Comments on: Last Chance D&D Insider On the Cheap

By: Mad MAx Jr

Mad MAx Jr — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:04:06 +0000

Re: Gametable
RC2 bears a nasty memory leak. If you dig through their forums to find the sourceforge repository for Gametable, I believe RC6 is out and it’s had a new chat engine for some time that is much more stable. However, as of this posting I can’t seem to find it, as sourceforge appears to be redesigning their site and has jumbled things up.

By: Grumble

Grumble — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:53:11 +0000

No way…not with Hasbro’s plans for a 5th Edition would I ever waste another penny on WoTC. The suckered me once with 3.0 to 3.5, won’t do it again…have moved over to Paizo.

By: Stitched

Stitched — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:06:20 +0000

What? No Maptools love? (www.rptools.net) :D

I started using Gametable as well when I was looking for a VTT that was free, easy to use, etc. (I think Glittercom was the other one but both appear to be deprecated).

“For online play, my current tool of choice is a free Java app called Gametable. It’s a 2D grid with great line-drawing tools, support for virtual minis or “pogs” in easily-created PNG format, and useful features for annotating pogs and whiteboard-style freehand drawing.”

By: DarkSchneider

DarkSchneider — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:13:08 +0000

Personally I found the renewal process quick and painless. YMMV.

Gametable’s not bad for quick and easy but for those with more time to prepare, rptools.net’s maptool is capable of a hell of a lot more, and with significantly less memory leak to boot. (No, seriously: I’ve run sessions with gametable while sitting with a performance monitor open watching as the program slowly grows in memory use until it has consumed every bit of free memory on my system, at which point things slow down to a near-halt and everything needs to be restarted; what makes this worse is that it’s typically triggered by trying to use any of the advanced features of the software like hidden GM layers.)

By: anarkeith

anarkeith — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:14:43 +0000

My preceding rant notwithstanding, I poked further into the process, and despite the screens that appeared not matching precisely what WotC posted in their walkthrough, it does appear that the subscription extension process works accurately.

It is a bit of a nail-biter given WotC’s rather checkered past online. Like DDI, it is rough, but it seems to be working. Sorry to waste bandwidth on it. (Although I do think it is worth grumbling about considering I’m fronting them the money now for services I hope will be around in 2011.)

By: anarkeith

anarkeith — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:45:50 +0000

Unfortunately, you neglect to mention what a convoluted and onerous process the “renewal” process is. It involves logging in to your account at least three times, filling out an order form that states that your subscription will not be extended, but overwritten, and then being linked to a “walkthrough” that explains that the subscription will not be overwritten, but rather you can ignore the statement and proceed filling out the forms with information which WotC should already have on file, as I am attempting to extend an existing subscription. The walkthrough consists of multiple HTML pages would must be manually clicked through.

Consequently, I have absolutely zero confidence that an attempt at extending my DDI subscription will save me money.

Yes, I like DDI. It keeps improving, and I appreciate that WotC seem to be very dedicated to it. However, their web support and subscription system are among the worst I have ever experienced in e-commerce.