Community

Oct 7, 2010 -- 10:48AM, Dane_McArdy wrote:

Oct 7, 2010 -- 10:28AM, ZaranBlack wrote:

That's one thing I don't get.  Why do they not give monthly reports on what DDI is doing like they used to.? If they wonder why people are so negative on their forums its because they have caused that divide by not keeping people in the loop.  They made it so they don't have to tell us what we are working on which means they don't have to keep to any kind of deadline.  There really is no incentive to do more than keep status quo.

Here we are creating whole scenarios out of "web-based Tools system" which was posted in a forum instead of the wizards.com site .  

They have told us why, ad nausem. They have told us for two years why. Because they screwed up really bad, and want to avoid that again. It's that simple. Which I guess is why some people have a really hard time accepting it, and have to invent all sorts of other darker reasons and call them names.

Is that really an acceptable excuse? The whole point of deadlines is to make people haul ass and get things done. Eventually, they'll find ways to avoid getting things done at the last minute, and the deadline will have made them more efficient and focused.

For example, look at tax season in America. Technically, we have several months to get all of our taxes sent in to the government. However, so many people wait until a week before they're due to do anything about it. Now imagine what would happen if the IRS decided to say taxes were required to be kept up to date - we can go 30 years without doing our taxes, as long as they're "up to date" before we die. How many people would still stick to their yearly April deadline? How many would take the lack of a deadline and say "meh, I'll do it later"?

Another example is college. There are some instructors who will have a huge project due at the end of the year, and they'll give all the prerequisites on the first day of class. In theory, a student should be able to start working on it (laying groundwork, compiling research...) within the first few weeks of class. However, nearly every student will wait until the last 3 weeks of class before starting anything.

I don't know how the rest of the world works, but WotC is an American company. And in America, we will look for any excuse to be lazy and cut corners. Despite being a company, not setting any deadlines, or making any promises to their customers, does not mean they'll continue to do their best. Without any form of accountability from the people paying them, they will do nothing more than the required work, and then churn out last-minute when they realize they need to get something produced to make people happy.

Honestly, I'm very disappointed with how this whole DDI experience has gone. Wizards has shown me their work ethic, and their dedication to their customers, and I'm quite underwhelmed.