Via Geek Related, D&D Insider is now ready to take your money, even though progress on content is all but non-existent.

Quote from: WotC (emphasis mine)I know there has been a lot of discussion of our business model and our pricing plan. We’ve been paying attention to those conversations and have decided to tweak a few things. Our current plan is to start charging for subscriptions before we have the client applications ready. That means the initial Insider subscription package will include exactly those parts that are currently in free trial mode: the magazines, the Compendium, and the bonus tools. The price tag for this subscription is as low as $4.95 per month, depending on how many months you are willing to sign up for. Specifically:

    Web-Content Only Subscription Package:
    12 Months = $59.40 ($4.95 per month)
    3 Months = $19.95 ($6.65 per month)
    1 Month = $7.95 ($7.95 per month)

We aren’t ready to discuss our medium or long-term pricing plans, but this is what the short-term looks like.

Fantastic.

Looks like the Encounter Tool and the Ability Calculator are up for free right now.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/encountertool

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/abilitytool

~blink~

There are freeware and shareware tools out there that will do what DDI will do, for no monthly fee.

Are they insane?

I'll pay when the tabletop is up and running.

The tabletop is definitely the main draw-- you can get FantasyGrounds II right now, and I had very good experiences with it except for the logging into my router to clear the ports part.

Nbos ScreenMonkey was very good (minimal features, but it works), and it has the advantage of being free.

$5 a month for Dungeon and Dragon alone isn't really that pricey

The prices seem pretty nice, I remember some people going "omg its going to cost the same amount as a mmorpg".

Keep in mind they are going to raise the prices once the other features are up and running.

$5 a month for a couple of pdfs and some freeware is a rip off.  Particularly when it's only $5 when you pay for a whole year up front.

Personally, I've found the pdfs to be effectively useless for the same reasons I found the Dark Heresy pdfs useless - they create these gigantic memory hog files that can't really be printed (both because they use a ton of ink and because you have to have a commercial printer to handle the memory requirements) and I'm not hauling a laptop around everywhere just for magazine articles.

I will happily mock any fools dumb enough to pay for a subscription to what they are currently offering.

I'm more happier with the new price. I'll pay for a while and see what I think...

Seanchai

Ehh...its the cost of one XB360 or PS3 game for a year's worth of Dragon and Dungeon in digital form.  I don't think that's terrible, but I think a lot of people will just dl them via filesharing, etc. the day subscribers get them.  There isn't enough other stuff offered right now to compel gamers to subscribe rather than pilfer...the digital tools would have went a long way towards that goal.  

I don't see much utility in the Compendium other than as a way to cut-and-paste powers and stuff onto a reference sheet.  I do like the Encounter Builder though...its pretty handy.  The Ability Generator is only marginally useful.  I'll probably end up subscribing at some point.

Quote from: pathar;233491Via Geek Related, D&D Insider is now ready to take your money, even though progress on content is all but non-existent.

Fantastic.

To be fair, you can play graphics-free online text games for about $13 a month.  Assuming they deliver, all the features of DDI are a bargain.

Quote from: StormBringer;233626To be fair, you can play graphics-free online text games for about $13 a month.

What games are these?  

(I was playing graphics-free online text games for free back in the early 90s.)

Quote from: jgants;233524Personally, I've found the pdfs to be effectively useless for the same reasons I found the Dark Heresy pdfs useless - they create these gigantic memory hog files that can't really be printed (both because they use a ton of ink and because you have to have a commercial printer to handle the memory requirements) and I'm not hauling a laptop around everywhere just for magazine articles.

Personally, I think the pdfs are useless and it is not because they are hard or expansive to print. I find them so uninspiring it is hard to express. The adventures are mostly (ok, few exceptions here...) boring dungeon crawl hack and slash with ex post implanted so called "story".

Hell... where is some urban advenutre? More social interactions. They have shiny new skill encounters system and has it any use in the published adventures? Near tu nil (ok, exceptions exists, I am aware of that). So far Dungeon I am dissatisfied with you.

Now let's look at the Dragon. Same story here. Crunch & fluff game mix. I still rember the great columns like Dungeoncraft or Play the Thing, the thematical Dragon issues. Where THE HELL is that stuff. That was cool.

I would pay 5 (or even 10) bucks for one decent adventure (to my tastes) and one two well writen actual articles (not those rules extension or what we were unable to put in the books). End of rant (so far).

$5 for two PDF magazines is not bad IF you enjoy the content.   I have always preferred books to magazines so I am not the target audience.

But the only thing I care about with DDI is the Online Game Table that kicks utter ass and brings the D&D community together in ways that has never existed before.   Anything less than that would be a moronic shame.   Hasbro has a freaking goldmine in their hands and they are treating it like shit.  Its fucking stupid to the point of aggravation.

The two biggest complaints for why people don't play D&D anymore is "no gamer friends" and "time scheduling" and a 24/7 online application that truly worked would solve both problems and easily be worth $20/mo to those people who suffer from those two issues.

Quote from: Stuart;233635What games are these?  

(I was playing graphics-free online text games for free back in the early 90s.)

Skotos.