D&D Insider

I’ve been playing 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons for more than six months now, but I’ve largely ignored Wizard of the Coast’s flagship website, D&D Insider. The company now electronically publishes its Dragon and Dungeon magazines and a subscription to D&Di grants unlimited access to them, the Character Builder, and the Compendium, a database of the entire game.

On a whim, I visited the site and discovered that it was in the midst of previewing a huge chunk of content for the upcoming print release of Player’s Handbook 2. Among the previews, the barbarian class, levels 1-30, and the bard, druid, and sorcerer classes, levels 1-3. Even better, the company’s Character Builder is basically a front interface for their compendium database. The builder updates as the game does, which means that yesterday I had the option of creating a barbarian character even though the class has yet to appear in print form. Intrigued, I went ahead and ponied up $8 for a month’s worth of access.

I’ve already recreated Queequeg using the builder and absolutely love it. Leveling my dragonborn warlord to level 7 was just as easy as if I was creating a lowbie character. Powers and feats and magic items all provide descriptions straight out of their respective books. And as mentioned earlier, every book is tapped, everything from the core set to Martial Power and the Adventurer’s Vault to various articles from Dragon magazine.

Even module specific magic items are included! Aecris, the longsword Queequeg acquired while adventuring in Shadowfell Keep, is right alongside an entire host of other enchanted blades.

As good as all this is there is a problem: cost. Right now, WoTC charges $7.95 a month for access to the bounty of D&Di. They’ve threatened that the monthly cost will significantly rise upon the full release of the Character Builder. I’ve heard rumors they want to charge $15 per month, the same as most MMOs, but nothing official has been released yet.

I can understand Wizard’s urge to cash in on the monthly revenue model of a MMO. I just don’t know if it’s going to fly. Lots of people complain about $15 a month for World of Warcraft, even after they’ve averaged hours of playtime per day. D&Di is not a game itself, but instead a well-designed database. I have my doubts that a majority of 4th edition gamers are going to shell out $15 a month on a consistent basis. I can see them subscribing occasionally, a month here, a month there. But not month after month, for years at a time. If Wizards anticipates sporadic subscriptions as well, and has built their revenue expectations around that, than all is well. But if they’re expecting World of Warcraft-esque subscription behavior, then I despair for the game’s future, or at least the fate of D&Di over the long haul.