|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 4:03AM
#21
|
- Senior Volunteer Community Lead
- Dragon Slayer
- D&DI News Guide
Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2005
|
In another thread, I had wondered if there would PDF versions of the PHB prepared so that people could simply buy the updated PDF version when yet another update to PHB was posted, instead of having to find another unused margin to scribble the latest update into the book.
There are PDF versions of the books available at www.drivethroughrpg.com and www.rpgnow.com.
There's been no word about these PDFs receiving Errata updates, however many people have been suggesting it as a "value-add" for the PDFs. Keep your fingers crossed.
Wolf Star76 Community Advocate (SVCL) for D&D Organized Play, Avalon Hill, and the DCI/WPN LFR Community Manager DDi Guide  Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 5:37AM
#22
|
|
|
The following question was asked, but the answer was not very clear to me. Could we please get a direct response?
My only question is this: For my $120 a year, will I be able to purchase a subscription and use that for my regular gaming group? ie. Use it to make 6 characters, build a virtual dungeon, and DM a game?
Or will each of my members have to sign up for a subscription (at $120 a year) so that we can all play together? Clearly option a) is reasonable and option b) is flat-out not gonna happen before the Nine Hells freeze over (well, the eight that aren't frozen...)
As another example, in a group of four, two of us DM and want to pay for the full-blown subscription. What will the other two have to pay simply to play online with us? If it is the same amount, they've indicated that is too much for them and in the end none of us may subscribe.
A final example: What about within the household? Will both my son and I have to pay for the full subscription to use the online gaming table together?
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 5:43AM
#23
|
Date Joined:
Mar 31, 2008
|
...continued from this post....
The visualizer also cannot be just humans. I could go play the Sims If I want to dress-up a bunch of humans.
I think people are not understanding what can be free that people would not be able to take too much from,and what they would pay for from these services.
Housing the mini made formt he visualizer for use in Game Table, that people could pay for.
Making a character portrait from the visualizer to save as an image or print people do NOT need WotC for. There are programs out there already that make wonderful character portraits for FREE.
You need to be offering things other people cannot IF you really expect people to pay you for what you are giving. The D&D name is not really worth paying for anymore.
You also neglected, Mr. Buehler, any mention of a free trial for Game Table.
Do you really expect people to shell out the extra money for the Visualizer, Builder, Table, and...oh you didn't mention the Dungeon Builder either!.... by only getting to see HALF of the tools?
I mean you are wanting people to use Game Table over the 7 or 8 (some free) VTTs currently on the market and are not offering any free trial to that or the dungeon builder?
Also the dungeon builder was supposed to have a free component like visualizer and character builder that non-subscribers could always use. I guess everything is crippleware to the extent that it is useless to non-subscribers. Have 400 megs of software for IBM only machines that you can do little with.
What happened to the ability to make and print maps for non-subscribers?
Let me guess. You get 4 tiles to use right? 
That is enough for free use.
Stop trying to force people to pay for the Game Table that they don't want anyway. Wasn't that the idea behind the "Web-content only" subscription model?
Can you offer no tools that function for non-subscribers to even bother looking at that might entice them into wanting to subscribe in part or whole to DDI?
Everything offered can be gotten for free elsewhere....so why should someone looking at this severely crippleware choose DDI over the other things?
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 6:23AM
#24
|
Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2007
|
...
Everything offered can be gotten for free elsewhere....so why should someone looking at this severely crippleware choose DDI over the other things?
Off-hand I can think of a couple of possible answers:
- The D&DI tabletop tools are supposedly integrated, but the third party tools aren't. For instance, the dungeon builder and game table are supposed to be integrated to allow for easy transfer from one to the other. The character builder is integrated with the compendium and possibly the visualizer so that it always contains updated rules and could maybe allow for your visualizer portrait to be linked to your character data from the builder. And the dungeon builder and game table could incorporate actual game rule information and macros to make it easier to specifically play 4th edition, and you can presumably directly import character data straight from the character builder into the D&DI game table.
By contrast, third party tools that do those indivdual tasks aren't integrated. I can make a dungeon map in Campaign Cartographer, for instance, but it doesn't directly translate into a grid map for a tabletop client like Maptool. The best I can do is make my map a jpg background and try and overlay a Maptool grid over it, which may or may not fit right. And flipping it around, I can try and draw rough maps in Maptool using its editing features, but those features are very primitive compared to an actual dungeon mapping tool like CC. And in neither case can I directly import character data from a character builder like Heroforge straight into my Maptool client.
- Another advantage of D&DI is that it will probably have a wider potential audience than third party programs. Not everybody who owns a 4th edition Player's Handbook Maptool, but everybody who owns a PHB has seen the ad in the back for D&DI. Plus the D&DI game table has been and probably will be reviewed and previewed by the major computer gaming review sites shortly before release. So with a larger pool of potential players using it, it could mean a greater chance of being able to match yourself up to an online D&D group using D&DI.
- And finally note that the odds are that the D&DI game table and other tools will look very professional compared to most of the third party programs. WotC has a bigger budget and probably a bigger development team working on them, and the snapshots they've had already look quite nice. So graphically the programs will probably look better than, say, Maptool.
I would say that the above things combined could entice people to pay the subscription fee for the game table. In fact, were I not already committed to two groups on the weekend, I'd seriously consider subscribing.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 6:24AM
#25
|
Date Joined:
Jul 25, 2008
|
My only question is this: For my $120 a year, will I be able to purchase a subscription and use that for my regular gaming group? ie. Use it to make 6 characters, build a virtual dungeon, and DM a game?
Or will each of my members have to sign up for a subscription (at $120 a year) so that we can all play together? Clearly option a) is reasonable and option b) is flat-out not gonna happen before the Nine Hells freeze over (well, the eight that aren't frozen...)
Any insight into that? The usability and flexibility of having each of my gamers put in $20 a year is great. Each of them needing to shell out full MMO subscription costs so they can log into my virtual gaming table, on the other hand, is craptacular.
Ya I really like to know if a subscribe, can I play all the caracther of all player on my computer for using the software only has a visual support for my game?
By the way, I really apreciate that they have made more update in the d&d insider. Keep doing the update every week and a will by confident that they really care of us.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 6:34AM
#26
|
Date Joined:
Jun 16, 2006
|
Hellmute made some very valid points. I understand WotC is trying to turn a profit but unless some major adjustments can be made to the pricing system I see more and more people continuing to use 3rd party software over the DDI. Don't get me wrong, I love everything I've seen and the promise that all information with be updated with new material for as long as I'm a subscriber is just icing on the cake.
But look at it this way... if I was a previous subscriber to both Dungeon and Dragon magazines for one year I recieved about 60% off the cover price. Now those printed magazines were $8.00 each... or $16.00 which I recieved for the low price of $6.50ish a month. If those printed magazines could be shipped to my door for that low amount then why shouldn't digital subscription be $5.00 a month if I subscribed for a year? You would get the product out to a lot more people and the work load on WotC's end would remain the same. After all once the information is written and uploaded does it cost WotC anything extra to have 100 people access it over 10000?
Just a thought
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 6:57AM
#27
|
Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2008
|
Ya I really like to know if a subscribe, can I play all the caracther of all player on my computer for using the software only has a visual support for my game?
Yes. From what WotC_DM has said, the DM will be able to control all the players. There is also suppose to be two separate windows one for the DM's view and a player's view.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 7:10AM
#28
|
Date Joined:
Aug 13, 2008
|
Bonus Tools:
I just wanted to make a suggestion on one of the bonus tools. The encounter generator is a great concept. Is there any thought of taking it to the next level? Possibly making it so that when you are done and want to print it not only prints the names of the monsters but also their stats? It would be a great tool in helping make adventure encounters if it had all their stats and powers in a nice layout, almost like you have in your adventures. Then you could just add the story text and poof you have an adventure.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 7:26AM
#29
|
Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2007
|
... if I was a previous subscriber to both Dungeon and Dragon magazines for one year I recieved about 60% off the cover price. Now those printed magazines were $8.00 each... or $16.00 which I recieved for the low price of $6.50ish a month. If those printed magazines could be shipped to my door for that low amount then why shouldn't digital subscription be $5.00 a month if I subscribed for a year?
WotC is a step ahead of you. The subscription for D&DI Dragon/Dungeon is going to be 12 Months = $59.40 ($4.95 per month). And that $5 per month is BOTH magazines combined. In the above quote they were $6.50 EACH.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Aug 13, 2008 - 7:40AM
#30
|
Date Joined:
Sep 28, 2006
|
The visualizer also cannot be just humans. I could go play the Sims If I want to dress-up a bunch of humans.
When he was talking about just humans, or just levels 1-3, he was not talking about the visualizer completely, he was talking about the demo version.
Demo versions, by their very nature, are designed to give only a small sampling of what can be done with the program. Some programs reduce functionality, some programs have a limited time. With games, having it limited to a specific level is also fairly common. Pay the full price (or subscribe, as is the case here) and you get the full version.
I have started a thread here for people that would like to discuss suggestions on how the programs could be limited for demo versions.
You also neglected, Mr. Buehler, any mention of a free trial for Game Table.
Do you really expect people to shell out the extra money for the Visualizer, Builder, Table, and...oh you didn't mention the Dungeon Builder either!.... by only getting to see HALF of the tools?
No, he didn't mention a demo version of the GT. However, he also didn't say thatthere wouldn't be a demo version. Personally, I think that it is a safe bet to say that WotC would *not* release the GT without there being a demo version available and a free trial period after it is ready.
Also the dungeon builder was supposed to have a free component like visualizer and character builder that non-subscribers could always use. I guess everything is crippleware to the extent that it is useless to non-subscribers. Have 400 megs of software for IBM only machines that you can do little with.
What happened to the ability to make and print maps for non-subscribers?
He didn't say anything about the Dungeon builder. You are reading far, far too much into the lack of mention of the Dungeon Builder in this issue of Digital Insider.
|
|
|
