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
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
When I started playing D&D the first thing I did was go on RPGbot.net and go over classes and races I want to try. Not everyone has the same experience with getting into the game, that is why getting rid of that option for players is such a bad thing. Had I not been given the option to piecemeal what I wanted from outside the PHB I may not playing.
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??
I wonder if you have also considered that just maybe the decision to remove piecemeal purchases has affected a sweeping range of players with various differing experience levels that made use of the system to meet their varying and specific needs?
If you can do without it, then that's awesome but it does however hurt the players who made use of it and prevents future players from making use of it.
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??
I wonder if you have also considered that just maybe the decision to remove piecemeal purchases has affected a sweeping range of players with various differing experience levels that made use of the system to meet their varying and specific needs?
If you can do without it, then that's awesome but it does however hurt the players who made use of it and prevents future players from making use of it.
yes i understand players come in a wide variety with differing experience levels and different needs however alot seem to be approaching this from the view of it being a negative for "new players" - if a "new player" never experiences buying piece-meal how are they affected by not being able to?? to me it seems more like it affects "existing players" rather then "new players", hence why i asked those few questions to gain some insight (rather then a question without an answer) my minds kinda comparing it to (and yes im aware people see things differently to others) a discount sale that ended then someone comes in the next day (or later) wanting something for the previously discounted price...
simply put it just doesnt make sense to me that some have implied moving to a different site or game where those discount dont exist to begin with as an alternative again hence why i asked those questions
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)??
In my case my dip into seeing more options was via content-shared campaigns, but even then I looked at some books that had some things that would be nice but other stuff I wasn't as interested in.
So far all I've purchases is the PHB. But the Circle of Stars from Tasha's is something I could've considered. With most of the other things from Tasha's the intrigued me be rather simple to homebrew.
Or with Spelljammer I have an interest in the Hadozee. (Glide, reaction to reduce damage, neat look? Yes!) But would never be interested in purchasing the whole book.
So it's a way to dip into things. I dipped into other classes via content sharing before dipping into buying the PHB. And by a similar token others could dip into things via piecemeal and later decide they might want more.
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??
I wonder if you have also considered that just maybe the decision to remove piecemeal purchases has affected a sweeping range of players with various differing experience levels that made use of the system to meet their varying and specific needs?
If you can do without it, then that's awesome but it does however hurt the players who made use of it and prevents future players from making use of it.
yes i understand players come in a wide variety with differing experience levels and different needs however alot seem to be approaching this from the view of it being a negative for "new players" - if a "new player" never experiences buying piece-meal how are they affected by not being able to?? to me it seems more like it affects "existing players" rather then "new players", hence why i asked those few questions to gain some insight (rather then a question without an answer) my minds kinda comparing it to (and yes im aware people see things differently to others) a discount sale that ended then someone comes in the next day (or later) wanting something for the previously discounted price...
simply put it just doesnt make sense to me that some have implied moving to a different site or game where those discount dont exist to begin with as an alternative again hence why i asked those questions
but anywho each to their own i guess
Regarding new players, I think perhaps the thing you’re missing is the barrier to entry. True that brand-new players might not realize that they’re missing anything, but that doesn’t change the fact that they ARE missing something.
Yes, new players can dip their toes in with the free options, but now they have to pay full price for whole books they don’t really need and, in many cases, mostly can’t use instead of having the option to drop a few dollars on the things they want to try. I doubt very much that the average new player is going to spend full price on a book just to get a cool subclass. A couple of bucks? Sure. $30? Unlikely. That’s a veteran DM-level investment.
So, on top of being a shady business move, removing á la carte purchasing makes exploring aspects of D&D prohibitively expensive for many. Why are people considering other platforms? Because a lot of those platforms, such as Roll20, offer more/better services for the price, even if they don’t offer piecemeal purchasing. When you strip away the things that make DDB unique, it’s really not much better than anything else out there. And those other platforms aren’t haunted by the shadows of Hasbro/WotC’s misdeeds.
Edit: All this to say that I firmly believed that DDB was the most convenient and player-friendly option out there when it came to digital D&D up until this point. I hope that they either walk this change back or implement something else that makes it easier for players to get the content they can actually use.
Here is more food for thought, with the changes to the marketplace, will the site at least offer all the free stuff that has been produced so new accounts have at least in interest in sticking around?
It's almost as if WoTC doesn't like money. As a non-American I won't be buying full electronic books because they're so damn expensive. I won't be buying hardcover books because you can't use them on DnD beyond. I have often purchased spells, races and classes/subclasses in the past.
I won't leave DnD beyond because of the money I've spent in the past but they won't be getting anything more than my low tier subscription from here on in.
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?
any where to submit complaints about it? because i willlllll. im so bumped. i dont think most of my players would have started if they had to buy the whole damn boook. real bs.
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.
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
When I started playing D&D the first thing I did was go on RPGbot.net and go over classes and races I want to try. Not everyone has the same experience with getting into the game, that is why getting rid of that option for players is such a bad thing. Had I not been given the option to piecemeal what I wanted from outside the PHB I may not playing.
I wonder if you have also considered that just maybe the decision to remove piecemeal purchases has affected a sweeping range of players with various differing experience levels that made use of the system to meet their varying and specific needs?
If you can do without it, then that's awesome but it does however hurt the players who made use of it and prevents future players from making use of it.
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[Flourishing], [Sanguine],[Themberchaud], [Baldur's Gate 3], [Lego].yes i understand players come in a wide variety with differing experience levels and different needs however alot seem to be approaching this from the view of it being a negative for "new players" - if a "new player" never experiences buying piece-meal how are they affected by not being able to??
to me it seems more like it affects "existing players" rather then "new players", hence why i asked those few questions to gain some insight (rather then a question without an answer)
my minds kinda comparing it to (and yes im aware people see things differently to others) a discount sale that ended then someone comes in the next day (or later) wanting something for the previously discounted price...
simply put it just doesnt make sense to me that some have implied moving to a different site or game where those discount dont exist to begin with as an alternative again hence why i asked those questions
but anywho each to their own i guess
In my case my dip into seeing more options was via content-shared campaigns, but even then I looked at some books that had some things that would be nice but other stuff I wasn't as interested in.
So far all I've purchases is the PHB. But the Circle of Stars from Tasha's is something I could've considered. With most of the other things from Tasha's the intrigued me be rather simple to homebrew.
Or with Spelljammer I have an interest in the Hadozee. (Glide, reaction to reduce damage, neat look? Yes!) But would never be interested in purchasing the whole book.
So it's a way to dip into things. I dipped into other classes via content sharing before dipping into buying the PHB. And by a similar token others could dip into things via piecemeal and later decide they might want more.
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Regarding new players, I think perhaps the thing you’re missing is the barrier to entry. True that brand-new players might not realize that they’re missing anything, but that doesn’t change the fact that they ARE missing something.
Yes, new players can dip their toes in with the free options, but now they have to pay full price for whole books they don’t really need and, in many cases, mostly can’t use instead of having the option to drop a few dollars on the things they want to try. I doubt very much that the average new player is going to spend full price on a book just to get a cool subclass. A couple of bucks? Sure. $30? Unlikely. That’s a veteran DM-level investment.
So, on top of being a shady business move, removing á la carte purchasing makes exploring aspects of D&D prohibitively expensive for many. Why are people considering other platforms? Because a lot of those platforms, such as Roll20, offer more/better services for the price, even if they don’t offer piecemeal purchasing. When you strip away the things that make DDB unique, it’s really not much better than anything else out there. And those other platforms aren’t haunted by the shadows of Hasbro/WotC’s misdeeds.
Edit: All this to say that I firmly believed that DDB was the most convenient and player-friendly option out there when it came to digital D&D up until this point. I hope that they either walk this change back or implement something else that makes it easier for players to get the content they can actually use.
Here is more food for thought, with the changes to the marketplace, will the site at least offer all the free stuff that has been produced so new accounts have at least in interest in sticking around?
It's almost as if WoTC doesn't like money. As a non-American I won't be buying full electronic books because they're so damn expensive. I won't be buying hardcover books because you can't use them on DnD beyond. I have often purchased spells, races and classes/subclasses in the past.
I won't leave DnD beyond because of the money I've spent in the past but they won't be getting anything more than my low tier subscription from here on in.
Let's throw down
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?
any where to submit complaints about it? because i willlllll. im so bumped. i dont think most of my players would have started if they had to buy the whole damn boook. real bs.
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.