Community

Mar 22, 2011 -- 3:06PM, WotC_Trevor wrote:

Hey all. The fix is up now and you should be able to save monsters that you've leveled and import and save custom monsters from the classic Monster Builder. It looks like some of you bumped into some issues while we were pushing the fix, but hopefully all those are over.

Now on to the topic of "why did you release something that wasn't feature complete?" questions/complaints. Main reasons, short and sweet -  we wanted to give all the DDI members a chance to check out what we're working on, and we wanted to make sure that all DDI members had the chance to use the MB to import monsters into their VT games during the next step of the VT beta.

You still have access to the classic MB (you can download it right now). We won't be doing any more updates to it, but it's still there and still usable. Yes it has issues, but I'm hopefully most people understand that we won't be working on the old tools while adding features to the new tool. With the web-based MB, we have something that gives very basic functionality and is usable with the VT that we wanted to get into everybody hands, not just the small group of testers that we had before.

The VT point is a bit more tangible - Having the web-based MB out, even in this limited form, makes imputing monsters into the VT 1000% (statistic completely made up) better for DMs. So getting this out to DDI subscribers who will very soon be testing out the VT seemed a pretty important thing.

I am definitely sorry that I haven't given you more news on what to expect with this AT release these last few weeks. I'm also sorry if I led you to believe that the AT would be more robust than what the closed beta testers had access to. We did add a couple features, but the biggest changes are on their way. I will be back in the coming days with more information on the features we'll be implementing, focusing on whatever the next big thing is.

Trevor, I'm sorry, but this has happened enough times with WoTC over the last year that you KNEW what the reaction would be.

Saying you are sorry doesn't cut it, because your company did it this way on purpose. Yes, you meant to release it like this. Yes you let everyone think it was going to be a functional Monster Builder. And it was a conciouse choice to do so.

Not only that, we told WoTC, don't do this. Don't release it like this, it will be bad. And WoTC said nothing. Seriously, you could have simply said, We are releasing a MB that will basically be for letting you import monsters into the beta VT, we know it's not fully funcitional.

Seriously, dammit, it's bad because all the evidence shows this was a choice by WoTC rather then some poorly worded announcement, or a misunderstanding, or a change of direction.

It's exactly the kind of behavior people have been accusing WOTC of for several years that you and others at WoTC have been denying, trying to get us to believe that WoTC doens't play semantics or the old, from a certain point of view.

Your company keeps tight lipped, screws up, fails on the digital front and then does something like this because your company seems to have a real problem just being forth right and honest about somethings.

It's fricken Dungeons and Dragons. WoTC doesn't have to act like it's state secrets and that it's products are the next hoola hoop.

Mar 23, 2011 -- 1:32PM, Tichrimo wrote:

Mar 23, 2011 -- 1:22PM, Plaguescarred wrote:

Is the MB that bad ? More than half of the time it doesn't work ? I didn't use it much lately for i was into published stuff but last i played with it, it was okay except for minor snags around custom monsters IIRC.

So what's the current state of affair with CMB, hyperbole aside ?

The Classic MB is in the state it's been in for 6+ months.  e.g.:

• Power triggers get stripped when you edit/export a monster
• Resistances and vulnerabilities get stripped when you edit/export a monster

I'm sure there's other stuff, too, but those are the defects I hit most often. 

All speeds except land movement drop by 6 anytime you edit a monster (if this goes to 0 or less the movement mode disappears).

Equipment changes don't update until you save the monster, close the monster builder completely, and restart it from scratch.

Monster damage does not match MM3 standards.

There's more, but that's what I remember.

Doug Lampert

Mar 24, 2011 -- 1:11PM, dracomax1981 wrote:

Has anyone noticed that other than the initial, substandard reply about the OMB having fewer features than the CMB, the only reply we've gotten from WOTC is to stop picking on that poor, lonely poster who liked it?

Eh, Trevor did come and say he was sorry in this thread.

But yeah, I've noticed that. They arent even trying to deny how they handled this.

And I saw that post too. Which I found highly laughable.

I mean come on. There have been many people complaining about a handful of posters (we know who they are, the forum stalkers) who systematically crap on every thread, spend all day trolling, and we've openly complained, and we always get told, that's what the report button is for.

But suddenly because someone tried to get good will towards the horrible MB, WoTC speaks out against thread crapping.

That's sad. Trevor's response made me laugh at the hypocracy of it.

So, I've given this some thought and made what I think is a key realization.  Adventure Tools and the Monster Builder have NEVER been released.  Not an online verison and not a downloadable one.  BETA's have been released, but those aren't products.  You don't sell a beta, you give it out (free) for testing.  That's how a beta is defined. 

I'm really at a loss of what else to say.  I was really hoping, that somehow the OMB would blow me away and give me a reason to renew my subscription.  DnD is an incredible product, WotC continues to grossly mismanage it through poor customer expectation setting and company policies more concerned with protecting IP than in building community.

Just imagine if WotC took an approach similat to Lego?
"Lego has been involving its fan community in the development of MindStorm NXT to integrate the features and capabilities enthusiasts want. “Most often, innovation comes from the core community of users,” said Soren Lund, director of Lego MindStorms. “When we launched the legacy MindStorms platform in 1998, the community found ways to do these things on their own, and we were faced with the question of whether to allow it, which we decided to embrace and encourage"
www.digitaltrends.com/computing/lego-goe...

Lego's decision to loosen control gained it millions in sales, wonder what DnD could do?