I have been playing D&D since first edition, starting around age 12. I have purchased and still own books from every edition. And now WotC has announced a new edition of D&D. Which I am in strongly favor of, because I love D&D, and we've lived with 5E for long enough to know what we like and where the kinks are in the rules that need to be fixed. But instead of calling it 5.5 edition, and then creating 6E in another 4-6ish years, they want to move towards an evergreen rule set, like Magic the Gathering. This will no doubt be based on a on online subscription business model, which is all the rage right now.
Sadly, I'm now in my 40's. I've got a family, a career, a house that needs lots of repairs, a dog that needs to be walked, etc. I don't actually get to play D&D very often right now. But I still own plenty of books from every edition, and would buy more, because I just enjoy reading and owning them, having them on the shelf for when I do get the opportunity to play, and talking about the game on certain forums, and want to teach my kids how to play when they're old enough. So when WotC moves to a subscription model, they probably aren't going to make any new money off of me specifically, or any of my 30-40 something year old friends. Because no one is going to pay for a monthly subscription for a game we play maybe 3-5 times per year, even though we would buy books for new editions of such a game.
But you know what I would pay monthly subscription for? A single player D&D computer game that used the official rules, that I could play for a couple hours in the evenings or weekends by myself when I have the time, that also has an online gaming table with multiplayer functionality, and access to all the books and D&D Beyond stuff in one package, updated regularly with user generated mods/adventures, and official new content released on some reasonable schedule. I'd definitely pay $10 a month for that or something similar. Heck, I'd probably pay $5 a month for just Solasta if they provided sufficiently robust and good monthly content updates.
So anyway, best of luck to WotC. I hope whatever they do works for them, because I want the game I love to succeed. But if they want my money, they need to make the subscription content much more then just the books online behind a paywall.
For content, I prefer a "buy once and it's yours" model to a subscription, but I'd pay a subscription for a VTT. I wouldn't want a video game tied to it, though, they're totally unrelated products.
I don't think WotC should be making a video game. I rather then focus on the game we currently have. They can have other companies make the video game for them like what they are currently doing with Baldur's Gate 3. Obviously there will be discussion with stuff like lore but the actual development would be done by another company.
The survey is strange. Not a single answer fits my take.
First, generally OneDnD is the working title for the new "edition". So, with that in mind, I strongly hope for physical books combined with online tool versions (for reasonable pricing without insane shipping costs like the Dragonlance bundle offer).
The subscription part should only be true for the VTT, that is something I would be fine with.
A single player game on top of that has nothing to do with the OneDnD "Pen&Paper" Role Playing Game and should not be added to DnDBeyond.
In regards to the survey and the idea of D&D becoming a subscription service, I enjoy being able to buy digital versions of the books as I find them more convenient than hard copies, however I do not want it to turn into a subscription service. Too many things are going subscription service these days. I want to buy able to buy a book for a one time price and have permanent access to it afterwards, even if I never buy any more books.
A subscription fee for the VTT? That is fair, as that is a specific service rather than an item. However, the books should always remain a single pay once price.
I am paying a subscription now for D&D Beyond so I can share content and have a charactermancer for Foundry VTT. I would pay a subscription if the VTT was amazing, But I can tell you this, I'm getting milked by all the Patreon and other outlets making content. I feel that the content needs to be there for us digital players or I don't see the benefit to online vs. physical copy. If I was not online, I'd just buy the physical copies and call it a day. So what does this mean? It means you need to update all of your content to digital format and have a reason for us to come to you or I'll just keep giving my money to Foundry and Patreon. Just having an online version of the same book with no digital benefit gives me no reason to buy it 20 times.
If you want a video game, there's plenty. Baldur's Gate, and many others.
I have been playing D&D since first edition, starting around age 12. I have purchased and still own books from every edition. And now WotC has announced a new edition of D&D. Which I am in strongly favor of, because I love D&D, and we've lived with 5E for long enough to know what we like and where the kinks are in the rules that need to be fixed. But instead of calling it 5.5 edition, and then creating 6E in another 4-6ish years, they want to move towards an evergreen rule set, like Magic the Gathering. This will no doubt be based on a on online subscription business model, which is all the rage right now.
Sadly, I'm now in my 40's. I've got a family, a career, a house that needs lots of repairs, a dog that needs to be walked, etc. I don't actually get to play D&D very often right now. But I still own plenty of books from every edition, and would buy more, because I just enjoy reading and owning them, having them on the shelf for when I do get the opportunity to play, and talking about the game on certain forums, and want to teach my kids how to play when they're old enough. So when WotC moves to a subscription model, they probably aren't going to make any new money off of me specifically, or any of my 30-40 something year old friends. Because no one is going to pay for a monthly subscription for a game we play maybe 3-5 times per year, even though we would buy books for new editions of such a game.
But you know what I would pay monthly subscription for? A single player D&D computer game that used the official rules, that I could play for a couple hours in the evenings or weekends by myself when I have the time, that also has an online gaming table with multiplayer functionality, and access to all the books and D&D Beyond stuff in one package, updated regularly with user generated mods/adventures, and official new content released on some reasonable schedule. I'd definitely pay $10 a month for that or something similar. Heck, I'd probably pay $5 a month for just Solasta if they provided sufficiently robust and good monthly content updates.
So anyway, best of luck to WotC. I hope whatever they do works for them, because I want the game I love to succeed. But if they want my money, they need to make the subscription content much more then just the books online behind a paywall.
Baldur's Gate 3 is thus far the closest to that.
For content, I prefer a "buy once and it's yours" model to a subscription, but I'd pay a subscription for a VTT. I wouldn't want a video game tied to it, though, they're totally unrelated products.
I don't think WotC should be making a video game. I rather then focus on the game we currently have. They can have other companies make the video game for them like what they are currently doing with Baldur's Gate 3. Obviously there will be discussion with stuff like lore but the actual development would be done by another company.
The survey is strange. Not a single answer fits my take.
First, generally OneDnD is the working title for the new "edition". So, with that in mind, I strongly hope for physical books combined with online tool versions (for reasonable pricing without insane shipping costs like the Dragonlance bundle offer).
The subscription part should only be true for the VTT, that is something I would be fine with.
A single player game on top of that has nothing to do with the OneDnD "Pen&Paper" Role Playing Game and should not be added to DnDBeyond.
In regards to the survey and the idea of D&D becoming a subscription service, I enjoy being able to buy digital versions of the books as I find them more convenient than hard copies, however I do not want it to turn into a subscription service. Too many things are going subscription service these days. I want to buy able to buy a book for a one time price and have permanent access to it afterwards, even if I never buy any more books.
A subscription fee for the VTT? That is fair, as that is a specific service rather than an item. However, the books should always remain a single pay once price.
There's no indication DDB is changing its business model; that's entirely the OP's idea.
(There's no indication they're not, either, but the idea that it's going to be that way is not supported by any evidence.)
Currently, it uses a slightly modified version of 5E, at least from what I've seen of the current early access for it.
I am paying a subscription now for D&D Beyond so I can share content and have a charactermancer for Foundry VTT. I would pay a subscription if the VTT was amazing, But I can tell you this, I'm getting milked by all the Patreon and other outlets making content. I feel that the content needs to be there for us digital players or I don't see the benefit to online vs. physical copy. If I was not online, I'd just buy the physical copies and call it a day. So what does this mean? It means you need to update all of your content to digital format and have a reason for us to come to you or I'll just keep giving my money to Foundry and Patreon. Just having an online version of the same book with no digital benefit gives me no reason to buy it 20 times.
If you want a video game, there's plenty. Baldur's Gate, and many others.
To know the light, you must sometimes experience the dark.