Sunday 19 June 2011

Wizards of the Coast need to add this to DDI

Hands up if you think DDI is a tad disappointing. With hot features such as dumbed down versions of Dungeon and Dragon magazines, a lack of virtual tabletop and an online only character builder, any paying customer could be forgiven for being a little narked off by the whole thing. But this argument has been made a zillion times already and I'm not going to tread on old ground.

However, what I am going to do is suggest that Wizards implement a new feature to DDI: adventure subscriptions.

Find out more after the jump.

You may fondly recall a couple of years back when the powers that be over at WotC had the rather smashing idea of ridding the internet of all their PDF adventures because they were pants-crappingly terrified of people downloading them illegally. Many gave the company the benefit of the doubt, believing that this could be a move to bring adventures in-house through DDI or some kind of webstore. To this date this hypothesis hasn't come to fruition. Bummer.

Now look at Paizo, who are strutting their stuff in the neo-D&D scene and pushing all the right buttons. They offer a subscriptions service, whereas your account is automatically charged when a new module is released and sent to you. They even throw in a free PDF. It's a good idea for the financially stable, but there are probably other options Paizo could invest in to make this a bit better.

Enter Marvel Comics. Marvel offers a digital subscription to thousands of back issues for a relatively low annual cost. It's a serious steal considering what you're getting for about £30. I see no reason why Wizards can't offer a similar model: scan old adventures and offer them up for DDI subscribers to download at no extra cost. You could have access to an entire back catalogue of classic D&D adventures, from OD&D to 3.5. Let's face it, these modules aren't exactly making money for the company, so why not rake some cash back and offer a really great service?

One to grow on, Wizards.

4 comments:

  1. I have no interest in DDI but I would LEAP at the chance to buy PDFs of older content. I bought Castle Amber and a few other gems from RPGNow before the great PDF purge.

    With the retro clone explosion and the old school revival those old modules would be a gold mine for Hasbro/ Wizards of the Coast. As long as the old catalog items are not for sale they are earning nothing.

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  2. +1 to this idea. YES!

    Let the people see this content! If they are not going to sell it or distribute it, then release it!

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  3. This makes a lot of sense to me; sounds like a good idea.

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  4. This would make me want to re-subscribe to DDI

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