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.

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