Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

Quote from LaTiaJacquise >>

no problem! I'm just sorry I wasn't in here earlier, but as you can imagine, it's been a bit... much... over the last 36-ish hours, hahaha.

A lot of us are frustrated and upset. Dealing with angry customers is not fun. Thank you for reading and replying back to us, your communication helps. You are doing a good job, and I hope your compensation and pay reflects that.

Moving forward, are there plans to increase communication and transparency with the community? Ever since the original founders left and Hasbro took over, communication has been going down hill and that is not okay. Community engagement is a difficult and thankless task that needs to be done, and that task is just as important as software development, marketing, accounting, etc. There is an undeniable night-and-day difference in enthusiam, excitement, and hope in Beyond's community between five years ago when I first joined this site and right now. With timely communication, it will be easier for the community to self regulate and to increase brand loyalty.

What sets D&D apart from other TTRPGs is not just the marketing and name recognition. What sets D&D apart is the level of convenience and quality of life features that comes with being part of a big corporation. Having physical and digital books is the easy part, any modern TTRPG these days got that. What D&D got that others do not is the plethora of physical and digital tools (mats, minis, book tabs, GM screens, monster cards, Beyond's whole suite of tools, à la carte purchases, content sharing, etc.) that brings the game alive for players and makes running the game easier on GMs. Having timely communication, community engagement, and a sense of belonging and purpose is also a big part of that.

D&D's closest competitor is Pathfinder, and as far as I can tell, they do not drop the ball in community engagement. Not only are they able to rally the TTRPG consumer base, they are also able to rally a portion of the industry, to take advantage of Wizard's abysmal PR response to the OGL incident. Beyond, Wizards, and Hasbro should not be neglecting communicating with its community over big changes like removing à la carte purchases. We will not like the changes, and we will probably still be up in arms anyways, but at least give us a reason to be empathetic and understanding so the cooler heads among us can nip misinformation in the bud and maintain a more positive outlook. The reason can be as simple as being greedy, and Hasbro better be. Last I checked, Hasbro is not performing so well. When Beyond discontinued further development in multilingual support some years ago, they said that the Italian PHB compendium did not sell very well, and while the community is not happy about it, we understand and can empathesize with the situation.

I do not know the exact steps that needs to be taken, but I wish to see the level of enthusiam, excitement, and hope that Beyond once had.

Throw in my vote to bring back à la carte purchases too. And sorry to slam you with an essay, but I hope you and the rest of the Beyond team to have a good day or night wherever y'all may be.

 
I want to second everything said here. D&D is a hard community to manage - our players span multiple generations, both culturally and in terms of the game itself.  As a game of fantasy escapism, it attracts people from all walks of life - and of all different, often diametrically opposed viewpoints.  And, as players of a fantasy game, perhaps sometimes we are a little prone to fantasy ourselves, running down the path of hyperbole and exaggeration, turning a wyrmling sized problem into a Greatwyrm.

We are not an easy group to address and, given its eclectic makeup, folks are always going to be angry.  Finding the right answer is often impossible - and finding the best bad option can be almost as hard.  But there is one option that is always wrong - silence. It is in that silence the player base turns to its imagination. While imagination might be great for playing the game, it is extremely dangerous from a PR stance.

All of which brings me to another point almost never addressed, but which must be acknowledged.  When Wizards, Hasbro, of Beyond is silent on an issue, the burden of keeping the peace, of telling people to avoid speculation and rely on tangible evidence, the burden of doing the job of Wizards/Hasbro PR, often falls on members of the community.  

Take this thread. XXXGammaRay went out of their way to find information buried on the support pages and put out an announcement to players hours and hours before anything was meaningfully announced from the Beyond team.  It is not the first time this user has tried to cast Calm Emotions due to lack of communication from Wizards; it will not be their last.  And they are not alone - there are countless folks in the same boat, trying to steer the ship through a storm while the captain is conspicuously missing.

All the things that make y’all’s job difficult?  The different opinions, all of which can be hard to balance?  The aggressive and violent rhetoric by those who would rather be angry now than wait for more information?  The personal attacks and accusations?  Everything that makes D&D PR hard is doubly true for your dedicated players who lack the gravitas and authority (and sometimes anonymity) of an official statement.  Except, those players have an additional burden - they do not know what is going on either, and, often, they are just as concerned and scared as everyone else.  Their concern and fear does not manifest as anger, nor does it superseded their caution and dedication to rendering opinions based on actual evidence and speculation - but it does not mean their fear is not real.  And, far too often, it means they have to be careful in voicing their true feelings or fears, lest they inadvertently spur the very confusion and anger they wish to avoid. 

Your job is hard, and I do not want to diminish that in the slightest.  But it is your job—not your players’.  By getting behind stories, by ambushing (either in actuality or in perception) your community and delaying in providing a meaningful response… all of that does not only make your job harder long-term—it also drops the responsibility of the initial public relations damage control on those of your players with the levelest of heads.  Players who, far too often, find themselves on the receiving end of all the vitriolic horror the internet has  to offer.  Players who, even knowing they will get insulted, attacked, and ridiculed, still repeatedly step up to the plate because they love this game and they want what is best for it.

Placing the burden on them—some of your most loyal and best players—especially for things like this the D&D team knew was occurring well in advance?  That is hardly fair.

Please bring back the a la carte options! This is not cool.

Please bring back a la carte and bundle options. They were great ways to reward new and old users.

The lack of a la carte options prevented me from buying the Book of Many Things, despite buying most books in full available on the site. I assumed this whole time that there was something wrong with the coding for the book and steered clear of it, but in any case, I won't be buying books on here until there's a change. I have the master sub and the legendary bundle, and have been faithfully forking over money for the full books for years. But if this site won't give people options when they're not able to do that, especially not now, then why would anyone trust or support the future of this website? For all I know, there's a staggered plan to eliminate homebrewing, too, which is why it would be so lucrative to suddenly start making a bunch of contracts with third party content creators to sell on here with little fanfare before release. Just as dndbeyond has begun doing. Since we know they can't be trusted to announce sweeping changes, which they will make without warning, like assassins killing "customer value" in the dead of night, they've lost all credibility to me as a leisure investment. It will take time, but I'm finally convinced that it's a good idea to divest and look into alternatives to this site, and game, for my ttrpg needs. Before things get even worse and more profit-maximizing strategies are implemented on here to my inconvenience.

This latest act of antagonism towards an already precariously loyal base, who will warn new customers away, will cost WotC money, and I don't mean because of customers like me. This is a digital tool, not a physical one, and the people who would use this site are largely acclimated to internet tools. I can only shake my head at the short-sighted greed on display. I swear these corporations must be consulting the snake oil investment bro equivalent of the traveling con-man cheerleading coach from "Bring It On" to believe that people will still trust in dndbeyond and WotC, and that their secret plans will result in victory and profit.

Being able to make those individual small purchases kept me buying! I’ll be home brewing the items more so now. As a DM I would often buy the thing a player wanted so they could access it and add it to my collection. Cheap and convenient. I’ve always balked at the price of digital books, this won’t make me more likely to buy them. I’ll be keeping those toonies to myself now. Sigh!

I am also very disappointed by this decision. I have a master tier subscription and have purchased plenty of physical books. I thought the ability to buy individual items etc. was one of the best features of DnD Beyond and has helped keep me loyal to the site.

I was going to buy some monsters from Candlekeep Mysteries tonight for an upcoming game but now I'll just use them out of the physical book which I already own. I'm certainly not going to buy the whole book.

I suspect many of us will be doing that now! That option was one of the selling points I always gave to people about using Beyond! 

I made this video to show the changes. From 10 minute mark I go over my personal thoughts and why I think D&D Beyond might be doing this. 

This is dumb - bring it back.

Quote from LaTiaJacquise >>

I don't have the answer to that question right now, but the community team and moderators are collecting as much feedback about this as y'all are giving us, so please continue to voice those thoughts!

 Thank you for your honesty, it is appreciated. The thoughts I'll voice are thus:

1. This is not the first time, nor do I reckon shall it be the last, that Wizards of the Coast has failed to adequately communicate a change in how players engage with the game and the purchase of it. Most problems in D&D, be it between participants or the company, can be resolved or at least calmed through communication. This should have been communicated long in advance, because it is a massive change that affects how people interact with D&D Beyond. I feel lessons have not been learned with the OGL situation and the multiple blog posts that followed which insisted things like "we’re going to do this a better way: more open and transparent, with our entire community of creators. With the time to iterate, to get feedback, to improve."
2. The individual purchase options are of great importance. Knowing that I could not only play a Minotaur, but also be able to purchase that option without having to buy an entire book (a waste of both money and paper before converting to use of DDB), was what made me a D&D player rather than an outside observer. I've since spent what must be hundreds of pounds on the game as a result, simply because a feature I wanted was a foothold into the hobby. I feel a great many people are the same, but I can't prove that. I've no doubt there's data that shows how many people purchase things differently. Were that data available, it might alleviate some of the issues. Again, communication is key.
3. I used to be able to see what individual items were in the book. That is no longer possible. What magic items are in the Book of Many Things? I don't know, I have to buy the book now. What spells are there? I don't know, I have to buy the book now. While previously I could only guess based on the name or ask someone else who had owned it, I could at least be inspired to bite the bullet and go with something that sounds cool. Again, I didn't know what the minotaur did. I didn't care, I just wanted to play a minotaur. The 'Ruined' Background sounds like it would be interesting, I'd love to purchase it individually without having to buy the entire book.
4. I would prefer to own the physical book now individual purchases are gone. Finding information on this site can be a pain, and the readability has not improved in my years of using it (is dark mode still not a thing without browser plugins?). With one of its two advantages gone (the other being a lot of the automation that comes through dice rolls and modifiers, HP, and so on), I could easily go to the tabletop with used, cheaper copies of the books that I can share with the in-person group. I could use the money I'd save from the subscription fee to buy said books second-hand, too.
5. Finally, and this is the most important thing I'll say because you and the team are human, I don't have a problem with you personally for not having the answers, that's not your fault. But I do have a problem that nobody in the chain of command deemed it necessary for you to have the answers before being subject to this. It should be blindingly obvious that this change was going to spark controversy, and if it wasn't, then that highlights greater problems with the higher-ups.

I know for a fact that any communication before this change was implemented would've gone down poorly because there is no benefit to the hobbyist, so naturally it's going to be negatively received, but if we were informed long before this we would've been able to voice our thoughts and your team would've been able to pass them on to whoever needs to know. This is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, only now said horse has disappeared into Elminster's Encyclopedia of of Equines for $29.99 because it can't be found on its own.

I am actually more wizzd off by the price of the books. Both physical and digital.

The physical book prices are pretty much set. Still think they are high but hey what can you do.

The digital books though are about twice as high as they should be. They are no printing costs and very little shipping costs. The servers and internet connections do cost them though. But not that much.

Though I do think that with the new mapping functions you could raise the subscription prices by a buck and give the Hero level the ability to map.(the more people using the map feature the better it will get.)

Quote from LaTiaJacquise >>

@XXXGammaRay and @Caerwyn_Glyndwr: both very well said, and I truly want to thank you both again (and everyone else here) for voicing your frustrations. You've spoken a lot of truths here and I'm gonna try and answer your questions as best as I can:

Moving forward, are there plans to increase communication and transparency with the community? Yes! This was one of the reasons why we established the Community Update, which is written by the community management team (there are two of us). It's purposefully not meant to have a regular cadence cuz sometimes there just isn't enough stuff to share that's worthy of a full update, but it's one of the ways we intended to establish more communication with the community overall.

That being said, we're not always able to communicate things out before they happen, but that doesn't mean we don't try. We've gotta follow the guidance we're given, even if we sometimes disagree. I truly share your frustration with the changes to the marketplace, which is why I'm going so hard to gather as much feedback as I can. And I don't say that for any kind of recognition; as Caerwyn says, it is my job. I acknowledge that misstep

 

.

 I don't blame you personally. No one should. I know what it's like to be the face of an organisation but not it's (unpopular) decision maker. I hope people are treating you with respect (and if my post earlier came off otherwise, I apologise, it wasn't intended to be critical of you or to make you take the brunt). That it's your job is beside the point, we're all humans and this isn't your fault so we should be able to talk decently.

That said, and again this isn't against you, but the here's my feedback...do with it as you will.

1. Like others, I echo that this should have been communicated weeks ago. Being told then, I could have prepared by buying the piecemeal stuff I really wanted. It still would have been something I'd have objected to, but it would have removed a significant part of the sting (again, I recognise this wasn't your choice).
2. I strongly encourage a rethink. Take my personal example. I had about $60 worth of stuff that I wanted to buy piecemeal. Mostly monsters from books I own physically but would like to use in the encounter - but was waiting for the campaigns to start (in the next few months) to get them. I am not buying the entire books again, it's not worth the money, so that's, just from me and just this year, $60 that they've refused with no real upside. 
3. DDB isn't all that, to be blunt. It doesn't provide any important service that you can't get elsewhere. The one thing it was doing that made it attractive was allowing piecemeal purchases so I didn't have to buy tons of things I didn't want. There's a good reason why I'm on DDB and not buying stuff on Roll20 - and it's not because DDB has had years of experience in the VTT market. It's because I could buy what I want and largely avoid buying what I don't. That's been taken away. Why should I stick to DDB then, when, at my pricing level, Roll20 offers more?
4. One of my concerns about this is the future of DDB. It very much looks like WotC are trying to grab money rather than providing good service in the hopes of return custom. Various spins on that aside, it's the kind of behaviour that I've seen in companies a lot once they stop trying to earn customers and instead try to just grab wallets. It rarely gets better and almost inevitably leads to more and more deprecating behaviour towards the service until it really does suck. I had a decision when this move first made its presence start to be felt with BoMT, and I decided to trust WotC that it wasn't going to pull this stunt and bought the core rules and two expansions. I'm now deliberating whether WotC is going to follow the old style "provide a good service and let people come" or if they're continuing down this road of "let's try to restrict their options so they buy the stuff that we want them to buy"? One of those roads leads to me buying into the DDB ecosystem, one of them doesn't. Guess which way this corporate decision is pushing me? Which way do they think not reversing it will push me?

Again, I'll declare that this isn't directed at you. There's a lot more about WotC's and DDB's behaviour that I could talk about that's not making me feel like a valued customer or part of the community, but I think that's enough for one post. I hope it helps, and I hope you don't feel attacked by it.

Yea there go my purchasing at dnd beyond i dont think ill be renewing my subscription either looks like I'm moving to  another character building platform I literally don't like to buy the book because I do not dm and I only play certain classes by my entertainment preferences so yea no Ala cart kills my dndbeyond digital experience I don't like paying for what is extra options I won't use that only muddle up me character building options with needless options  I won't use for a build id rather build peacemeal as I play and upgrade to full books as I use those options ...such a short sighted and disappointing move

This is going to hurt the sales they get honestly  as I own physical books and digital content was same as you to only buy for character creation. roll 20 offers more bang if I bought through them but this money grap shortchanged my options and its said because now I have every reason not to use the already not optimal dndbeyond site in favor of other more economical and better working character tools/ services my new to doing dm has been pushing us to do roll 20 potentially anyway but I had pushback because of the ability to make my character n purchase as I build but without that option I feel betrayed and as if now because I won't buy digital content out right when owning physical as well I feel I'm being left behind as a consumer and a player no one whom is going to get into dnd for the first time is gonna shell out 30-bucks for a char on a while they might like the game  but a few dollars here n there sure I ever footed the cost for a players first character build on dnd beyond  but that not a option now as id either need to be dming a campaign n share resources or buy them books. The ease of digital chara ter maintaining is far easier the the physical books which often is what puts off new player imo its the same reason I don't play warhammer all the rules and the upfront cost

Quote from Metamongoose >>

Quote from BurningFalcon >>

 
Here's the problem: IT WAS DONE in secretive. Nobody cares if they post news about it AFTER they changed it.
Every person who owned part of a book, as of this moment, has the buy the WHOLE book again, and pay the FULL PRICE. 
It's contradicting to their news, and it should have been announced hours/days before the change, so people could have a chance to buy the rest of those books.

Yea, sure, they could have just not write any news at all. But you can pretty sure, that this would have exploded even more if they didn't.

 

Can I still purchase subclasses, feats, and other game listings à la carte?  

À la carte purchases are no longer supported. However, any individual items you've previously purchased will continue to be available for use on D&D Beyond, and those purchases will still be credited toward the cost of the books they originally came from.

Quote from PsyrenXY >>

Quote from BurningFalcon >>

 
Here's the problem: IT WAS DONE in secretive. Nobody cares if they post news about it AFTER they changed it.
Every person who owned part of a book, as of this moment, has the buy the WHOLE book again, and pay the FULL PRICE. 
It's contradicting to their news, and it should have been announced hours/days before the change, so people could have a chance to buy the rest of those books.

Yea, sure, they could have just not write any news at all. But you can pretty sure, that this would have exploded even more if they didn't.

 I'm not going to defend WotC's PR team, Ao knows they're supremely bad at it.

But the intent seems to be that if you did a partial purchase, those purchases will count towards the full book. So "you have the buy the WHOLE book again and pay FULL PRICE" is incorrect, or at the very least a site bug that should be handled like all other site bugs, i.e. via the Support process.

 

It's really great that you both think that I'm wrong, but it's a matter of fact that the marketplace is currently not supporting what was announced in their article, which means it's I am NOT wrong. Especially since it was prior to the clarification about how we would get our discount.




Thanks to LaTiaJacquise to give some clarity in that matter, but until the marketplace works properly in this regard, instead of having a overcomplicated workaround, I'm done buying stuff on DnDB.

I just wanted to give my two cents as an educator; this sudden change makes it infeasible to continue using D&D Beyond as a tool for my students. 
Piecemeal purchases made it possible for me to afford to buy the rules options my students wanted to use without having to repurchase the entire book on D&D Beyond. I can't afford to do that if I am having to buy the entirety of every book digitally to do so.

Additionally, I have long supported my FLGS. I buy all my D&D books from them, and encourage my students to do the same. My FLGS gives my students a discount to help them get into the hobby. Being able to make piecemeal purchases on DDB made it affordable for kids to use it as a tool. This change makes it so that they have to choose between supporting their FLGS or the corporate behemoth that is Hasbro, and that is not a position my students should be in. The way this change, especially with DDB now selling hard copies directly and having a digital + physical bundle without an in-store bundle option (which people have been begging for for YEARS, and which literally all of D&Ds competitors do in some form or another), seems to edge out local stores and cut the legs out from them even further feels really sleazy and unethical. I can't in good conscious tell my students abandon their local game store; gaming cannot survive without local game stores no matter how much Hasbro tries to monetize D&D.

Given both the practical and ethical issues this change presents I am seriously considering abandoning the use of DDB for my students next school year. I currently teach D&D classes at least 5 days a week in addition to working privately with groups of neurodivergent and autistic adolescents throughout the SF bay area. DDB has been a useful tool, one I would like to be able to continue to use, but it is not an essential one. And with the revised books coming out, meaning my students are looking at having to purchase another three books just to keep up to date, I am considering whether other game systems might be a better option; they have LOVED Shadowdark when I have demoed it for them. 

The higher ups need to seriously reconsider blatantly greedy dark-of-night moves like this against their customer base if they don't want to lose the loyalty of the next generation of gamers even more than they have lost the loyalty of the current and past generations with these constant unforced errors driven by bald-faced corporate greed.

I’m just chiming in here as well to say I miss the a la Carte purchase options: I used it mainly for subclasses, races, and the occasional magic item. 
sad to see it go as most of the material in those books don’t really interest me all that much.