I don't really see a problem here. I am sure that DDB will continue to improve the buyer experience in the marketplace. The idea is to drive ****omers to the marketplace, not drive them from it. The "new" marketplace looks really nice and easy to navigate. My only objection is that maybe they should have waited until all functionality was in place.
When it comes to individual purchases, there was a lot of fuzz about it in a negative way, like "oh no, now they are adding microtransactions" so when they don't people complain that they can't buy via microtransactions.... hmmm.
I only ever came across trolls with axes to grind complaining about "micro transactions" when it came to piecemeal purchases, to my memory. I always found it a silly comparison - microtransactions are an issue because they're the only method of purchasing and are intended to vastly overinflate the cost versus the value by hiding the true cost. While superficially similar, piecemeal purchases were literally the opposite of that. The vast majority of us (including myself) pushed them as a big selling point of DDB and encouraged people to avail themselves of it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I don't really see a problem here. I am sure that DDB will continue to improve the buyer experience in the marketplace. The idea is to drive ****omers to the marketplace, not drive them from it. The "new" marketplace looks really nice and easy to navigate. My only objection is that maybe they should have waited until all functionality was in place.
When it comes to individual purchases, there was a lot of fuzz about it in a negative way, like "oh no, now they are adding microtransactions" so when they don't people complain that they can't buy via microtransactions.... hmmm.
I’d be interested in seeing any widespread arguments that say that the á la carte options on DDB were anything but well-received. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but á la carte purchasing on DDB has been around almost as long as DDB has been around if it wasn’t there at launch, and it is widely considered to be a selling point.
I’m also not sure “microtransaction” is a relevant term here.
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.
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.
On the subject of "truthiness:"
Here's the problem: IT WAS DONE in secretive. Nobody cares if they post news about it AFTER they changed it. Partially True/False. Some of us did care that an explanation, however late, did arrive eventually. Every person who owned part of a book, as of this moment, has the buy the WHOLE book again, and pay the FULL PRICE. False. As stated above, anyone who owns partial content will get credit for that purchase towards the full book. It may be a hoop-jump or two to accomplish this a the moment, but it is possible and the process should smooth out as time goes by and feedback is processed. 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. Charitably True. Insomuch as it is not worth arguing. It is technically wrong, but yes, it should have been announced a good month or more before the change.
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. True. This would very likely have been worse the longer the silence continued.
As what I posted mostly pertained to the actual false statement, I'm not sure what you are crowing over. You said something false and correct information was provided, both for you and for others who might read said false statement.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I don't really see a problem here. I am sure that DDB will continue to improve the buyer experience in the marketplace. The idea is to drive ****omers to the marketplace, not drive them from it. The "new" marketplace looks really nice and easy to navigate. My only objection is that maybe they should have waited until all functionality was in place.
When it comes to individual purchases, there was a lot of fuzz about it in a negative way, like "oh no, now they are adding microtransactions" so when they don't people complain that they can't buy via microtransactions.... hmmm.
the "a la carte" purchasing or "piecemeal" purchasing is literally the opposite of microtransactions. We're not buying different colour character sheets or portraits for 2 dollars, we're buying a chapter of the book for a fraction of the cost of the full book, and if you wanted the rest of the book someday, the cost of that chapter you already bought was discounted off the price of the book.
When it comes to individual purchases, there was a lot of fuzz about it in a negative way, like "oh no, now they are adding microtransactions" so when they don't people complain that they can't buy via microtransactions.... hmmm.
Bit of a false equivalency and there was not any fuss about the a la carte purchasing on this site.
For most games Microtransactions - the ones people don't like - are "in addition to" the full price of the game. Games do things to drive up the need for them, such as timing out access, spamming you to heck with adverts when you already bought the game and they want you to pay extra for the ad-free version, or locking out progress and such things. They are otherwise separate from full game cost. For D&D Beyond the equivalent would be paying $30 for the full book but you still had adverts on your sheet and you needed to pay to remove them, or having to pay to make homebrew. This is the type of microtransactions people hate.
Not all such microtransactions are bad. Cosmetic extra, for example, are absolutely fine. Extra dice? Fine. New portraits or themes? Spiffy.
What we are lamenting losing is the a la carte or piecemeal purchasing. This is a different type of microtransaction. This was where you buy access to a small piece of content to use without needing to buy the whole book and if/when you are ready to buy the full book your previous a la carte purchases are factored as a discount, so you never pay to unlock the same thing twice. It's less "microtransaction" and more "spreading the cost in a more affordable way".
Having been here since the beginning of D&D Beyond this a la carte approach was a well-received massive selling point. There was no downside, it was just a straight up "let's make this game more affordable for those on limited incomes". For many people this was the only way to afford books. Now they've taken that away and it definitely feels like a slap to the face. And with no notice, communication, survey - nothing at all in advance. Just bad faith. Loss of trust.
This is the 3rd time too. After Eberron Wayfarer/Rising crapshow and lies, to the OGL debacle and now this.
If Pathfinder - who already offer free PDFs with some book purchases - took a look at this and went "we're now doing a la carte purchases on our Demiplane" (Demiplane is to Pathfinder, and other games, what D&D Beyond is to D&D -- and made by ex-D&D Beyond employees, so they do have experience in setting up a la carte purchases) - that's just going to steal a massive chunk of D&D's customer base, again.
Just so very disappointing.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I think doing this was a huge mistake to be honest. I used to buy whole (physical) sourcebooks just for my own enjoyment, as well as individual piecemeal digital options for specific characters. WoTC already have been disappointing us and ruining their own reputation time and time again. I kept using dndbeyond and regularly spending money on books and piecemeal options honestly because it was convenient and i do enjoy dnd a lot, but I'm not going to buy a whole book I'm not even interested in for one damn subclass.
My friend switched to just making and calculating their own character sheets using all the content easily available for free elsewhere online a while ago and i think I'm going to have to start doing the same.
The convenience is no longer even slightly enough for the price they've now made it. And doing this without any announcement beforehand has degraded what was left of the trust so i don't think I'll be buying any more physical sourcebooks either. Just super disappointing and a terrible business move as far as i can tell.
Where is this "free" official content, I would wager it is illegal, and if that is ok with you you might rethink posting promotion of theft.
Note that I didn't say "official". The internet is swimming in balanced homebrew content made by talented folk that not only is often more directly tailored to the characters a person might wanna create but is also, again, free.
If someone chooses to interpret me expressing frustration at this update as "promotion of theft" then that's quite frankly their problem.
I think doing this was a huge mistake to be honest. I used to buy whole (physical) sourcebooks just for my own enjoyment, as well as individual piecemeal digital options for specific characters. WoTC already have been disappointing us and ruining their own reputation time and time again. I kept using dndbeyond and regularly spending money on books and piecemeal options honestly because it was convenient and i do enjoy dnd a lot, but I'm not going to buy a whole book I'm not even interested in for one damn subclass.
My friend switched to just making and calculating their own character sheets using all the content easily available for free elsewhere online a while ago and i think I'm going to have to start doing the same.
The convenience is no longer even slightly enough for the price they've now made it. And doing this without any announcement beforehand has degraded what was left of the trust so i don't think I'll be buying any more physical sourcebooks either. Just super disappointing and a terrible business move as far as i can tell.
Where is this "free" official content, I would wager it is illegal, and if that is ok with you you might rethink posting promotion of theft.
They did not say official content is free they said free content and there is a metric crap ton of it out on the net and while not all of it is good it is there for people to use. It could be in the homebrew section here on the app. It could be something someone put in a forum post, added to a wiki , posted in Blog or an article for a gaming website and none of it is posting promotion of theft
Micro transactions are basically TRASH for CASH. The a-la’-carte here on DDB in the beginning was an all you can eat buffet for a reasonable price, given at the time it came out , really took off.
Now, new management, different cooks, food sucks, and cashier is in back bout to quit. Sad part is cashier is also only one who knows how to run the pto.
Now, obviously this was very badly handled, and honestly didn’t surprise me personally. Can the words expressed be heard and headed?
Whats the status on if a decision will be made on if the a-la-carte will be reinstated? If it’s already in reimplementation phase, how soon can we expect return of service?
Not that it hasn't all been said previously in this thread, but I have to say this is a misstep by WOTC/DDB. I am continually dismayed with the corporate money saving tactics that punish long term customers that Hasbro, WOTC, and DDB have been instituting as of late. When the company was small and growing, the bugs were tolerable and there was frequent communication with users.
The inability to add certain monsters I own to the Extras section of the character sheet is a huge issue for me as a DM who uses the Extras page for my encounters. With the amount of money I spend on an annual Master tier for the game, a hobby, that mostly takes place as improv between friends, it's not worth it anymore. I feel like I'm getting ripped off and I'm just watching the company turn into every other money grubbing corporate hellscape. I used to tout DDB as an amazing tool that could help new players get into D&D but now I feel it's becoming less customer friendly, less unique, and a part of the enshittification of the internet as a whole.
Those of you who work for DDB, WOTC, and Hasbro that agree with me, please fight to save our hobby from being completely commodofied into a lifeless hull of its former glory. Please speak up in meetings and express how dissatisfied you (and the customers) are about the direction the companies are moving. It's dystopian. Please don't ruin what could be the best online character sheet out there.
Look, WotC, I used the piecemeal purchasing because it was convenient and allowed me to get what I wanted for a cheaper price without having to rebuy what I didn't want. I already own the books! All this does is just make me go back to good old pencil and paper.
Less convenient, but not less convenient enough vs the cost.
Your just giving us a reason to not use you as much, really.
Man, I would not want to be working for WotC right now. They seem to be intent on communicating that they don't care for their customers, nor for their employees.
The user-facing mods on DDB must have the worst job of all. They have basically no good news to offer us. They seem to be equally as bewildered by the changes passed from on high. And as D&D sales cool off, their jobs will probably be on the chopping block.
You know things are bad when even the die hard folks who supported WotC throughout the OGL fiasco are saying this is stupid. Just cancelled my master tier subscription. They've got until my current subscription expires to show they deserve any more of my money by rolling this back.
These are really bad news. Why is WotC making such a doomed move?
I cannot unsuscribe now due to our current campaign but the moment It's over we have decided to stop playing DnD and giving Wizards money. And yes, It's all because of this behaviour since the OGL.
Maybe D&D would be more profitable if the CEO had any good will for his customers or his workers. Hasbro being scummy and doing whatever it takes to increase the bottom line. I foresee myself and many others making their way to Pathfinder 2E.
To further expand, this move is even more bewildering just due to the fact that people buying piecemeal options often times ended up getting an entire book over a period of time that they may not have gotten otherwise.
An incredibly frustrating move by this company choosing to push away its casual player-base. For the sake of its workers and any of its shrinking player-base DO BETTER FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS.
I think the most insulting part is that Hasbro can't even give an official "why" they took away piece meal options, everything just says they are no longer available. Not being able to communicate why something important to many players and GMs alike is gone is insulting. If it is to meet your bottom line than just say so a greedy answer is better than none, or just sending in your staff with no information to get chewed out by your community, a comically spineless move.
We can rant and rave as long as we want... this is Hasbro, and by extension WoTC, doing what it does... making money any way they can, with no real concern for the property or the customers. I'm really not sure why people seem so... surprised?
When a la carte was still an option, I had a list of things that were on my "Would be nice" list of stuff I wanted. From time to time, if I had a rough day or finished a big project, I'd buy something from that list. In terms of numbers, it wasn't the cheapest way to get stuff, but I didn't mind because it was only a few dollars and it cheered me up. Now there's no way to continue to do that, and I'm not buying full price books that, frankly, haven't really delievered for some time. But for the bits I was interested in, I was willing to throw some money WotC's way. I fully expected to drop a fair bit on the new books this fall a la carte.
Now, no way am I buying any of them. I have plenty to keep me entertained. If a la carte comes back, however, I would reconsider that stance.
reading through this thread after the post on the homepage, ive started to have a few questions... (mainly just my curiosity) people have mentioned "new players" being hurt by not being able to buy piece-meal - yet new players have access to the basic rules content for free (personally that is where i first went upon joining the dndbeyond community), this same section also comes with a free adventure if memory serves, so i ask why a "new player" would buy piece-meal to dip their toe when they can dip their toes for free (within the dnd beyond site)?? unsure since ive never had a master subscription but as for people buying for others (i assume you know the person and want to play a game with them, otherwise why buy for them) why not just get a master subscription and share with those people - wouldnt it accomplish the same goal for less??
also many have said they bought piece-meal due to only wanting what they wanted from the book - yet also go onto say they already own the physical books, could it be that people buy piece-meal due to already owning the content rather then being a "new player" with zero physical books in their possession??
im also starting to wonder if some just want to see dndbeyond burn for anything and everything, why change to a new game or website when you still have access to the same tools allowing you to play dnd?? - the content you own is still at your disposal..
personally im neither for nor against piece-meal purchases, it would be nice but can do without it - besides the initial lack of heads up, its a non issue in my mind. im just waiting for the new PHB, DMG and MM to become available before considering what else i may or may not purchase in the future
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I don't really see a problem here. I am sure that DDB will continue to improve the buyer experience in the marketplace. The idea is to drive ****omers to the marketplace, not drive them from it. The "new" marketplace looks really nice and easy to navigate. My only objection is that maybe they should have waited until all functionality was in place.
When it comes to individual purchases, there was a lot of fuzz about it in a negative way, like "oh no, now they are adding microtransactions" so when they don't people complain that they can't buy via microtransactions.... hmmm.
I only ever came across trolls with axes to grind complaining about "micro transactions" when it came to piecemeal purchases, to my memory. I always found it a silly comparison - microtransactions are an issue because they're the only method of purchasing and are intended to vastly overinflate the cost versus the value by hiding the true cost. While superficially similar, piecemeal purchases were literally the opposite of that. The vast majority of us (including myself) pushed them as a big selling point of DDB and encouraged people to avail themselves of it.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I’d be interested in seeing any widespread arguments that say that the á la carte options on DDB were anything but well-received. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but á la carte purchasing on DDB has been around almost as long as DDB has been around if it wasn’t there at launch, and it is widely considered to be a selling point.
I’m also not sure “microtransaction” is a relevant term here.
On the subject of "truthiness:"
As what I posted mostly pertained to the actual false statement, I'm not sure what you are crowing over. You said something false and correct information was provided, both for you and for others who might read said false statement.
the "a la carte" purchasing or "piecemeal" purchasing is literally the opposite of microtransactions. We're not buying different colour character sheets or portraits for 2 dollars, we're buying a chapter of the book for a fraction of the cost of the full book, and if you wanted the rest of the book someday, the cost of that chapter you already bought was discounted off the price of the book.
It was honestly a little more like layaway shopping.
Bit of a false equivalency and there was not any fuss about the a la carte purchasing on this site.
For most games Microtransactions - the ones people don't like - are "in addition to" the full price of the game. Games do things to drive up the need for them, such as timing out access, spamming you to heck with adverts when you already bought the game and they want you to pay extra for the ad-free version, or locking out progress and such things. They are otherwise separate from full game cost. For D&D Beyond the equivalent would be paying $30 for the full book but you still had adverts on your sheet and you needed to pay to remove them, or having to pay to make homebrew. This is the type of microtransactions people hate.
Not all such microtransactions are bad. Cosmetic extra, for example, are absolutely fine. Extra dice? Fine. New portraits or themes? Spiffy.
What we are lamenting losing is the a la carte or piecemeal purchasing. This is a different type of microtransaction. This was where you buy access to a small piece of content to use without needing to buy the whole book and if/when you are ready to buy the full book your previous a la carte purchases are factored as a discount, so you never pay to unlock the same thing twice. It's less "microtransaction" and more "spreading the cost in a more affordable way".
Having been here since the beginning of D&D Beyond this a la carte approach was a well-received massive selling point. There was no downside, it was just a straight up "let's make this game more affordable for those on limited incomes". For many people this was the only way to afford books. Now they've taken that away and it definitely feels like a slap to the face. And with no notice, communication, survey - nothing at all in advance. Just bad faith. Loss of trust.
This is the 3rd time too. After Eberron Wayfarer/Rising crapshow and lies, to the OGL debacle and now this.
If Pathfinder - who already offer free PDFs with some book purchases - took a look at this and went "we're now doing a la carte purchases on our Demiplane" (Demiplane is to Pathfinder, and other games, what D&D Beyond is to D&D -- and made by ex-D&D Beyond employees, so they do have experience in setting up a la carte purchases) - that's just going to steal a massive chunk of D&D's customer base, again.
Just so very disappointing.
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.
Note that I didn't say "official". The internet is swimming in balanced homebrew content made by talented folk that not only is often more directly tailored to the characters a person might wanna create but is also, again, free.
If someone chooses to interpret me expressing frustration at this update as "promotion of theft" then that's quite frankly their problem.
They did not say official content is free they said free content and there is a metric crap ton of it out on the net and while not all of it is good it is there for people to use. It could be in the homebrew section here on the app. It could be something someone put in a forum post, added to a wiki , posted in Blog or an article for a gaming website and none of it is posting promotion of theft
Just published a map on DriveThruRPG The Forgotten Temple
Micro transactions are basically TRASH for CASH. The a-la’-carte here on DDB in the beginning was an all you can eat buffet for a reasonable price, given at the time it came out , really took off.
Now, new management, different cooks, food sucks, and cashier is in back bout to quit. Sad part is cashier is also only one who knows how to run the pto.
Now, obviously this was very badly handled, and honestly didn’t surprise me personally. Can the words expressed be heard and headed?
Whats the status on if a decision will be made on if the a-la-carte will be reinstated? If it’s already in reimplementation phase, how soon can we expect return of service?
Not that it hasn't all been said previously in this thread, but I have to say this is a misstep by WOTC/DDB. I am continually dismayed with the corporate money saving tactics that punish long term customers that Hasbro, WOTC, and DDB have been instituting as of late. When the company was small and growing, the bugs were tolerable and there was frequent communication with users.
The inability to add certain monsters I own to the Extras section of the character sheet is a huge issue for me as a DM who uses the Extras page for my encounters. With the amount of money I spend on an annual Master tier for the game, a hobby, that mostly takes place as improv between friends, it's not worth it anymore. I feel like I'm getting ripped off and I'm just watching the company turn into every other money grubbing corporate hellscape. I used to tout DDB as an amazing tool that could help new players get into D&D but now I feel it's becoming less customer friendly, less unique, and a part of the enshittification of the internet as a whole.
Those of you who work for DDB, WOTC, and Hasbro that agree with me, please fight to save our hobby from being completely commodofied into a lifeless hull of its former glory. Please speak up in meetings and express how dissatisfied you (and the customers) are about the direction the companies are moving. It's dystopian. Please don't ruin what could be the best online character sheet out there.
Look, WotC, I used the piecemeal purchasing because it was convenient and allowed me to get what I wanted for a cheaper price without having to rebuy what I didn't want. I already own the books! All this does is just make me go back to good old pencil and paper.
Less convenient, but not less convenient enough vs the cost.
Your just giving us a reason to not use you as much, really.
Man, I would not want to be working for WotC right now. They seem to be intent on communicating that they don't care for their customers, nor for their employees.
The user-facing mods on DDB must have the worst job of all. They have basically no good news to offer us. They seem to be equally as bewildered by the changes passed from on high. And as D&D sales cool off, their jobs will probably be on the chopping block.
Solidarity.
You know things are bad when even the die hard folks who supported WotC throughout the OGL fiasco are saying this is stupid. Just cancelled my master tier subscription. They've got until my current subscription expires to show they deserve any more of my money by rolling this back.
These are really bad news. Why is WotC making such a doomed move?
I cannot unsuscribe now due to our current campaign but the moment It's over we have decided to stop playing DnD and giving Wizards money. And yes, It's all because of this behaviour since the OGL.
We NEED to purchase individual items.
Maybe D&D would be more profitable if the CEO had any good will for his customers or his workers. Hasbro being scummy and doing whatever it takes to increase the bottom line. I foresee myself and many others making their way to Pathfinder 2E.
To further expand, this move is even more bewildering just due to the fact that people buying piecemeal options often times ended up getting an entire book over a period of time that they may not have gotten otherwise.
An incredibly frustrating move by this company choosing to push away its casual player-base. For the sake of its workers and any of its shrinking player-base DO BETTER FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS.
I think the most insulting part is that Hasbro can't even give an official "why" they took away piece meal options, everything just says they are no longer available. Not being able to communicate why something important to many players and GMs alike is gone is insulting. If it is to meet your bottom line than just say so a greedy answer is better than none, or just sending in your staff with no information to get chewed out by your community, a comically spineless move.
We can rant and rave as long as we want... this is Hasbro, and by extension WoTC, doing what it does... making money any way they can, with no real concern for the property or the customers. I'm really not sure why people seem so... surprised?
When a la carte was still an option, I had a list of things that were on my "Would be nice" list of stuff I wanted. From time to time, if I had a rough day or finished a big project, I'd buy something from that list. In terms of numbers, it wasn't the cheapest way to get stuff, but I didn't mind because it was only a few dollars and it cheered me up. Now there's no way to continue to do that, and I'm not buying full price books that, frankly, haven't really delievered for some time. But for the bits I was interested in, I was willing to throw some money WotC's way. I fully expected to drop a fair bit on the new books this fall a la carte.
Now, no way am I buying any of them. I have plenty to keep me entertained. If a la carte comes back, however, I would reconsider that stance.
reading through this thread after the post on the homepage, ive started to have a few questions... (mainly just my curiosity)
people have mentioned "new players" being hurt by not being able to buy piece-meal - yet new players have access to the basic rules content for free (personally that is where i first went upon joining the dndbeyond community), this same section also comes with a free adventure if memory serves, so i ask why a "new player" would buy piece-meal to dip their toe when they can dip their toes for free (within the dnd beyond site)??
unsure since ive never had a master subscription but as for people buying for others (i assume you know the person and want to play a game with them, otherwise why buy for them) why not just get a master subscription and share with those people - wouldnt it accomplish the same goal for less??
also many have said they bought piece-meal due to only wanting what they wanted from the book - yet also go onto say they already own the physical books, could it be that people buy piece-meal due to already owning the content rather then being a "new player" with zero physical books in their possession??
im also starting to wonder if some just want to see dndbeyond burn for anything and everything, why change to a new game or website when you still have access to the same tools allowing you to play dnd?? - the content you own is still at your disposal..
personally im neither for nor against piece-meal purchases, it would be nice but can do without it - besides the initial lack of heads up, its a non issue in my mind.
im just waiting for the new PHB, DMG and MM to become available before considering what else i may or may not purchase in the future