Wizards Of The Coast Duff IT Again

Perhaps magic and technology really are incompatible. At least, it'd be easy to come to that conclusion from looking over Wizards of the Coasts' recent forays into the online world.

The first is something I mentioned recently: Dungeons and Dragons Tiny Adventures on Facebook. It's fun enough (if a little short on interactivity), but pivotally it doesn't work.

I've been tinkering with it for several days now, and I'd have to say it's been down more than it's been up. They've even shut down parts of the app, such as reviewing past adventures, to improve stability. One can only imagine what it would be like if they'd left those features active.

So what were they thinking? Did they think they could launch a new time wasting app on possibly the biggest time wasting site ever made, and run it from a couple of dual Xeon boxes? I don't know who's calling the IT shots at WotC, but they need to start taking their job seriously. So far WotC's virtual ventures have been clumsy and amateur compared to the evident energy and attention to detail they put into their print products.

The other example of WotC's inability (or unwillingness) to take 1s and 0s seriously is the farcical D&D Insider. Not only are several of the tools banal, but the most important - the character builder - still hasn't been released yet.

How hard can it be to program a character builder? Enthusiasts have done it. Why can't the very creators of the game? It boggles the mind.

Still, if you do want to dabble with the three Insider apps that are available today, at least they're free. And two of them aren't too bad. The Compendium has an appalling interface, but it could prove a useful reference. And Dungeon and Dragon magazines are filled with useful resources for players and DMs alike. So get them while they're free!