The poor history of Wizards and the electronic age continues
Five months ago, I wrote a post titled “Wizards continues to lag behind in the electronic age“. Here are my final thoughts from that article:
Once again, Wizards has failed to make good on its electronic product. No, they didn’t promise anything with Tiny Adventures but it’s indicative of their plans regarding electronic products. I don’t know if they set unrealistic goals internally or just don’t understand their own popularity but, either way, they really need to get their act together. As it stands, they look nothing more than incompetent and like a company that is having problems catching up to the electronic age.
Yesterday, Wizards released the final version of the D&D Character Builder. I happily downloaded it on a computer that did not have the beta version installed on it. I then loaded it and it told me that there were updates. I input my D&DI user name and password. I then clicked the Update button. It told me that the “files did not verify correctly.” I was miffed but I decided to try it on a different computer, just in case. This one did have the beta version installed on it. So I uninstalled it, deleted the directory, and installed the new version. Once again, “files did not verify correctly.”
And, apparently, I’m not the only one to have this problem. You can check out this thread at WotC if you are also having problems. I recommend putting in a Customer Service ticket with WotC. The more problems they’re aware of, the better. However, and this is not unexpected unfortunately, some people are having problems with the Help System!
BTW, don’t expect a helpful response from WotC on this. It’s good to let them know for their records, but the answer they gave me doesn’t give me faith that it will be fixed soon.
Thank you for reporting this bug. It is already a known issue.
Occasionally we already have a fix or a workaround for a known issue. To view these and other known issues, click the following link: Known Issues.
Ryath
Online Response Crew
Wizards of the Coast
Yeah. No warm fuzzies here. And the Known Issues “link” didn’t work. It was just blue text not an actual link.
I was willing to give Wizards a break on D&DI. I even wrote, early on, that the price was right. I signed up for a year when they first went live. I’m not regretting my decision, yet, but I’m pretty much 100% certain that I will not be renewing when the year is up. I’ve already stopped the auto-renewal of my account.
At this point, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to take Wizards seriously on any online initiative they announce in the future. It’s sad, really, but I have no faith in them to get it right. I really hope they do, but I doubt they ever will.
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reveal January 28th, 2009 at 11:36 AM
@catsclaw227 – Well, technically, I said I was “pretty much” 100% sure.
Seriously though, no I can’t predict the future. But I can look back at the previous 9 years and follow Wizards’ track record (check out the initial link in this thread for that very post). Based upon that, based upon the current problems, and based upon the fact that I, personally, don’t think the current content of Dragon and Dungeon is worth it, I am pretty sure I won’t renew.
As for the character generator itself, you’re right. It’s a great tool. But I don’t think one good buggy product, especially when that bug keeps people from updating the program with the latest information, is worth the cost.