My prediction: it's going to fail.

eBay's better known, and people already have accounts there.  Why create an account for somewhere with a smaller market when you can just toss it up on eBay?

g026r wrote:My prediction: it's going to fail.

eBay's better known, and people already have accounts there.  Why create an account for somewhere with a smaller market when you can just toss it up on eBay?

Honestly, I think their online gaming will do just fine although I don't know what kind of number they have set for it to be declared a success.  But I imagine the idea is that you create an account for playing on Gleemax and then also use this account to buy/sell in the marketplace.

Mars wrote:Honestly, I think their online gaming will do just fine although I don't know what kind of number they have set for it to be declared a success.  But I imagine the idea is that you create an account for playing on Gleemax and then also use this account to buy/sell in the marketplace.

Sorry, I should have been a bit more specific: I think their online gaming will probably do well enough for them to keep it going.  I just don't expect their online market to be that successful.  Who knows, maybe I'll be surprised though.

On the other hand, if they were smart they'd provide a way to use the online marketplace to transfer the code that allows activation of your books in the online gaming tool when you also sell the physical book.  For people using the software, that's going to be a huge crapshoot when buying second-hand books.

Edit:  Ok, so WotC probably doesn't care about second-hand books, since there's no cash for them in that market.  But I suppose even buying new books could turn out that way.  What's to stop somebody from copying down the code in-store, then going online and paying the nominal fee to activate it in their software?

Mars wrote:There are always alternative solutions but providing all the needed things in one place and not requiring someone to set them all up for you will appeal to a lot of people.  

You're undoubtedly correct, but I guess  don't understand why people think

a) forking over $10 a month and clicking through a bunch of login stuff for a web-based bug-ridden "service"

is somehow better than

b) forking over $0 and clicking 'next' a few times for a web-based bug-ridden piece of "software"

...there's nothing really different, in my opinion.  Except one of those is free.

Mars wrote:I agree with you completely but the video game market like Everquest or Ultima Online, WoW have popularized this phenomenon.  I think WotC is just following there business model.

You pay to buy the software/books and then you pay to actually use them online - what an ingenous way to make money.  One of the reasons why Reasearch In Motion (RIM) the makers of the Blackberry do so well is also because they not only sell the devices but get a cut of the monthly fees for service as well.  I've also heard that MicroSoft wants to move to this model as well - pay a monthly fee to use their OS.

Hey, I didn't say it doesn't work, just musing about why it works, I suppose.  WotC will undoubtedly make tons of money off 4E.

It's our culture in general. We are taught to be good little consumers right from the time that we are old enough to sit up and watch TV.
Everything else reinforces that...

You are all individuals...
Yes...we are all individuals...
......I'm not

deimos3428 wrote:Well, maybe.  But does it really do anything that you can't do with a little imagination and the chat?  I've got a dice roller in there, even.

Yes I tried your biased dice roller.  

improvstone wrote:Yes I tried your biased dice roller.  

Hey, it's not my fault you're on the wrong side of the planet.  You need to roll the dice upsidedown.

deimos3428 wrote:Hey, it's not my fault you're on the wrong side of the planet.  You need to roll the dice upsidedown.

The problem is the water spins the wrong way and thu sthe dice spin is affected.