How is it that I buy a physical copy of these products, but I don't have access to any of it online?
So now I have to pay for it digitally as well? And if I want to participate with my friends I have to pay a monthly fee on top of that?
THREE PAY WALLS. Do you even want people to play the game?
There could be a unique identifier in every book. You would then register that on the website and gain access to that material. Then if you wanted access to any other material you could either purchase it piecemeal digitally, purchase the whole book digitally, or purchase the physical copy and register it on the website so you have access to it online.
I wanted to play this game, and do so at a level where I really understood the intricacies of the play and story and world building. I spent a number of weeks researching which books to buy and how best to get started. Not once was it made clear that this was how the operation was structured.
In the last 5 days I have spent well over 50 hours poring over materials to learn the game, and when I'm finally ready to dive in I find out I have to pay for what I've already paid for a second time, and then pay a third "door charge" just to get in. There are no single adjectives that describe how ridiculous this is.
This website is not owned by the same company that publishes D&D. This website is more like an online bookstore that only sells digital D&D books. And they made all of these additional tools like the character builder for us to use for free with the materials we purchase.
Think of the paper books as like X-Box copies of video games, and the digital books as like PlayStation versions of the same games. This website is like Amazon, and wherever you bought your books is like GameStop. If you buy an X-Box version of a game from GameStop, would you expect Amazon to give you a free PlayStation copy of the same game?
You don’t need a subscription to play with your friends at all. The subscription just lets you share your unlocked materials with your friends for free. And, if you and your friends each purchase one or two books from this website, and any one of you has a subscription, then you can all share each other’s stuff for free with that subscription.
Not to mention, the company that runs this website has to follow a specific contract with the company that publishes the game, Wizards of the Coast. They have no choice. And they worked like heck to build this website, so they deserve to get paid too.
How is it that I buy a physical copy of these products, but I don't have access to any of it online?
So now I have to pay for it digitally as well? And if I want to participate with my friends I have to pay a monthly fee on top of that?
THREE PAY WALLS. Do you even want people to play the game?
There could be a unique identifier in every book. You would then register that on the website and gain access to that material. Then if you wanted access to any other material you could either purchase it piecemeal digitally, purchase the whole book digitally, or purchase the physical copy and register it on the website so you have access to it online.
I wanted to play this game, and do so at a level where I really understood the intricacies of the play and story and world building. I spent a number of weeks researching which books to buy and how best to get started. Not once was it made clear that this was how the operation was structured.
In the last 5 days I have spent well over 50 hours poring over materials to learn the game, and when I'm finally ready to dive in I find out I have to pay for what I've already paid for a second time, and then pay a third "door charge" just to get in. There are no single adjectives that describe how ridiculous this is.
This website is not owned by the same company that publishes D&D. This website is more like an online bookstore that only sells digital D&D books. And they made all of these additional tools like the character builder for us to use for free with the materials we purchase.
Think of the paper books as like X-Box copies of video games, and the digital books as like PlayStation versions of the same games. This website is like Amazon, and wherever you bought your books is like GameStop. If you buy an X-Box version of a game from GameStop, would you expect Amazon to give you a free PlayStation copy of the same game?
You don’t need a subscription to play with your friends at all. The subscription just lets you share your unlocked materials with your friends for free. And, if you and your friends each purchase one or two books from this website, and any one of you has a subscription, then you can all share each other’s stuff for free with that subscription.
Not to mention, the company that runs this website has to follow a specific contract with the company that publishes the game, Wizards of the Coast. They have no choice. And they worked like heck to build this website, so they deserve to get paid too.
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