Dungeons & Dragons belongs in books and on tabletops.  Am I resistant to change and new ideas?  No.  I’ve just been worn down by failure.

If you were into Dungeons & Dragons around the birth of Third Edition, you heard about the coveted Master Tools.  It was to have a full dungeon mapper, character generator, and all sorts of other tools and functions.  We couldn’t wait!  But we had to.  Two years we waited, in fact.  The result was E-Tools, a shadow of what was promised.  Instead we got what was basically a character generator, mildly useful if you wanted to make a character or monster using only the three core books, and none of the interesting supplements that had filled our collections in those years.  AKA, near worthless.

But time has come and gone, and good old D&D has reached the ripe age of 4.  With it has been promised the new reincarnation of digital glory, titled D&D Insider (D&Di for short).  Six months after launch, on October 14th, the service went fee-based.  I gave it a couple weeks to work out the kinks and paid my subscription.  My intention was to review the product.  This I cannot do.  Allow me to share with you a journal of my attempt.

October 29th:  I decide I will pay for a 1 year subscription to D&Di.  The price is a bit high, but I must’ve been too, and I really wanted to be in on the new character generator when it went beta.  I used the compendium (the only available service at launch) fairly often, and wanted to continue to do so.  I paid my money.  I had to use a credit card, as no other method was offered.  My bank acknowledged the transaction, and I waited.  No email came.  My account could not access the material.

It should be noted that when signing in, you are required to sign up for auto-renewal (in which it re-charges your card every month/year/etc to maintain your service).  In order to deactivate this feature, you must send in a support ticket to a live person.  The process is not automated.  My first suspicions begin to flourish.

October 31st:  Still no luck.  I give in and send in a trouble ticket on the issue.  I get back an automated email saying I will be contacted in 1 – 2 days.  So they DO have my email address!

Novermber 2nd:  Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I don’t much bother checking my email until now.  It turns out they got right back to me on the 31st!  I’m impressed.  That is until I read the email.

"We understand you may have experienced an issue during your recent order in our Dungeons & Dragons Insider store. However, to properly process your request we will need to collect some additional information…"

Blah blah blah, etc.  I follow the link, and what do I find?  The same page I used to send them the initial trouble mail.  I email this individual back, explaining so.

November 4th:  I receive an email from someone different.  I’m being forwarded to a specialist!  Please wait 24 to 48 hours.

November 10th:  Life is busy.  I don’t notice that I never got an email back.  I get an email advertising the new character builder.  I send another message.  I get back nothing.

November 16th:  Frustrated, I send yet another email.  The issue is not resolved.  I ask what is going on, and inquire about a refund.  I receive an email back the same day.  I’ve been elevated to a specialist!  The link I get for seeing the progress on my issue doesn’t seem to be working.  They’re updating their system or some such.

November 19th:

"You will need to contact Digital River. For information on how to do that, please visit the following link and click on Digital River website."

That is what the specialist has to say, followed by a link to their answer database.  The page (here, if you’d like to see it) simply explains that, yes, Digital River does do their finance whatsits.  A link to their website is available.  I go there.  My order number does not work on their customer support page.  There doesn’t seem to be any standard way to contact someone for this type of situation.  Finally, I recheck my bank account, to make sure I need a refund.  The transaction seems to no longer be present.  So, my order never got processed, maybe?  I don’t know.  I don’t think they do either.  But they don’t have my money, and now I can’t be arsed to pursue it any further.

I don’t know if the service is worth the cost.  I never actually got any.  If you go to the D&Di forums, the stories continue.  Several people are unable to access material, with varying degrees of success from support.  Some have had their accounts canceled without notice.  So on and so forth.  From my personal experience, the support system seems to be organized by trained chimps.  I’m not sure a human being actually read anything I had to say, or made a single effort to actually look up my account and see its status.

But we still have books and dice.  I like books and dice.  I can browse a book before I buy it.  When I pay for it, it is placed in my bag and I take it home.  I’ve never had to call someone because I suddenly couldn’t get into my book.  The only compatibility issues dice have are in relation to shag carpeting and over zealous chuckers.  I think the new generation in technology has failed D&D, but the old generation still works just fine.

What are people saying about "D&D Insider - Why Did I Try?"?

Othgar the Flamboyant Re: D&D Insider - Why Did I Try? I'm somewhat anxious to hear how this story pans out.  did you ever manage a refund or get service?

Axel Night Re: D&D Insider - Why Did I Try? An interesting development occured today.  "Thank you for ordering from Dungeons and Dragons Insider on October 29, 2008.  The following email is a summary of your order." This arrived in my inbox this morning.  I checked in my bank account, and the charge for $59.40 by DRI*DIGITALRIVER.COM is now pending.  It's the same charge I saw when I first ordered the service, that never actually went through.  I logged into the D&D website, and I now have access to the content. I've sent an inquiry to support making sure that my subscription begins now, and not back in October.  I don't want to pay for a month I didn't get.  I'd cancel it, but I can only imagine the hell that would involve. I'm going to go play with the character creator beta now.

BlinderGuardian Re: D&D Insider - Why Did I Try? Have fun, good luck with that.  I just can't stanfd the thought of a subscription based payment.  It's what kept me from WoW, and it's what will keep me from DnDi.  I'd rather buy a comparably pricey software bundle, just once.

Ethos Re: D&D Insider - Why Did I Try? Let us know if the site is any good

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