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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 12:29PM
#91
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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My $0.02:
Whether or not WotC intended, there's an expectation of behavior that's set before them. A lot of companies have been pushing towards this model of ethics and it both disturbing and appalling that WotC has decided to sink to this level. I'm not trying to insult them, however, if they wish to live by this level of 'honesty', so shall I.
I paid for a product I never received.
I didn't say so originally, as I was given the expectation that the value of what I was paying for easily made up for the lack of the digital table top. I supported their efforts and the new pricing structure, although I did agree with those whom felt that this was a psudo-legal bait and switch tactic. As of yet, I have found the product unsatisfactory. WotC has one month to show thier value before I cancel for good and write a scathing article online regarding the history of TSR, Dungeons and Dragons and Wizards of the Coast.
This is par-for-the-course for the company. It's never fully finished or properly balanced anything in the lifetime of any of it's products or predecessors. It has a history of promising new things and then changing action or jumping ship at the last moment. It has a history of selling electronic products that are over-priced and under-developed.
They've also suffered staff and budget cuts within the last year.
What does this mean? Not sure, but it would be one explanation for the lessening of substantial content on the side of Dungeon and Dragon magazine, as well as the lack of updates to the Character builder. It screams 'cutbacks', not setbacks, yet.. the price is supposed to raise?
The calendar for October and beyond is oddly empty. I can't apply my subscription fee to next month or get a 'free month', I can only get a refund for this month. It's September 29th. My subscription has renewed and I feel that it's likely my last month...
It feels like the ship is starting to sink, and while I do not wish to impart panic among the people who read this, I do want to ask Wizards:
What is going on? Give us -something- to allay my fears, and the fears of my peers, or be a responsible company for once and explain, truthfully, if DDI is going under.
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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 12:33PM
#92
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I paid for a product I never received.
If you mean the VTT and the CV, no, you nor anyone else has paid for it. They made it very clear what you would be paying for. They made it very clear once they started taking money for subscriptions that the VTT and CB were not actively being worked on, and there was no certainty that they would ever be completed.
And in fact, everyone got a discount on price, and they put in a way to extend that discount for a whole year past the end of that introductory price.
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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 12:42PM
#93
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Date Joined:
Sep 22, 2006
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Can anyone actually point me to this thread where wizards tells everyone "buy DDI subscriptions, it will pay for new tools!"?
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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 12:46PM
#94
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2005
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They made it very clear what you would be paying for. They made it very clear once they started taking money for subscriptions that the VTT and CB were not actively being worked on, and there was no certainty that they would ever be completed.
In the very early days, there was still a tag on the VTT that said 'Coming Soon', but it did not last long.
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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 1:32PM
#95
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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They made it very clear what you would be paying for. They made it very clear once they started taking money for subscriptions that the VTT and CB were not actively being worked on, and there was no certainty that they would ever be completed.
In the very early days, there was still a tag on the VTT that said 'Coming Soon', but it did not last long.
This is what I'm talking about. While I understand the changes of business needs, it's one thing to display your 'exciting new tools' as a preview of possibilities, and another to bank on it. When DDI came out, VTT was still in development, but then just.. vanished.
Just like many of the other promised tools. It's my theory (unfounded that I don't work with the company) that they couldn't find a cost-effective model that the player-base would be satisfied. Similar happened to the digital book formats. They weren't making as much money by providing them, and so they were pulled.
Content -is- lacking. There's no word on PHB4 or similar, and it seems that Dungeons and Dragons is gearing towards a new backwards-compatible 'version' of 4e. (I seem to remember the same words being used for 3.5, though.. that it was going to be backwards compatible.. almost). Almost all the new products are going to be for the new 'version'.
In the same breath, there's an interruption of service. While it's not -required- for WotC to update the product, they have developed a reasonable expectation to develop it. Just like they had provided a reasonable expectation that there would be more tools available to players. If all they are going to speak of are things that are definite, the blank calendars are frightening. It means that they're so uncertain of the future, they can't promise anything.
Which leads to my conclusion: the Future of DDI is uncertain. With WotC and TSR's history (and not just with Dungeons and Dragons products. Anyone remember Hecatomb or Dreamblade?) This means that it's possible it could be dropped, suddenly and without warning, or worse. While this could be considered fear-mongering, there isn't a lack of basis for this. The company is in it to make a profit, naturally, but how much does it care about customer service and feedback?
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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 2:06PM
#96
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Date Joined:
Sep 24, 2002
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Can anyone actually point me to this thread where wizards tells everyone "buy DDI subscriptions, it will pay for new tools!"?
They did not say that excatly. But they did give the impression that all the orginal promised tools would be developed and put out. IIRC then they came out with a survey and the majorty said that they wanted tools to manage campigns before a VTT.
Then WOTC said they would develop campign tools, after all those tools were done, they would look back into the VTT. But WOTC was very unclear on how many campaign tools there would be, leaving them alot of breathing room. But they did give the impression that new tools would be worked on and your DDi sub would help keep the project moving.
IMO if WOTC just said that the CV and VTT were dead instead of making people feel that they would be worked on, then people would not be as upset.
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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 2:21PM
#97
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They made it very clear what you would be paying for. They made it very clear once they started taking money for subscriptions that the VTT and CB were not actively being worked on, and there was no certainty that they would ever be completed.
In the very early days, there was still a tag on the VTT that said 'Coming Soon', but it did not last long.
There was, but that was before they started taking money. At first they gave DDI for a few months free, because all it had was the magazines, the compendium, and the beta levels 1-3 CB. When they came out with the full version and started taking money, they took the Coming Soon down, and redesigned the whole DDi section to reflect only what it included, and then mudbunny made an exstensive post about DDi and stickied it in the forums.
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3 years ago ::
Sep 29, 2010 - 4:35PM
#98
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Date Joined:
Nov 12, 2002
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You can nitpick all you want about what was said, when it was said, what was a 'promise', what was heresay, etc... But these are the way I see things:
When WotC first started accepting money, most customers had a reasonable expectation that they'd have the character builder, compendium, virtual table top and character visualizer available to them within the first year of their subscription. Things that influenced that belief were the demos at conventions, the advertisements in books, and the statements of WotC on message boards and in articles.
Most first year subscribers would agree that WotC provided less services/products in the first year than they expected to receive when they signed up. Many annual subscribers re-subscribed for a second year before the rate hike, but after the monster builder beta began in late July 2009 (14 months of Beta completed...). For those customers, we have not seen a new product added to the Insider suite since we re-upped over a year ago and we have never paid the current cost for an annual subscription to Insider. Most Insider readers that play D&D would agree that the percentage of articles in Dragon that is directly relevant to each of their characters is drastically lower than in 2008. (This is due to the stable number of articles per month, but the massive increase in the number of classes, races, destinies, paragon paths, etc...) in the game). Most Insiders would agree that there is less ‘crunch’ or ‘mechanics’ in each article over the past 6 months than in the first 18 months of Insider. People continue subscriptions when they feel like they are getting enough benefit to justify the cost. It seems pretty clear from the above that people are getting less than originally expected and less than they are used to getting. However, we’re being asked to pay more. That is a hard pill to swallow. Perhaps you’re in the group that thinks that the ‘lesser’ amount you’re getting is still worth more than the money that a subscription costs. Many people, however, will find that the higher rates and lower benefits have made Insider a bad investment.
D&D & Boardgames
If I have everything I need to run great games for many years without repeating stuff, why do I need to buy anything right now?
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3 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2010 - 10:08AM
#99
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Date Joined:
Jul 12, 2007
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Can anyone actually point me to this thread where wizards tells everyone "buy DDI subscriptions, it will pay for new tools!"?
You know, it doesn't say that anymore. That bothers me to no end. When I subscribed to DDI the DDI home page specifically advertised for us to invest in the tools. All DDI says now is that we are buying the Character Builder, Adventure Tools, Compendium, Dungeon and Dragon. This bothers me because they basically do not have to add anything new if they choose not to. There is nothing on the web site that says they are developing anything else for DDI. So yeah my autorenew is off.
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3 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2010 - 10:17AM
#100
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Can anyone actually point me to this thread where wizards tells everyone "buy DDI subscriptions, it will pay for new tools!"?
You know, it doesn't say that anymore. That bothers me to no end. When I subscribed to DDI the DDI home page specifically advertised for us to invest in the tools. All DDI says now is that we are buying the Character Builder, Adventure Tools, Compendium, Dungeon and Dragon. This bothers me because they basically do not have to add anything new if they choose not to. There is nothing on the web site that says they are developing anything else for DDI. So yeah my autorenew is off.
I'm sorry, it never asked anyone to invest in the tools. They made it very clear what was going on with DDi and the tools before they started taking anyone's money.
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