It's not exactly free, and it's not exactly subscription based. The plan, as I understand it, is to include codes with the new books that allow you to access the Insider materials for the books you own.
In other words, the good ol' days when one person in a gaming group--usually the DM--bought a book and shared it, are now over. If your DM is allowing the spiffy new prestige class from Tome Of Uber 133tness, and you want to play it and your group uses D&D Insider, you're going to shell out for the book.
Seeing as how a traditional means of introducing new players to the game is for one curious player to buy several books and introduce his friends (who may, in turn, go out and buy books of their own), I'm not sure the ultimate effect of this isn't going to be a wash. It's mere speculation, but I imagine a lot of players would rather simply play a computer game instead of shelling out $90 for a bunch of books, which Insider is designed to force them to do. No more "free taste" for you.
Many moons ago WotC announced plans to have a code in each book you owned , that the owner for a small fee, would be provided an online copy of the book in PFD.
The idea was abandoned perhaps 6 months ago as the security issues of one online access to one hard print copy owner was not possible for a low activation fee as was part of the plan.
Well I would look to the source and time it was posted.
Many moons ago WotC announced plans to have a code in each book you owned , that the owner for a small fee, would be provided an online copy of the book in PFD.
The idea was abandoned perhaps 6 months ago as the security issues of one online access to one hard print copy owner was not possible for a low activation fee as was part of the plan.
It's a hard beast to tackle for this avenue.
Consider : a generic code, same code everybook. Easy as pie to share.
Consider : generate key-code [ala MMOs/ computer games etc], distribution has become a problem as you have to find a way to fit the printed keycode in a book and keep the code from readily 'stealable'/'readable' at the retail front. And I don't think WotC wants to go back to Boxed games soon. Although this may oddly enough work better with the Adventure module is they follow the slipcase method we saw in H1.
I would think the most secure idea, if they were to do this, would be "coupons" given to the sale locations that were handed out with each purchase. This isn't perfect, but it's been done by other companies in the past and has seemed to work out.
Not sure the OP needs to know why there are not codes to be found, just that there are not any codes required.
Oh the other question about if a player needs to own a book to play a certain new race or class in additional 4th Edition releases (Hey I am being kind and not calling them *splat* books) the current design appears to allow access to such things even if you or even your DM does not own the book. That the data base as upgraded will have all classes and races available for use, having a question about a skill, talent, feat, etc. at minimum will provide book and page reference. Being an Insider more information will be provided.
Saving clause: That is my best understanding of current plans.
Or they could shrink-wrap the books. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time a hard-cover book was shrink-wrapped.
Oh that was discussed months ago as one possible protection scheme. the idea was shot down by members as a bad idea. Our fairly quit Overlords might have been reading our words.
Objections included:
No preview of book before purchase.
Theft of activation code before sale, something wrapped does not always stay wrapped sometimes in stores.
Unless each book had a special code that could be linked to that book, one code would be out there for many.
Proof of legal purchase as opposed to theft was touched on in a few ways.
All in all the ebooks as such do not exist as part of DDI right now and are not planned to be part of them, as best I know.
All the "rules elements" will be in the compendium. What that means is currently unknown, but actual rules to play will not exist. You will need the books for the full rules so far, and page numbers for the database currently are NOT part of the plan, just which book something can be found in. hopefully the Dragon and Dungeon articles will link to the article so that people don't have to search everyone to find a referenced "item" from the database.
Not sure the OP needs to know why there are not codes to be found, just that there are not any codes required.
Oh the other question about if a player needs to own a book to play a certain new race or class in additional 4th Edition releases (Hey I am being kind and not calling them *splat* books) the current design appears to allow access to such things even if you or even your DM does not own the book. That the data base as upgraded will have all classes and races available for use, having a question about a skill, talent, feat, etc. at minimum will provide book and page reference. Being an Insider more information will be provided.
Saving clause: That is my best understanding of current plans.
Thanks for the info.
Reason I was asking is we had a player that joins occasionally, but hasn't for a long time due to distance. He didn't have the books back then, and we all shared with him to let him play. But now with DDI and the Guest pass, he might be able to join in again. But again he doesn't have the books, and having to put in a code would have prevented us from using the DDI table for long distance gaming for him because he didn't have the book codes.
But it looks like we will be able to work around this.