i still can not get over this.. you guys would have gotten over a hundred dollars from me and my party just this month alone and i know there are MANY that feel the same.. i'm not buying whole source books from this site ever ( especially when it doesn't even get me a paperback physical copy ) ... and the fact that i have good chunks of some books and wouldn't even get a discount for that ( just checked and its still the way it is.. regardless of what has been said here ) is just sad.. this has completely ruined this whole thing for me.. ill be making my characters elsewhere from now on.
A small update for ya, though I wish I had more: I was told today that the marketplace has been updated to reflect any discounts you should receive from any previous individual purchases. You should no longer need to contact Customer Support to receive that discount.
I hope Wizards are FULLY informed about the feedback being provided by us the users regarding A la carte transactions, I know that this decision will have have come from way above you and I suspect as community manager it must be horrible for you to be expected to manage this backlash, I am just sorry that you are left having to try and control a fire by yourself.
Appreciate it. I am continuing to escalate your feedback (and am reading all the threads even if you don't see me commenting), but it's fully out of my hands after that.
You're doing awesome. Don't envy you.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DId you know? The DDB marketplace has REMOVED the option for purchasing one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters "a la carte". Now you ALWAYS have to buy the ENTIRE book instead.
Unhappy? UNSUBSCRIBE and Let them know your thoughts!
i still can not get over this.. you guys would have gotten over a hundred dollars from me and my party just this month alone and i know there are MANY that feel the same.. i'm not buying whole source books from this site ever ( especially when it doesn't even get me a paperback physical copy ) ... and the fact that i have good chunks of some books and wouldn't even get a discount for that ( just checked and its still the way it is.. regardless of what has been said here ) is just sad.. this has completely ruined this whole thing for me.. ill be making my characters elsewhere from now on.
Same for me. My new game starts today. Everyone has already made characters now, sans the options I would have purchased for them. Lost a decent amount from me.
Whoever it was that suggested removing the al'la cart options on DNDB should be absalutly sacked.
EVERY other company pushes micro transactions becasue it encourages people to spend more money. It's a litteral fact.
We're all disappointed but this kind of extreme speech doesn't help the cause. Besides, the president of WotC has already been sacked and that's who is ultimately responsible. But let's say it was the product manager for DDB -- who, if I'm not mistaken, came from Amazon -- and let's say he decides, after hearing feedback, to reverse the decision. Should he be sacked then? Should you be sacked from your job if you make a misstep? Should I? I screw up all the time, I'd hope my company would give me a chance to redeem myself.
That is all assuming that anyone higher in the chain of command thinks this was a mistake. If the move makes more money for the shareholders then the BOD will be happy, if the BOD is happy the CEO is happy, etc.. Why would any company fire someone who is making more money for the company?
BTW, a la carte purchases are not the same thing as microtransactions. Microtransactions are a way for you to spend more money on something you have already spent money on. A la carte purchases allow you to spend less money on something that you have not yet spent money on. IF DDB did microtransactions it would be more like you paid full price for a book, then you need to spend more money to unlock "premium" content. Hope this helps.
i still can not get over this.. you guys would have gotten over a hundred dollars from me and my party just this month alone and i know there are MANY that feel the same.. i'm not buying whole source books from this site ever ( especially when it doesn't even get me a paperback physical copy ) ... and the fact that i have good chunks of some books and wouldn't even get a discount for that ( just checked and its still the way it is.. regardless of what has been said here ) is just sad.. this has completely ruined this whole thing for me.. ill be making my characters elsewhere from now on.
Here is the thing. You state that in the past month, wotc would have collected 100 plus dollars from you AND your party. What some beancounter, or group of beancounters, at wotc has decided that when 6e comes out, you and your party are going to spend a whole lot more than 100 bucks. Or at least, the beancounters are using the 2nd financial quarter of 2024 as a test, to truly gauge the elasticity of demand.
Elasticity of demand is a term from economics. Bottom line, wotc believes that demand is more inelastic, and this price increase (that is fundamentally what we are looking at) will lose them a few consumers such as yourself, but overall, net profits go up. If the demand is elastic, then there will be a whole lot of people like you and net profits go down.
I have no clue what the model is that wotc is using. Maybe there is a solid model proving this increases profits. The leadership at wotc has bungled so many things it would not surprise me if this is reversed. But in the meantime, show your dissatisfaction by purchasing products that do not give wotc a penny.
A small update for ya, though I wish I had more: I was told today that the marketplace has been updated to reflect any discounts you should receive from any previous individual purchases. You should no longer need to contact Customer Support to receive that discount.
I hope Wizards are FULLY informed about the feedback being provided by us the users regarding A la carte transactions, I know that this decision will have have come from way above you and I suspect as community manager it must be horrible for you to be expected to manage this backlash, I am just sorry that you are left having to try and control a fire by yourself.
Appreciate it. I am continuing to escalate your feedback (and am reading all the threads even if you don't see me commenting), but it's fully out of my hands after that.
What they really need to do right now is address this publicly. The longer they wait to make an official response the less likely anyone is going to come back. The only thing they've been pushing is the Vecna book and guess what people did as soon as it launched? Spread the PDF online. They need to remember that DDB only exists as a convenience over pen & paper. We can find all the resources for free with a single search. Piecemeal is exactly what gave them a competitive edge, the cost to enter was low enough to draw in any player. Not every DM uses D&D Beyond with a master subscription to share the $100's of dollars they spent. Not all DM's even ask that their players use one specific platform for character sheets either. So now the entry level player who say wants one race from MotM and one subclass from Tasha's would need to spend $60 instead of the $5 & change. Unless they're made of money no one would take that deal, not if they don't need the other 99% of the book. The bar to entry was raised significantly, pen and paper is free, the choice is obvious.
I have the resources to have bought the legendary bundle, but if it weren't for piecemeal I wouldn't have bought anything from this site. I kept looking to use a digital platform, and I went back and forth a long time on just getting the PHB digitally. But I really wanted to use my ipad for play and not have to write down or copy everything to some notes app. So when i wanted to make a kenku druid of spores I say the $5ish as an investment and said "that's not too bad, that's starbucks for one day, I can do $5." And that's where the spiral began, from there it was get this option, buy this feat, buy this book, oh look there's a sale I'll get the rest of the book. Instead of getting people to dip their toes in the water at the low commitment cost so that they'd eventually start getting more and more on the platform, DDB is assuming people will take a plunge on a platform they may not even like long term. That's an oversight of massive proportions.
I'm not buying another item off this site, or renewing my subscription until it is made right. And IF they refuse to bring back individual purchases, the only compromises I would settle for are:
1) Full pack only purchases. E.g., you can't buy the Amulet of Raven Kind on it's own any more but you can pay the $5-$10 for all the magic items from Curse of Strahd. If an item in that pack was already in something you owned, you would get the discount automatically for that. Because nine times out of ten when I wanted to buy piecemeal I'd go for the pack anyways. The average transaction for the company then would always be $5-$10 minimums, and new players/sign ups would feel more secure in a smaller investment instead of the $30-$60 in order to get a different race and subclass than basic rules / PHB.
2) All new physical books will be wrapped in plastic shrink wrap (or more environmentally friendly sealed paper) so they can include a code for the $10 digital bundle. I only buy alt covers, which are only sold at a FLGS. I get screwed on the option to get the bundle for a third party physical purchase. $50-$60 physical book with $10 digital is a whole more digestible to buy both instead of the $100+ it would be without the DDB direct physical/digital bundle. If WotC wanted to work with FLGS to tack on the digital bundle as an option for alt-covers that'd be great. But as it stands where I got the Vecna alt cover and now if I just want the stat block for Vecna to run in the encounter builder I'd need to shell out another $30. Sorry not sorry I can homebrew or run on paper.
A small update for ya, though I wish I had more: I was told today that the marketplace has been updated to reflect any discounts you should receive from any previous individual purchases. You should no longer need to contact Customer Support to receive that discount.
Hello again~
So I want to offer a clarification and an apology to y'all, because this info is incorrect. I misinterpreted the information I was given through no fault of the person who gave it to me. I think I was so excited to be able to give y'all some kind of win that I didn't stop to ask for clarification first. That's 100% on me. I did seek that clarification after a few folks mentioned they were still unable to see those discounts in the marketplace.
The TL;DR is that while we've made it a bit easier on Customer Support's side to issue those discounts, you will still have to go through CS to get them. Again, I apologize for the incorrect info.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her) You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On| CM Hat Off Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5]. Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
A small update for ya, though I wish I had more: I was told today that the marketplace has been updated to reflect any discounts you should receive from any previous individual purchases. You should no longer need to contact Customer Support to receive that discount.
Hello again~
So I want to offer a clarification and an apology to y'all, because this info is incorrect. I misinterpreted the information I was given through no fault of the person who gave it to me. I think I was so excited to be able to give y'all some kind of win that I didn't stop to ask for clarification first. That's 100% on me. I did seek that clarification after a few folks mentioned they were still unable to see those discounts in the marketplace.
The TL;DR is that while we've made it a bit easier on Customer Support's side to issue those discounts, you will still have to go through CS to get them. Again, I apologize for the incorrect info.
Thank you for the update and for owning up to it, no one can blame your want for good news. I just hope the rest of the WotC staff would take note and hold themselves to your standards to admit when they're wrong instead of doubling and tripling down on their mistakes.
with all the negativity how high is the consideration of the team to reverse whats been done?
I don't have any insight on that decision. I can continue to gather feedback, but there's still a big difference in the volume of comments that I see versus what I pass on; I can't record every single piece of feedback that exists out there.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her) You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On| CM Hat Off Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5]. Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
A small update for ya, though I wish I had more: I was told today that the marketplace has been updated to reflect any discounts you should receive from any previous individual purchases. You should no longer need to contact Customer Support to receive that discount.
I hope Wizards are FULLY informed about the feedback being provided by us the users regarding A la carte transactions, I know that this decision will have have come from way above you and I suspect as community manager it must be horrible for you to be expected to manage this backlash, I am just sorry that you are left having to try and control a fire by yourself.
Appreciate it. I am continuing to escalate your feedback (and am reading all the threads even if you don't see me commenting), but it's fully out of my hands after that.
What they really need to do right now is address this publicly...
I'm not buying another item off this site, or renewing my subscription until it is made right.
This is where I'm at. DDB have all the data on how much I've spent. All my money I would spend on the "2024" upgrades? Gonna see zero.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DId you know? The DDB marketplace has REMOVED the option for purchasing one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters "a la carte". Now you ALWAYS have to buy the ENTIRE book instead.
Unhappy? UNSUBSCRIBE and Let them know your thoughts!
with all the negativity how high is the consideration of the team to reverse whats been done?
I don't have any insight on that decision. I can continue to gather feedback, but there's still a big difference in the volume of comments that I see versus what I pass on; I can't record every single piece of feedback that exists out there.
We still appreciate you passing on any of this feedback AT ALL. I, personally, am extremely grateful your efforts but I also feel that the decision makers won't listen in the end either. Still, it's nice to at least know that our feedback has to be actively ignored rather than passively ignored. Thank you!
Posting to add another voice against this decision.
Removing the ability to buy à la carte items from the marketplace is such a mistake. To do so with no notice is contemptible.
To make it so that our only way to receive a discount on books that contain items we've already purchased is by contacting customer service is a waste of time that speaks to an oversight when decisions were being made. It also puts unnecessary strain on your customer service department.
I'd also like to add that I don't think it's fair that you don't receive a discount for the digital version when buying the physical version if you live outside the US. To buy a bundle in the US it would cost me $49.95. To do so from your partner site in the UK would cost me £69.99 (roughly $89).
I've spent a fair amount of money buying à la carte items with the idea of completing all of the books over time. That won't be happening now.
Dungeon Masters are the D&D players that give their money to WotC the most often and yet you continue to shaft us. I think it's time to move to another game system that doesn't mock its customers quite so brazenly.
A small update for ya, though I wish I had more: I was told today that the marketplace has been updated to reflect any discounts you should receive from any previous individual purchases. You should no longer need to contact Customer Support to receive that discount.
Hello again~
So I want to offer a clarification and an apology to y'all, because this info is incorrect. I misinterpreted the information I was given through no fault of the person who gave it to me. I think I was so excited to be able to give y'all some kind of win that I didn't stop to ask for clarification first. That's 100% on me. I did seek that clarification after a few folks mentioned they were still unable to see those discounts in the marketplace.
The TL;DR is that while we've made it a bit easier on Customer Support's side to issue those discounts, you will still have to go through CS to get them. Again, I apologize for the incorrect info.
Honest to God you should get the employee of the decade award. I am 100% certain this was not 100% on you but you took the hit anyway. I wish I could hire you for my team. I worry that WotC is going to burn you out, please don't let them. Your integrity is absolutely noted and appreciated by this community.
It seems to be working for me, now. The Planescape book page now shows the full price of $49.99 struck out and beside it the discounted price of $44.99, which makes sense based on my former a la carte purchases from that book.
It seems to be working for me, now. The Planescape book page now shows the full price of $49.99 struck out and beside it the discounted price of $44.99, which makes sense based on my former a la carte purchases from that book.
Interesting it seems to be working for you do you have any of the bundle discounts?, I still only get my legendary bundle discount on the books I have bought piece meal from, and based on this correction posted by LaTiaJacquise it appears the new way is here for a while longer.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
I'm so upset about this! I can't believe they gave zero warning. Love dnd beyond, it makes it so much easier for me to remember all my stats and have an organized character sheet. Was about to buy a new feat but now I will be unsubscribing and transferring my characters to physical format I guess. Sad to see this feature go.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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i still can not get over this.. you guys would have gotten over a hundred dollars from me and my party just this month alone and i know there are MANY that feel the same.. i'm not buying whole source books from this site ever ( especially when it doesn't even get me a paperback physical copy ) ... and the fact that i have good chunks of some books and wouldn't even get a discount for that ( just checked and its still the way it is.. regardless of what has been said here ) is just sad.. this has completely ruined this whole thing for me.. ill be making my characters elsewhere from now on.
You're doing awesome. Don't envy you.
DId you know?
The DDB marketplace has REMOVED the option for purchasing one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters "a la carte".
Now you ALWAYS have to buy the ENTIRE book instead.
Unhappy? UNSUBSCRIBE and
Let them know your thoughts!
Same for me. My new game starts today. Everyone has already made characters now, sans the options I would have purchased for them. Lost a decent amount from me.
here's a suggestion.
Whoever it was that suggested removing the al'la cart options on DNDB should be absalutly sacked.
EVERY other company pushes micro transactions becasue it encourages people to spend more money. It's a litteral fact.
We're all disappointed but this kind of extreme speech doesn't help the cause. Besides, the president of WotC has already been sacked and that's who is ultimately responsible. But let's say it was the product manager for DDB -- who, if I'm not mistaken, came from Amazon -- and let's say he decides, after hearing feedback, to reverse the decision. Should he be sacked then? Should you be sacked from your job if you make a misstep? Should I? I screw up all the time, I'd hope my company would give me a chance to redeem myself.
That is all assuming that anyone higher in the chain of command thinks this was a mistake. If the move makes more money for the shareholders then the BOD will be happy, if the BOD is happy the CEO is happy, etc.. Why would any company fire someone who is making more money for the company?
BTW, a la carte purchases are not the same thing as microtransactions. Microtransactions are a way for you to spend more money on something you have already spent money on. A la carte purchases allow you to spend less money on something that you have not yet spent money on. IF DDB did microtransactions it would be more like you paid full price for a book, then you need to spend more money to unlock "premium" content. Hope this helps.
Here is the thing. You state that in the past month, wotc would have collected 100 plus dollars from you AND your party. What some beancounter, or group of beancounters, at wotc has decided that when 6e comes out, you and your party are going to spend a whole lot more than 100 bucks. Or at least, the beancounters are using the 2nd financial quarter of 2024 as a test, to truly gauge the elasticity of demand.
Elasticity of demand is a term from economics. Bottom line, wotc believes that demand is more inelastic, and this price increase (that is fundamentally what we are looking at) will lose them a few consumers such as yourself, but overall, net profits go up. If the demand is elastic, then there will be a whole lot of people like you and net profits go down.
I have no clue what the model is that wotc is using. Maybe there is a solid model proving this increases profits. The leadership at wotc has bungled so many things it would not surprise me if this is reversed. But in the meantime, show your dissatisfaction by purchasing products that do not give wotc a penny.
What they really need to do right now is address this publicly. The longer they wait to make an official response the less likely anyone is going to come back. The only thing they've been pushing is the Vecna book and guess what people did as soon as it launched? Spread the PDF online. They need to remember that DDB only exists as a convenience over pen & paper. We can find all the resources for free with a single search. Piecemeal is exactly what gave them a competitive edge, the cost to enter was low enough to draw in any player. Not every DM uses D&D Beyond with a master subscription to share the $100's of dollars they spent. Not all DM's even ask that their players use one specific platform for character sheets either. So now the entry level player who say wants one race from MotM and one subclass from Tasha's would need to spend $60 instead of the $5 & change. Unless they're made of money no one would take that deal, not if they don't need the other 99% of the book. The bar to entry was raised significantly, pen and paper is free, the choice is obvious.
I have the resources to have bought the legendary bundle, but if it weren't for piecemeal I wouldn't have bought anything from this site. I kept looking to use a digital platform, and I went back and forth a long time on just getting the PHB digitally. But I really wanted to use my ipad for play and not have to write down or copy everything to some notes app. So when i wanted to make a kenku druid of spores I say the $5ish as an investment and said "that's not too bad, that's starbucks for one day, I can do $5." And that's where the spiral began, from there it was get this option, buy this feat, buy this book, oh look there's a sale I'll get the rest of the book. Instead of getting people to dip their toes in the water at the low commitment cost so that they'd eventually start getting more and more on the platform, DDB is assuming people will take a plunge on a platform they may not even like long term. That's an oversight of massive proportions.
I'm not buying another item off this site, or renewing my subscription until it is made right. And IF they refuse to bring back individual purchases, the only compromises I would settle for are:
1) Full pack only purchases. E.g., you can't buy the Amulet of Raven Kind on it's own any more but you can pay the $5-$10 for all the magic items from Curse of Strahd. If an item in that pack was already in something you owned, you would get the discount automatically for that. Because nine times out of ten when I wanted to buy piecemeal I'd go for the pack anyways. The average transaction for the company then would always be $5-$10 minimums, and new players/sign ups would feel more secure in a smaller investment instead of the $30-$60 in order to get a different race and subclass than basic rules / PHB.
2) All new physical books will be wrapped in plastic shrink wrap (or more environmentally friendly sealed paper) so they can include a code for the $10 digital bundle. I only buy alt covers, which are only sold at a FLGS. I get screwed on the option to get the bundle for a third party physical purchase. $50-$60 physical book with $10 digital is a whole more digestible to buy both instead of the $100+ it would be without the DDB direct physical/digital bundle. If WotC wanted to work with FLGS to tack on the digital bundle as an option for alt-covers that'd be great. But as it stands where I got the Vecna alt cover and now if I just want the stat block for Vecna to run in the encounter builder I'd need to shell out another $30. Sorry not sorry I can homebrew or run on paper.
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D&D StaffHello again~
So I want to offer a clarification and an apology to y'all, because this info is incorrect. I misinterpreted the information I was given through no fault of the person who gave it to me. I think I was so excited to be able to give y'all some kind of win that I didn't stop to ask for clarification first. That's 100% on me. I did seek that clarification after a few folks mentioned they were still unable to see those discounts in the marketplace.
The TL;DR is that while we've made it a bit easier on Customer Support's side to issue those discounts, you will still have to go through CS to get them. Again, I apologize for the incorrect info.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her)
You can call me LT. :)
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Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5].
Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
Useful Links: Site Rules & Guidelines | D&D Educator Resources | Change Your Nickname | Submit a Support Ticket
with all the negativity how high is the consideration of the team to reverse whats been done?
Thank you for the update and for owning up to it, no one can blame your want for good news. I just hope the rest of the WotC staff would take note and hold themselves to your standards to admit when they're wrong instead of doubling and tripling down on their mistakes.
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D&D StaffI don't have any insight on that decision. I can continue to gather feedback, but there's still a big difference in the volume of comments that I see versus what I pass on; I can't record every single piece of feedback that exists out there.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her)
You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On | CM Hat Off
Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5].
Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
Useful Links: Site Rules & Guidelines | D&D Educator Resources | Change Your Nickname | Submit a Support Ticket
This is where I'm at. DDB have all the data on how much I've spent. All my money I would spend on the "2024" upgrades?
Gonna see zero.
DId you know?
The DDB marketplace has REMOVED the option for purchasing one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters "a la carte".
Now you ALWAYS have to buy the ENTIRE book instead.
Unhappy? UNSUBSCRIBE and
Let them know your thoughts!
We still appreciate you passing on any of this feedback AT ALL. I, personally, am extremely grateful your efforts but I also feel that the decision makers won't listen in the end either. Still, it's nice to at least know that our feedback has to be actively ignored rather than passively ignored. Thank you!
Posting to add another voice against this decision.
Removing the ability to buy à la carte items from the marketplace is such a mistake. To do so with no notice is contemptible.
To make it so that our only way to receive a discount on books that contain items we've already purchased is by contacting customer service is a waste of time that speaks to an oversight when decisions were being made. It also puts unnecessary strain on your customer service department.
I'd also like to add that I don't think it's fair that you don't receive a discount for the digital version when buying the physical version if you live outside the US. To buy a bundle in the US it would cost me $49.95. To do so from your partner site in the UK would cost me £69.99 (roughly $89).
I've spent a fair amount of money buying à la carte items with the idea of completing all of the books over time. That won't be happening now.
Dungeon Masters are the D&D players that give their money to WotC the most often and yet you continue to shaft us. I think it's time to move to another game system that doesn't mock its customers quite so brazenly.
Honest to God you should get the employee of the decade award. I am 100% certain this was not 100% on you but you took the hit anyway. I wish I could hire you for my team. I worry that WotC is going to burn you out, please don't let them. Your integrity is absolutely noted and appreciated by this community.
It seems to be working for me, now. The Planescape book page now shows the full price of $49.99 struck out and beside it the discounted price of $44.99, which makes sense based on my former a la carte purchases from that book.
Any update from WOTC about a-la carte purchases? They've been silent since they announced the change.
They presumably want to see the change in actual sales numbers before simply deciding, normally over a few months.
Interesting it seems to be working for you do you have any of the bundle discounts?, I still only get my legendary bundle discount on the books I have bought piece meal from, and based on this correction posted by LaTiaJacquise it appears the new way is here for a while longer.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
I'm so upset about this! I can't believe they gave zero warning. Love dnd beyond, it makes it so much easier for me to remember all my stats and have an organized character sheet. Was about to buy a new feat but now I will be unsubscribing and transferring my characters to physical format I guess. Sad to see this feature go.