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Modern graphics are easy with graphics engines. so even that is a non-issue. Any game even MMO's should not exceed 1 year in the development cycle simply because all of the hard work is done already. You just need some artists and a couple of programmers to plug in the D&D rules. That is pretty much all it takes now a days to create something of this nature. For one thing they created the graphical part in a PSP game in half the time. "Dungeons and Dragons Tactics" which uses 3.5 rules. Those rules are much more complex. Its not like they are creating the rules or something. It is simply meant to be a dice roller and a cool 3D board that you can move your miniatures around on. That is simplicity itself.

I don't believe you guys are this naive.

1.) Promise the "holy grail" of geekdom: play D&D with your old friends from all across the globe again with a user friendly program.
[sorry Fantasy Grounds and other VTTs - you are hard to use. My friend Joe with a wife and two kids is NOT going to learn how to program script in Lua]

2.) Sell Insider subscriptions and release ALL the core books
[All the 30-50 year olds think "this is the one" and go purchase the books and/or the Insider subscription]

3.) Drop the virtual tabletop project to save money
[The books are now paperweights for all the folks with geographically seperated D&D friends who were depending on the tabletop]

Result: Not only did WotC sell books/subscriptions to the teen-20 year olds, but they also sold books to the 30-50 year old demographic -- and they didn't have to do anything but PROMISE a virtual tabletop!!

investment: a promise
return: more customers / subscribers
risk: no risk because we break the promise only AFTER releasing the books!

All you folks saying you "are never buying another WotC product" because of this... on behalf of WotC let me say:
"Who cares? You already bought the product! Tell your story walking."

Jenius wrote:

See I don't really understand that logic. Realistically, if you were only buying the books/subscription for just this, why not wait until it came out? Software is constantly delayed and canceled, it'd take a really oblivious person to see a tentative release date some years in the future and assume that nothing at all would cause a delay or cancellation.

If you had absolutely no use for the products you bought and were banking on a software release schedueled several years down the rode, it's kinda your fault you got burned. Perhaps learn to be less impulsive with your purchases in the future.

Ding, ding, ding. Winner, Winner, Chicken dinner

WolfStar76 wrote:

I don't know the first thing about scripting. That's what the user forums are for. I download the 4E Ruleset made by others, and I play the game.

There *is* a stepping stone in that the GM has to know how to open firewall ports for inbound traffic, but that's a one-time configuration.

I don't see how charging less money for subscriptions because of the lack of some elements is saving them money?

If they were chargning the full price, I'd have more sympathy for your argument, but they're losing money compared to their original projects for the simple fact that they aren't charging as much as they'd intended (and one could easily argue that they don't have as many subscribers as they'd like - if the voices decrying the lack of a VTT is any indicator).

This is also predicated on the (currently false) assumption that the Game Table is truly dead - WotC has not given that indication, despite claims otherwise.

The vocal minority do not make a majority trust me. I know that 75 to 85 percent of our local group subscribe to DDi.