Love that you offer the advent calendar but the execution is the equivalent of giving someone an Itunes gift card.
I appreciate the offer of coupons and discounts on purchases but that is just a naked attempt to convert engagement with commerce, you have the opportunity to offer low/no cost items that the user would appreciate. A few holiday themes frames or backgrounds, mixed color text, etc. This is a no brainer to garner appreciation from your users at no realized cost to you and you are missing the boat.
Not gonna lie some of you seem ungrateful and entitled. Arranging discounts and the licensing and contractual headaches are rarely super easy (especially international ones, for example US laws regarding business contracts is different to UK laws regarding business contracts, so making something that works in both territories or ships to both places can be problematic). Partnership options are often limited, especially given how many are shady companies better to not do business with to protect your own customers. So this does mean sometimes the best that can be arranged are offers which may not be suitable or available for everyone.
Between "absolutely nothing" and "a little something for some people" the latter is definitely better. I don't personally have much interest in the discounts and some I can't use anyway due to being 'cross the pond. But I can appreciate that this company is trying to get something that at least a few people can maybe benefit from when it was under no obligation to do anything at all. It's something extra and a nice gesture.
Maybe we can all be a bit more appreciative and not be so disrespectful just because you, personally, don't get to benefit? It's not always about you, after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Not gonna lie some of you seem ungrateful and entitled. Arranging discounts and the licensing and contractual headaches are rarely super easy (especially international ones, for example US laws regarding business contracts is different to UK laws regarding business contracts, so making something that works in both territories or ships to both places can be problematic). Partnership options are often limited, especially given how many are shady companies better to not do business with to protect your own customers. So this does mean sometimes the best that can be arranged are offers which may not be suitable or available for everyone.
Between "absolutely nothing" and "a little something for some people" the latter is definitely better. I don't personally have much interest in the discounts and some I can't use anyway due to being 'cross the pond. But I can appreciate that this company is trying to get something that at least a few people can maybe benefit from when it was under no obligation to do anything at all. It's something extra and a nice gesture.
Maybe we can all be a bit more appreciative and not be so disrespectful just because you, personally, don't get to benefit? It's not always about you, after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've heard it before and it still applies: DNDB could hand out bags of money and people would complain about the color of the bag.
A normal advent calendar at least has a piece of chocolate in it to enjoy. There's usually not a code to obtain said chocolate at a reduced price somewhere else.
Not gonna lie some of you seem ungrateful and entitled. Arranging discounts and the licensing and contractual headaches are rarely super easy (especially international ones, for example US laws regarding business contracts is different to UK laws regarding business contracts, so making something that works in both territories or ships to both places can be problematic). Partnership options are often limited, especially given how many are shady companies better to not do business with to protect your own customers. So this does mean sometimes the best that can be arranged are offers which may not be suitable or available for everyone.
Between "absolutely nothing" and "a little something for some people" the latter is definitely better. I don't personally have much interest in the discounts and some I can't use anyway due to being 'cross the pond. But I can appreciate that this company is trying to get something that at least a few people can maybe benefit from when it was under no obligation to do anything at all. It's something extra and a nice gesture.
Maybe we can all be a bit more appreciative and not be so disrespectful just because you, personally, don't get to benefit? It's not always about you, after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You know the aforementioned Ovaltine bit in A Christmas Story? The kid played along with an Little Orphan Annie engagement strategy, promised a secret special message through a special decoder ring, and at the end of the engagement the special message is "Drink more Ovaltine"? I have never met anyone who didn't sympathize with the kid until perhaps now.
Are you at all familiar with the custom of an Advent Calendar? Many, many businesses utilize them as a means of engagement by way of a token of appreciation, it's kinda a weird move given what Advent Calendars original function are, but the holiday has largely been a sales exploit, anyway what DDB is doing I've never seen any other business do. Maybe they thought they were innovating, and this is space for feedback on that innovation.
As it's run so far, I still say they overplayed their hand with the DL compendium (which was cool), and this kerfuffle would have been avoided had they done some sort of "here's a monster, and here's a coupon" approach, or just used the monster compendium as a subscriber perk/DL advertisement like they did with Spelljammer and then just announced December would have 28 days of daily deals for Advent(ure) instead of pretending a "coupon/special" is a "gift" (technically a discount can be seen as a gift abstractly, but once you get into the emotional space of evoking holidays centered around gift giving, you're in a fraught space to hand out coupon clippings).
If you want to get in front of the wall and Rodney Dangerfield "DDB gets no respect", I guess you can do that and I wish you the best negotiating your booking fees with DDB. But this is a feedback forum, and the message seems pretty clear that DDB's utilization of Advent as a promotional tool fizzled this year.
But this is also a season of Hope, and here's hoping DDB will come around with some cool stuff in the later days of the calendar, and less broadsiding antagonism of the thread tenor unless you want to specifically champion the calendar as opposed to some culture or stereotype you want to dunk.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Why is there always one person that claims people complaining are "ungrateful and entitled"? Let's break that down a bit here. First, "ungrateful" means: "not feeling or showing gratitude". Gratitude stands for "the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness." I see plenty of gratitude for the kindness we were shown. Nobody has complained about the Day 1 Gift. As for a readiness to show appreciation and kindness for a coupon you can't use? Most people throw them away or gift then when that happens and nobody shows gratitude then, so it's pretty natural to be ungrateful for useless coupons. I bet there's plenty of people that can find a use for those coupons, but we're not complaining that it should go away, we just want something we can use. That everyone can use. In fact, our suggesting ways of improving the system can be seen as our way of thanking them for the gesture, but letting them know it could be better.
As for "entitled," I don't see a single post that makes me believe anyone in this section believes they are inherentlydeserving of privileges or special treatment. Although, obviously, most people do in many ways. Heck, the term entitled can be seen as extremely offensive and disrespectful against those that actually need special treatment.
Honestly though, today’s little snowy owlbear cutout decoration is great. I might actually print one out for the Christmas tree.
Absolutely.
Today's owlbear is the perfect thing.
It’s exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for. I don’t mind a discount here and there in the calendar. They have a place too, just not as a majority.
The Snowy Owlbear is perfect! These are the kind of fun, novelty things I would expect from an advent calendar! No one is being enticed to spend more money, it's creative and fun, and seems like it could have actual function. Lovely little gift box, card or ornament (or all of the above?) to give to a fellow D&D fan!
Loved the Christmas Story "Drink more Ovaltine" comparison and the change from Advent(ure) calendar to the Ad(venture) calendar. A promotional coupon to buy your wares doesn't feel like much of a gift. Its like when someone advises saving money only to then try to sell you a product on discount saying you're saving money by spending less than normal price!
Not gonna lie some of you seem ungrateful and entitled. Arranging discounts and the licensing and contractual headaches are rarely super easy (especially international ones, for example US laws regarding business contracts is different to UK laws regarding business contracts, so making something that works in both territories or ships to both places can be problematic). Partnership options are often limited, especially given how many are shady companies better to not do business with to protect your own customers. So this does mean sometimes the best that can be arranged are offers which may not be suitable or available for everyone.
Between "absolutely nothing" and "a little something for some people" the latter is definitely better. I don't personally have much interest in the discounts and some I can't use anyway due to being 'cross the pond. But I can appreciate that this company is trying to get something that at least a few people can maybe benefit from when it was under no obligation to do anything at all. It's something extra and a nice gesture.
Maybe we can all be a bit more appreciative and not be so disrespectful just because you, personally, don't get to benefit? It's not always about you, after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sorry, but no. If someone hands me a bunch of coupons (in the range of 10%), it's called an advertisement strategy. When I get money off coupons through the post from Domino's, I don't get teary-eyed and shout their praises on FB. I look at the pamphlet (if I'm interested in Domino's pizza) and, if the new price or deals was one that persuaded in, I'll use it; otherwise, it goes in the bin. At least they're pretty clear from the outset that it's a bunch of coupons that are deals that I may or may not want.
That's not what DDB has done. They've told me that they've gotten me gifts (not deals, deals aren't gifts, they're deals in the hopes of attracting my custom through marginal discounts), and then switched on me. Two of the days have been gifts, the rest have been attempts to sell me stuff. Half the time it's been a complete waste of time because they can't sell it to me anyway.
If they want to send me junk mail then fine - label it as what it is, a bunch of partner offers. If it takes a lot of time and effort to compile, ok, but not my problem. I didn't ask for 10% off of a t shirt...from America with giant postage costs that are much more than the 10% I'd save. They haven't sent me this out of the goodness of their hearts, those various partners have paid DDB to email me offers on their behalf. They're getting paid for it.
Why should I be grateful for more attempts to sell me stuff disguised as "gifts"?
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Allow me to second some people here: a coupon given to me as a promotion for a product that I would have zero intention or interest in buying otherwise is NOT a "gift" or a "deal": it's an "advertisement"; that's why they come in scads via your physical meat-world mail box all the time... no matter how much you try to limit them. It is not a "deal" if I was never going to buy the thing in the first place. The "percent off your first order from this subscription service!" breed least of all: because that one literally ropes you into recurrent spending.
While I do appreciate the idea of the advent calendar, the one we have further supports the idea of "if something is free, you are the product." In this case, the free gift is a chance for you to hand over money to Wizards of the Coast. This has been mentioned before in a recently updated (from 2020) blog post about how one can give the gift of official (and not particularly cheap) D&D tat: I'd rather tat that works on D&D Beyond like dice or backgrounds or character portraits (which are coming with the December subscriber perks). I don't see the need for gratitude for a daily advert that requires me to go to it. An advert calendar, if you will. *Guffaws*.
The coupons might have been better received if they were part of the Monster Compendium and the owlbear print-out, rather than having their own doors on the advent calendar ("and when you're done printing off your owlbear, why not use this code to get 15% off your own Owlbear plush with code CYNICAL15?"). That would mean more making more worthwhile stuff for the newly freed up doors, but I'd wager there'd be considerably more favourable feedback.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
Today's prize is pretty good for anyone who plays Idle Champions. A $45 value given for free. I don't play the game so it doesn't mean much to me, but I hope others can make use of it.
Bring back the beholder coloring sheet. I thought it was funny. Better than just coupons.
Love that you offer the advent calendar but the execution is the equivalent of giving someone an Itunes gift card.
I appreciate the offer of coupons and discounts on purchases but that is just a naked attempt to convert engagement with commerce, you have the opportunity to offer low/no cost items that the user would appreciate. A few holiday themes frames or backgrounds, mixed color text, etc. This is a no brainer to garner appreciation from your users at no realized cost to you and you are missing the boat.
Not gonna lie some of you seem ungrateful and entitled. Arranging discounts and the licensing and contractual headaches are rarely super easy (especially international ones, for example US laws regarding business contracts is different to UK laws regarding business contracts, so making something that works in both territories or ships to both places can be problematic). Partnership options are often limited, especially given how many are shady companies better to not do business with to protect your own customers. So this does mean sometimes the best that can be arranged are offers which may not be suitable or available for everyone.
Between "absolutely nothing" and "a little something for some people" the latter is definitely better. I don't personally have much interest in the discounts and some I can't use anyway due to being 'cross the pond. But I can appreciate that this company is trying to get something that at least a few people can maybe benefit from when it was under no obligation to do anything at all. It's something extra and a nice gesture.
Maybe we can all be a bit more appreciative and not be so disrespectful just because you, personally, don't get to benefit? It's not always about you, after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I've heard it before and it still applies: DNDB could hand out bags of money and people would complain about the color of the bag.
A normal advent calendar at least has a piece of chocolate in it to enjoy. There's usually not a code to obtain said chocolate at a reduced price somewhere else.
You know the aforementioned Ovaltine bit in A Christmas Story? The kid played along with an Little Orphan Annie engagement strategy, promised a secret special message through a special decoder ring, and at the end of the engagement the special message is "Drink more Ovaltine"? I have never met anyone who didn't sympathize with the kid until perhaps now.
Are you at all familiar with the custom of an Advent Calendar? Many, many businesses utilize them as a means of engagement by way of a token of appreciation, it's kinda a weird move given what Advent Calendars original function are, but the holiday has largely been a sales exploit, anyway what DDB is doing I've never seen any other business do. Maybe they thought they were innovating, and this is space for feedback on that innovation.
As it's run so far, I still say they overplayed their hand with the DL compendium (which was cool), and this kerfuffle would have been avoided had they done some sort of "here's a monster, and here's a coupon" approach, or just used the monster compendium as a subscriber perk/DL advertisement like they did with Spelljammer and then just announced December would have 28 days of daily deals for Advent(ure) instead of pretending a "coupon/special" is a "gift" (technically a discount can be seen as a gift abstractly, but once you get into the emotional space of evoking holidays centered around gift giving, you're in a fraught space to hand out coupon clippings).
If you want to get in front of the wall and Rodney Dangerfield "DDB gets no respect", I guess you can do that and I wish you the best negotiating your booking fees with DDB. But this is a feedback forum, and the message seems pretty clear that DDB's utilization of Advent as a promotional tool fizzled this year.
But this is also a season of Hope, and here's hoping DDB will come around with some cool stuff in the later days of the calendar, and less broadsiding antagonism of the thread tenor unless you want to specifically champion the calendar as opposed to some culture or stereotype you want to dunk.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Its not ungrateful and entitled to call out a cynical marketing ploy masquerading as a gift.
Why is there always one person that claims people complaining are "ungrateful and entitled"?
Let's break that down a bit here.
First, "ungrateful" means: "not feeling or showing gratitude". Gratitude stands for "the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness."
I see plenty of gratitude for the kindness we were shown. Nobody has complained about the Day 1 Gift. As for a readiness to show appreciation and kindness for a coupon you can't use? Most people throw them away or gift then when that happens and nobody shows gratitude then, so it's pretty natural to be ungrateful for useless coupons. I bet there's plenty of people that can find a use for those coupons, but we're not complaining that it should go away, we just want something we can use. That everyone can use.
In fact, our suggesting ways of improving the system can be seen as our way of thanking them for the gesture, but letting them know it could be better.
As for "entitled," I don't see a single post that makes me believe anyone in this section believes they are inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. Although, obviously, most people do in many ways. Heck, the term entitled can be seen as extremely offensive and disrespectful against those that actually need special treatment.
Absolutely.
Today's owlbear is the perfect thing.
It’s exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for. I don’t mind a discount here and there in the calendar. They have a place too, just not as a majority.
The Snowy Owlbear is perfect! These are the kind of fun, novelty things I would expect from an advent calendar! No one is being enticed to spend more money, it's creative and fun, and seems like it could have actual function. Lovely little gift box, card or ornament (or all of the above?) to give to a fellow D&D fan!
The Owlbear is absolutely adorable, I agree.
Loved the Christmas Story "Drink more Ovaltine" comparison and the change from Advent(ure) calendar to the Ad(venture) calendar. A promotional coupon to buy your wares doesn't feel like much of a gift. Its like when someone advises saving money only to then try to sell you a product on discount saying you're saving money by spending less than normal price!
Sorry, but no. If someone hands me a bunch of coupons (in the range of 10%), it's called an advertisement strategy. When I get money off coupons through the post from Domino's, I don't get teary-eyed and shout their praises on FB. I look at the pamphlet (if I'm interested in Domino's pizza) and, if the new price or deals was one that persuaded in, I'll use it; otherwise, it goes in the bin. At least they're pretty clear from the outset that it's a bunch of coupons that are deals that I may or may not want.
That's not what DDB has done. They've told me that they've gotten me gifts (not deals, deals aren't gifts, they're deals in the hopes of attracting my custom through marginal discounts), and then switched on me. Two of the days have been gifts, the rest have been attempts to sell me stuff. Half the time it's been a complete waste of time because they can't sell it to me anyway.
If they want to send me junk mail then fine - label it as what it is, a bunch of partner offers. If it takes a lot of time and effort to compile, ok, but not my problem. I didn't ask for 10% off of a t shirt...from America with giant postage costs that are much more than the 10% I'd save. They haven't sent me this out of the goodness of their hearts, those various partners have paid DDB to email me offers on their behalf. They're getting paid for it.
Why should I be grateful for more attempts to sell me stuff disguised as "gifts"?
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Allow me to second some people here: a coupon given to me as a promotion for a product that I would have zero intention or interest in buying otherwise is NOT a "gift" or a "deal": it's an "advertisement"; that's why they come in scads via your physical meat-world mail box all the time... no matter how much you try to limit them. It is not a "deal" if I was never going to buy the thing in the first place. The "percent off your first order from this subscription service!" breed least of all: because that one literally ropes you into recurrent spending.
While I do appreciate the idea of the advent calendar, the one we have further supports the idea of "if something is free, you are the product." In this case, the free gift is a chance for you to hand over money to Wizards of the Coast. This has been mentioned before in a recently updated (from 2020) blog post about how one can give the gift of official (and not particularly cheap) D&D tat: I'd rather tat that works on D&D Beyond like dice or backgrounds or character portraits (which are coming with the December subscriber perks). I don't see the need for gratitude for a daily advert that requires me to go to it. An advert calendar, if you will. *Guffaws*.
The coupons might have been better received if they were part of the Monster Compendium and the owlbear print-out, rather than having their own doors on the advent calendar ("and when you're done printing off your owlbear, why not use this code to get 15% off your own Owlbear plush with code CYNICAL15?"). That would mean more making more worthwhile stuff for the newly freed up doors, but I'd wager there'd be considerably more favourable feedback.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
Today's prize is pretty good for anyone who plays Idle Champions. A $45 value given for free. I don't play the game so it doesn't mean much to me, but I hope others can make use of it.
Meanwhile, Kobold Press's Adventure Calendar has been killing it with the PDF giveaways.
https://sayeth.itch.io/