I read the latest Ampersand and had a reaction to it, but my friend Matthew posted this on another forum and I think it succinctly sums up my feelings on the matter.
This seems to be turning into a real problem for WotC. I mean I don't see any...I don't see a *single* benefit to the CB being online only, if not to leverage the power of the network. And they don't appear to recognize the benefit in this.
Often there's two sides to any new content update, but here it seems like "you can run it on some Macs, if they're online" is the only benefit. I mean...the *only* benefit. And if you're on a PC, you just lost some functionality.
Bill Slavicsek saying it's "ultimately portable" is absurd. It's the *opposite* of portable, you can only use it where you have an internet connection.
I guess the question everyone should be asking is; "How is this new app better for us than the old one?"
Let's look at Bill's column:
1. It’s ultimately portable. I can use it on any computer or computer-like device, wherever I am.
Unless there's no internet where you are. Here's the thing, Bill. If you have your computer with you, the one thing you can be certain of is; you have your computer with you. If the CB is *on* that computer, then you have the CB with you. That's portable. If it's on my laptop, then anywhere I have my laptop, I have the Character Builder. In other words, you've made the app less portable because now instead of *merely* needing my computer, I now *also* need the internet.
2. It’s both PC and Mac friendly. I can access it from either kind of machine.
Only if that machine is on the internet. So, look at it this way; instead of making a mac version, or writing it in something awful like Java, which would then literally mean you could access it from either machine, you've actually disabled use of the character builder on some PCs. Used to be, I could load it onto my laptop, take it anywhere. Now, this is no longer the case. Also, personally, my internet goes down all the time. Like...all the time.
For the set of all existing users, you've *lowered* functionality.
3. There are multiple character sheet options. I can pick an Essentials character sheet or a sheet that takes advantage of the digital medium, and we can add other versions of sheets as demand warrants.
You didn't need to go Online Only to get different character sheet options, you already *had* different character sheet options in the old builder. This does not seem to me like a new feature, it seems like an existing feature that will still work.
4.The user interface is better. We’ve learned a lot, tested a lot, and made a tool that is easier to navigate and use.
This is not an advantage of being online. You could have improved the old builder's interface.
5. Content filters are better. The D&D game is loaded with content, and the new Character Builder offers lots of ways to filter that content for you. You can make choices up front to limit the amount of information you’re bombarded with, and you can add more elements later as your play style and game mastery demands.
This is not an advantage of being online. You could have added better filters to the old version. So, from where I sit, this is shaping into a disaster. The head of D&D cannot think of a single advantage to the new builder other than "it will run on some Macs now, if they are online and have Silverlight."
He's made a classic and critical mistake. He thinks that advantages for *development* can stand in for advantages in usability and this is the result. I'm sure there are lots of good development reasons for them to switch. But EVERYONE *currently* using the Builder is now looking at a *decrease* in functionality. "Used to work offline, now it doesn't." That's the new feature. That's not a feature, Bill. That's a bug.
I can think of *one* real advantage to being online and that is networking and crowdsourcing. And it's the one thing they apparently haven't thought of. It's, you know, the basis of the success of YouTube and Netflix and Amazon and Facebook. I can see what the rest of the network thinks. I can instantly access the combined wisdom of all the users. And it's the one thing they appear actually clueless about. "We haven't thought about that," says Paolo. In the midst of revealing he doesn't actually understand it, either.
When Blizzard made a mistake this big, they went back on it. I'd love to see WotC announce either an offline version (that can run in Silverlight too!) or some actual, new features that *utilize* the advantages of being online. Not a smokescreen of features they could have added to the old builder.
I'll ask again; Bill Slavicsek; what is the unambiguous benefit, for us, for us the existing users to the Character Builder being exclusively online?
The more I keep hearing about this new character builder the more surprised I am by the downgrading of functionality. Twenty character limit? Really? No exporting? Really?
WoTC: "The good news is the new webtools allow us to quickly and more rapidly update without any problems." Users: "Oh good! So that means that the issues we're seeing with missing features (like export) will be fixed quickly?" WoTC: "Oh no. We're still only going to update things once per month. Maybe!"
So I guess I will repeat Matthew's question:
What is the unambiguous benefit, for us, for us the existing users to the Character Builder being exclusively online?
1. It’s ultimately portable. I can use it on any computer or computer-like device, wherever I am.
Unless there's no internet where you are. Here's the thing, Bill. If you have your computer with you, the one thing you can be certain of is; you have your computer with you. If the CB is *on* that computer, then you have the CB with you. That's portable. If it's on my laptop, then anywhere I have my laptop, I have the Character Builder. In other words, you've made the app less portable because now instead of *merely* needing my computer, I now *also* need the internet.
This is the kind of argument that makes the "naysayers" sound unfaithful. It's impossible to take seriously. It's completely bloody ridicolous. If you think that the event of someone having his laptop with him is more likely than someone having access to an internet connection, I don't know what.
A tiny fraction of the adult population brings his laptop with him every day. The vast majority of students, office workers, store clerks, bank accounters, lawyers, doctors, secretaries and basically anyone that isn't doing hard labour has access to a computer several times a day, and that computer is connected to the net, and when the webtools go online, it will be a character creating machine.
Stop the nonsense. Bill is bloody right, and you're not making any sense. I preferred the old CB too, but you won't persuade WotC of its merits with this kind of absurd argument.
Interested in reading about a Dark Sun 4e game? Here's the blog of our current campaign.
My homebrew Dark Sun material: - the Lord of Blades, a melee oriented Kaisharga/Dead Lord
I think if someone has his laptop with him, the only thing you can be certain of is; he has his laptop with him. You can't be certain he has internet access.
It sounds like you're saying that's not true, but you can't be saying that, so I don't know what you're saying.
All existing users just lost some functionality. That loss will only impact a certain percentage of those users.
What, then, is the benefit gained? We can no longer user the Builder where we don't have internet.
What is the unambiguous benefit, for us the existing users to the Character Builder being exclusively online?
1. It’s ultimately portable. I can use it on any computer or computer-like device, wherever I am.
Unless there's no internet where you are. Here's the thing, Bill. If you have your computer with you, the one thing you can be certain of is; you have your computer with you. If the CB is *on* that computer, then you have the CB with you. That's portable. If it's on my laptop, then anywhere I have my laptop, I have the Character Builder. In other words, you've made the app less portable because now instead of *merely* needing my computer, I now *also* need the internet.
This is the kind of argument that makes the "naysayers" sound unfaithful. It's impossible to take seriously. It's completely bloody ridicolous. If you think that the event of someone having his laptop with him is more likely than someone having access to an internet connection, I don't know what.
A tiny fraction of the adult population brings his laptop with him every day. The vast majority of students, office workers, store clerks, bank accounters, lawyers, doctors, secretaries and basically anyone that isn't doing hard labour has access to a computer several times a day, and that computer is connected to the net, and when the webtools go online, it will be a character creating machine.
Stop the nonsense. Bill is bloody right, and you're not making any sense. I preferred the old CB too, but you won't persuade WotC of its merits with this kind of absurd argument.
I think if someone has his laptop with him, the only thing you can be certain of is; he has his laptop with him. You can't be certain he has internet access.
It sounds like you're saying that's not true, but you can't be saying that, so I don't know what you're saying.
All existing users just lost some functionality. That loss will only impact a certain percentage of those users.
What, then, is the benefit gained? We can no longer user the Builder where we don't have internet.
What is the unambiguous benefit, for us the existing users to the Character Builder being exclusively online?
No, what I'm saying is that I got a laptop, I take it with me fairly frequently and still I know that after the CB goes Web 2.0 I will have access to character creation infinitely more often then I did before.
And anyone can see that.
Interested in reading about a Dark Sun 4e game? Here's the blog of our current campaign.
My homebrew Dark Sun material: - the Lord of Blades, a melee oriented Kaisharga/Dead Lord
This is the kind of argument that makes the "naysayers" sound unfaithful. It's impossible to take seriously. It's completely bloody ridicolous. If you think that the event of someone having his laptop with him is more likely than someone having access to an internet connection, I don't know what.
A tiny fraction of the adult population brings his laptop with him every day. The vast majority of students, office workers, store clerks, bank accounters, lawyers, doctors, secretaries and basically anyone that isn't doing hard labour has access to a computer several times a day, and that computer is connected to the net, and when the webtools go online, it will be a character creating machine.
Stop the nonsense. Bill is bloody right, and you're not making any sense. I preferred the old CB too, but you won't persuade WotC of its merits with this kind of absurd argument.
Sorry to say this, but the one making no sense seems to be you.
There is no way, an online tool like this one will ever be more "portable" than an offline version of it. The only thing you need to do, once you have downloaded and installed an offline CB on your PC, is to simply use it. If that PC is portable, so is the tool.
An online tool requires me to use a PC aswell, but it also requires an active connection to the internet. The only thing i dont have to do, is to install the tool itself. The moment i disconnect that PC or move somewhere without an internet connection, i can no longer use the tool.
And what do you want to tell me about the office workers? There was nothing that cept them from installing the CB and use it at their workingplace, unless their boss didnt allow it. Belive be, if he didnt want his men to use the offline CB at work, he sure as hell doesnt want them to waste time at work doing character creation online.
If they want to produce something that is more portable than the old CB, i expect a tool that runs in offline and online mode, so basicly an offline CB that is able to save my data online so i can access it using an online interface, once i am no longer sitting at my local PC.
D&D Outsider since Nov 18th 2010, if you wonder about the little red dragon, this one is dedicated to the great VT community.
@djordi: I won't comment on your "20 character limit" and "no exporting" comments, because WotC has addressed these issues, and I'll just presume you haven't read about that yet.
If internet connectivity is your main gripe, there's really only one thing to say: Get over it. It's harsh, and it doesn't pain WotC in a very considerate light, but WotC has made it abundantly clear that this is the direction they're going in, and they won't consider changing. From a business standpoint, it's an extremely well motivated change, and asking for an offline character builder is essentially like asking Blizzard to make WoW available offline. It limits them, and what limits them ultimately limits what they are able to deliver to us.
WotC is being very considerate in addressing our concerns and requests these past few days, and they've already said that they intend on adding a slew of features that will be missing at launch. I am an "existing user" you referred to in your post, and the unambiguous benefit for me is this: I don't have to boot up a resource heavy virtual machine to get the CB running on my mac. I don't own a Windows PC, nor do I feel like spending several hundred dollars on one.
And here's another one for free, globally applicable: more frequent content updates with a faster response time to new content.
@Matthew: You know that cutting the cost to WotC means more money for development... right? Maybe hiring a few more programmers, or people to add content to the database.
If they want to produce something that is more portable than the old CB, i expect a tool that runs in offline and online mode, so basicly an offline CB that is able to save my data online so i can access it using an online interface, once i am no longer sitting at my local PC.
No no no. You're requesting they keep compiling and distributing their entire CB database, a redundancy that requires manpower to make, and then requesting online storage... That's an entire different service which already exists, and it's called Dropbox.
You're asking WotC to continue supporting a product which has proven to be an inefficient use of their developers time, and has extremely low potential for interaction between released toolsets. If they were to release a campaign management tool tomorrow that wants to access data from the character builder, it presumes the DM has all the .dnd4e files ready and available for use. You're thinking they're going to be hosting these characters as .dnd4e files - they're more than likely not! They're going to be in an indexed database. It's why they don't have export available on launch.
Going online means the DM could add his players to a friend list, and they could add whatever PCs they wanted to use in a campaign at the DMs discretion. He could then take monsters he built (from the same database) and upload them into an encounter he's been working on for a while, and run combat online, adding XP and rewards to the PCs as needed. He could then create a magical item using the item creator they release, also in the same database, and insert it directly into a PCs inventory, visible immediately to the owner of the PC.
This is all speculative, but putting characters in a single persistent database has a million applications that don't require the sharing of multiple created files between computers, and are available at every single Silverlight 4 enabled PC in the world with an internet access (which is a sizeable fraction of them). I think this is the direction they're aiming to take D&D in, and I think it's pretty exciting.
