Is this the place to give feedback so that WOTC would listen? I sure hope so.
I'm an old DnD player and I skipped 4th Ed. My son is now the age that I was when I started playing. I've been given a PHB and I'm looking into the Organized Play. I see that it involves a plot around Tiamat and that there is a module I can buy and run through.
OK...I go to the website. I see the Tyranny of Dragons and the Horde of the Dragon Queen. Each is a product I can buy, but what the heck are they? What is the difference between them? Are they a series of modules and one comes first? If so, which one? One says ONLINE SUPPLEMENT. What the heck does that mean? What do I get if I buy it? What is the first one? Is it a module? What levels?
I just have to say I find the web site neat to look at, but I'm utterly baffled at trying to figure out what the heck it is I need to buy! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make it easier to figure out.
Wow, that is an unfriendly first post.
Nontheless, you are right, that the site became a bit confusing. I believe it is partly because they had to concentrate all forces to get the DM out to the printers.
If you want to partake in the storyline, you should buy the "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" adventure. It belongs to the "Tyranny of Dragons" storyline. The thing named "Tyranny of Dragons" belongs to the MMO "Neverwinter". Somehow those stories are connected, but it isn´t necessary that you play all of them.
Yes, it is an unfriendly first post. I feel frustrated when trying to look up what I consider simple things. I feel like I got an unfriendly welcome here. I REALLY hope WOTC fixes their website.
I am glad that you responded though. I hope you don't take personal offense to my frustration with WOTC.
I poked around a bit and used Amazon to actually find out what is a product or not. It seems that Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat are the modules. That series is called Tyranny of Dragons. I was able to read that the plot should take characters from 1-15th levels. How many modules are there? I don't know. I would think that a company trying to market it's products would not obfuscate said products! Each page has a lot of hype and links that move you in a circular fashion without actually telling you anything. The fact that I had to go to a 3rd party website just to learn something as simple as the above is absurd.
I don't blame you. the website is just a bunch of images and completely void of content and functionality.
Lashan wrote:
WotC has always had a poor digital presence. These boards are the most poorly-coded forums I've ever used, and the website is just abysmal at delivering content and information.
This is how it has always been. Don't expect it to change anytime soon.
Yeah, the website is pretty bad. Unfortunately a big thing with D&D is that the website has to support the entire "brand": tabletop rpg, video games, movies, plushy toys, adult novelties(okay, not this one), etc.
So it ends up looking like a confused mess to anyone who just wants to get info on any single thing.
It's not terribad once you learn all the product lines, but it's not a very welcoming website.
I completely agree with the OP.
The site of Wotc/DnD, as it is now, is badly designed and badly organized and the same goes with the forums and how the post layout is made.
What's weird is that quite some time ago the site and the forums' layout used to be good and with a slick design. Everything was archived neatly and it was easy to navigate.
I don't know why it got messed up with the years instead of getting better...
Did anyone mention how unfun it is to access this site from mobile devices?
It is unfun to access this site from mobile devices.
I agree. The nwe D&D website is trash. They also got rid of its 'comments' section so they didn't have to read the (probably, IMO) nearly unanimous dislike of its design.
This is really ashame, as when a person curious about D&D who doesn't have friends who already play is not going to actually get anything useful from the manufacturers of the damn game.
It's a total marketing fail. I cannot believe someone is salaried to do this for WotC's 2nd most famous brand.
Really, the only thing they've done excellently is to offer the free basic PDFs. Even those are really only cool to someone who already has experience with D&D. There's no illo eye-candy, and they're written assuming you know what D&D is like already. I guess WotC doesn't care about new blood. They've made a game that requires previous experience with older iterations to even understand and/or like it.
Mind_Flayer_Monk wrote:
Lashan wrote:
The web design for D&D is kind of disappointing consider how well-made the Magic website is.
Okay, scratch that, I just looked at the new Magic website while writing this and wow, did they really "fix" something that wasn't broken in the first place. It's kinda confusing to navigate now.
I hate the new website and it almost made me walk away from trying to get back into D&D. WotC should pay a marketing fee to a friend of mine who talked me to ignore the site and give the game a chance.
WotC really really needs to fire their web designer and hire someone with talent.
Mind_Flayer_Monk wrote:
...I guess that means I'm the only forum user that has no problems with the new website, and especially likes that it actually functions on my phone unlike the old one.
That said, it does suck that the product descriptions of Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat don't actually mention which one is first in the series other than by listing the release dates.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
The 4th edition site, insider and the character tools were pretty good.
They made some really innovative leaps with adventures in 4th edition as well, you got maps and tokens with them and the pricetag was kept down. Great products.
5th edition comes around and as a whole I like the system more than 4th. But the lack of innovative products is a bit disturbing. If we are going to get a super adventure, why not get some tokens for the monsters and some maps? The PHB and the MM are very well put together books, but the pricetag is also hihger than before. Being as one of them was an amazon bestseller, products for this edition are being outsourced to third parties and the releases for future products are about 3 months apart.....where is the money going?
Same for the website, it's a step backwards and there is no good excuse for it.
I love D&D 5e...... but I agree with you and also hate this website. Information is rather difficult to find and it's all these big ugly blocks that have very little user functionality. And posting forum comments from my mobile (iPhone) is endlessly frustrating because the reply text box won't scroll without the whole webpage scrolling. I end up only using my mobile to view this website about 1% of the time because it sucks too hard to bother.
@OP
As far as we know, WotC staff don't read these forums although years ago they did and newcomers might imagine they still do. They respond to twitter.
BoldItalic wrote:
OK.....so I'm not crazy in this. Good to know. Well, in this, at least.
I'm not new to DnD and I'm not new to DnD under WOTC. I played under 3.5 and their website was fine. You could see what was actually a product and what that product was. I just don't understand why they designed things this way as it makes it hard to actually know what to buy! Don't hide your products.....
As for the forums, I don't care. I was on the old stuff and it wiped out my profile and my post count and all that. I don't care. I was on there pretty heavily back in the day. I got to post questions to Ed Greenwood and get responses. It was pretty cool. George Krashos was on here and traded a lot of FR lore back in the day. I believe I had some nice posts saved and such, but I'm OK with losing it. Love moves forward.
I haven't tried to view this via a phone, but I don't think I want to. 
So, is there an official format to contact WOTC? I think this is a serious issue that I think they need to address. It's just poor buisness and I don't want to see DnD do poorly.
Also.......so, there are 2 modules now. Is that it? How many in the series? Will there be more? I'm sure they know these things, but it would be nice knowing about it before I buy into it. If it's 3 books...I might not want to buy. If they don't say, I buy 2 books, and there is a third that I need....I might be pissed they didn't say it upfront. While I know they are trying to get my money, I'd rather them get it for making good products that I want to buy, not tricking me.
The community site is really bad. The transition to the new site pretty much chased all the bloggers and game groups out by destroying half the content.