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5 years ago ::
Sep 23, 2008 - 6:39AM
#171
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- Senior Volunteer Community Lead
- Dragon Slayer
- D&DI News Guide
Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2005
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I know you're just speculating here, but I would rather see them go with a full free trial, i.e. sign up and get your first month free with full access, rather then spend a lot of time and development cycles figuring out how to limit a program like that sufficiently to 'demo it'.
Once the full suite is available, I'd be surprised if they didn't do something like that, it's fairly standard for online services to offer a time-limited trial (10 days, 2 weeks, one month being the most common terms) and then auto-renewing on your credit card if you don't explicitly cancel the service.
Since the Game Table is the last piece, you may be right in that being the direction they take.
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
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5 years ago ::
Sep 23, 2008 - 7:38PM
#172
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I'd pay for the subscription of the magaizines $60 per year if it was the paper version. Unfortunantely, I can't afford myself this price for PDFs as far as worsen of my vision looking through the digital version costs more to pay for the oculist's services.
Indeed, I agree that work of designers and writers costs this 60 dollars.
To my regret, IMHO WOTC team made the greatest mistake when gave up in publishing of gloss magazines.
I have to agree completely with this. So far WOTC hasn't shown me anything with DDI that makes me want to pay a subscription fee. Come on guys! If you want money for the online content give us what you promised at the least. I knew that this would happen when you announced things at GenCon. I am very disappointed with this plan and urge you to rethink the decision. As far as I have seen, neither Dungeon nor Dragon Magazine is anywhere near the quality that I have seen from the printed version. Both magazines are a mere shadow of their former selves. 
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5 years ago ::
Sep 24, 2008 - 1:15PM
#173
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Date Joined:
Sep 13, 2008
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I don't find the prices outrageous or anything, I just gave up smoking, so the monthly fee is merely the equivalent of one of my once-daily packs of cigarettes I won't be buying anymore! =D
However, I agree with those voicing their disappointment in the tardiness of Dragon and Dungeon articles. I mean, I tend to be a pretty big WOTC/4E booster, I really like the direction they're taking things, but the last week or so has made it a bit harder for me to defend them XD. I mean, come on. No Dragon updates for seven days, and then we get Epic Faerun. And then...nothing. Where's the other eight articles promised to us this month, a month of which only seven days remain?
Unless the content is written the month its posted, I don't understand what the problem getting this stuff out at least close to on time is. An article or two showing up a day late is one thing, two weeks passing with only four articles is unacceptable, especially when only one of those articles is of any use to players, and not just DMs.
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5 years ago ::
Sep 25, 2008 - 3:28PM
#174
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They are delivering what I, and a portion of the forums (although I'm not going to speculate as to how large of a portion) consider to be a worthwhile product.
I don't blame you for not wanting to speculate, but that's the million dollar (perhaps literally) question. I am very curious just how much of the player base WOTC can net into a recurring pay subscription, based on the quality of what has been made available so far.
I'm not going to lament the end of print DRAGON and DUNGEON...I hardly ever read them in the past and thought they were overpriced and not terribly useful. But I did buy them periodically, when I flipped through an issue and found some stuff that I wanted. In the recurring subscriber model for web content, WOTC gets only those willing to pay regularly for the whole kit-and-kabootle. The casual hobbyist reader who might buy an issue from time to time is lost from the revenue stream.
But, of course, that's why the magazines are going to be included with the full DDI program suite. Because I bet WOTC already realizes that only the tiniest portion of players would pay to subscribe just to e-zines. (How many people subscribed for DRAGON...anybody have a final year issue that reported circulation?) Charging now for just the e-zine strikes me as a dishearteningly desperate measure to start generating revenue while the program suite is astonishly delayed.
Perhaps the only more disheartening sign from WOTC has been the release of these "bonus tools" which are useless as free community content let alone as "extras" within a pay service. I mean, even the WOTC announcement of these tools sounded embarrassed and afraid to claim them as anything more than little toys. I am sure I am far from alone in my reaction that the bonus tools are virtually no better than the utilities that teenage gamers in the 80s made programming BASIC into our Apple IIC's.
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5 years ago ::
Sep 25, 2008 - 3:55PM
#175
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Date Joined:
Aug 18, 2007
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Um, they said originally that we could try everything for free. That was when they thought (or were trying to make us believe) that it would all come out at once.
I understand that they want to start to make some money and recoup some losses.
However, a big part of this whole DDi thing working is that it is integrated.
I can use maptools for a tabletop, skype for verbal communication over the web, and find adventures to run for free (or use the ones I already have or write). All of that is free. Free.
Why would I use insider? Well, because it is integrated. It is supposed to be updated with the rules from all the books (hasn't happened yet for pretty much anything that isn't the core set), and is supposed to have direct (almost transparent) crossover with dungeon and dragon.
If I want to run a dungeon adventure, I can go to the map in insider and start plugging away...no map drawing needed.
Now if I can "try" insider without dungeon...well why would I? I'll stick with map tools.
Without a trial of everything, they're actually shorting themselve on customers who will get a part of the experience, but not the actual value of insider--it is (supposed to eventually be) a fully functional and single machine which has all of its parts whirring together.
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5 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2008 - 5:23PM
#176
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Date Joined:
Apr 21, 2006
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August Lives!
Heh. I do... but only barely. 
-A
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5 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2008 - 5:44PM
#177
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What is the argument for not charging separately for Dungeon and Dragon?
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5 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2008 - 6:15PM
#178
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What is the argument for not charging separately for Dungeon and Dragon?
Per WotC, if they sold only parts the parts they say it would cost more then to provide the full package.
In someways they are correct, the coding for different levels does cost more, the bandwidth verification process would be more.
However there still remains issue of asking users to pay for things that they will not use, to make them less costly for users that will use them.
*shrugs*
Plans are always subject to change.
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5 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2008 - 6:17PM
#179
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- Senior Volunteer Community Lead
- Dragon Slayer
- D&DI News Guide
Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2005
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What is the argument for not charging separately for Dungeon and Dragon?
I suspect it's to add value to the bundle. If you only want one or the other mags, you can buy those separately when they're compiled.
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
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5 years ago ::
Oct 01, 2008 - 7:57AM
#180
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Date Joined:
Feb 12, 2004
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I just can't help but feel that WotC is going to be charging for a product that feels unfinished.
First, let me say that the content of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines has been okay. I wouldn't call anything I've read there lately groundbreaking, but I could certainly call it satisfactory. If I were grading it, I'd give it a C+ to a B-.
So do I personally think $60/year is worth it for just Dragon and Dungeon alone? Probably. Not definitely, and not "by a mile." Just probably. But that may have as much to do with the fact that $60/year isn't a lot of money to me as it has to do with the actual value that I perceive in Dragon and Dungeon Magazines.
Will I subscribe for $60/year? Again, probably.
That being said, the problem I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around is that the collective project that is Dungeons & Dragons Insider feels very unfinished to me. The entire project seems to be shivering in the shadow of a mountain of unkept promises.
So if WotC had come along since the beginning and said, "Here are Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. They're online only. You have to cover the cost of printing out anything of which you want a hardcopy. And we're charging you $60/year." then I probably would have an easier time paying that $60/year. However, given that WotC presented D&DI as a whole package from the start, and given that it's not nearly as complete as they said it would be, or as complete as we'd all hoped it would be, suddenly I feel worse about paying that $60. What we're really talking about is 16 cents a day. The amount is trivial. But as someone who works hard for my money, I have an ingrained distaste for paying any amount of money for something that feels incomplete to me.
Imagine if a new cable company started up in your town. A sales rep knocks on your door and says, "Hi, I'm from SuperTech Cable and I want to sell you a subscription to our new service for $50/month. Right now we only have 10 channels, but within 90 days we'll be up to 400 channels. We'll give you your subscription free until then." If, at the end of that 90 day free trial, SuperTech Cable only had 200 channels you would cancel your account immediately. I would. And I currently pay more than $50/month for around 200 channels. So there is a difference between actual value and perceived value. Right now there's a disconnect between what most people believe D&DI should be, and what it actually is.
All of that being said, I will most likely buy a year for $60. As someone who has played D&D regularly since the pink and blue boxed sets, I find D&D 4th Edition to be the best of all of it. Based on that alone, I'm willing to proceed on a little bit of faith.
To WotC (if any of you are reading this post): I consider my first $60 to be a little bit of a leap of faith. If, after a year, you guys haven't gotten D&DI up to where we all believe it should be, there won't be a second $60 coming from me.
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"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it." -Mr. Magorium
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