Lately I've been feeling more and more disappointment when I sign into DnDBeyond, whether it's to play in a campaign, prep for my own, or just mess around in the character builder or read through a sourcebook. I couldn't quite put my finger on why until I realized that there wasn't anything to actually do on the website anymore that I can't just do with a pen and paper.
I checked; of the 11 clickable thumbnails on the front page (as of writing):
4 just link directly to the marketplace
1 is a good old-fashioned WotC apology
3 are varying degrees of just announcing products (two of which, the VTT and Subscriber Perks, don't even have a comment section)
Only 3 can be considered close to an "Article": 12 Best Feats for Druids (a listicle), Circle of the Sea Druid... (new subclass breakdown), and Updates in the Player's Handbook (another listicle).
Does anyone else remember when we used to have a new DDB article nearly every other day? And they were more than just "buy the new product"? I used to check the site daily to see if there was anything new, and now the front page doesn't even have the articles visible unless you scroll down. I was excited to be a part of a community to discuss new installments of Encounter of the Week or the How to Play a Monster series. Now everything is divorced from community engagement; it's all so uncomfortably forced and impersonal, like the site is trying to say "How do you do, fellow gamers?" while also unsubtly begging for money.
I'm hoping staff will see this post and (hopefully) a positive response from like-minded people and enact some kind of change to bring DDB back to something more than just the online portal for Hasbro's latest cash cow. I doubt it, but I can hope.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Lately I've been feeling more and more disappointment when I sign into DnDBeyond, whether it's to play in a campaign, prep for my own, or just mess around in the character builder or read through a sourcebook. I couldn't quite put my finger on why until I realized that there wasn't anything to actually do on the website anymore that I can't just do with a pen and paper.
I checked; of the 11 clickable thumbnails on the front page (as of writing):
Does anyone else remember when we used to have a new DDB article nearly every other day? And they were more than just "buy the new product"? I used to check the site daily to see if there was anything new, and now the front page doesn't even have the articles visible unless you scroll down. I was excited to be a part of a community to discuss new installments of Encounter of the Week or the How to Play a Monster series. Now everything is divorced from community engagement; it's all so uncomfortably forced and impersonal, like the site is trying to say "How do you do, fellow gamers?" while also unsubtly begging for money.
I'm hoping staff will see this post and (hopefully) a positive response from like-minded people and enact some kind of change to bring DDB back to something more than just the online portal for Hasbro's latest cash cow. I doubt it, but I can hope.