reason, and i hope they wouldn't follow that kind of model. It wouldn't be terribly fun experiencing 20-30 second long bursts of lag that leave your character dead because the NPCs are still able ot act while your characters are frozen. Oh, and if you dare to exit the program to try and avoid dying, you're liable to be temporarily banned from PF.net for several minutes or more because "[Your name] is currently using your CD key."

 

[Mistwell]

Well, I still play Diablo 2 online through battle.net for some reason, and i hope they wouldn't follow that kind of model. It wouldn't be terribly fun experiencing 20-30 second long bursts of lag that leave your character dead because the NPCs are still able ot act while your characters are frozen. Oh, and if you dare to exit the program to try and avoid dying, you're liable to be temporarily banned from PF.net for several minutes or more because "[Your name] is currently using your CD key."

Yes well I just meant the "Games Available To Join Right Now" screen.

Playing D&D online is completely different from playing an actual MMO or even Diablo or Starcraft. It's turn-based, and DM controlled, and involves a lot of talking on a headset for role playing. I play D&D online using Klooge Werks, and have for years. It's a lot of fun. Not as fun as in-person play, but a lot more fun than an MMO or video games for me.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I know, I was joking. It's just that I'm so used to bnet being godawful and "you get what you paid for" (being free) that I don't really consider the "good" parts of it too much.