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Let me take a different tack where I play a small bit of Devil's Advocate.

Let's assume for a moment that the doomsayers are right. Let's assume that they're evaluating if they're going to continue with DDI or not. Let's assume that the poll is a smokescreen to gauge interest in DDI as a whole, and not to choose a specific product to go next.

This puts WotC in a situation where there's still very little to say. They can't say "yes" or "no" - because the answer is maybe. They can't say "maybe" because everyone will hear that as "no".

WotC, as a subsidiary of Hasbro - a publicly traded company - has to be mindful of the expectations they do or don't set. If they have nothing to say - the best thing to say is nothing.

Personally - I take them at face value. If the word is "we're deciding what to work on next" (paraphrased) - I believe that means (hold on tight here) they're deciding what to work on next. Not that the whole thing is canceled.

Call me naive.

WolfStar76 wrote:

Personally - I take them at face value. If the word is "we're deciding what to work on next" (paraphrased) - I believe that means (hold on tight here) they're deciding what to work on next. Not that the whole thing is canceled.

I would buy that except their actions, such as taking all mention of the other tools off the site followed by a steadfast refuasl to even talk about them, tends to indicate otherwise.

Likewise, what they have said isn't even as specific as "deciding what to work on next" since that would indicate SOMETHING is due to be worked on next. But that isn't what they sai, what they said was that they want to "evaluate where we are and where we want to go next" which indicates nothing at all except that they haven't decided what to do and are working on making that decision. That decision could be 'Call what we have good and scrap the rest' as easily as it could be 'work on X, then Y then Z' and the few concrete actions they have taken (which are all we really have to go by) indicate the former as the likeliest possibility.

Nyarlathotep wrote:

Likewise, with the poll. They COULD go "Hey, looks like 75% of the votes were for the Dungeon Builder. I guess we'll jump on that right away". They could also just as easily put it away in a file somewhere to be used if they ever pick the project up again. Unless they say what they intend to do with the answers they get, you can't draw any conclusions that they intend to do any particular thing. And they seem very reluctant to do that.

Putting up the poll which quite clearly asks what tool you [general, not specific] want next, as well as (I just remembered) asking what you would like to be able to do with the stuff made with the tools (sharing dungeons, NPCs, etc if I recall correctly) and then just dropping everything is attributing to WotC a level of corporate stupidity that usually only exists in Dilbert.

I just find it very interesting that, for the longest time, people were complaining that they wanted some input on what tool was to be developed next. Yet when WotC takes steps to ask the public what tool they want next, people flip out because they (WotC) have no plans for what tool they are doing next.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the desire to have more information released, and I continually [s]nag poke CM about it, and they in turn continually poke The Powers That Be about it. That being said, there are legitimate reasons for not giving out the information yet.

WotC has been very open recently in saying that, when they first announced DDI, they bit off more than they could chew and screwed up. Having learned the hard way, they are taking the time to look at where they are in the development cycles of the various tools they have in the office, and determine which one is the best to release next.

That, combined with the time it will take to collect and analyze the poll data, means that some delay in getting information out is inevitable.

mudbunny wrote:

Putting up the poll which quite clearly asks what tool you [general, not specific] want next, as well as (I just remembered) asking what you would like to be able to do with the stuff made with the tools (sharing dungeons, NPCs, etc if I recall correctly) and then just dropping everything is attributing to WotC a level of corporate stupidity that usually only exists in Dilbert.

I just find it very interesting that, for the longest time, people were complaining that they wanted some input on what tool was to be developed next. Yet when WotC takes steps to ask the public what tool they want next, people flip out because they (WotC) have no plans for what tool they are doing next.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the desire to have more information released, and I continually [s]nag poke CM about it, and they in turn continually poke The Powers That Be about it. That being said, there are legitimate reasons for not giving out the information yet.

WotC has been very open recently in saying that, when they first announced DDI, they bit off more than they could chew and screwed up. Having learned the hard way, they are taking the time to look at where they are in the development cycles of the various tools they have in the office, and determine which one is the best to release next.

That, combined with the time it will take to collect and analyze the poll data, means that some delay in getting information out is inevitable.

Yeah, and people find Dilbert funny because it reminds them of things that happen in real life.

And besides, they don't have to be planning to throw it away from the get go. They could also be looking at what to work on next, IF there is enough interest/the economy improves/Hell actually DOES freeze over/whatever. Again, we have no idea what they plan on doing with the data they gather.

And I appreciate them apologizing for screwing up in not having these things out for release. But that doesn't really indicate anything either. They seem very eager to apologize for promising more than they could deliver in the promised time frame but avoid like the plague the question of whether they are ever going to deliver the rest of it at all. That's not a good sign.

Nyarlathotep wrote:

I would buy that except their actions, such as taking all mention of the other tools off the site followed by a steadfast refuasl to even talk about them, tends to indicate otherwise.

Likewise, what they have said isn't even as specific as "deciding what to work on next" since that would indicate SOMETHING is due to be worked on next. But that isn't what they sai, what they said was that they want to "evaluate where we are and where we want to go next" which indicates nothing at all except that they haven't decided what to do and are working on making that decision. That decision could be 'Call what we have good and scrap the rest' as easily as it could be 'work on X, then Y then Z' and the few concrete actions they have taken (which are all we really have to go by) indicate the former as the likeliest possibility.

Where you see things being removed and hushed, I see new things coming forth.

The poll mudbunny keeps mentioning, for example. This isn't some simple poll they just tossed up in the forums at random to get a sample from.

It's a piece assembled by (if I'm not mistaken) a 3rd party to help them get the data they're looking for. This means they invested money in the poll - to me, that's a sign they care about the results - far moreso than they would do for a product that they're merely deciding to keep alive or not.

This same poll is then placed not ONLY on their own site where they could do so for free - but also tied into other sites like ENWorld - where I'd presume they paid a cost not unlike an advertising space for its presence.

Again, these are not the kinds of actions a corporate entity takes on a dead project.

Yes, they removed the "coming soon" tools from the DDI site, but we've also been told the D&D site is getting revamped as a whole - and as MB points out many people just used the "Coming Soon" suite to bash WotC for either being misleading or dragging their feet. If all the feedback coming from that tidbit was negative (even *I* can't say "it's a great idea that they had that there!") does keeping it there make a lot of sense?

No, they haven't said much about the additional tools directly, but seeing as how anything they DO say is picked apart so readily (let's face it, we're ALL rules lawyers at heart), if they're going to catch Hell anyhow, why not remain silent until there IS something definitive to say?