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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 9:25PM
#21
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Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2009
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I am really disappointed in the direction of DDI. What's the point of the calendar or home page now? Having to hunt through the site for the new articles, twice to get an updated download since the compilation is scrapped! I agree that without the compilation there is no more Dungeon or Dragon Magazines.
Not having any idea of what articles are coming out since the calendar is also broken in it's current format, takes away from the joy of waiting for each day to come along. I really don't think anyone minds having articles updated after they come out or moved back a day to be completed, but now the quality and quantity of articles has vastly diminished! And won't even be compiled into a finished product!
Hey, we even had a weekday (01/11/11), which wasn't a holiday or other understandable event, in which there was NO content! We Pay for This?
it's really sad that all these changes are taking place. By the responses I've read online, no one is happy that the quality service Wizards has produced over the last two years could make such a dramatic, devastating wrong turn!
Please Wizards, if you read your own message boards, restore the site to the way we, your customers and now wavering fans, desire and respect!
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 9:35PM
#22
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Date Joined:
Apr 20, 2004
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Please Wizards, if you read your own message boards, restore the site to the way we, your customers and now wavering fans, desire and respect!
They read, they just don't care. Nothing the fans have ever said in protest on these forums has ever made a difference. They announce their changes, wait for the rage to die down, then post another crappy announcement.
I wish Paizo had bought into 4th edition when it first came out. They are amazing at customer service and produce amazing products, I just hate 3rd edition.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 9:36PM
#23
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I dont mind separate articles. It gives a chance to organize all the articles by topic.
Instead of monthly compilations, they can still publish annual compilations as hardbacks.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 9:42PM
#24
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Date Joined:
Nov 15, 2008
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"So, starting this month, we’re just providing the articles."
Ridiculous.
I download every article that seems to interest me, which is most, and then at the end of the month, I download the full editted magazines.
Now, I have to download an article wait 2 weeks, maybe, and then redownload and save it to a folder so all monthly articles are together, PLUS take a screen cap of the TOC so I know what the articles are about.
Whatever.
I've been buying nearly all D&D products since '88 and up until PHB2 (when you stopped selling PDFs) and I'm sure I'm not renewing my subscription after this article.
I have a week left on my account. That's just enough for me.
Viva La "what ever version of D&D you are playing right now!"
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 9:48PM
#25
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Date Joined:
Jul 18, 2009
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Is there a great cost for WotC to compile the articles? I thought it was the compiled version that allows them to present the final version of the article. Plus, why wouldn't one download the compilation? It's basically less clutter in one's folder compared to a whole bunch of individual issues.
What is happening at WotC that they're coming up with these ideas?
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 10:13PM
#26
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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I like the compiled version, it is nice and tidy.
Now I have to have a folder for each magazine? Why?
Because they don't want you to actually download the magazines. They would prefer you to go to the website every single time you want to read an article, requiring you to have a DDI subscription as long you want to be able to use Dragon/Dungeon material.
Compilations are too easy to download and archive, which is antithetical to WOTC's new business model.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 12, 2011 - 10:30PM
#27
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2004
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Wow. So, much, complete, suckage. I click the articles over and over again for ease of reading. However, I never save them. That is why I keep clicking on those articles (and I guess downloading them to my temporary cache) over and over again. I click each compiled article only once. However, each time I do I save a copy to my portable hard drive. The ability to save the Dungeon and Dragon as compiled magazines on my portable hard drive was one of the big selling points of DDi to me. Removing that feature is a HUGE loss to me. One that is seriously making me consider whether I want to cancel my DDi subscription (something I never thought I would say, and something I didn't even say during the switch to the online character builder). I will now have to create a separate folder for each magazine issue and download each article separately. That is a HUGE pain the backside compared to simply downloading each compiled issue and saving it. Couple that with the complete lack of answers in regards to why so many products were canceled (because, what we got was an attempt to avoid answering that question), and what is actually happening with the 4e D&D product line, and I have to say I am one unhappy camper. As a customer I am actually starting to seriously get paranoid that WotC might be about to put D&D in stasis, or, even worse, announce 5e. I guess in my case it isn't that big a deal. Since I like 4e so much it just means that I am about to rush out to buy the few 4e books I have not had a chance to purchase as of yet. But, the atmosphere these decisions are creating can't be good in terms of trying to bring new blood into the consumer base. And, isn't that what Essentials was just trying to do? Seems that goal is being poached right now...
I don't know. I love every 4e product released so far. But, recent events are making me very pessimistic about the support this game will receive in the future.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 1:04AM
#28
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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I am linking to this thread as the official discussion thread.
@thespaceinvader: Thank you for creating this thread. For future reference, here is the appropriate format.
No worries. I've edited my OP to take this into account.
I think that the Dragon decision is the one that bothers me most, mainly because I suspect they're misreading their stats. Sure, most of us will read the preview articles more often than the compiled edition. But we won't download them permanently, we'll read them online, potentially several times, to comment on and suggest alterations before the compiled edition is released.
Then, we'll DOWNLOAD the compiled edition once and read it as much as we need to ON OUR COMPUTERS.
It would shock me if the number of unique-IP-address downloads of individual articles was vastly greater than the number of unique-IP-address downloads of the compiled edition. And even if it is, if even a significant minority of your customer base are using the compiled edition, taking it away is going to piss them off. There is next-to-no cost for producing a compiled edition, it should not be taken away because not enough people download it. It should be taken away if, and only if, NO people download it.
This is why, DDI, you need CUSTOMER FREAKING RESEARCH you unmitigated... *sentence not completed because I don't want to be ORCed* Unless this isn't remotely about your customers at all.
Personally, I think this is just marketing-speak for 'people have been putting up the compiled edition on file-sharing sites, we want to make it more awkward for them, the pirating swines'. Just like with the OCB.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 1:34AM
#29
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Date Joined:
Dec 21, 2005
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....wait, what just happened here!?
I mean the minis I can understand, they are expensive to make and once a certain saturation is reached, they are a lot harder to sell.
Ditto for HoS becoming a hardcover. I like the digest-sized Essentials, but well, if people are hardcover fans, so it be.
I can even understand shuffling around books to fit schedules... but outright cancelling them? Uh. Not even telling us what is going to happen to them? Uh. That leaves me... rather unhappy, especially since it leaves HoS as the only player-centric (and crunchy) book this year.
As non-DDI subscriber, that's rather unfortunate and leaves me pretty miffed.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 13, 2011 - 2:50AM
#30
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Date Joined:
Aug 20, 2007
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So all these people who "consume the articles individually," do they download every article individually? No, they download the compilation when it can be done in one easy step, not as a big pile of downloads.
Crap move, WotC.
actually I did download the monthly articles both as individual downloads as well as the monthly compilations; I would download individual articles if they appeared to have immediate benefit for my gaming group knowing that I would still be to have the monthly compilation to scoop up any offerings that did not have immediate use benefit
now then, I would have preferred a short statement as to why 'Class Compendium', 'Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium' and 'Hero Builder's Handbook' were being delayed because the Class Compendium had been originally billed as an integration of the Custom Built character with the Player Essential character, Magnificent Emporium (I thought) was supposed to be a better explanation of the rather arbitary redefinition of magic items as Common, Uncommon and Rare (the gold piece cost of a Level 30 item was usually enough to make that item a rarity!) while Hero Builder's Handbook (from the title) looked like an updating of the 3rd edition Hero Builder's Guidebook
as for the discontinuation of the prepainted plastic minis, now that decision hurts! as nice as my gaming group's pewter and lead minis are, they still have to be touched up every so often while the prepainted plastic minis could absorb a fair amount of handling (as well as inadvertent dropping onto the floor) and still be usable and presentable
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