Well, with the news that DDB has presented on 06/18/2024, we now know why a-la-carte had been slowly stopped, and why the drastic change in the marketplace, so they can make the new digial rules content.
Wait, what news update? I've checked their recent articles and there's nothing mentioning, let alone explaining, the removal of a-la-carte purchasing. It's just talk about new books? I can see they made a few videos but they seem to also just be about new books so I haven't spent the hour plus to watch them. Do they actually explain why they removed a la carte purchasing in those videos, and if so which one?
I feel like I've missed something.
No mention of why a-la-carte was discontinued , but it is apparent the reason for it was for the production of the new rules content.
No mention of why a-la-carte was discontinued , but it is apparent the reason for it was for the production of the new rules content.
No real reason to think that. The most likely cause is "we had to redesign the store to facilitate digital/physical bundles" (which you will note are on the front page right now) "and a la carte didn't make the cut for implementing in the new store". Of course, why it didn't make the cut is an open question.
No mention of why a-la-carte was discontinued , but it is apparent the reason for it was for the production of the new rules content.
No real reason to think that. The most likely cause is "we had to redesign the store to facilitate digital/physical bundles" (which you will note are on the front page right now) "and a la carte didn't make the cut for implementing in the new store". Of course, why it didn't make the cut is an open question.
Well they certainly didn’t hire any new workers, so someone had to do the work, 5e is getting legacy status before too long, and so logically the alc makers were reassigned to work on the new content, and when the content was close to finished, the marketplace was next on the work list. No point in making new alc content if most of it would have to be changed when the new rules drop, and significant changes would need to be implemented.
I still don't understand the reasoning. Making something a la carte wouldn't be some difficult task. No more than any other book has been. Once it is in the system locking behind access paywall wouldn't be any different than anything else. Now, my web developer experience is from quite a while ago but having made a la carte systems before - I can assure you, your reasoning doesn't make sense to me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
I still don't understand the reasoning. Making something a la carte wouldn't be some difficult task.
Honestly, unless you have behind the scenes access to the D&D Beyond software, you cannot say how difficult it is. It might be a straightforward (if tedious) data entry exercise, it might be some crazy rube goldberg system behind the scenes.
I still don't understand the reasoning. Making something a la carte wouldn't be some difficult task.
Honestly, unless you have behind the scenes access to the D&D Beyond software, you cannot say how difficult it is. It might be a straightforward (if tedious) data entry exercise, it might be some crazy rube goldberg system behind the scenes.
Well unless they are completely incompetent, they should have the coding for the prior store system to use as a starting point.
I still don't understand the reasoning. Making something a la carte wouldn't be some difficult task.
Honestly, unless you have behind the scenes access to the D&D Beyond software, you cannot say how difficult it is. It might be a straightforward (if tedious) data entry exercise, it might be some crazy rube goldberg system behind the scenes.
Well unless they are completely incompetent, they should have the coding for the prior store system to use as a starting point.
Questions:
How many of the original coders do you believe still work for this group since it was bought out by wotc?
How many products/apps on this site are broken, or never got off the ground after inception, because of lack of coding?
I would not hold your breath on wotc being able to use existing code as a jump off point.
What dev wouldn’t give their first born for the source, and as someone equally familiar with the process, too many tells as to the change in the quality of production.
R.I.P. well at least we know why it happened that a-la-catre was discontinued as of now, but what about after all this bs is settled?
As awesome as the 2024 Player’s Handbook is starting to seem (it sounds like the design team might have really done a beautiful job in creating it), the possibility of perhaps having to choose between buying full adventure books that we don't want or need and not having access to new spells and new character option that become available later on is likely to be or feel untenable for a lot of players - If that's the way it's going to be. Hoping for something better -
I still don't understand the reasoning. Making something a la carte wouldn't be some difficult task.
Honestly, unless you have behind the scenes access to the D&D Beyond software, you cannot say how difficult it is. It might be a straightforward (if tedious) data entry exercise, it might be some crazy rube goldberg system behind the scenes.
Well unless they are completely incompetent, they should have the coding for the prior store system to use as a starting point.
Questions:
How many of the original coders do you believe still work for this group since it was bought out by wotc?
How many products/apps on this site are broken, or never got off the ground after inception, because of lack of coding?
I would not hold your breath on wotc being able to use existing code as a jump off point.
Does that mean that bringing back à la carte is likely a dead issue? I'm still unhappy about it.
If I understand correctly, the new Player’s Handbook is going to be much larger and include (perhaps updated versions) of things from other books.If that is the case, I wonder how that squares with the à la carte changes.I mean, I still really don’t like the change, in principle, but maybe, so close to the release of the new edition, it’s mostly not in my best interest to load up on a bunch more content from the 2014 5e edition, I guess unless I really need/want a certain thing to make a character right now (and, it would be nice to have more information about what’s to come that might affect buying decisions and to still have the choicemake à la cartepurchases, if that is still what I want to do).
Despite the unhappiness about à la carte and the old kind of digital bundles , I'm excited about 2024 Player’s Handbook and what's going to be inside of it.
Perhaps being forced to be sanguine about the end of à la carte, moving forward, it would be nice if they at least offered more products that were geared towards players; I feel like the adventure books are for DM’s, not player.Players like to spend money on the hobby too, but not on products that are ill-suited for us.
Make you wonder if the situation is that they killed a la carte for 5e items becasue they will soon be legacy, but intend to bring them back for 2024 content. That would be totally fine with me, BTW, but they still should have said something.
Here's my problem; DDB started out as a character sheet generator. It was really cool but who wants to re-buy all of the books that we had in hard cover just to use a generator? So a la carte purchases made it reasonable and fun. But, like Amazon, they just keep adding features that go above and beyond character sheets and chip away at the features we originally signed on for. Considering how many X-Amazonians have been recruited to product management positions at WotC it looks as if that was a planned strategy.
I actually applied for the Product Manager role for Dungeons and Dragons. They had a couple of thousand applicants so I don't suppose they will even see my app. That role doesn't seem to have any influence over DDB, which has its own project manager of course. I just want to help WotC get back to being a player-centric organization, which is what the job description said they were looking for. Somehow, I have a feeling that's not quite the focus, though. Especially considering how many non-gamers work there.
Does that mean that bringing back à la carte is likely a dead issue? I'm still unhappy about it.
They can't just turn back on à la carte, because it never existed in the current store to start with -- there's no "enable à la carte purchasing" checkbox. They could reimplement it if they had the dev time to spare and wanted to spend it on à la carte, but given all the stuff that's sitting around incomplete on D&D Beyond, they don't have the dev time to spare, and if they did, likely not their highest priority.
Well unless they are completely incompetent, they should have the coding for the prior store system to use as a starting point.
Having worked on legacy code... you vastly overrate the value of having that coding.
They have seemed able to make changes to the coding so far, so unless they replaced the team entirely before writing the code for the new store, they do presumably have someone who still understands it at least to that degree.
...Despite the unhappiness about à la carte and the old kind of digital bundles , I'm excited about 2024 Player’s Handbook and what's going to be inside of it...
not to derail the topic, but wow oh wow is spending less time on these forums and front page really doing wonders for my perspective on the revised PHB hype train! not to mention the rabbit hole i've fallen into researching the origins of the new Infinite Staircase book, too! like the difference between hearing about a foreign country versus visiting it in person (and contemplating overstaying your visa).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: providefeedback!
Does that mean that bringing back à la carte is likely a dead issue? I'm still unhappy about it.
They can't just turn back on à la carte, because it never existed in the current store to start with -- there's no "enable à la carte purchasing" checkbox. They could reimplement it if they had the dev time to spare and wanted to spend it on à la carte, but given all the stuff that's sitting around incomplete on D&D Beyond, they don't have the dev time to spare, and if they did, likely not their highest priority.
Guess that just means they never wanted my money to start with, then. There's no "enable the people's trust again" checkbox. They could actually TRY if they wanted to, but for some reason kinda don't... Like others are saying, getting rid of a la carte is more the 'straw that broke the camel's back' sort of issue for many. Also it's more *HOW* they did it - by not saying one single thing about it to this day. I would've been fine with it if they were open about it. It sounds like many others would have been fine with it too if WotC just made an effort to explain it or something. Seriously, think of how things could have been if they just said:
"Hello fellow Dungeon and Dragons fans! We are here to make an important, but unfortunate announcement. We are going to be removing the a la carte purchasing function of the store. We fully understand that this was a very beloved feature in our website, making DnDBeyond one of the most accessible sources of Dungeons and Dragons! However, due to reasons we are not at liberty to speak about, a la carte ended up not being profitable enough for us to continue the service. As such, going forward in the upcoming version of our online store, it will not include a la carte purchasing functionality. We will still honor the discounts for the full product that you purchased pieces from though! Feel free contact support for more details! Thank you for your understanding!"
At that point I would have been thinking "Dang, yea that's tough. It was great, but they do need to think about their business, and I guess it just didn't fit as well as they'd hoped." But that's not the reality of the situation. What we got was silence. Cold, indifferent silence.
FInalized my cancellation, there are wiki's and libraries for what I would get from beyond. The maps feature is now useless cause my party stopped playing right after the removal of a la carte, its not worth paying $4.60 a month to share content or run digital maps with people who are no longer playing
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Trying to DM | Lost my party due to removal of A la Carte options | Party no longer wants to use Beyond
I cancelled because of the removal of buying individual piecemeal. I subscribed for years and ran my games through discord and another map tool. My party is about to start up again and I was excited to try the Beyond tool until I found out I cannot purchase subclasses individually for my party. I had bought a different VTT a bit ago and I will just switch to that and customize everything with my own flavor.
Does that mean that bringing back à la carte is likely a dead issue? I'm still unhappy about it.
They can't just turn back on à la carte, because it never existed in the current store to start with -- there's no "enable à la carte purchasing" checkbox. They could reimplement it if they had the dev time to spare and wanted to spend it on à la carte, but given all the stuff that's sitting around incomplete on D&D Beyond, they don't have the dev time to spare, and if they did, likely not their highest priority.
That assertion very much depends. It seems pretty clear they just migrated the marketplace function to a different platform, it'd be why it's now running on a subdomain and the order histories are separate.
Everything else is probably still running on the original platform, it seems highly likely that the original marketplace still exists it's just inaccessible, and a pretty easy way to get the new front end to unlock things would be to have it push purchases into the old marketplace (it would also make sense to conceal those orders from the old order history page if that were the case).
You've provided arguments in favour of this approach. It saves time by utilising the existing marketplace and content management functionality, which means they wouldn't need to touch that code if it is legacy and complex. There's also enough communication between the two for the new front end to flag when you own something already, so it's also possible the book data is still loaded into the old system that their staff would likely be familiar with.
In which case, bringing back a la carte could be a matter of allowing access to the old marketplace or yeah, building the functionality into the new front end. Really though, how many people would be using the new marketplace if we could still use the old one?
Does that mean that bringing back à la carte is likely a dead issue? I'm still unhappy about it.
They can't just turn back on à la carte, because it never existed in the current store to start with -- there's no "enable à la carte purchasing" checkbox. They could reimplement it if they had the dev time to spare and wanted to spend it on à la carte, but given all the stuff that's sitting around incomplete on D&D Beyond, they don't have the dev time to spare, and if they did, likely not their highest priority.
That assertion very much depends. It seems pretty clear they just migrated the marketplace function to a different platform, it'd be why it's now running on a subdomain and the order histories are separate.
Everything else is probably still running on the original platform, it seems highly likely that the original marketplace still exists it's just inaccessible, and a pretty easy way to get the new front end to unlock things would be to have it push purchases into the old marketplace (it would also make sense to conceal those orders from the old order history page if that were the case).
You've provided arguments in favour of this approach. It saves time by utilising the existing marketplace and content management functionality, which means they wouldn't need to touch that code if it is legacy and complex. There's also enough communication between the two for the new front end to flag when you own something already, so it's also possible the book data is still loaded into the old system that their staff would likely be familiar with.
In which case, bringing back a la carte could be a matter of allowing access to the old marketplace or yeah, building the functionality into the new front end. Really though, how many people would be using the new marketplace if we could still use the old one?
It's not necessarily the case that a pretty easy way to get the new front end to unlock things would be to have it push purchases into the old marketplace. The two systems might not be at all compatible. Having done a lot of ecommerce work over the years, things like this are often not nearly as trivial or as simple as they seem. Unfortunately, I think the only way the a la carte purchases could come back would be to go back to the old marketplace as it was, and at this point it seems abundantly clear that is not going to happen.
No mention of why a-la-carte was discontinued , but it is apparent the reason for it was for the production of the new rules content.
No real reason to think that. The most likely cause is "we had to redesign the store to facilitate digital/physical bundles" (which you will note are on the front page right now) "and a la carte didn't make the cut for implementing in the new store". Of course, why it didn't make the cut is an open question.
Well they certainly didn’t hire any new workers, so someone had to do the work, 5e is getting legacy status before too long, and so logically the alc makers were reassigned to work on the new content, and when the content was close to finished, the marketplace was next on the work list.
No point in making new alc content if most of it would have to be changed when the new rules drop, and significant changes would need to be implemented.
I still don't understand the reasoning. Making something a la carte wouldn't be some difficult task. No more than any other book has been. Once it is in the system locking behind access paywall wouldn't be any different than anything else. Now, my web developer experience is from quite a while ago but having made a la carte systems before - I can assure you, your reasoning doesn't make sense to me.
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.
Honestly, unless you have behind the scenes access to the D&D Beyond software, you cannot say how difficult it is. It might be a straightforward (if tedious) data entry exercise, it might be some crazy rube goldberg system behind the scenes.
Well unless they are completely incompetent, they should have the coding for the prior store system to use as a starting point.
Questions:
How many of the original coders do you believe still work for this group since it was bought out by wotc?
How many products/apps on this site are broken, or never got off the ground after inception, because of lack of coding?
I would not hold your breath on wotc being able to use existing code as a jump off point.
Having worked on legacy code... you vastly overrate the value of having that coding.
What dev wouldn’t give their first born for the source, and as someone equally familiar with the process, too many tells as to the change in the quality of production.
R.I.P. well at least we know why it happened that a-la-catre was discontinued as of now, but what about after all this bs is settled?
I’d hate to just think about it.
As awesome as the 2024 Player’s Handbook is starting to seem (it sounds like the design team might have really done a beautiful job in creating it), the possibility of perhaps having to choose between buying full adventure books that we don't want or need and not having access to new spells and new character option that become available later on is likely to be or feel untenable for a lot of players - If that's the way it's going to be. Hoping for something better -
Make you wonder if the situation is that they killed a la carte for 5e items becasue they will soon be legacy, but intend to bring them back for 2024 content. That would be totally fine with me, BTW, but they still should have said something.
Here's my problem; DDB started out as a character sheet generator. It was really cool but who wants to re-buy all of the books that we had in hard cover just to use a generator? So a la carte purchases made it reasonable and fun. But, like Amazon, they just keep adding features that go above and beyond character sheets and chip away at the features we originally signed on for. Considering how many X-Amazonians have been recruited to product management positions at WotC it looks as if that was a planned strategy.
I actually applied for the Product Manager role for Dungeons and Dragons. They had a couple of thousand applicants so I don't suppose they will even see my app. That role doesn't seem to have any influence over DDB, which has its own project manager of course. I just want to help WotC get back to being a player-centric organization, which is what the job description said they were looking for. Somehow, I have a feeling that's not quite the focus, though. Especially considering how many non-gamers work there.
They can't just turn back on à la carte, because it never existed in the current store to start with -- there's no "enable à la carte purchasing" checkbox. They could reimplement it if they had the dev time to spare and wanted to spend it on à la carte, but given all the stuff that's sitting around incomplete on D&D Beyond, they don't have the dev time to spare, and if they did, likely not their highest priority.
They have seemed able to make changes to the coding so far, so unless they replaced the team entirely before writing the code for the new store, they do presumably have someone who still understands it at least to that degree.
not to derail the topic, but wow oh wow is spending less time on these forums and front page really doing wonders for my perspective on the revised PHB hype train! not to mention the rabbit hole i've fallen into researching the origins of the new Infinite Staircase book, too! like the difference between hearing about a foreign country versus visiting it in person (and contemplating overstaying your visa).
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
Guess that just means they never wanted my money to start with, then. There's no "enable the people's trust again" checkbox. They could actually TRY if they wanted to, but for some reason kinda don't...
Like others are saying, getting rid of a la carte is more the 'straw that broke the camel's back' sort of issue for many. Also it's more *HOW* they did it - by not saying one single thing about it to this day. I would've been fine with it if they were open about it. It sounds like many others would have been fine with it too if WotC just made an effort to explain it or something. Seriously, think of how things could have been if they just said:
"Hello fellow Dungeon and Dragons fans! We are here to make an important, but unfortunate announcement. We are going to be removing the a la carte purchasing function of the store. We fully understand that this was a very beloved feature in our website, making DnDBeyond one of the most accessible sources of Dungeons and Dragons! However, due to reasons we are not at liberty to speak about, a la carte ended up not being profitable enough for us to continue the service. As such, going forward in the upcoming version of our online store, it will not include a la carte purchasing functionality. We will still honor the discounts for the full product that you purchased pieces from though! Feel free contact support for more details!
Thank you for your understanding!"
At that point I would have been thinking "Dang, yea that's tough. It was great, but they do need to think about their business, and I guess it just didn't fit as well as they'd hoped." But that's not the reality of the situation. What we got was silence. Cold, indifferent silence.
FInalized my cancellation, there are wiki's and libraries for what I would get from beyond. The maps feature is now useless cause my party stopped playing right after the removal of a la carte, its not worth paying $4.60 a month to share content or run digital maps with people who are no longer playing
Trying to DM | Lost my party due to removal of A la Carte options | Party no longer wants to use Beyond
I cancelled because of the removal of buying individual piecemeal. I subscribed for years and ran my games through discord and another map tool. My party is about to start up again and I was excited to try the Beyond tool until I found out I cannot purchase subclasses individually for my party. I had bought a different VTT a bit ago and I will just switch to that and customize everything with my own flavor.
That assertion very much depends. It seems pretty clear they just migrated the marketplace function to a different platform, it'd be why it's now running on a subdomain and the order histories are separate.
Everything else is probably still running on the original platform, it seems highly likely that the original marketplace still exists it's just inaccessible, and a pretty easy way to get the new front end to unlock things would be to have it push purchases into the old marketplace (it would also make sense to conceal those orders from the old order history page if that were the case).
You've provided arguments in favour of this approach. It saves time by utilising the existing marketplace and content management functionality, which means they wouldn't need to touch that code if it is legacy and complex. There's also enough communication between the two for the new front end to flag when you own something already, so it's also possible the book data is still loaded into the old system that their staff would likely be familiar with.
In which case, bringing back a la carte could be a matter of allowing access to the old marketplace or yeah, building the functionality into the new front end. Really though, how many people would be using the new marketplace if we could still use the old one?
It's not necessarily the case that a pretty easy way to get the new front end to unlock things would be to have it push purchases into the old marketplace. The two systems might not be at all compatible. Having done a lot of ecommerce work over the years, things like this are often not nearly as trivial or as simple as they seem. Unfortunately, I think the only way the a la carte purchases could come back would be to go back to the old marketplace as it was, and at this point it seems abundantly clear that is not going to happen.
I want this feature back. Without it, I will be looking for a alternative platform and spend my money there instead.