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A few days ago, I realized that the Character Builder was in open beta. Awesome! While I was poking around the site, I also noted that the price was significantly lower than what I thought I had seen advertised earlier. Sweet! So I went ahead and downloaded the character builder on my PC. My goal at this point was to play around with the free beta version until the end of January when the full version (with all 30 levels instead of just 1-3) is scheduled to come out.
Of course, once I decided that this was something I wanted to use, I downloaded it on the laptop I use on game night and this crap pops up:
CHARACTER BUILDER HAS STOPPED WORKING??? WTF??? IT WAS WORKING FINE ON MY PC!!!
Soooooo I go back to the WotC website and notice the little note about how the program is messing up on Vista. My PC is still running on XP. Great. I keep reading. There is hope! Apparently others have had the same problem so there are already some directions posted about how to make it work. Unfortunately, even after following those directions to the letter... it still doesn't work for me. Same problem, same error message.
Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe its my fault. I'm just glad I didn't sign up and pay money for this crap. The program is great. Having the whole character creation process (including material from multiple books) at your fingertips has got to be convenient. And the fact that it automatically generates power cards for each character? Awesome! I'd kill to use this program for game night... but if I can't run it on my laptop just because I'm running Vista, it is just too inconvenient to bother with.
So I guess this post is a mixture of irritated rant and sigh of relief. On one hand, I'm more than a little pissed that the program doesn't work on Vista. On the other, I'm patting myself on the back for not breaking my personal rule of refusing to pay for online gaming. I am SO glad I didn't sign up impulsively and regret the decision, especially considering that I also read somewhere that as soon as some of the other programs come online the price will likely go up.
Ugh... just... ugh. I don't know what else to say.
I just use Ed Friedlander's javascript character generator for D&D4e:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pathguy.com/cg4.htm
I have no intention of subscribing to D&D Insider, but in this program's defence, it is a Beta, not a finished software program. Bugs are to be expected, including ones that might not have shown up on probably limited Alpha and closed Beta versions.
ReplyDeleteGive it time - I imagine in a few weeks when the final version is released a demo will be forthcoming.
I'm running the character generator just fine under Vista. I'd look a little closer at your machine and how it's set up. The problem may be related to something else you have installed or configured.
ReplyDeleteTim: I didn't realize that Ed Friedlander had come up with a 4e version. I used his 3rd edition character generator back in the day. I'll have to check that out.
ReplyDeleteHammer & Rob: I do realize that it is just a beta and like I said, it might be me. My problem is mainly my own impatience. It took FOREVER to download that .net thing, not to mention the wasted time installing, uninstalling, starting over, etc.
I really like the program. I just want it to work on my laptop. That might not happen without extra work for me, which I'm probably not going to be willing to do.
Most of all, I want D&D Insider to look like a sweet deal so that I will consider breaking the rule I mentioned at the top of the post. I just don't see that happening at this rate.
I think your "never pay for anything" rule is going to get you less and less in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe whole "make it free and let ads pay for everything" business model is not nearly as lucrative as the "make something cool and charge money for it" model. Hey, I like free stuff too, but now that I run a website for money, I realize that it's actual work and deserves actual payment.
It isn't that I don't want to pay for anything at all... I just hate monthly fees. I shell out money for single player computer RPGs all the time, and I pay for computer software all the time. I just don't want to pay monthly for access to a computer program.
ReplyDeleteSell me the character builder for 50 or 60 bucks. Release an update for a few dollars when a new book comes out. But don't charge me a monthly fee just to use it and take it away when I stop paying. That's money wasted to me IMHO.