Out of curiosity for the people who only bought piecemeal, how often were you buying things here? Once a month, twice a month, every two months? And how much did you typically spend at a time?
Out of curiosity for the people who only bought piecemeal, how often were you buying things here? Once a month, twice a month, every two months? And how much did you typically spend at a time?
I personally would find myself piece mealing 1-2 times a week if I wanted to see stats on a new build. In a month I'd easily drop $30, more than I ever will now having to buy books in full. Over 2 months I have recorded $67 because I had piece meal'd Tashas Cauldron, then picked up many other races, sub-classes, and items.
Out of curiosity for the people who only bought piecemeal, how often were you buying things here? Once a month, twice a month, every two months? And how much did you typically spend at a time?
I personally would find myself piece mealing 1-2 times a week if I wanted to see stats on a new build. In a month I'd easily drop $30, more than I ever will now having to buy books in full. Over 2 months I have recorded $67 because I had piece meal'd Tashas Cauldron, then picked up many other races, sub-classes, and items.
I will also repeat this as many time as I need to, this is the only time I will ever support micro transactions. DNDbeyond provided an awesome way for power gamers, and new players to dip their feet into whatever they wanted to.
Getting rid of this feature feels like a ridiculous step backwards. I will refuse to accept someone saying we as players are in the wrong for wanting this rolled back, we cannot accept this blatant act of anti-consumerism.
I have not read through the whole thread but curious if anyone knows what the “spin” is on this from Beyond? How it is good for us? LOL.
There isn't any spin that I've seen, which I'm grateful for. It's a business decision, one that isn't a question of ethics (at least, not fundamentally so). That doesn't mean it's a good decision, just it's not about righteousness v evil.
There's such a thing as having respect for your customers. Springing the removal of individual purchases on without warning what (before buyout by WotC) was something of a community of supporters here, not just wallets to pick, creates an awful feeling and aversion to further supporting their products. Poisoning the community. Not evil. Stupid, greedy, harmful if they were seeking to build good will for their brand. If they realise they cut off an entry into D&D and buying here, as all these comments are saying, maybe they will admit this as yet another corporate mistake and backtrack. But I doubt it.
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 have not read through the whole thread but curious if anyone knows what the “spin” is on this from Beyond? How it is good for us? LOL.
There isn't any spin that I've seen, which I'm grateful for. It's a business decision, one that isn't a question of ethics (at least, not fundamentally so). That doesn't mean it's a good decision, just it's not about righteousness v evil.
There's such a thing as having respect for your customers. Springing the removal of individual purchases on without warning what (before buyout by WotC) was something of a community of supporters here, not just wallets to pick, creates an awful feeling and aversion to further supporting their products. Poisoning the community. Not evil. Stupid, greedy, harmful if they were seeking to build good will for their brand. If they realise they cut off an entry into D&D and buying here, as all these comments are saying, maybe they will admit this as yet another corporate mistake and backtrack. But I doubt it.
They didn’t do this on a whim; they did this because someone had numbers that piecemeal was a less effective revenue stream than only offering the books. They’re not going alter course at this point just because a couple dozen people sound off online, and this simply is not going to attract the interest to pull or sustain much more attention than what we’re seeing right now. Maybe if they start losing out on sales they’ll reconsider, but they clearly have some reason to believe they have at least better than even odds of things going the other way and nobody here is going to have enough info to gainsay that assessment by the numbers.
I have not read through the whole thread but curious if anyone knows what the “spin” is on this from Beyond? How it is good for us? LOL.
There isn't any spin that I've seen, which I'm grateful for. It's a business decision, one that isn't a question of ethics (at least, not fundamentally so). That doesn't mean it's a good decision, just it's not about righteousness v evil.
There's such a thing as having respect for your customers. Springing the removal of individual purchases on without warning what (before buyout by WotC) was something of a community of supporters here, not just wallets to pick, creates an awful feeling and aversion to further supporting their products. Poisoning the community. Not evil. Stupid, greedy, harmful if they were seeking to build good will for their brand. If they realise they cut off an entry into D&D and buying here, as all these comments are saying, maybe they will admit this as yet another corporate mistake and backtrack. But I doubt it.
They didn’t do this on a whim; they did this because someone had numbers that piecemeal was a less effective revenue stream than only offering the books. They’re not going alter course at this point just because a couple dozen people sound off online, and this simply is not going to attract the interest to pull or sustain much more attention than what we’re seeing right now. Maybe if they start losing out on sales they’ll reconsider, but they clearly have some reason to believe they have at least better than even odds of things going the other way and nobody here is going to have enough info to gainsay that assessment by the numbers.
Whoever run them numbers should be fired. I just wonder if the removal of a-la’-carte is the Order 66 of the former management?
They didn’t do this on a whim; they did this because someone had numbers that piecemeal was a less effective revenue stream than only offering the books. They’re not going alter course at this point just because a couple dozen people sound off online, and this simply is not going to attract the interest to pull or sustain much more attention than what we’re seeing right now. Maybe if they start losing out on sales they’ll reconsider, but they clearly have some reason to believe they have at least better than even odds of things going the other way and nobody here is going to have enough info to gainsay that assessment by the numbers.
A D&D staff member literally asked us to share our feedback, friend. I believe that’s what we’re doing.
I have not read through the whole thread but curious if anyone knows what the “spin” is on this from Beyond? How it is good for us? LOL.
There isn't any spin that I've seen, which I'm grateful for. It's a business decision, one that isn't a question of ethics (at least, not fundamentally so). That doesn't mean it's a good decision, just it's not about righteousness v evil.
There's such a thing as having respect for your customers. Springing the removal of individual purchases on without warning what (before buyout by WotC) was something of a community of supporters here, not just wallets to pick, creates an awful feeling and aversion to further supporting their products. Poisoning the community. Not evil. Stupid, greedy, harmful if they were seeking to build good will for their brand. If they realise they cut off an entry into D&D and buying here, as all these comments are saying, maybe they will admit this as yet another corporate mistake and backtrack. But I doubt it.
They didn’t do this on a whim; they did this because someone had numbers that piecemeal was a less effective revenue stream than only offering the books. They’re not going alter course at this point just because a couple dozen people sound off online, and this simply is not going to attract the interest to pull or sustain much more attention than what we’re seeing right now. Maybe if they start losing out on sales they’ll reconsider, but they clearly have some reason to believe they have at least better than even odds of things going the other way and nobody here is going to have enough info to gainsay that assessment by the numbers.
Whoever run them numbers should be fired. I just wonder if the removal of a-la’-carte is the Order 66 of the former management?
Okay, both parts of that are just comically melodramatic; saying someone should be fired because they recommended a course of action you dislike is ridiculously petty, and do you really think the outgoing exec isn’t getting a decent severance package? Grandiose acts of sabotage like you’re suggesting happen in cheesy dramas, not reality.
They didn’t do this on a whim; they did this because someone had numbers that piecemeal was a less effective revenue stream than only offering the books. They’re not going alter course at this point just because a couple dozen people sound off online, and this simply is not going to attract the interest to pull or sustain much more attention than what we’re seeing right now. Maybe if they start losing out on sales they’ll reconsider, but they clearly have some reason to believe they have at least better than even odds of things going the other way and nobody here is going to have enough info to gainsay that assessment by the numbers.
This is undoubtedly so, which is why it is incumbent upon us, the consumers, to turn that decision around. If we don't give-in and buy the books when we only need individual items they will see that they are losing revenue, however miniscule it may have been. Then the choice only makes sense if there is some cost involved with the offerings, which is unlikely the case.
I have not read through the whole thread but curious if anyone knows what the “spin” is on this from Beyond? How it is good for us? LOL.
There isn't any spin that I've seen, which I'm grateful for. It's a business decision, one that isn't a question of ethics (at least, not fundamentally so). That doesn't mean it's a good decision, just it's not about righteousness v evil.
There's such a thing as having respect for your customers. Springing the removal of individual purchases on without warning what (before buyout by WotC) was something of a community of supporters here, not just wallets to pick, creates an awful feeling and aversion to further supporting their products. Poisoning the community. Not evil. Stupid, greedy, harmful if they were seeking to build good will for their brand. If they realise they cut off an entry into D&D and buying here, as all these comments are saying, maybe they will admit this as yet another corporate mistake and backtrack. But I doubt it.
They didn’t do this on a whim; they did this because someone had numbers that piecemeal was a less effective revenue stream than only offering the books. They’re not going alter course at this point just because a couple dozen people sound off online, and this simply is not going to attract the interest to pull or sustain much more attention than what we’re seeing right now. Maybe if they start losing out on sales they’ll reconsider, but they clearly have some reason to believe they have at least better than even odds of things going the other way and nobody here is going to have enough info to gainsay that assessment by the numbers.
Whoever run them numbers should be fired. I just wonder if the removal of a-la’-carte is the Order 66 of the former management?
Okay, both parts of that are just comically melodramatic; saying someone should be fired because they recommended a course of action you dislike is ridiculously petty, and do you really think the outgoing exec isn’t getting a decent severance package? Grandiose acts of sabotage like you’re suggesting happen in cheesy dramas, not reality.
Reality currently is acting like drama, and most dramas end sadly.
At this point, IMHO this is Hasbro/WotC squeezing the site in hopes it survives till the new stuff releases.
Instead, they should set this place to have a fire sale of the old, to boost interest in the new. ( and yea don’t care for the new personally, the the site however currently suits my char gen needs, and thats all it ever really was worth what I bought here. ) Not light the place on fire.
Reality currently is acting like drama, and most dramas end sadly.
At this point, IMHO this is Hasbro/WotC squeezing the site in hopes it survives till the new stuff releases.
Instead, they should set this place to have a fire sale of the old, to boost interest in the new. ( and yea don’t care for the new personally, the the site however currently suits my char gen needs, and thats all it ever really was worth what I bought here. ) Not light the place on fire.
I wish! Would've snagged a Legendary bundle if most adventures were on sale.
For everyone complaining about needing to buy books again because you went physical first, the core class features are all free from basic rules, and you can use Homebrew to recreate any subclasses, spells, feats, etc. you already have physically so long as you keep that homebrew in your private collection rather than making it public. Is that notably less convenient than having it pre-built? Yes. That is what you're paying for when you buy the product on D&DB, the convenience of someone else having spent the time and effort to set up all these things so they integrate with the character sheet. And charging a monthly amount cheaper than a lot of fast food meals anymore in exchange for access to their creation tools and near unlimited storage is hardly an egregious ask. Again, this is a for-profit enterprise for a hobby, not a charity, and on top of that a website like this with all these integrated components does require continuous upkeep. The physical books and this site are two separate products; owning one does not create any obligation for WotC to provide you with the other gratis.
You are making an argument that was not the point of the thread. It is the loss of a la carte purchasing that people are angry about. I am also angry that I cannot filter on content I own. Also, I bought the legendary bundle and a lot of books that came as part of the bundle do not carry the tag that I own the digital book so I could end up purchasing the same content twice.
There are players who will never buy an adventure yet who did purchase the crunch from the books in order to access it via character builder. Those players will not buy the whole adventure just to get the new spells, feats, backgrounds or races.
I bought some books piece by piece untiill I got the whole one..how can they not see that it was something useful for them rather than a loss? Specifically when they have a competition with free tools?
You assume that piecemeal wasn't creating a loss, if only in terms of opportunity costs. Money tends to be worth more in the present than it will be in the future on a unit for unit basis, so if people piecemeal their way to a full book over months or years, WotC is in practice making less of a profit, even if the sticker price comes out the same. It's entirely within the realm of possibility that someone with a degree in economics crunched the numbers and argued with supporting evidence that the demand for the products is sufficient that even with a reduction in overall sales on any given book across a period of years, the increase in immediate sales ultimately produces higher value returns.
Is this in the best interests of each and every player? No, not particularly. Does a for-profit entertainment company producing a hobby product have any real reason to place the best interests of the players above all else? No, not particularly. This is not an issue of the "personal relationship" between WotC and the players, and it's certainly not an issue of ethics. It's a business decision, and expecting a company to make what it considers to be an objectively bad business decision to appease one segment of its consumers is just not realistic, not when we're talking about a disposable income product rather than something that has impacts on peoples' health, well-being, etc.
Now, obviously I'm only speculating, I don't have anything near the background or information needed to know if this scenario is the case, but saying offering piecemeal could only have been a positive for WotC compared to alternative options is simply not an absolute truth.
A player is not going to buy a full adventure book just for the crunch. They will lose money on this one because a la carte was player friendly. Now players will just expect the DM to own it all and get it through Master Tier.
Out of curiosity for the people who only bought piecemeal, how often were you buying things here? Once a month, twice a month, every two months? And how much did you typically spend at a time?
At least once a month and the cost of a beer off the shelf.
It is the only way I have been purchasing the whole books
I look at the price and for a hobby of mine I cannot justify the price of the whole book. I have a lot of other competing priorities in life that take precedence over an online copy of a D&D book.
But I can justify the cost of a beer to treat myself some down time. For me the a la carte purchases fell into this level of expenditure. Can I skip a beer and buy part of the book to use now? I can justify that to myself (granted I’ll have the beer anyway - it’s downtime), but I can’t justify the full purchase right at that moment.
These piecemeal purchases overtime then brought down the price for the remainder to the point where I could justify buying the final part.
I will not be buying the content again as part of a whole book (I don’t buy it a second time on the VTT I use either) and I will not jump through hoops to contact customer service to get them to deduct my existing purchases off the ticketed price of the remainder.
I already own all the core books, specifically because it took them so long to offer physical books and digital downloads. I buy the items as I need or as new players join and find things they're interested in. So now I have to buy all those books again just to be able to add stuff to our sheets? I have to buy an entire sourcebook for one item a player wants from a book I don't have?
And how long does anyone really expect them to leave the Homebrew board as it is before they start cleaning it up and removing things that have just been copied over from the main books?
Out of curiosity for the people who only bought piecemeal, how often were you buying things here? Once a month, twice a month, every two months? And how much did you typically spend at a time?
I personally would find myself piece mealing 1-2 times a week if I wanted to see stats on a new build. In a month I'd easily drop $30, more than I ever will now having to buy books in full. Over 2 months I have recorded $67 because I had piece meal'd Tashas Cauldron, then picked up many other races, sub-classes, and items.
Just going to leave this here.
I will also repeat this as many time as I need to, this is the only time I will ever support micro transactions. DNDbeyond provided an awesome way for power gamers, and new players to dip their feet into whatever they wanted to.
Getting rid of this feature feels like a ridiculous step backwards. I will refuse to accept someone saying we as players are in the wrong for wanting this rolled back, we cannot accept this blatant act of anti-consumerism.
There's such a thing as having respect for your customers.
Springing the removal of individual purchases on without warning what (before buyout by WotC) was something of a community of supporters here, not just wallets to pick, creates an awful feeling and aversion to further supporting their products. Poisoning the community.
Not evil. Stupid, greedy, harmful if they were seeking to build good will for their brand.
If they realise they cut off an entry into D&D and buying here, as all these comments are saying, maybe they will admit this as yet another corporate mistake and backtrack.
But I doubt it.
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!
Good grief.
This is troubling and I am gutted. The ala carte purchases were a god send for me and my players, who are on a fixed income in South Africa.
The DnD playing community had just started to thrive here. I'm afraid that this will just stop the momentum.
It's just ridiculous.
Eish (South African expression of exasperation)
They didn’t do this on a whim; they did this because someone had numbers that piecemeal was a less effective revenue stream than only offering the books. They’re not going alter course at this point just because a couple dozen people sound off online, and this simply is not going to attract the interest to pull or sustain much more attention than what we’re seeing right now. Maybe if they start losing out on sales they’ll reconsider, but they clearly have some reason to believe they have at least better than even odds of things going the other way and nobody here is going to have enough info to gainsay that assessment by the numbers.
Whoever run them numbers should be fired. I just wonder if the removal of a-la’-carte is the Order 66 of the former management?
A D&D staff member literally asked us to share our feedback, friend. I believe that’s what we’re doing.
Please bring back à la carte purchases.
Okay, both parts of that are just comically melodramatic; saying someone should be fired because they recommended a course of action you dislike is ridiculously petty, and do you really think the outgoing exec isn’t getting a decent severance package? Grandiose acts of sabotage like you’re suggesting happen in cheesy dramas, not reality.
This is undoubtedly so, which is why it is incumbent upon us, the consumers, to turn that decision around. If we don't give-in and buy the books when we only need individual items they will see that they are losing revenue, however miniscule it may have been. Then the choice only makes sense if there is some cost involved with the offerings, which is unlikely the case.
Reality currently is acting like drama, and most dramas end sadly.
At this point, IMHO this is Hasbro/WotC squeezing the site in hopes it survives till the new stuff releases.
Instead, they should set this place to have a fire sale of the old, to boost interest in the new. ( and yea don’t care for the new personally, the the site however currently suits my char gen needs, and thats all it ever really was worth what I bought here. ) Not light the place on fire.
I wish! Would've snagged a Legendary bundle if most adventures were on sale.
You are making an argument that was not the point of the thread. It is the loss of a la carte purchasing that people are angry about. I am also angry that I cannot filter on content I own. Also, I bought the legendary bundle and a lot of books that came as part of the bundle do not carry the tag that I own the digital book so I could end up purchasing the same content twice.
There are players who will never buy an adventure yet who did purchase the crunch from the books in order to access it via character builder. Those players will not buy the whole adventure just to get the new spells, feats, backgrounds or races.
A player is not going to buy a full adventure book just for the crunch. They will lose money on this one because a la carte was player friendly. Now players will just expect the DM to own it all and get it through Master Tier.
At least once a month and the cost of a beer off the shelf.
It is the only way I have been purchasing the whole books
I look at the price and for a hobby of mine I cannot justify the price of the whole book. I have a lot of other competing priorities in life that take precedence over an online copy of a D&D book.
But I can justify the cost of a beer to treat myself some down time. For me the a la carte purchases fell into this level of expenditure. Can I skip a beer and buy part of the book to use now? I can justify that to myself (granted I’ll have the beer anyway - it’s downtime), but I can’t justify the full purchase right at that moment.
These piecemeal purchases overtime then brought down the price for the remainder to the point where I could justify buying the final part.
I will not be buying the content again as part of a whole book (I don’t buy it a second time on the VTT I use either) and I will not jump through hoops to contact customer service to get them to deduct my existing purchases off the ticketed price of the remainder.
I simply will not purchase the full books.
I fear that the next step in their greedy little corporate hearts after the removal of a la carte is the share owned material feature.
I already own all the core books, specifically because it took them so long to offer physical books and digital downloads. I buy the items as I need or as new players join and find things they're interested in. So now I have to buy all those books again just to be able to add stuff to our sheets? I have to buy an entire sourcebook for one item a player wants from a book I don't have?
And how long does anyone really expect them to leave the Homebrew board as it is before they start cleaning it up and removing things that have just been copied over from the main books?
Terrible decision by Hasbro. Corporate greed at its finest.