WotC cancels books : original ICv2 article
Wizards of the Coast has announced a decision to refocus the company’s publishing program on its two core brands, Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. WotC’s 2008 publishing program will remain unchanged, but starting in 2009 any book not tied to Magic or D&D will be removed from the publishing schedule.
I just wonder if this, along with the death of Gleemax and the poor showing with D&D insider is a sign that WotC is truly in trouble. I wouldn't get rid of all those 3.x edition D&D books just yet.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Gleemax is Dead
According to several sites, including ICv2, WotC has announced that it is shutting down the Gleemax social networking site. Apparently they got a little too ambitious and found that they did not have the manpower to sustain such an ambitious venture as well as developing their other online inititives. Instead they will concentrate on Magic Online and D&D insider. Given that nearly a year after being announced and almost 2 months after the release of D&D 4e, D&D insider is still pretty useless I would say they definitely need to spend a little more time and manpower getting the supposed cornerstone to 4e up and running.
I visit the WotC sites regularly, including the message boards, but have only been on the actual Gleemax site a handful of time, usually to get to the message boards. I fear that given the company's poor handling of the release of 4e, very poor execution of its online inititives and general bad image in the eyes of gamers, the company needs to start making some good decisions quickly. D&D is an iconic brand and the grand daddy of pretty much all modern gaming, I would hate to see some over ambitous and poorly planned stunts bring down the juggernaut of the gaming industry. As much as I give WotC a hard time for some of their decisions, D&D is till my all time favorite game and it pains me to think that we could see the beginning of the end if they don't get things going in their favor soon.
Of course this could be a sign of good things to come. TSR had its rough spell before WotC bought the brand and reinvigorated the industry, maybe it is about time for someone else to do the same. Or else it could be time for another brand to take top spot in the eyes of gamers. Unlike Chocolate and Peanut Butter, some things just aren't meant to be mixed, maybe table top gaming and the internet is one of them.
You can read the ICv2 article here: Gleemax
I visit the WotC sites regularly, including the message boards, but have only been on the actual Gleemax site a handful of time, usually to get to the message boards. I fear that given the company's poor handling of the release of 4e, very poor execution of its online inititives and general bad image in the eyes of gamers, the company needs to start making some good decisions quickly. D&D is an iconic brand and the grand daddy of pretty much all modern gaming, I would hate to see some over ambitous and poorly planned stunts bring down the juggernaut of the gaming industry. As much as I give WotC a hard time for some of their decisions, D&D is till my all time favorite game and it pains me to think that we could see the beginning of the end if they don't get things going in their favor soon.
Of course this could be a sign of good things to come. TSR had its rough spell before WotC bought the brand and reinvigorated the industry, maybe it is about time for someone else to do the same. Or else it could be time for another brand to take top spot in the eyes of gamers. Unlike Chocolate and Peanut Butter, some things just aren't meant to be mixed, maybe table top gaming and the internet is one of them.
You can read the ICv2 article here: Gleemax
Friday, July 25, 2008
4e = Thumbs Up.
So far my group has played 3 sessions of 4e D&D and we like it. Sure there are things I miss about 3.x that I may houserule into the new edition, but not much. Of course we house ruled 3.x to death (mainly in favor of Magic Users who kind of got the shaft in 3.x at lower levels) as I do with most systems. 4e is no different in that respect as I have already started coming up with exceptions to gameplay.
For instance 4e was written under the assumtion that everyone would be using minitatures from the D&D minis game (a very arrogant assumtion in my oppinion), which we do not. The minis, we still use the old paint them yourself kind, are nothing more than a visual aid to help the players and myself with a point of reference in combat situations. More often than not our minis are not even on a map but set up in the middle of the gaming (dining room) table as I will often still use the old graph paper maps that I make myself.
So when a power calls for an effect to encompass x number of squares, I convert that to feet and estimate the distance from, or around, the PC's mini. It is simple and I don't have to spend a lot of money on premade minis and tiles. Granted if I were to ever play in a "real" game at a con I might be a little bit lost, but that has happened a total of 1 time in my life as a gamer.
My group, myself included, simply doesn't want to spend a lot of money on extras that we don't really need. So the area of effect will remain at the discretion of the DM (me) and has worked just fine thus far. So estimating area of effect and only using "official" minis and maps at our discretion is house rule #1.
House rule number 2 is the same as it has been in every D&D game I have run in the past: NO GNOME PC'S!!!! I can't stand gnomes in D&D and never will like the little cretins. Did I mention that I don't like Gnomes? This is why I am glad they are not a character race in 4e, at least not in the first PHB I have heard that they will be in future releases. My players can create Goblin Paladins, Vampire Warlocks, and even Drow Clerics, but no Gnomes are allowed in my games unless they are being slaughtered. My players know my irrational disdain of these creatures and have said they will slay any they come across, for they are vile abominations. Any gnomes that pops up in my campaigns are always evil anyway, so the PC's can take them out at will, it is my way of getting vengeance for their existence. Now if they were like the Travelocity or Garden Gnomes you see in people's front yard I may change my mind, but I can not stand the tinkerer role they seem destitined to fill in D&D.
That is really all the house rules I have come up with so far. I haven't seen a need for more at this stage, 4e seems like a good solid system. The character classes are well balanced, though I found I am not fond of the Warlord class. To me it seems like a bard/fighter and is of no interest to me, though I have 2 players with Dragonborn Warlords. (Despite my lack of interest in Warlords I do like the Dragonborn race which seems to be made for the Warlord class.) Then again the Bard was often nothing more than a magic using Rouge in older editions, so I guess there is always a class that seems less interesting than others, or that overlaps too much for my taste, such as Sorcerer and Wizard. I liked the Sorcerer so much that I rarely played a Wizard (except for Necromancers) once 3.x gave me the choice between the two classes, almost every PC and NPC I created was a Sorcerer.
The Warlock class is pretty interesting, though it does seem to be tailor made for the Tiefling. I do wish they would have put the Aasimar in as a counter balance, maybe we'll see them in a future PHB release. I have to say I am partial to the Star Pact Warlock because it brings just a smidgeon of Lovecraft into the game, so I guess I am showing my bias there.
The rest of the classes and races are pretty standard, with the exclusion of the despicable Gnomes, and I have no complaints as a whole.
One thing I do like about the new system is the rituals. Wizards now have really good spells that need no components (powers) like a Sorcerer and still keep the feel of a Wizard by using rituals. That was pretty smart on the part of the developers. They took the best of both classes and combined them in an way that keeps magic users on par with the rest of the party.
I have heard a lot of complaints about the fact that 4e is so geared towards combat that the actual role playing aspect is lost. I disagree with this. In my games the role playing has always been seperate from the combat and remains so in the new edition. I have come across nothing that inhibits or detracts from my players doing a good job of staying in character while not in combat. As a matter of fact our first 2 4e sessions had almost no combat at all.
I also do not see that 4e has a MMO feel when you are actually playing. I can see that the ability to easily buy magic items and the power system are very similar to that of a video game, but that's where the similarities end in my opinion. I think that over all these aspects add to the game, I always allowed my PC's to have access to the occassional "magic shop", so even in 2e (way back when) PCs with enough loot could buy more powerful equipment.
One thing I both like and dislike about 4e is that everything pretty much has its own Base Attack Bonus. That was probably the hardest thing to adjust to for us. We got so use to using Melee and Ranged almost exclusively that having to figure the BAB for every power and weapon was kind of aggrevating during character creation. But I have kind of come to like this, it is a little more to keep track of when you level up, but easier in combat. My major complaint with WotC is the fact that the character sheet simply doesn't have enough of the appropriate places to keep track of this info and we end up using another sheet of paper. Then again if this is my only major complaint with the system they must have done something right.
So over all I have to say that 4e has been as success with my group. I like it, they all like it and we plan to use 4e as long as we continue gaming together.
Since I like 4e so much I have put together a 4e wishlist of things I want to see using 4e rules.
For instance 4e was written under the assumtion that everyone would be using minitatures from the D&D minis game (a very arrogant assumtion in my oppinion), which we do not. The minis, we still use the old paint them yourself kind, are nothing more than a visual aid to help the players and myself with a point of reference in combat situations. More often than not our minis are not even on a map but set up in the middle of the gaming (dining room) table as I will often still use the old graph paper maps that I make myself.
So when a power calls for an effect to encompass x number of squares, I convert that to feet and estimate the distance from, or around, the PC's mini. It is simple and I don't have to spend a lot of money on premade minis and tiles. Granted if I were to ever play in a "real" game at a con I might be a little bit lost, but that has happened a total of 1 time in my life as a gamer.
My group, myself included, simply doesn't want to spend a lot of money on extras that we don't really need. So the area of effect will remain at the discretion of the DM (me) and has worked just fine thus far. So estimating area of effect and only using "official" minis and maps at our discretion is house rule #1.
House rule number 2 is the same as it has been in every D&D game I have run in the past: NO GNOME PC'S!!!! I can't stand gnomes in D&D and never will like the little cretins. Did I mention that I don't like Gnomes? This is why I am glad they are not a character race in 4e, at least not in the first PHB I have heard that they will be in future releases. My players can create Goblin Paladins, Vampire Warlocks, and even Drow Clerics, but no Gnomes are allowed in my games unless they are being slaughtered. My players know my irrational disdain of these creatures and have said they will slay any they come across, for they are vile abominations. Any gnomes that pops up in my campaigns are always evil anyway, so the PC's can take them out at will, it is my way of getting vengeance for their existence. Now if they were like the Travelocity or Garden Gnomes you see in people's front yard I may change my mind, but I can not stand the tinkerer role they seem destitined to fill in D&D.
That is really all the house rules I have come up with so far. I haven't seen a need for more at this stage, 4e seems like a good solid system. The character classes are well balanced, though I found I am not fond of the Warlord class. To me it seems like a bard/fighter and is of no interest to me, though I have 2 players with Dragonborn Warlords. (Despite my lack of interest in Warlords I do like the Dragonborn race which seems to be made for the Warlord class.) Then again the Bard was often nothing more than a magic using Rouge in older editions, so I guess there is always a class that seems less interesting than others, or that overlaps too much for my taste, such as Sorcerer and Wizard. I liked the Sorcerer so much that I rarely played a Wizard (except for Necromancers) once 3.x gave me the choice between the two classes, almost every PC and NPC I created was a Sorcerer.
The Warlock class is pretty interesting, though it does seem to be tailor made for the Tiefling. I do wish they would have put the Aasimar in as a counter balance, maybe we'll see them in a future PHB release. I have to say I am partial to the Star Pact Warlock because it brings just a smidgeon of Lovecraft into the game, so I guess I am showing my bias there.
The rest of the classes and races are pretty standard, with the exclusion of the despicable Gnomes, and I have no complaints as a whole.
One thing I do like about the new system is the rituals. Wizards now have really good spells that need no components (powers) like a Sorcerer and still keep the feel of a Wizard by using rituals. That was pretty smart on the part of the developers. They took the best of both classes and combined them in an way that keeps magic users on par with the rest of the party.
I have heard a lot of complaints about the fact that 4e is so geared towards combat that the actual role playing aspect is lost. I disagree with this. In my games the role playing has always been seperate from the combat and remains so in the new edition. I have come across nothing that inhibits or detracts from my players doing a good job of staying in character while not in combat. As a matter of fact our first 2 4e sessions had almost no combat at all.
I also do not see that 4e has a MMO feel when you are actually playing. I can see that the ability to easily buy magic items and the power system are very similar to that of a video game, but that's where the similarities end in my opinion. I think that over all these aspects add to the game, I always allowed my PC's to have access to the occassional "magic shop", so even in 2e (way back when) PCs with enough loot could buy more powerful equipment.
One thing I both like and dislike about 4e is that everything pretty much has its own Base Attack Bonus. That was probably the hardest thing to adjust to for us. We got so use to using Melee and Ranged almost exclusively that having to figure the BAB for every power and weapon was kind of aggrevating during character creation. But I have kind of come to like this, it is a little more to keep track of when you level up, but easier in combat. My major complaint with WotC is the fact that the character sheet simply doesn't have enough of the appropriate places to keep track of this info and we end up using another sheet of paper. Then again if this is my only major complaint with the system they must have done something right.
So over all I have to say that 4e has been as success with my group. I like it, they all like it and we plan to use 4e as long as we continue gaming together.
Since I like 4e so much I have put together a 4e wishlist of things I want to see using 4e rules.
- Bring back Maztica! I want it as a stand alone setting if possible without the whole Conquistador aspect. Just a setting based on the Mayan & Aztec cultures.
- Re-release d20 Modern under the new rules. I think the 4e rules are tailor made for modern gaming, especially in a Supers, Sci-fi or Pulp setting. Which brings me to my next request...
- Make a Supers game using 4e. The power system would work great for a level based superhero campaign.
- Revise the Bard so that it isn't just a magic using rogue in future PHBs.
- Give me my Druids!
- Make the Witch a character class in a future PHB. Since Druids are kind of like nature oriented Clerics, the Witch fits the bill of a nature oriented arcane magic user.
- Release an all evil PHB, kind of like the Book of Vile Darkness, but in PHB format. It is always fun to run the occassional evil campaign and having classes and races geared specifically towards evil campaigns would be fun.
- Bring back Necromancers! They make the best NPC villians.
- Now that the book series is coming to a close, re-release Wheel of Time under the 4e rules. My group loved the 3e version and it would kick butt in 4e.
- Ban Gnomes as PCs! Did I mention I don't like Gnomes?
Friday, July 18, 2008
Movie Trailers
Now more than anytime I can remember interest movies that Geeks will like is at an all time high. I've been searching the net for trailers and found some pretty good ones. There are definitely a bunch of movies that I will be seeing over the next year or so.
Watchmen
X-Files
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Mirrors
Twilight
City of Ember
The Mummy
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Monster Camp
Journey to the Center of the Earth
These are just a few of the upcoming movies that look interesting. I will post more trailer links as I find them.
Watchmen
X-Files
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Mirrors
Twilight
City of Ember
The Mummy
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Monster Camp
Journey to the Center of the Earth
These are just a few of the upcoming movies that look interesting. I will post more trailer links as I find them.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Technology Burnout
I am a geek and as such I am drawn to technology. I can't help myself. It doesn't matter if I need or have a use for the latest gizmo, I just naturally want it. At least that is how I was until recently.
I have found that I am getting more and more annoyed with the way technology has taken over our lives. I still like all the blinking lights, touch screens and stylish designs, but I am better able to control my desire to own these techno toys than before. Since I can watch the few shows that I enjoy on the internet, I don't even turn on my TV anymore and even canceled my Satellite subscription. I no longer care that my cell phone does not have all the features that are available, and I don't care that my computer is two years old. I don't read gaming mags, PC mags or visit tech sites like I did just 6 months ago. I'm getting tired of technology.
I still keep my computer in good shape. I still pick up my PSP or DS to play games on occassion, but I no longer care if I get the newest console. I may be getting old and just deciding that there are many other things in life far more important, or I may just have realized that keeping up with tech is nigh impossible.
I still keep my computers running in tip top shape, but I have no desire to replace it. I spend less and less time surfing the net and find that I enjoy reading a good book far more than I did just a few years ago. I'm worried about the environment, the economy and I resent the fact that I can't go anywhere in the world without being on camera. I prefer road maps to GPs and I feel sorry for our kids. They will never know what life was like when a home computer was something none of us had. We did our homework with pencil and paper, and we could write in cursive an art form that is apparenlty being lost on the kids of today. The only people we knew were the ones in our neighborhood, not people from half a world away that we met on Myspace.
Technology has done wonders to enable us to become more efficient, communicate globally, and in some ways become smarter. Still I can't shake the feeling that we are loosing a bit of ourselves in the process. Sacrificing some of what makes us human.
I have found that I am getting more and more annoyed with the way technology has taken over our lives. I still like all the blinking lights, touch screens and stylish designs, but I am better able to control my desire to own these techno toys than before. Since I can watch the few shows that I enjoy on the internet, I don't even turn on my TV anymore and even canceled my Satellite subscription. I no longer care that my cell phone does not have all the features that are available, and I don't care that my computer is two years old. I don't read gaming mags, PC mags or visit tech sites like I did just 6 months ago. I'm getting tired of technology.
I still keep my computer in good shape. I still pick up my PSP or DS to play games on occassion, but I no longer care if I get the newest console. I may be getting old and just deciding that there are many other things in life far more important, or I may just have realized that keeping up with tech is nigh impossible.
I still keep my computers running in tip top shape, but I have no desire to replace it. I spend less and less time surfing the net and find that I enjoy reading a good book far more than I did just a few years ago. I'm worried about the environment, the economy and I resent the fact that I can't go anywhere in the world without being on camera. I prefer road maps to GPs and I feel sorry for our kids. They will never know what life was like when a home computer was something none of us had. We did our homework with pencil and paper, and we could write in cursive an art form that is apparenlty being lost on the kids of today. The only people we knew were the ones in our neighborhood, not people from half a world away that we met on Myspace.
Technology has done wonders to enable us to become more efficient, communicate globally, and in some ways become smarter. Still I can't shake the feeling that we are loosing a bit of ourselves in the process. Sacrificing some of what makes us human.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
4e: The First Game!
Tonight my group ran our first game of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. It was a good 2 weeks earlier than expected and I had nothing at all prepared as the decision was a bit last minute. I still hadn't finished reading all the books when we decided to play. So I hit the books , like I do during midterms or finals, and crammed as much 4e knowledge into my brain as I could manage. All in all the game went really well. We only had 3 actual PCs and an NPC (my character) that tagged along doing nothing but round out the group, still we had fun.
4e is amazingly similar to 3e in many regards and there were only a few things that caused some confusion. Mostly I think this came from WotC's side of the fence. The number one point we all found to be a bit confusing came as we filled in character sheets.
We were rolling along creating a Tiefling Rogue, Tiefling Warlock, Dragonborn Fighter and a Dragonborn Warlord until we reached the attack workspace. Everything else had taken 10-15 minutes to complete, but this part had us scratching our heads. There weren't enough spaces for everything we needed and that made us second guess what we thought we understood. Since we were still in the creation phase it was time to hit the rulebooks. We read and read various pages, coming to the realiziation that much of the book was not designed for ease of use in all things.
Too much information requires you to jump back and forth in the book for our taste. Since the 3 experienced gamers in the group were questioning what was right the new guy, who has never played any RPG, was left dumbfounded. We all took turns giving our interpretations of whether the Attack work space was messed up, truncated to conserve space, or if all of our intelligence scores had been drained by the Mountain Dew I had bought on special.
After spending well over 2 hours debating this and second guessing all of our decisions I finally made a call, DMs get to do things like that. Write it down the way we think it should be on a separate piece of paper and leave the Attack Workspace empty. So we did.
Since I was feeling a tad bit silly because we have never had that kind of confusion over any game system, especially our game of choice D&D, I hopped online to see if anyone else had similar problems. They did.
Numerous boards I visited had people asking the same question. "Why are there only X many spaces, when I need XZ many... did I screw something up?" To be honest I didn't find anyone that could answer that in a satisfactory manner. Many did exactly what my group did and said the hell with it, and did it how they thought it should be. Maybe WotC screwed up (completely unheard of... wink, wink) or maybe it was just too simple. Sometimes when you expect something to be hard, you make it much harder than it really is and I think that is a possibility.
The one thing we all agreed on, especially the new guy, was that the character creation could have been more clear. Granted there is the standard "this goes here" character sheet example, but the text didn't really explain how to figure some of the numbers you wanted. Some of that information was actually in the back of the book. Other bits of info were found in the gaining a level section, one place I would not initially think to look for stuff that pertained to character creation.
Overall we were happy with 4e. The action and game play was quick, fun and still familiar enough to feel like we weren't in completely unknown territory. The minor glitch was annoying as hell, but not bad enough to turn us away from the game. As a matter of fact we are picking up the same story next time we play. We are a 4e group, for now. The 3e books are still safely stored on the upstairs bookshelf... just in case.
4e is amazingly similar to 3e in many regards and there were only a few things that caused some confusion. Mostly I think this came from WotC's side of the fence. The number one point we all found to be a bit confusing came as we filled in character sheets.
We were rolling along creating a Tiefling Rogue, Tiefling Warlock, Dragonborn Fighter and a Dragonborn Warlord until we reached the attack workspace. Everything else had taken 10-15 minutes to complete, but this part had us scratching our heads. There weren't enough spaces for everything we needed and that made us second guess what we thought we understood. Since we were still in the creation phase it was time to hit the rulebooks. We read and read various pages, coming to the realiziation that much of the book was not designed for ease of use in all things.
Too much information requires you to jump back and forth in the book for our taste. Since the 3 experienced gamers in the group were questioning what was right the new guy, who has never played any RPG, was left dumbfounded. We all took turns giving our interpretations of whether the Attack work space was messed up, truncated to conserve space, or if all of our intelligence scores had been drained by the Mountain Dew I had bought on special.
After spending well over 2 hours debating this and second guessing all of our decisions I finally made a call, DMs get to do things like that. Write it down the way we think it should be on a separate piece of paper and leave the Attack Workspace empty. So we did.
Since I was feeling a tad bit silly because we have never had that kind of confusion over any game system, especially our game of choice D&D, I hopped online to see if anyone else had similar problems. They did.
Numerous boards I visited had people asking the same question. "Why are there only X many spaces, when I need XZ many... did I screw something up?" To be honest I didn't find anyone that could answer that in a satisfactory manner. Many did exactly what my group did and said the hell with it, and did it how they thought it should be. Maybe WotC screwed up (completely unheard of... wink, wink) or maybe it was just too simple. Sometimes when you expect something to be hard, you make it much harder than it really is and I think that is a possibility.
The one thing we all agreed on, especially the new guy, was that the character creation could have been more clear. Granted there is the standard "this goes here" character sheet example, but the text didn't really explain how to figure some of the numbers you wanted. Some of that information was actually in the back of the book. Other bits of info were found in the gaining a level section, one place I would not initially think to look for stuff that pertained to character creation.
Overall we were happy with 4e. The action and game play was quick, fun and still familiar enough to feel like we weren't in completely unknown territory. The minor glitch was annoying as hell, but not bad enough to turn us away from the game. As a matter of fact we are picking up the same story next time we play. We are a 4e group, for now. The 3e books are still safely stored on the upstairs bookshelf... just in case.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
D&D Compendium
It's not much given that 4e has been out for a bit, but there is finally some content on D&D insider. The D&D Compendium is a 4e database that you can use when you need quick answers. There isn't a whole lot on the site and to be honest it isn't that impressive.
I had hoped that they would have more of the online applications up and running when 4e was released, but almost a year after the initial announcement and still nothing. To me it is not only disappointing, but sad that nearly a nearly a year after the initial announcement we still can not use the "incredible" online components of 4e. Isn't that one of the things they've kept stressing since Gen Con 08? It seems like all we've heard is "virtual table top" this and "virtual table top" that, but the release of 4e has come and gone, still no virtual table top. No way to get the maximum potential out of a newly released product.
Would people have flocked to the iphone if Apple had said " here is this great new phone and with it you can do all this amazing stuff, but there is no network and you can't make calls on it yet"?
OK maybe many would have still shelled out ridiculous amounts of money for the newest Apple product, but many more would not. We got excited about 4e, in part due to the fact we would be able to game with friends both near and far using the amazing virtual table top. While I do admit that I am liking what I read in the books, the lack of a core (though not absolutely necessary) feature has me less than amazed.
The whole process of getting 4e on the shelves has seemed rushed.There have been complaints from numerous buyers about quality issues with the new books, 3.x gamers are still crying foul, not to mention the books that hit the streets early and the pdf versions that leaked onto the net. 4e has been plagued with issues and WotC has only served to lessen their credibility by not delivering more to the fans that did, eventually, accept the new edition, myself included.
Since Dungeon & Dragon magazines' online content has been less than stellar over the past 10 months and the online component of 4e has yet to be released, I'm thinking that perhaps WotC should have waited. It would have been much wiser and probably more acceptable if they had waited until everything could be released and utilized around the same time. If nothing else they should have kept feeding us just enough since the announcement to keep us wanting more until it was completed. They definitely should have had a little more to show when the product hit the streets and got gamers in the mood to actually play. They dropped the ball as far as I'm concerned. Unless they really show me something to change my mind, I am losing interest in the online content more and more every day.
I had hoped that they would have more of the online applications up and running when 4e was released, but almost a year after the initial announcement and still nothing. To me it is not only disappointing, but sad that nearly a nearly a year after the initial announcement we still can not use the "incredible" online components of 4e. Isn't that one of the things they've kept stressing since Gen Con 08? It seems like all we've heard is "virtual table top" this and "virtual table top" that, but the release of 4e has come and gone, still no virtual table top. No way to get the maximum potential out of a newly released product.
Would people have flocked to the iphone if Apple had said " here is this great new phone and with it you can do all this amazing stuff, but there is no network and you can't make calls on it yet"?
OK maybe many would have still shelled out ridiculous amounts of money for the newest Apple product, but many more would not. We got excited about 4e, in part due to the fact we would be able to game with friends both near and far using the amazing virtual table top. While I do admit that I am liking what I read in the books, the lack of a core (though not absolutely necessary) feature has me less than amazed.
The whole process of getting 4e on the shelves has seemed rushed.There have been complaints from numerous buyers about quality issues with the new books, 3.x gamers are still crying foul, not to mention the books that hit the streets early and the pdf versions that leaked onto the net. 4e has been plagued with issues and WotC has only served to lessen their credibility by not delivering more to the fans that did, eventually, accept the new edition, myself included.
Since Dungeon & Dragon magazines' online content has been less than stellar over the past 10 months and the online component of 4e has yet to be released, I'm thinking that perhaps WotC should have waited. It would have been much wiser and probably more acceptable if they had waited until everything could be released and utilized around the same time. If nothing else they should have kept feeding us just enough since the announcement to keep us wanting more until it was completed. They definitely should have had a little more to show when the product hit the streets and got gamers in the mood to actually play. They dropped the ball as far as I'm concerned. Unless they really show me something to change my mind, I am losing interest in the online content more and more every day.
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