The much beloved Character Builder software is going to be moving to an online only subscription based service run in Silverlight.
There is all kinds of controversy regarding this move, and below you can read my take on the whole thing.
I think the online only model has both pros and cons, and whether it effects you or not depends on how you use the program. If you use the program at the table, as an interactive character sheet then this change will limit your ability to play in your preferred way while in the mountains or in someones basement. Granted, you can still print those characters to PDF, and use them from your laptop - but that isnt exactly the same. For me it makes absolutely no difference, aside from not being able to utilize iplay4e with essentials material. My primary use of the character builder has been to create characters and then print them (or use iplay4e) I dont just "dabble" in character creation - because my out-of-game game time is spent developing adventures and scenarios for my characters to hack their way through :).
And the benefits to an online only based model are that your character is backed up on their servers, so when a cat drops water on your laptop you dont loose all your characters. Also, for those of us that dont have laptops it means that you can access your characters from any internet enabled computer. Which a quick Google search shows is greater then 70% of all US households.
Also, for those people that cannot install the program for some reason, like owning a Mac, being on a computer that does not belong to them (ie work computer) or cannot figure out how to install .NET, an online only solution gives them easy access to the builder without a need to install.
Plus, from a technical standpoint users will never have to update their builder again (a process that was a nightmare for some) and the development team wont have to package update modules which means they can spend that extra time developing NEW functionality instead of just updating content. A single database is a whole world easier to update than pushing content patches.
Then there's the elephant in the room - piracy. An online based system will ultimately cut piracy. And while people may still be able to hack the system and run their own databases and such, it becomes much easier to send S&D letters to a person running an illegal server than to try and go at the torrent sites. Legal battles with torrent sites always become nightmareish, and the people running them know it. Will more people pony up the money for a product they previously stole? Perhaps. But from Wizards stand point, those people were not making them any income, and if even one person begins paying for it because its no longer easy to find and use then they win. And when Wizards wins (ie makes more money) we win because that means Hasbro will spend more on development of a flourishing franchise.
In all, I'm not sure its a step backwards nor a step forwards. I really feel like if they can deliver on the export feature within 1-2 months (we'll give them the benefit of that extra month with the holidays coming up) then this update is really more a shift the the side. 100% better for some, and a need to shift game play for others.
Game breaker? I dont think so. I can not foresee a situation that this would ever get me to stop playing the game system I so enjoy. Unless the whole reason you started playing D&D was to utilize their character creation tools.
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