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6th April 2009, 09:30 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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has no status.
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| WotC puts a stop to online sales of PDFs Oh dear: Quote: | Wizards of the Coast has instructed us to suspend all sales and downloads of Wizards of the Coast titles. Unfortunately, this includes offering download access to previously purchased Wizards of the Coast titles. We are in discussions with Wizards about their decision to change their approach to digital sales of their titles and will post more information as we have it. If you would like to let Wizards know your opinion on offering D&D titles for download, we suggest the D&D Message Boards found here (linked to gleemax). | This certainly stings me as a PDF-exclusive buyer and user of D&D.
So what could this mean in the long run...? Here are my thoughts from the WotC forums: Quote:
Very likely they're planning to start selling the PDFs online themselves so they can keep the money from online sales. So first step is to take away the permission for anybody else to sell PDFs online.
Same thing happened with all the online character generators and online D&D tools about six months before 4e was announced. And Dragon/Dungeon magazines. Remember?
| PS: I looked to see if there was already a thread on this and I couldn't find one, if there is, my apologies. |
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6th April 2009, 09:45 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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only reading RPGs ATM :(
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,780
| Woh, that is not good.
I haven't got any as yet but will do soon when my eReader arrives. How can they stop you getting copies of PDFs you have already purchased???????? |
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6th April 2009, 09:46 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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<3's DnD
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Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Copenhagen
Posts: 5,293
| Yeah, it's pretty odd, without giving a reason. Arguably you have the right to the product purchased, along with the number of downloads that are made available to you?
Either way, I am sure someone will let us know soon enough why this has been done, or at least undo it.
__________________ Macera |
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6th April 2009, 09:47 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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| My first thought was "stop people from getting illegal copies of PDFs," but people are bound to just scan everything anyway (they already do for things without an official PDF). The guess that they might intend to sell them themselves is a logical possibility. Another guess is that they might be changing the PDFs in some drastic way and don't want to deal with people who "just bought the un-updated one" or something. I'm not sure what to make of it. |
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6th April 2009, 09:50 PM
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#5 (permalink)
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is mandated to seek out and confront the foul
taint of heresy.
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Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cambridge, UK
Posts: 591
| Does anybody know - Is this an across the board thing from WOTC covering all sellers of authorised PDFs of their material or is it just affecting RPGNOW?
__________________ "You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die" |
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6th April 2009, 09:52 PM
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#6 (permalink)
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Walking the Nine Worlds
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Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Burke
Posts: 17,100
| This sucks.
I've bought a number from RPGNow. Originally I was told I could download as many times as I wanted to forever. When they merged with DTRPG it went to 5 downloads per product and contact them if I needed more. And now apparently WotC is trying to pull the plug on old downloads. That should not be possible under the contracts rpgnow should have had with them but I don't have the specifics.
I really hope I will still be able to get old edition pdfs, there are a ton I still want to get. |
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6th April 2009, 09:53 PM
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#7 (permalink)
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has no status.
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| What gets to me (not too much of course, but a bit) is that I've already had a couple evenings of gaming saved by RPGNow's convenient "Download it again if you need it again" feature. I haven't had to do it with any WotC book yet, but I know it's only a matter of time. And now I know that's off the table. Guess I just take better care of my folders from now on  |
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6th April 2009, 10:00 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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has no status.
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Posts: 894
| I don't see anywhere whether the old TSR stuff is effected by this. Paizo, which also sells the old TSR stuff, doesn't have a similar statement up.
If the TSR stuff is effected by this, it'd really suck. It's really the only .pdf's I buy and I could completely see WotC deciding not to make them available again. (There's supposedly no market for OOP D&D products, afterall.)
If they are still available, I think I'm going to buy a parsle full of them that I've been putting off. I've been too complacent, thinking they'll be available forever.
__________________ <exasperated DM> "Underlying what? ... motivation? Do you want to play Dungeons & Dragons or not?"
<drama obsessed player> "How can I narrate my character's co-mingled sense of alienation and ennui towards modern society in this second-rate dungeon hack? My character returns to the surface and uses his remaining gold to start up an organic coffee shop that caters to left-wing revolutionaries... and hot elvish chicks." |
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6th April 2009, 10:07 PM
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#9 (permalink)
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has no class.
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Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Colorado Springs
Posts: 6,556
| Quote:
Originally Posted by mach1.9pants How can they stop you getting copies of PDFs you have already purchased???????? | One of the two major reasons that I bought WotC/TSR stuff in PDF form was specifically because I knew that RPGNow archived my past purchases for easy retrieval in case of hardware failure on my end. If WotC is forcing OBS to make those past purchases unavailable, well,    'em.
If this does come to pass, somebody up in Seattle needs to credit me for my past purchases of WotC product that still have downloads remaining. Changing an agreement after somebody purchases things might be legal but it's still a load of horse pucky.
[Edit: As for anti-piracy issues, I think all of the WotC/TSR PDFs that I've downloaded from RPGNow (even the old scans) have an embedded watermark with my name in them. This makes piracy more trouble than it's worth.]
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Last edited by jdrakeh; 6th April 2009 at 10:18 PM..
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6th April 2009, 10:07 PM
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#10 (permalink)
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has been eaten by a grue
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Join Date: May 2003 Location: Normal, IL
Posts: 4,487
| I'm more inclined to think it's a financial decision (as in "We'd make more money if we sold them ourselves") than it is a panicky anti-piracy decision because some executive's kid found a pirated PHB2 on 4chan.
-O |
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6th April 2009, 10:12 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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| I'm 99.9% sure it's because of PDF piracy. People can download all of WoTC's books on PDF AND Dragon and Dungeon magazines by torrent in less than 15-20 minutes. That's what....$800-$1000? I'm sure that's hurting them badly. |
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6th April 2009, 10:16 PM
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#12 (permalink)
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has no status.
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 407
| Quote:
Originally Posted by rogueattorney I don't see anywhere whether the old TSR stuff is effected by this. Paizo, which also sells the old TSR stuff, doesn't have a similar statement up.
If the TSR stuff is effected by this, it'd really suck. It's really the only .pdf's I buy and I could completely see WotC deciding not to make them available again. (There's supposedly no market for OOP D&D products, afterall.)
If they are still available, I think I'm going to buy a parsle full of them that I've been putting off. I've been too complacent, thinking they'll be available forever. | From the WotC forums: Quote: |
Originally Posted by IanB Note that this isn't just on current 4E pdfs. I can't re-download any of my old purchased 1e/2e PDFs anymore either. | You know, by this point you'd have thought someone at WotC would have raised their hand and said something to the tune of "Guys we seriously need to work on getting a better image of ourselves out there," but no not really a big concern apparently.. |
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6th April 2009, 10:16 PM
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#13 (permalink)
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has no status.
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Posts: 151
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Obryn I'm more inclined to think it's a financial decision (as in "We'd make more money if we sold them ourselves") than it is a panicky anti-piracy decision because some executive's kid found a pirated PHB2 on 4chan.
-O | I bet you're right, but this move will have no effect. In fact, I bet it increases the amount of books that are pirated; harder to feel bad about downloading a book via bittorrent if their is no way to buy it. |
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6th April 2009, 10:18 PM
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#14 (permalink)
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Expect to feel pleasure. Knowledge is sexy. Expect
to feel pain. Knowledge is torture.
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Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Berlin NJ
Posts: 7,108
| Yeah a while back I remember they had a survey and one of the questions was about interest in discounted books available for purchase on the wizards site.
I think this may be part of that. They have an online "ordering" system that can deliver electronic content. Why share the proceeds with someone else I guess? But we shall see. Perhaps Mr Rouse wil be along to quell any fears shortly? |
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6th April 2009, 10:18 PM
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#15 (permalink)
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The Fun Tyrant
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Join Date: May 2008 Location: Gensokyo
Posts: 3,225
| ...So did we not learn anything from TSR...? |
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