In the future, you guys should just create a dice set that ALL PROFITS will go to the/a cause.
But it's a start.
"Proceeds" here mean all the money coming to us. This is what I shared above.
Only half?
Wording on things like this is sometimes tough, but the idea is with dice sales this week, we are donating our profits after our costs are paid. I assure you, the intent is to get as much money as we can quickly to those that need it.
Thanks!
I'd suggest editing this clarification into the post as well! Not everyone reads the comments. Tweets can't be edited, but I'm sure you can edit these kinds of posts on your own site at least :)
Thanks again!
We're going to use the initial wording, as saying something like "all profits" will likewise invite as many (or more) questions (things along the lines of "how do you account for profits," etc.). Using the more specific threshold on proceeds at least confirms at least that much.
Mainly trying to explain the spirit and intent of what we're doing here in the comments. As I've said elsewhere, we're not going to be perfect in our response and we will make mistakes, but we would still rather try to do something rather than simply post an image and call it a day.
Thanks!
9
Well, I guess I will come out of post retirement here - someone linked this thread to me and I decided to stop in and say hello.
And yes, all of the above is a pretty intriguing opportunity isn't it?
This is just the start too... Keep your eyes peeled for a whole lot of fun things on the horizon.
Later gators!
41
A true champion here. ^
While I am fully aware that my impending departure also disqualifies me from a status of reliable narrator when speaking to the future of D&D Beyond and Fandom, I will personally insist upon objection to the notion that I have been anything other than a veritable beacon of company transparency in my time founding and driving the vision for DDB.
So looking into the past with full rights to reliable narrator status, I'll forever be proud of the level of authenticity and transparency I've brought into the proceedings here and to the seismic shift in sentiment that came as a result of those principles as we built this community.
From the initial announcement of D&D Beyond at PAX East in 2017 when at best we got apathy from the community and at worst downright hostility, and reading a post about us on Reddit was an exercise in mental self-harm, to the place where we are now where D&D Beyond is the top and most-beloved digital partner in the entire industry (by factors in any business or sentiment metric).
I often said in those early days when wading into the cesspool of online reaction and speculation that nothing I could say would convince people to change their attitudes towards us and that the "proof would be in the pudding." Three years later, I can say that while nothing goes perfectly and there's plenty more wood to chop, we have accomplished mighty things and succeeded at building a true digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons where so many others have failed over the last two decades.
I and the team have earned the community's trust. And while I surely cannot speak to how things are going to go after I'm gone for the reasons I've already shared, the others that are going to be taking the reins deserve to have the chance to earn that trust...and the proof will still be in the pudding. I want them to succeed and will be cheering them on from a front row seat in the stands.
20
As the world continues to deal with the ongoing pandemic, we are not reducing the number of campaigns for which you can enable content sharing from 5 back down to 3 at the end of the year as originally planned.
When we do need to revert back, we will notify the community a few months in advance and share any details about how it all will work.
Thanks for checking in on it!
4
It isn't available "everywhere else" - it is only available in hardcover format right now from Amazon and local stores. No digital distributors have it at the moment.
We will share it in all the places we post news as soon as we have it.
3
Are you asking whether we will have Tasha's on D&D Beyond?
If so, the answer is a definite yes, and we're working very hard to support that enormous update (and have been for a while).
We simply don't have it for pre-order, because WotC has not opened pre-orders for digital platforms yet. As soon as they give the green light, we'll have it available to pick up here.
17
We appreciate the feedback.
I'll jump in to hopefully provide some context. As always, I'm not "defending" our position on this or providing any excuses...you are absolutely right, we don't support some of these mechanics, and we have made prioritization and resource decisions that have made that the case. This is only intended to give some insight into why we are where we are with the two things you mentioned here (Epic Boons and digital dice).
You first said that "this would seem odd normally," but I'm not really sure what your standard for normal is...in comparison to what? There aren't that many shops doing what we do, so I'm not sure what that would mean. Would this be in comparison to video game studios? I think video games really highlight the tough prioritization/resource calls that companies have to make these days where it's hard to do all the things that fans want at the pace that fans want them. I get it too - I'm a huge fan of a whole lot of stuff. I was pretty upset with my Marvel Avengers video game beta experience and thought to myself "They've been working on this how many years and this is all they have?" But then I immediately thought about our experience here and had some professional empathy.
You end by saying that we haven't "bothered to implement" some mechanics (specifically Boons here) and by saying that we're staffing for "money making features like digital dice." To peel back the curtain a bit, here's how the decision to spend time implementing digital dice over Boons came. We have access to a staggering amount of data at this point, with about 40 million characters and the ability to receive and parse feedback from a variety of sources (including these forums of course!).
When we look into that data and feedback (quantitative and qualitative), we see that an incredibly small percentage of players are at a level to use or have a desire to use Epic Boons. On the other hand, being able to roll dice easily through the toolset has been highly-requested and impacts characters of any level.
So that alone would (likely) be enough for us to make that resource/priority call, but when you also consider that dice provide fans with customization options and gives us a starting point into virtualization that will end with a shared gamespace and virtual tabletop, it further solidifies the decision. It of course doesn't hurt that they can help us make money, as at the end of the day we are a business, and making money allows us to do bigger and better things.
So that's why we have chosen to work on digital dice before Epic Boons (or insert other smaller-impact rules mechanics we don't currently cover) - because one feature impacts far more users and provides a starting point for our path into a virtual gamespace.
I'll end by saying that while this has been our decision to this point, it is NOT okay to us that we don't cover those smaller-impact rules yet. We know that it could end up being a "death by a thousand paper cuts" situation. Our roadmap for the rest of this year has tackling many of those rules gap as priority because we don't like where we are with those gaps at current.
Whether your post was just an expression of frustration or not, it is helpful for us to see this feedback to help with these prioritization decisions. Thanks again!
6
With public homebrew, you simply browse to it and add it to your "collection" - then you can use it for your characters. No building on your part required.
14
It was not mentioned in the original announcement, no.
Yes, circumstances have changed. While we intended for this content to be available indefinitely, upon review, we are not able to do so. We take full responsibility for the miscommunication and apologize for the inconvenience.
See the above line - that is as transparent as we are able to be. I highly-value transparency (which is why I answer most any question thrown my way for 30 minutes most every week in Dev Updates), so I assure you no "cloak and dagger" is intended.
Yes, for sure. The mechanical options - such as subclasses, magic items, and monsters - minus the setting/lore information can be shared as public homebrew after the archiving. Keep an eye out on the homebrew section at that time.
Thanks!
12
Hello everyone!
We truly appreciate all the feedback given regarding the public beta for digital dice. We strive to do our best for the community, and your feedback plays a huge role in that quest.
I wanted to share a change that we are making at this time during the beta - the "tiers" we originally included with the two dice sets that are currently available (the Pigment Pack and Mythic set) are going to be removed.
With those designations, we attempted to provide a clever tie-in to the D&D magic item system, but after gathering the feedback, we see it created unintended confusion. Labeling a dice set as "Rare" wasn't the right way to describe "the dice set has animations, particle effects, and custom 3D models" where a "Common" set would not, since the concept of rarity wasn't actually intended with these sets.
We are going to go ahead and remove these labels at this point in testing. We will find new ways to be clearer about what is involved with each set going forward. This could include a the concept of tiers in the future, but we will do more to improve the clarity of expectations if we do so.
Again, thanks for the feedback and we will continue to use it to improve!
1
It's not an advertisement - it's a site message.
We appreciate the feedback on what you like or don't like to see in site messaging, and we'll make adjustments to that going forward, including potentially treating that messaging differently for subscribers.
Thanks!
1
I apologize for the confusion - I didn't mention it because I understood that was the underlying issue of the feedback, and so my saying we were paying attention to "the feedback" was intended to mean that we would be making those tweaks going forward.
Thanks!
0
Umm...okay?
You definitely have the ability to do that if that works for you!
1
Not missing that at all - I was saying that I appreciate that feedback and we will be making adjustments going forward to address it.
I was simply explaining why this has been an issue of late...because we're starting to use it as a tool and that tool isn't "tweaked" to how it can best work yet, including the persistence for users in different "states." This is what I meant by saying "too prevalent."
0
Thanks for the feedback here.
We have received other feedback through all of our channels that it's tough for some users to know about discount codes, new releases, and other information, and we have indeed been experimenting with making that better through the top banner. Our data on this experimentation so far indicates that this has been very effective for new users to figure these things out, but I can sympathize with you long-time members that you might not need that information in that way.
In this latest case with the callout to the Player's Handbook and Xanathar's Guide to Everything, this was actually an attempt to communicate where new users/players could get started with DDB, since we had a very significant influx of new people come to check us out with the Runeterra content release. (Side Note - It's always exciting for me to see that many new people jumping into DDB and discovering a love of D&D.)
June has also had a whole lot going on - Mythic Odysseys of Theros release, digital dice public beta, new dice sets, and the aforementioned Runeterra content - so that is probably contributing to the feeling that the banner is too prevalent.
All of the above is my transparent attempt to explain our rationale behind this, but I'll also reiterate that we really appreciate the feedback and we will be considering options to improve this experience going forward.
Thanks!
4
I respectfully disagree. Players have nothing to worry about because 1) everyone can use dice rolling functionality to play the game entirely for free (and will over time have several other options to collect dice outside these first two sets) and 2) we are committed to listen to feedback and do the best we can for our community while making sure that we still remain profitable to continue to operate the platform in service to that community. I don't believe at this point this should come across as only lip-service.
This isn't what my comments meant at all - actually the opposite. As I said, we heavily-researched cosmetics sold by other companies (companies that we think are doing it "well" for fans), and that's how we came to the initial price point. We're not trying to "squeeze" anyone, because as I said before, the feature can be used for free by all and there will be many other dice sets available over time, unlockable by other (monetary and non-monetary) means.
Cosmetic purchases are a complex topic, but we are all-aboard with doing it "right." The feedback here and the data we collect in the coming weeks will inform how we do that.
Thanks!