Respectfully, can you tell me why you don't want to use the web version of the character sheet? Updates and features take a long time and I prefer it a lot if the DDB team concentrates on bringing me new capabilities instead of stuff I can already do perfectly well.
Maintaining all these new features in the different apps (iOS and Android) will consume manpower as well, and all that for things that, at least, I can already do!
Respectfully, can you tell me why you don't want to use the web version of the character sheet? Updates and features take a long time and I prefer it a lot if the DDB team concentrates on bringing me new capabilities instead of stuff I can already do perfectly well.
Maintaining all these new features in the different apps (iOS and Android) will consume manpower as well, and all that for things that, at least, I can already do!
Respectfully, can you tell me why you don't want to use the web version of the character sheet? Updates and features take a long time and I prefer it a lot if the DDB team concentrates on bringing me new capabilities instead of stuff I can already do perfectly well.
Maintaining all these new features in the different apps (iOS and Android) will consume manpower as well, and all that for things that, at least, I can already do!
Personally I'd like to see a mobile patch for character sheets once the main pages go live too, primarily because my tablet and phone are far more convenient to reach and search things on than my currently-dated laptop. By the time the website gets updated they will already have invested the hours into developing the UI positioning for mobile (the website being written with a mobile mode as well), so the job isn't as significant as you think. Odds are there is already a team devoted to app-development, coding the foundations for all the other road-mapped features to rest on. It would be delays to that team, not the website-expanding team.
Sure, they could have not bothered with a mobile-app at all yet. The same argument lies, why waste time on mobile app when you could just run the website for now? The main reason they started before the website is complete will be because that 'complete' status is un-achievable. There are so many plans and desires in the roadmap that they probably can't reach all the hopes they have before DnD e6 comes out. You have to draw a line somewhere and say '1.0 is reached, time to expand' and that line has been passed. I'm willing to bet this isn't the explanation/answer you wanted, it sounds like you always have access to the internet and a laptop whenever you play. That's not the case for many, I know friends around the table with limited mobile-data and would love to have offline access to their Beyond sheets.
Having invested time into coding and porting mobile apps myself I feel safe to assume it'd take no more than a few days for a single person to add a Character Sheet Viewer to both apps. I'd guess a fortnight for a Character Builder since the code and UI also already exists, but UI testing would take longer and new references would need to be made to the offline compendium.. Either way, they're not exactly the most demanding jobs. It'll probably take longer for Apple and Android to approve the updates and send them live than it would for 1 person to bring the web-content to mobile.
With the app seeming to have plans to grow into a fully-fledged website portal alongside its offline compendium, my eyes are looking at picking up a Bluetooth keyboard for faster note-taking onto either device. Both my phone and tablet are more portable than any laptop I could invest into now, they have browsers so I can achieve anything I need to with internet and the addition of offline features really sells the keyboard-investment for me.
Respectfully, can you tell me why you don't want to use the web version of the character sheet? Updates and features take a long time and I prefer it a lot if the DDB team concentrates on bringing me new capabilities instead of stuff I can already do perfectly well.
Maintaining all these new features in the different apps (iOS and Android) will consume manpower as well, and all that for things that, at least, I can already do!
Personally I'd like to see a mobile patch for character sheets once the main pages go live too, primarily because my tablet and phone are far more convenient to reach and search things on than my currently-dated laptop. By the time the website gets updated they will already have invested the hours into developing the UI positioning for mobile (the website being written with a mobile mode as well), so the job isn't as significant as you think. Odds are there is already a team devoted to app-development, coding the foundations for all the other road-mapped features to rest on. It would be delays to that team, not the website-expanding team.
I never use a laptop for the DDB site. Why would I? The mobile version is one of the best mobile version of any website I've ever seen. I only use my tablet and mobile phone, exclusively on the mobile web version of DDB. I tried the app but got rid of it, as the web version is just perfectly fine.
The bulk of the development time does not go into the UI positioning. For Web, iOS and Android you have different languages, different interfaces, and different recurrent updates to all of that. It is significantly more work to bring anything to three platforms in comparison to just one. Sure, some of the work is only done once. But you do incur a significant and continuous overhead.
If there is a different team devoted to app-development, this team could work on new features if there wasn't any app.
Sure, they could have not bothered with a mobile-app at all yet. The same argument lies, why waste time on mobile app when you could just run the website for now? The main reason they started before the website is complete will be because that 'complete' status is un-achievable. There are so many plans and desires in the roadmap that they probably can't reach all the hopes they have before DnD e6 comes out. You have to draw a line somewhere and say '1.0 is reached, time to expand' and that line has been passed. I'm willing to bet this isn't the explanation/answer you wanted, it sounds like you always have access to the internet and a laptop whenever you play. That's not the case for many, I know friends around the table with limited mobile-data and would love to have offline access to their Beyond sheets.
It's just about the order of stuff they produce, sure. The app has a very very low priority in that regard for me.
As stated previously I don't use a laptop at all. I am a player and a DM solely on the mobile web page and it is very good! I just get the wifi key from my friends wherever I game. I do not play in places without wifi at all (because everybody I know has it). I'm online 24/7, there is always either wifi (in buildings) or mobile data. You have many friends without wifi? Or any cheap internet connection? I don't think that the percentage of people like that is very high and that's why I'm puzzled about the recurrent wish for this offline app which I would personally never ever use.
Having invested time into coding and porting mobile apps myself I feel safe to assume it'd take no more than a few days for a single person to add a Character Sheet Viewer to both apps. I'd guess a fortnight for a Character Builder since the code and UI also already exists, but UI testing would take longer and new references would need to be made to the offline compendium.. Either way, they're not exactly the most demanding jobs. It'll probably take longer for Apple and Android to approve the updates and send them live than it would for 1 person to bring the web-content to mobile.
Well, look at the time all the updates took. According to your numbers we should basically have all functionality in the app in a couple of weeks. This is not the reality.
With the app seeming to have plans to grow into a fully-fledged website portal alongside its offline compendium, my eyes are looking at picking up a Bluetooth keyboard for faster note-taking onto either device. Both my phone and tablet are more portable than any laptop I could invest into now, they have browsers so I can achieve anything I need to with internet and the addition of offline features really sells the keyboard-investment for me.
I already have a bluetooth keyboard and do exactly that! Right now, and it works perfectly fine. At least for me.
I hate when people are like, "Oh, I'm a coder and I could do all of this in two weeks, so why is it taking so long?" I feel like if you could do this yourself, you wouldn't be here in the first place. Be grateful that some other people are doing it, instead of complaining about how you could do it better and/or faster.
Not talking about anyone specifically, I've just seen that comment on a lot of posts and forums and it's irritating to me.
To me, the only real reason would be to have characters available offline. Of course you can sort of mimic this by exporting them and putting the pdf on your device, but it would be nicer if I could access the characters when online, or download them for offline use. The same comment could be applied to home-brew content, having a way to view it statically offline would be a good feature of the app. To me that is the difference between the app and the mobile website--app is for offline access and therefore, everything is static, website gives dynamic access and live tools making it the preferred method of access if I have internet.
Yes, I concede that this is an advantage of the app. But since I always have internet access this advantage is completely lost on me. I just get the wifi password at each place I'm playing and that's it. That's what is so frustrating for me. DDB is investing so much time into these apps and I will never use them.
I'm just very confused, that there are so many people who don't have wifi at their place of gaming. I really can't fathom where all of you people are playing! In the woods, for the atmosphere? During camping trips? Mainly?
Yes, I concede that this is an advantage of the app. But since I always have internet access this advantage is completely lost on me. I just get the wifi password at each place I'm playing and that's it. That's what is so frustrating for me. DDB is investing so much time into these apps and I will never use them.
I'm just very confused, that there are so many people who don't have wifi at their place of gaming. I really can't fathom where all of you people are playing! In the woods, for the atmosphere? During camping trips? Mainly?
There are also quite a lot of people that might find it difficult to properly read on website, as the way to make the text comfortable to them, while certainly there, can be convoluted.
The mobile app, with basically the same text-visualization options as an e-reader, solves this problem, and allows anyone with sight problems to enjoy the content comfortably.
I think this is nothing to sneeze at in a community that is now becoming more and more inclusive. Aside from that, I can think of other occasions where offline access to the content can be useful, for example commutes in tubes where there is no internet access, or no access unless you are from a specific provider (looking at you London Underground), being on vacation in a place with no wi-fi and wanting to have a look at rules or monsters to write down something, being stuck for a while in a tunnel during a train ride (ok, seems like I am going a bit far here, but in Italy this happens more often than you would think possible). There are also still people who cannot afford a phone plan with internet to spare, so the app is for them as well.
In the end, the app (as DDB itself, in the end) is not intended just for gaming situations, but for virtually everyday use as well, as a mean to quick and unrestricted access to the content you bought from the marketplace, which is a purpose not to be ignored, imho.
Would it be nice to have the character sheet in the app already? sure, but the app is still in Beta, and before anyone comes up with something like "if it's Beta then it should already have everything", no, it does not, or better, it already has, since the devs always stated the app is first and foremost for "offline access to the purchased content, with all other functionalities and sections of the website coming in future updates".
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Might have been addressed earlier on, but will the forums be integrated into the App as well, or is that only going to be through the website?
I asked this very question when the first news on the mobile up came about, and the reply I got was that the app won't give forum support.
Not sure if the plan has changed so far.
Thanks man, hope it does make its way onto the app. Sure would be great, I typically use my chrome book for dndbeyond, but at work or on the go it'd be nice. Maybe I guess I'm being lazy by not getting on the mobile website from my phone.
There are also quite a lot of people that might find it difficult to properly read on website, as the way to make the text comfortable to them, while certainly there, can be convoluted.
The mobile app, with basically the same text-visualization options as an e-reader, solves this problem, and allows anyone with sight problems to enjoy the content comfortably.
I think this is nothing to sneeze at in a community that is now becoming more and more inclusive.
You could also bring these options to the mobile version in a convient way. You can also easily change font size in all currently popular browsers.
Aside from that, I can think of other occasions where offline access to the content can be useful, for example commutes in tubes where there is no internet access, or no access unless you are from a specific provider (looking at you London Underground), being on vacation in a place with no wi-fi and wanting to have a look at rules or monsters to write down something, being stuck for a while in a tunnel during a train ride (ok, seems like I am going a bit far here, but in Italy this happens more often than you would think possible). There are also still people who cannot afford a phone plan with internet to spare, so the app is for them as well.
Public transport in my city has good reception. But ok, for certain people that can be an advantage. But is that very frequent? Reading while on vacation (without available wifi) and in a plane? Well, ok. In a tunnel?? Mmhh... ;)
In the end, the app (as DDB itself, in the end) is not intended just for gaming situations, but for virtually everyday use as well, as a mean to quick and unrestricted access to the content you bought from the marketplace, which is a purpose not to be ignored, imho.
And it does exactly that for me, right now. I don't need an app for that.
I sincerely thank you for trying to list reasons, but I don't find these too convincing. I also never had anyone bring one of these up as their own specific reason.
Might have been addressed earlier on, but will the forums be integrated into the App as well, or is that only going to be through the website?
Why oh why would you bring something which is purely an online experience like a forum to an app? I really don't understand this. In that case the app will be just an empty browser front and that was always bad and unnecessary. Google and Mozilla are better at building browers! The offline access argument is even gone in this case. There really is no argument left in favor for that.
Is there some hidden huge downside to browsers and mobile web pages I don't know about? :p
Might have been addressed earlier on, but will the forums be integrated into the App as well, or is that only going to be through the website?
I asked this very question when the first news on the mobile up came about, and the reply I got was that the app won't give forum support.
Not sure if the plan has changed so far.
Thanks man, hope it does make its way onto the app. Sure would be great, I typically use my chrome book for dndbeyond, but at work or on the go it'd be nice. Maybe I guess I'm being lazy by not getting on the mobile website from my phone.
The argument is laziness? Why is it more work to access the mobile page in comparison to an app? You can even put a link on your homescreen!
Yes, I concede that this is an advantage of the app. But since I always have internet access this advantage is completely lost on me. I just get the wifi password at each place I'm playing and that's it. That's what is so frustrating for me. DDB is investing so much time into these apps and I will never use them.
I'm just very confused, that there are so many people who don't have wifi at their place of gaming. I really can't fathom where all of you people are playing! In the woods, for the atmosphere? During camping trips? Mainly?
I tried to reply but seems my first comment didn't send.. Not going to make my full point again after reading this but in synopsis; the area I live in has terrible internet cabling under the roads. Internet cut-outs are common everywhere, no matter how much you pay for your internet service. Many of my players don't bother with expensive broadband deals because of this, so what data they do have each month is limited.
For me it's not a problem, I have more data than I need through mobile, but it's not enough to hotspot for a group twice a week (not to mention the heat + battery drain). The offline app is what sold me on the investment. Both uninterrupted access and a backup measure, in case some unknown scenario comes to pass and the website drops into bankruptcy I still have the latest copy of the service mostly accessible through mobile. I know that last point is extreme, being so unlikely that DDB dies now it has a strong following with monthly income, but I'd rather know I'm accounting for the worst when investing such a large sum of money.
It does suck when companies develop features you're not going to use, especially when you're waiting/anticipating many other features that would be useful to everyone. I'm willing to bet you're right, there aren't as many with bad connections desiring offline access as there are desiring new features/faster release to website updates. The priority line for working across different work was decided by the public voting on features so I can only assume we voted offline access as a concept higher in the priority list than most actually desire the feature. Now the investment is here it's definitely not worth them dropping it to return later, so all I can say is 'it is what it is'. Maybe a request for the developers to return to the road-map and questioning each goals value could be worth asking in the next Q&A?
I hate when people are like, "Oh, I'm a coder and I could do all of this in two weeks, so why is it taking so long?" I feel like if you could do this yourself, you wouldn't be here in the first place. Be grateful that some other people are doing it, instead of complaining about how you could do it better and/or faster.
Not talking about anyone specifically, I've just seen that comment on a lot of posts and forums and it's irritating to me.
Wow, did I come across that poorly? Not my intention in the slightest. I have the highest respect for Curse's work here (I wouldn't be paying for all their content if it were a walk in the park to produce something of this quality). To clarify, my time-estimations I brought up earlier were for how long it takes to port already-existing code, not how long it took them to write features in the first place. If it were a walk in the park to create something from scratch then I would've done what you said, built my own tool and never even looked towards DDB.
As a DM, I find bringing fun to my players all stems around efficient time-management. I don't have forever to sit around pondering every little detail, never mind writing my own personal DDB-like tool. The less time I spend scripting, the less I waste staring at spreadsheets and data, the more time I can invest into the characters, thinking about the villains actions and possible scenarios to lead the players into. DDB saves time both whilst planning and playing when compared to physical books or PDFs. That's why I was so happy to invest as soon as I heard the compendiums had become accessible offline.
Yes, I concede that this is an advantage of the app. But since I always have internet access this advantage is completely lost on me. I just get the wifi password at each place I'm playing and that's it. That's what is so frustrating for me. DDB is investing so much time into these apps and I will never use them.
I'm just very confused, that there are so many people who don't have wifi at their place of gaming. I really can't fathom where all of you people are playing! In the woods, for the atmosphere? During camping trips? Mainly?
I tried to reply but seems my first comment didn't send.. Not going to make my full point again after reading this but in synopsis; the area I live in has terrible internet cabling under the roads. Internet cut-outs are common everywhere, no matter how much you pay for your internet service. Many of my players don't bother with expensive broadband deals because of this, so what data they do have each month is limited.
For me it's not a problem, I have more data than I need through mobile, but it's not enough to hotspot for a group twice a week (not to mention the heat + battery drain). The offline app is what sold me on the investment. Both uninterrupted access and a backup measure, in case some unknown scenario comes to pass and the website drops into bankruptcy I still have the latest copy of the service mostly accessible through mobile. I know that last point is extreme, being so unlikely that DDB dies now it has a strong following with monthly income, but I'd rather know I'm accounting for the worst when investing such a large sum of money.
It does suck when companies develop features you're not going to use, especially when you're waiting/anticipating many other features that would be useful to everyone. I'm willing to bet you're right, there aren't as many with bad connections desiring offline access as there are desiring new features/faster release to website updates. The priority line for working across different work was decided by the public voting on features so I can only assume we voted offline access as a concept higher in the priority list than most actually desire the feature. Now the investment is here it's definitely not worth them dropping it to return later, so all I can say is 'it is what it is'. Maybe a request for the developers to return to the road-map and questioning each goals value could be worth asking in the next Q&A?
I hate when people are like, "Oh, I'm a coder and I could do all of this in two weeks, so why is it taking so long?" I feel like if you could do this yourself, you wouldn't be here in the first place. Be grateful that some other people are doing it, instead of complaining about how you could do it better and/or faster.
Not talking about anyone specifically, I've just seen that comment on a lot of posts and forums and it's irritating to me.
Wow, did I come across that poorly? Not my intention in the slightest. I have the highest respect for Curse's work here (I wouldn't be paying for all their content if it were a walk in the park to produce something of this quality). To clarify, my time-estimations I brought up earlier were for how long it takes to port already-existing code, not how long it took them to write features in the first place. If it were a walk in the park to create something from scratch then I would've done what you said, built my own tool and never even looked towards DDB.
As a DM, I find bringing fun to my players all stems around efficient time-management. I don't have forever to sit around pondering every little detail, never mind writing my own personal DDB-like tool. The less time I spend scripting, the less I waste staring at spreadsheets and data, the more time I can invest into the characters, thinking about the villains actions and possible scenarios to lead the players into. DDB saves time both whilst planning and playing when compared to physical books or PDFs. That's why I was so happy to invest as soon as I heard the compendiums had become accessible offline.
You may have mentioned something about the coding, but your comment wasn't the one I made mine about. All good 👍
Yes, I concede that this is an advantage of the app. But since I always have internet access this advantage is completely lost on me. I just get the wifi password at each place I'm playing and that's it. That's what is so frustrating for me. DDB is investing so much time into these apps and I will never use them.
I'm just very confused, that there are so many people who don't have wifi at their place of gaming. I really can't fathom where all of you people are playing! In the woods, for the atmosphere? During camping trips? Mainly?
I tried to reply but seems my first comment didn't send.. Not going to make my full point again after reading this but in synopsis; the area I live in has terrible internet cabling under the roads. Internet cut-outs are common everywhere, no matter how much you pay for your internet service. Many of my players don't bother with expensive broadband deals because of this, so what data they do have each month is limited.
For me it's not a problem, I have more data than I need through mobile, but it's not enough to hotspot for a group twice a week (not to mention the heat + battery drain). The offline app is what sold me on the investment. Both uninterrupted access and a backup measure, in case some unknown scenario comes to pass and the website drops into bankruptcy I still have the latest copy of the service mostly accessible through mobile. I know that last point is extreme, being so unlikely that DDB dies now it has a strong following with monthly income, but I'd rather know I'm accounting for the worst when investing such a large sum of money.
It does suck when companies develop features you're not going to use, especially when you're waiting/anticipating many other features that would be useful to everyone. I'm willing to bet you're right, there aren't as many with bad connections desiring offline access as there are desiring new features/faster release to website updates. The priority line for working across different work was decided by the public voting on features so I can only assume we voted offline access as a concept higher in the priority list than most actually desire the feature. Now the investment is here it's definitely not worth them dropping it to return later, so all I can say is 'it is what it is'. Maybe a request for the developers to return to the road-map and questioning each goals value could be worth asking in the next Q&A?
Thank you for the well written and nuanced reply! You're right that it might be worthwhile to readjust the roadmap by making more regular public votings. If I catch the next stream I'll make sure to suggest that.
I agree with the comment about wifi and cell service, but "the hire more people" implies "and I am willing for my prices to go up markedly to cover the cost of this." Is that what you intended?
I missed that comment MikeB64, is your question directed at me or someone else? Re-reading my comments on the thread I did say DDB will have devoted a team to work on the phone app, but I never suggested they'd hired new staff members.
The foundation of these complaints come from the assumption that the people working on a mobile port *would* be working on other requested website improvements if it weren't for the mobile app. Nothing to do with price hikes.
On a logistical level, companies generally hire more people when they have more consistent income. It rarely has a direct correlation with the 'price per person' that you fear a hike in. If they were to hire a new ramt/group of staff, it'd probably be because the number of people subscribing to DDB had risen and projections show they're here to stay.
Hope my comment made sense, I'm writing from my phone so no proof reading I'm afraid :P
I play at lots of places without wifi or cell service. If they can’t keep up hire more people.
I agree with the comment about wifi and cell service, but "the hire more people" implies "and I am willing for my prices to go up markedly to cover the cost of this." Is that what you intended?
I think more public votes on priorities for the road map would be would be a good idea. As long as the votes are "what should be worked on next (once work has started on something, it should be removed from the list)," they could be ongoing. Have users rank their top X items where X is based on your subscription, e.g. free users would get to rank their top 5 items (5 highest), hero tier would rank their top 8, master would rank their top 10--add up the ranked votes for each item, highest total is highest user priority for next feature (this lets Curse reward the paying customers since a person with a master subscription is effectively getting to vote twice for their first choice compared to a free user). Note this could not be the final priority list since to someone not familiar with the data model, code architecture, etc. what looks like a small, simple request as the top requested item could really translate to "Well sure we could do that if we invested 10 man-years into rearchitecting the entire code foundation." Curse would need to look at what was involved in implementing each requested change/new feature. How easy would it be to do, how quickly could it be rolled out, how many people would this convince to start using (and better start paying) for D&D Beyond, etc. all come into play on what is actually picked for the next item(s) to work on. An advantage to a ranking, is that people could change their ranking as often as they wished. Votes have to have lots of protection against the "Vote early and Vote Often" issue.
I think the app needs everything in it for offline reference which to me means at least character sheets are available. We have all experienced internet outages and longer than repairs should take crappy cell service. It took Verizon 3 weeks to repair a tower near me--while the repair was going on, I rarely had LTE service, calls would get dropped walking through the house, etc. During those periods, the app allows continued usage during those periods.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
They have said they are awaiting the refresh of the online character sheet to be completed before updating the App version.
Respectfully, can you tell me why you don't want to use the web version of the character sheet? Updates and features take a long time and I prefer it a lot if the DDB team concentrates on bringing me new capabilities instead of stuff I can already do perfectly well.
Maintaining all these new features in the different apps (iOS and Android) will consume manpower as well, and all that for things that, at least, I can already do!
Published Subclasses
I hate when people are like, "Oh, I'm a coder and I could do all of this in two weeks, so why is it taking so long?" I feel like if you could do this yourself, you wouldn't be here in the first place. Be grateful that some other people are doing it, instead of complaining about how you could do it better and/or faster.
Not talking about anyone specifically, I've just seen that comment on a lot of posts and forums and it's irritating to me.
Published Subclasses
To me, the only real reason would be to have characters available offline. Of course you can sort of mimic this by exporting them and putting the pdf on your device, but it would be nicer if I could access the characters when online, or download them for offline use. The same comment could be applied to home-brew content, having a way to view it statically offline would be a good feature of the app. To me that is the difference between the app and the mobile website--app is for offline access and therefore, everything is static, website gives dynamic access and live tools making it the preferred method of access if I have internet.
Yes, I concede that this is an advantage of the app. But since I always have internet access this advantage is completely lost on me. I just get the wifi password at each place I'm playing and that's it. That's what is so frustrating for me. DDB is investing so much time into these apps and I will never use them.
I'm just very confused, that there are so many people who don't have wifi at their place of gaming. I really can't fathom where all of you people are playing! In the woods, for the atmosphere? During camping trips? Mainly?
Aside from that, I can think of other occasions where offline access to the content can be useful, for example commutes in tubes where there is no internet access, or no access unless you are from a specific provider (looking at you London Underground), being on vacation in a place with no wi-fi and wanting to have a look at rules or monsters to write down something, being stuck for a while in a tunnel during a train ride (ok, seems like I am going a bit far here, but in Italy this happens more often than you would think possible).
There are also still people who cannot afford a phone plan with internet to spare, so the app is for them as well.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Might have been addressed earlier on, but will the forums be integrated into the App as well, or is that only going to be through the website?
Interplanetary Camo! Grow Metal!
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Interplanetary Camo! Grow Metal!
You could also bring these options to the mobile version in a convient way. You can also easily change font size in all currently popular browsers.
Public transport in my city has good reception. But ok, for certain people that can be an advantage. But is that very frequent? Reading while on vacation (without available wifi) and in a plane? Well, ok. In a tunnel?? Mmhh... ;)
And it does exactly that for me, right now. I don't need an app for that.
I sincerely thank you for trying to list reasons, but I don't find these too convincing. I also never had anyone bring one of these up as their own specific reason.
Why oh why would you bring something which is purely an online experience like a forum to an app? I really don't understand this. In that case the app will be just an empty browser front and that was always bad and unnecessary. Google and Mozilla are better at building browers! The offline access argument is even gone in this case. There really is no argument left in favor for that.
Is there some hidden huge downside to browsers and mobile web pages I don't know about? :p
EDIT: Just came in:
I play at lots of places without wifi or cell service. If they can’t keep up hire more people.
Published Subclasses
Thank you QuinnDP and OmegaPrimer. Now I know that there are at least some people realistically benefiting from the apps, which I like.
Thank you for the well written and nuanced reply! You're right that it might be worthwhile to readjust the roadmap by making more regular public votings. If I catch the next stream I'll make sure to suggest that.
I missed that comment MikeB64, is your question directed at me or someone else? Re-reading my comments on the thread I did say DDB will have devoted a team to work on the phone app, but I never suggested they'd hired new staff members.
The foundation of these complaints come from the assumption that the people working on a mobile port *would* be working on other requested website improvements if it weren't for the mobile app. Nothing to do with price hikes.
On a logistical level, companies generally hire more people when they have more consistent income. It rarely has a direct correlation with the 'price per person' that you fear a hike in. If they were to hire a new ramt/group of staff, it'd probably be because the number of people subscribing to DDB had risen and projections show they're here to stay.
Hope my comment made sense, I'm writing from my phone so no proof reading I'm afraid :P
I agree with the comment about wifi and cell service, but "the hire more people" implies "and I am willing for my prices to go up markedly to cover the cost of this." Is that what you intended?
I think more public votes on priorities for the road map would be would be a good idea. As long as the votes are "what should be worked on next (once work has started on something, it should be removed from the list)," they could be ongoing. Have users rank their top X items where X is based on your subscription, e.g. free users would get to rank their top 5 items (5 highest), hero tier would rank their top 8, master would rank their top 10--add up the ranked votes for each item, highest total is highest user priority for next feature (this lets Curse reward the paying customers since a person with a master subscription is effectively getting to vote twice for their first choice compared to a free user). Note this could not be the final priority list since to someone not familiar with the data model, code architecture, etc. what looks like a small, simple request as the top requested item could really translate to "Well sure we could do that if we invested 10 man-years into rearchitecting the entire code foundation." Curse would need to look at what was involved in implementing each requested change/new feature. How easy would it be to do, how quickly could it be rolled out, how many people would this convince to start using (and better start paying) for D&D Beyond, etc. all come into play on what is actually picked for the next item(s) to work on. An advantage to a ranking, is that people could change their ranking as often as they wished. Votes have to have lots of protection against the "Vote early and Vote Often" issue.
I think the app needs everything in it for offline reference which to me means at least character sheets are available. We have all experienced internet outages and longer than repairs should take crappy cell service. It took Verizon 3 weeks to repair a tower near me--while the repair was going on, I rarely had LTE service, calls would get dropped walking through the house, etc. During those periods, the app allows continued usage during those periods.