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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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I don't think a subscription service that gives full access to everything is a good idea. I know it seems counterintuitive, but subscription services, like Netflix, often come with a lot of restrictions that you don't think about. I pay for the full $12 tier of Netflix, which grants five profiles, but it also locks you in at four active screens. They do that to limit the number of people who can access your subscription, to incentivize your to keep your subscription within your family. If Curse were to include a pure subscription plan, they would have to find a way to account for the way that people use their service. The first thing to go would be the unlimited characters option, regardless of any subscription level, because allowing for unlimited characters would mean that there's no incentive for a majority of people to invest in the product at all, since everyone could share one $15 account and not worry about eating into each other's character limit. Curse would also have to limit the number of devices that can access it, and since DMs are likely to use more than one device to plan and execute the campaign, that would eat into that limited number, whatever that might be, not to mention how many devices each player logs in to. If every player logs into their computer and their tablet, you've limited the subscription to six people, including the DM. Basically, especially in concert with the lack of unlimited characters, even if the limit is closer to 18 characters what that means is that you're paying $15/month for each campaign, which will get exceedingly expensive very quickly, unless you're running more than one campaign with the same people.
Secondly, the subscription model takes away player options. $15/month is a good price for absolutely everything, but it's only worthwhile if you want or need to gain access to absolutely everything. If all you really want or need is the PHB, then the $15/month model loses it's worth after the first two months. Even if you want all the books with player options, that's six months worth of subscription fees (eight if you in Xanathar's). The subscription model also takes away the flexibility for every different type of player. For less than $15, you can buy the individual class, race, and background bundles from whatever combination of books, to create one character. For those that are only playing in one campaign, and want to customize across the books, that's all they need to pay forever. A subscription model hurts them, especially if the campaign runs over the span of many months or years.
The subscription model harms those that are looking to bridge access. As a DM, I can choose to buy everything, and unlock all of that for up to 12 characters for players who don't have that content. If I want my players to try the game out before they decide to buy into it, they'd have to create their characters on my account, but if they decide to buy in, they'd have to create their own account, and transfer everything over, especially if they started expanding to other campaigns than our own. With the current model, I can give them access to it all, and they can then make their individual purchases as they can afford it the time, or they can hold off until there's a sale, or as gifts from others. And, at that point, I begin opening up slots for other new players that I want to introduce for the hobby.
Finally, the sharing of a subscription adds other potential levels of harm, especially if there's a group falling out, or someone leaves. What happens to them? What if the've been contributing to the subscription, but now their characters are held hostage? What if someone gets mad at the others and messes with their characters, or deletes them? What do you do then?
The model as Curse has developed is built on providing a wider range of options for players and DMs, and why comparrisons to services like Netflix or Spotify fall short, because there are many, many more differences between the very nature of the services. Frankly, they're just different enough that it creates more problems than it solves. I believe that the current system is what's going to work best. The free 12 character slots even works a little like the family sharing system that Apple employs for itheir App Stores, iTunes, and Apple Music, which is an amazing service.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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I think we also need to remind ourselves that the new paradigm in 5e for WotC was listen to the customer
It is possible or even probable, that what goes live, may evolve...
I think ultimately, options are best, and let each person pick what meets their needs. If anything, the class packs, race packs, etc. show a commitment to being flexible. Lets give the final wording a good review, and then give feedback.
And, when we give feedback, lets pretend it is face to face and not over the internet. Let's actually assume the people at Curse and WotC are humans and treat them with respect, and not assume worst motives, throw overarching rhetoric, etc. No plan is going to ruin anyone's life and no one is forced to do anything. I have seen posts on this thread that embarass me. We are such a great community, we can do better!
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DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Bran -- Human Wizard - RoT
Making D&D mistakes and having fun since 1977!
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Site Rules & Guidelines --- Focused Feedback Mega Threads --- Staff Quotes --- Homebrew Tutorial --- Pricing FAQ
Please feel free to message either Sorce or another moderator if you have any concerns.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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Playstation Plus DOES allow you to lapse your sub, sign up again later, and regain access to your games, and you do get to access every game they have in their Plus library so long as you maintain an active subscription. You don't pay a higher subscription for new material offered in the service, as games are added to the library you continue to pay the one subscription price.
I wonder what exactly do we acquire when we purchase the books through D&D Beyond?
Is it a right to browse the contents in their digital form or do we purchase the contents itself? How will the future be handled, is it "just" for as long as D&D Beyond servers are up and running or indefinit, what happens if something happens and a mod of D&D Beyond decides to ban the account ? What do we do in the case of an outage (we or you) is there a possibility to access it locally?
Wait, I don't know if this has been answered but I'm sitting around playing our Friday night game and this popped into my head thinking about 3.5. In the future will older Editions be offered for sale through D&D Beyond? I know that it is made for 5th Ed, but I think that would be awesome. Having all my Eberron books in one place would be really helpful, especially since I am working on a 5E campaign there.
"...Debts must always be paid, sometimes in more than blood and gold. But this is Ordo Ursa," Ren places his hand on Erakas's chest, right where the Dragonborn's heart is. "Right here. And it always has been and always will be. Don't ever forget that. Because I won't."
Serandis Mendaen (Aereni Elven Rogue/maybe one day Wizard)- Project Point Playtest
Well, apparently, I'm paying for the wrong damn PlayStation subscription! Which just goes to show how little I play online.
Why on earth do we have to pay to have these books digitally?
Don't squeeze your fans for more cash !!!!
Ads to support the site, fine. 3$ Monthly fee to get rid of ads and grant access to PHB sure!
pay a higher fee 6$ for Master tier that grants access to PHB MM DMG great!!!
Charge for campaign stuff, like curse of Strahd, Princes of the apocalypse