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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 8:02AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Sep 18, 2009
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I'm wondering how many people abandoned their DDI subscriptions after the move to online tools, and how many stayed.
I quit. My reasoning: I'm not always online when I play D&D. Online only means if I don't have an internet connection I can't use my stored character sheet.
The cap to the number of characters you can have is already less than the total number of characters I have saved on the offline application. Sometimes I like to just make characters, and I don't want to have to delete old ones to experiment.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 8:09AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Aug 13, 2007
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As a DM I kept it, as most places I play have Wi-Fi. The limit didnt bother me as well, I am running 2 games as well as a few one offs, and I have 6 PCs from my main game, 4 from my other one and a few random characters that i play around with well under the limit of 20.
While I dislike online only over offline, it really didnt bother me much. What bothers me the most is the Executioner not being in the CB yet ... grrrrr...
 Never Point a loaded party at a plot you are not willing to shoot. Arcane Rhetoric. My Blog.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 8:16AM
#3
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It had nothing to do with "online vs. offline," for me. Acknowledging that it's only my opinion and others have varying needs, of course, I could not have cared less how the content was delivered. It was a mix of several other things that prompted me to drop DDI.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 8:52AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Nov 30, 2005
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I stopped my "Once every 4-5 months month long subscription" process once they went online. That is like 1/2 a person I guess?
5e comments and thoughts all in one place. Check it out to provide feedback, mock, or steal ideas.
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/28835423/Krusks_5e_Design_Goals?sdb=1
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 8:58AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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I still have it. I originally got it because I have kept a Dragon subscription since 1983. That the price was about the same as my previous print subscription was fine. That it included Dungeon, the Compendium, an offline updatable Monster Builder and Character Builder was gravy.
Since then, I have changed my preferences. Now, the Compendium is invaluable to me, even moreso than the SRD was in 3e. I have it open during every game, whether I am playing or DMing. The Character Builder has become invaluable. Whether it is offline or online is immaterial to me.
I use the CB to maintain all of the PCs in my current game, and to maintain my own PCs in the games I play in. To me, it alone is worth the subscription price, and I am not affected nor worried by the online-only nature of it. The only thing that concerns me is the 20 character limit, but I understand this is likely to go away at some point.
For the time being, I'm keeping my subscription.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 9:05AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Oct 30, 2008
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I kept mine. I actually like it better online. Once we get feature parity I'll delete the old builder entirely (for now I use it for workarounds and stuff).
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 9:06AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Nov 29, 2006
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Our entire group has left DDI.
We got tired of the silence broken only by half-truths, the sudden disposal of a functional character builder for a non-functional (for our needs, and actually NON-functional at first, at that!) version designed solely to put the players in complete dependence on WotC/HASBRO (much like the draconian measures of the early GSL), and other rather reprehensible measures taken that just made DDI too much to stomach anymore.
I have no use for what I feel is ABUSE that WotC then demands that I PAY FOR.
(Plus, the Great Essentials Divide didn't help matters any, either.)
Mind you, we still play D&D, but we no longer use DDI, and we're greatly relieved that we no longer have to tolerate the constant feeling we were getting from WotC that we weren't playing their game "right" (and that they were going to alter the available tools so that our campaigns matched THEIR play-style rather than ours) and that by playing the game as the books were written was WRONGBADFUN instead of their sweeping new shift to Essentials-style 4E.
We have no use for "fortune cards". We have no use for the seeming return of "Wizards rule, fighters drool". And we have no use for online-only tools when not everyplace we game has wi-fi, or even guaranteed internet access.
WotC and crew (and their apologists) can go have their version of D&D, we can go have ours.
After all, we still have all the hardcover 4E rulebooks (and the offline CB, as well as a character builder by another company) published prior to Essentials and the online-only nonsense. While new books would be nice, we really don't need them to play "our" D&D.
The sycophants and EULA quoters aren't worth our time.
4E =/= Essentials; Essentials =/= 4E.
To WotC/DDI: GO "SOON" YOURSELVES.
Internet Rule #41. Needs moar Desu. No exceptions.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 9:15AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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It wasn't about online vs offline for me. I didn't really care either way about that.
It was about a combination of a ghastly mess of a replacement for a reasonably functional program; slow, unreliable updates; slow, slow, SLOW bug fixing; godawful communication (varying from really stupid mistakes, miscommunication and silence to outright, apparently wilful deceit); and a decline in quality of the magazines. Particularly in comparison to what I'm used to from the open source community, this looks really, really bad.
The only real attraction of DDI these days is the Compendium, and my completionism nagging at me to pick up the Dragon content I'm missing. It's not persuaded me yet (particularly due to observing the reactions to the content, and the fact that nothing has yet come out for any of the classes/builds I'm interested in playing), and I doubt it will again in the future.
DDI would have to do something VERY special to get me back, probably involving allowing the community API access to develop their own digital tools. But that's got about a snowball's chance in hell of happening.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 9:18AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2005
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I quit - for the time being. I'm waiting for most of the bugs to be worked out before I go back. Also perhaps the VTT and Monster builder being up an running
Welcome to ZomboniLand - My D&D Blog http://zomboniland.blogspot.com/
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 9:19AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Sep 18, 2009
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Oh, by the way, is the monster builder online? If so, how does it work? Is there a limit to the number of monsters you can build?
The existing offline monster builder is really all I need though, since it's been updated with MM3 design philosophy and math.
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