Nerd Immersion interviews Kyle Brink

[mamba]

You're extremely optimistic.
I don't expect it to ever leave tech demo status.

this is not really that complex that it cannot be pulled off, so maybe I am a little optimistic about what is available on day one vs 6 months or so down the line, but you seem unreasonably pessimistic… time will tell

 

[mamba]

That'll depend on how modern their software development practices are. If they are smart, they'll have several phases of putting out a "basically functional" VTT before it is "Day One Actual Release all-bells-and-whistles", to get testing and feedback from users. And that probably ought to be "basic set" content, not everything in the world.

I meant full release, not public beta

 

[Maxperson]

One dnd playtest docs may be denser because they want to stick to the deadline.

Kyle notes that this has been hard on the creative team. And they’ve missed a couple play test outputs.

That seems like a mistake. Had they released those two packets and the one coming up on time, we would have had X time to playtest X packet, Y time to playtest Y packet, and Z time to playtest Z packet. Then we would have given X, Y and Z feedback to them. If they release X, Y and Z all at once it is still going to take X, Y and Z time to playtest and they will get X, Y and Z feedback. It's not going to be much shorter unless they don't give us enough time to playtest the large packet and/or ignore a lot of feedback and just pick a direction.

 

[Parmandur]

That seems like a mistake. Had they released those two packets and the one coming up on time, we would have had X time to playtest X packet, Y time to playtest Y packet, and Z time to playtest Z packet. Then we would have given X, Y and Z feedback to them. If they release X, Y and Z all at once it is still going to take X, Y and Z time to playtest and they will get X, Y and Z feedback. It's not going to be much shorter unless they don't give us enough time to playtest the large packet and/or ignore a lot of feedback and just pick a direction.

If they put in a few more Class options, probavly doesn't make thar big a difference. By now they have feedback on some of the bigger structural changes, like uniform Subclass progression.

 

[Maxperson]

If they put in a few more Class options, probavly doesn't make thar big a difference. By now they have feedback on some of the bigger structural changes, like uniform Subclass progression.

No matter how you slice it, it's going to be much more rushed than if they had released them on time. No matter how much or little is/was going to be in the packets, we are going to have less time to playtest and figure out what we like and dislike about it.

 

[Parmandur]

No matter how you slice it, it's going to be much more rushed than if they had released them on time. No matter how much or little is/was going to be in the packets, we are going to have less time to playtest and figure out what we like and dislike about it.

Well, the internal playtesting is where the real crunching of numbers happens: if they put out a variety of Class options, it will be relatively simple for people to make mixed parties and make comparisons in play, or read them all and reach a conclusion about how it makes us feel.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, the internal playtesting is where the real crunching of numbers happens: if they put out a variety of Class options, it will be relatively simple for people to make mixed parties and make comparisons in play, or read them all and reach a conclusion about how it makes us feel.

That doesn't change anything about what I said. They were already doing that. We were already playtesting X, Y and Z that they number crunched. Either they give us the same amount of time to playtest and give feedback, which doesn't let them finish on time, or they cut us short.

 

[Parmandur]

That doesn't change anything about what I said. They were already doing that. We were already playtesting X, Y and Z that they number crunched. Either they give us the same amount of time to playtest and give feedback, which doesn't let them finish on time, or they cut us short.

They'll probably cut us short, essentially: put 3 packets worth of material in the next 2, or something like that. Give the same amount of time. Remember that UA is about impressions more than in-depth playtesting, so a few weeks is a few weeks

 

[Retreater]

If a digital "mini" costs the same as a physical Reaper mini (say, $3-4 for a medium and go up from there) I will be stunned. Would anyone pay that?

Absolutely. Hero Forge charges $7.99 for a 3D character file to be used on VTTs. If WotC did something similar, I would assume that sound, animation, etc, would add to that cost.
Probably $10-20 for really cool minis. Then have collectible "named" characters like Strahd go for $100 or so. (Of course, he's a shape changer, so that's like getting 5 different models.)
Do you guys remember the blind booster packs of DDMs in the 3.5 era?

 

[Retreater]

this is not really that complex that it cannot be pulled off, so maybe I am a little optimistic about what is available on day one vs 6 months or so down the line, but you seem unreasonably pessimistic… time will tell

If you follow video game release cycles for Triple-A titles, you know how many years these can take. So far we've seen a trailer with no gameplay. They are likely years away from having this in a usable format. More years from that to digitize and animate their back catalog of 5e content.
And we're not just talking about simple dungeon terrain. We're talking about seas and ship combat in Saltmarsh, space and ships in Spelljammer, etc.
There's also a variety of subsystems required to run different campaigns.
I doubt Bethesda could do the work in a decade.
It's more likely WotC will try to acquire Roll20 or another existing VTT, and provide a more watered down experience.