As a DM who buys the books(separate company, I get it), I repeatedly visit DND Beyond to get ideas for encounters, stories/lore, puzzles, NPC's. Working on things over the last couple days, it appears that the monsters page is now locked out from showing the stat blocks for perusing. Unless I've purchased content through DND Beyond. Hopefully this is just a test to determine how many dollars are lost in sales by having anyone have access to the monster lists, or other simple features. As a suggestion, perhaps allowing new players/DM's view the possibilities of monsters, or new players to view build content, that would increase the desire for them to purchase the source content. Then all you are left with is competing or directing them towards the benefits of buying the digital content over the hard copies. Ease of use, dictation of text perhaps.
That being said, this change will reduce the amount of visits to the site by me significantly. Since the tools that I enjoy using that keep me coming back, which in turn cause me to look at other new items, posts and features on DND Beyond are now blocked.
I'll be curious about DND Beyond's changes and methods forward, and hope that it's not relying solely on the subscriptions of digital dice, and reduced ads etc.
If I did not pay for it nor has it been shared with me via content sharing where someone paid this site SHOULD NOT show me things.
I mean you are asking for this site to show you the stat block for monsters that are inside a book you did not pay for. That’s literally the opposite of what you claim to understand. Like that’s getting into the territory of piracy because DDB can’t know who is viewing said stat blocks that hasn’t paid DDB so they can pay WOTC for that content access.
I don't think it's a change. Are you in any campaigns here that have/had content sharing? A change there (subscription lapsing, whoever was providing the content leaving the campaign or turning off content sharing) seems more likely to me. Or it's also possible that before you happened to be looking up creatures that were available for free through the Basic Rules (which on DDB includes the Basic Rules, the SRD, and the EEPC). That's the free preview right now, which should be plenty to cover the kind of things you're asking for. It's certainly increasing your desire to have access to content that requires a purchase.
If you're in a campaign with content sharing turned on, it is supposed to be accessible. So if you were in one, and content sharing went away, for whatever reason, that was the change. Not DDB changing access to something for everyone across the board.
As a DM who buys the books(separate company, I get it), I repeatedly visit DND Beyond to get ideas for encounters, stories/lore, puzzles, NPC's. Working on things over the last couple days, it appears that the monsters page is now locked out from showing the stat blocks for perusing. Unless I've purchased content through DND Beyond. Hopefully this is just a test to determine how many dollars are lost in sales by having anyone have access to the monster lists, or other simple features. As a suggestion, perhaps allowing new players/DM's view the possibilities of monsters, or new players to view build content, that would increase the desire for them to purchase the source content. Then all you are left with is competing or directing them towards the benefits of buying the digital content over the hard copies. Ease of use, dictation of text perhaps.
That being said, this change will reduce the amount of visits to the site by me significantly. Since the tools that I enjoy using that keep me coming back, which in turn cause me to look at other new items, posts and features on DND Beyond are now blocked.
I'll be curious about DND Beyond's changes and methods forward, and hope that it's not relying solely on the subscriptions of digital dice, and reduced ads etc.
If I did not pay for it nor has it been shared with me via content sharing where someone paid this site SHOULD NOT show me things.
I mean you are asking for this site to show you the stat block for monsters that are inside a book you did not pay for. That’s literally the opposite of what you claim to understand. Like that’s getting into the territory of piracy because DDB can’t know who is viewing said stat blocks that hasn’t paid DDB so they can pay WOTC for that content access.
I don't think it's a change. Are you in any campaigns here that have/had content sharing? A change there (subscription lapsing, whoever was providing the content leaving the campaign or turning off content sharing) seems more likely to me. Or it's also possible that before you happened to be looking up creatures that were available for free through the Basic Rules (which on DDB includes the Basic Rules, the SRD, and the EEPC). That's the free preview right now, which should be plenty to cover the kind of things you're asking for. It's certainly increasing your desire to have access to content that requires a purchase.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
Devils advocate. it should not have been accessible to begin with. the argument is the change.
If you're in a campaign with content sharing turned on, it is supposed to be accessible. So if you were in one, and content sharing went away, for whatever reason, that was the change. Not DDB changing access to something for everyone across the board.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep