I am actually a creature of low tech habit when it comes to tabletop rpg stuff. I still draw maps on paper with pencil & colored markers, hand write character sheets, and sit in the same room with my fellow gamers.

I'm just wondering how many DDI subscribers kept up their accounts largely because of the promise of the VTT?

IMHO the subscription model for pen & paper rpg material sucks donkey balls. This may end up being WOTC's last hurrah in the tabletop rpg software market.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;559196When you have fucked around with MeditechOS running Data General AVIION 9500s, get back to me.

MSSQL...luxury!

No but I programmed PCLs with ladder logic and interfaced them with microcontroller boards using 8052 chips running a mishmash of BASIC and assembly. With the whole thing running a Plasma torch on a X-Y cutting machine in realtime.

pfft.. the guys at my new job are still fooling with knives made out of stone.

Quote from: Gib;559208pfft.. the guys at my new job are still fooling with knives made out of stone.

That nothing we cut metal with water and stone.

Quote from: Bobloblah;559194I have used several of them, and they simply aren't the mickey-mouse toys you're equating them to with your lemonade stand comment. There is a vast gulf between "okay, the software doesn't do everything yet" and "screw it, we're not releasing anything."

I had a quick spin through the market leaders when this thread came up; IMHO, the free ones are worth exactly what you pay for them, and the for-pay ones are amateurish for the price they're asking, likely due to the problem of economies of scale.

And none of this even touches on the problem that you either use a centralized client-server model (which has its own technical challenges) or watch all that money you just spent developing your client vanish down the black hole of rampant piracy.

Quote from: CRKrueger;558795The sad thing is, 4th Edition would have made a helluva MMORPG.  Too bad they didn't have the license at the time to just do it instead of trying to lead up to it with a digitally delivered pen-and-paper 4e.

I'm sure D&DNext will also have the "make no rule that can't be trivially implemented as computer code" paradigm as well.

Quote from: estar;559227That nothing we cut metal with water and stone.

You guys have water?

And WotC kills the one chance to make 5e successful.

5e really does sound like a Swan song at this point, does it not?

Quote from: Benoist;5593205e really does sound like a Swan song at this point, does it not?

Swan song? More like a death rattle.

Quote from: Benoist;5593205e really does sound like a Swan song at this point, does it not?

Yeah but look on the bright side, at least they didn't go out with 4e.

And honestly, Hasbro won't let the D&D name die anyway.

If they screw up 5e, I believe it will be over.

4e went for the new. It failed.

5e is, supposedly, going for some of the old. But will it still be too new?

I am worried. I see too many novel things in 5e, e.g., advantages/disadvantages, that just don't pass the test of what feels like D&D. How could it? It's never been in any previous edition.

Something like Microlite would be a better kernel upon which to base 5e, imo.

4e failed because they did not advertise or market their product. WotC wrongly expected the fanbase to do the word of mouth advertising for them.

But without marketing to teens and college kids, word of mouth advertising is very limited. As people age, their social circles become smaller and tighter.

Adults are less likely to share hobbies with non-hobbyists. Teens are the opposite.

That's why you need to engage teens. Teens in 2012 are online. If you can't offer then an engaging online experience, your product will not be a high profit success.

My buddy's son loves the Ticket to Ride app on his iPad. He was so excited to learn that they made a boardgame out of his favorite computer game!

5e could be the bestest evar D&D of all time, but nobody is going to give a shit. Adult gamers already have their favorite edition. RPGA gamers will buy 5e to continue in their hobby of Living campaigns. But that's the end of the line without a real marketing push.

The VTT was key to that marketing.

Quote from: Spinachcat;5593374e failed because they did not advertise or market their product.

Au contraire, they marketed it on the premise that everyone, from 3.5 gamers back, were idiots and played D&D wrong, and 4e finally fixed everything.

No, they marketed it and were as successful as say, Chevy would be marketing a new Corvette by saying people who admired (and owned) '66 Stingrays were idiots who didn't know the steering wheel from the clutch flywheel.  

This entire mess is their own fault, they get what they deserve.

Quote from: Spinachcat;5593374e failed because they did not advertise or market their product. WotC wrongly expected the fanbase to do the word of mouth advertising for them.

But without marketing to teens and college kids, word of mouth advertising is very limited. As people age, their social circles become smaller and tighter.

Adults are less likely to share hobbies with non-hobbyists. Teens are the opposite.

That's why you need to engage teens. Teens in 2012 are online. If you can't offer then an engaging online experience, your product will not be a high profit success.

My buddy's son loves the Ticket to Ride app on his iPad. He was so excited to learn that they made a boardgame out of his favorite computer game!

5e could be the bestest evar D&D of all time, but nobody is going to give a shit. Adult gamers already have their favorite edition. RPGA gamers will buy 5e to continue in their hobby of Living campaigns. But that's the end of the line without a real marketing push.

The VTT was key to that marketing.

Fuck the teens you need the 8 year olds .

My daughter is 7 she woudl play Moshi Monsters all day if I let her out of the cellar for more than an a couple of hours a day.
its just role playing mixes with collecting and logic puzzles (which you can do in rpgs anyway)

Take D&D make a facebook and some IPad/android apps get the name totally back in front of people then when you have 1m active facebook players create a way to let them link together in real time.