I was originally directed to this by a post at  Grognardia.

This is a link to two videos of the beta test of the new WOTC VTT

One point of  EXTREME MOHTERFUCKING INTEREST occurs early  in  the first video between .30-.40. It appears the VTT will support multiple editions of D&D (i.e. 1e, 2e, 3.x and 4e) and be open to other rule sets as well. Look for yourself, Barbara, it's there.

Now before someone (not you, of course) yields to the idiotic temptation to ask, "ZOMG!!!Why would WoTC do this111111?!!!" Allow me to answer.  They will have a golden opportunity to make customers out of non customers. They could, in fact, in one move restore a huge amount of the goodwill they have lost (not all, because some people will always hate them for releasing 3e and/or 4e or pulling pdfs or secretly killing Gary). In short they will have a chance of getting $ out of people they would never otherwise have gotten $ out of.  for those of you that are not paying attention, the reason then would be: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

Alternately, they may have put that menu on there with its rather explicit list as an attempt to make us all really angry.

I lean towards the $$$$$, myself, but YMMV.

Discuss

Hopefully it actually runs smoothly. It does not crash endlessly, does not suck my RAM dry, does not necessitate a super internet connection to work, does not poison the integrity of my system by downloading all sorts of bullshit onto my hard drive...

*looks at WotC's track record*

OK. I think I'll wait for a little while before getting excited.

Another botch job?  :banghead:

it didn't look so bad to me, and it is a beta test. What did you see, other than an inexperienced user?

Quote from: Aos;421535it didn't look so bad to me, and it is a beta test. What did you see, other than an inexperienced user?

Nothing resembling the 3D table in the Gencon 2007 presentation videos.

Quote from: Benoist;421531Hopefully it actually runs smoothly. It does not crash endlessly, does not suck my RAM dry, does not necessitate a super internet connection to work, does not poison the integrity of my system by downloading all sorts of bullshit onto my hard drive...

*looks at WotC's track record*

OK. I think I'll wait for a little while before getting excited.

I've made the attempt to use one of the existing VTT with my group, and we never got past the firewall/IP address issues. It is my understanding that this is far from an uncommon result. If they can get past that, have a map I can use easily, and make it so I can actually access the thing, they will be ahead of the game.  
I'm pretty psyched, actually; hell, even if it takes another year for them to get it working, I'm still pretty psyched.

Quote from: ggroy;421536Nothing resembling the 3D table in the Gencon 2007 presentation videos.

Which, is, imo, for the best.  I said on this site a year ago or so that that a basic flat VTT would be the best thing they could do.

So will they be releasing all those old modules they took off the market as VTT software release$$$?

I want to play White Plume Mountain again, except it costs sixty bucks and takes two minutes just to roll the dice once. That's gonna be badass.

It has a fucking language filter!
That alone kills the tool, let alone the mentioned bugs.

If you use voice chat, it's a non issue.
Right now we use a combo of WEBx and Skype; the only thing we use the text chat function for is secret notes between the gm and individual players. I can restrain my cussing for that, I think.

Just to be clear, though, I think it will debut as a bit of a cluster. However, I think, even given their track record- nay especially given their track record- the fact they are doing a large out in the open beta is a really good sign.
Anyway, I'm optimistic- no matter what happens I won't be any worse off than I am right now.

OK. TDD posted this somewhere else, but really, the irony is kind of hilarious, so I have to post it here too:

Hope it works out, I really do.

If WotC's software projects were a car, they'd look like the one on the cover of Information Society's 1989 release "Hack" and when started it would rev up to 80000 RPM and then promptly explode, killing every engineer who worked on it in a 20 block radius.

Quote from: Aos;421563If you use voice chat, it's a non issue.
Right now we use a combo of WEBx and Skype; the only thing we use the text chat function for is secret notes between the gm and individual players. I can restrain my cussing for that, I think.

You're paying for WebEx? Or are you scoring it for free somehow?