WotC puts a stop to online sales of PDFs

[Wraith Form]

But I really did give 4E an honest try, and I really did want to like it, and it really was (to me) about as fun as visiting the proctologist.

Except your proctologist is polite, warms his hands a little before...um, insertion, and in the middle of the examination doesn't say, "Due to pirating, I'm no longer writing prescriptions for specialty hemorrhoid cream. You're on your own!"

 

[Pramas]

Agreed. Previously, WotC was very much a personality-driven company that had strong leadership between Peter Adkison (who has always been wise enough to hire smart, competent people) and Ryan Dancy, an opinionated guy whose vision drove the OGL. Once they departed, I strongly suspect the company culture and the decision-making process changed.

WotC is always changing and seems to have a major shift every couple of years. It is surely a long way from the days when most of the Seattle Camarilla worked there and there was a "bi-curious" day. While things certainly did change after the Hasbro buyout, the atmosphere had already become way more corporate in the years leading up to it. It is funny that the company that once published a Dilbert card game is straight-facedly enacting policies that would be right at home in a Dilbert strip.

 

[xechnao]

I have absolutely no idea what metrics they use to do their analyzing, I'm just saying I'm absolutely positive they have people that can and DO do it.

We have a whole team of people that do that, and only that type of stuff, all day every day.

Now I don't know if Wizards has it to that level, but they're a darn successful corporate entity, so I'm pretty sure they know what they're doing.

It is the field we are talking about that makes it difficult for them to analyze it like it can be in other fields. Of course they have to make informed decisions but they would be mostly beased on more broad observations IMO.

Now regarding Wotc actual efficiency in estimations: they could not manage to develop their DDI at launch which is something they have much more estimation control over, so it seems that the control you seem to assume is not right there. This of course may not be entirely their fault but mostly the nature of operations which are difficult to estimate.

 

[Derulbaskul]

WotC is always changing and seems to have a major shift every couple of years. (snip)

That has always been my perception of large US corporates in particular. I have always refused to allow any business in which I hold some or all of the shares or otherwise have influence to deal with a US bank because of the very risk that a sudden (ill-considered and illogical) change in strategy will jeopardise my business. Thank God that has been my approach because it has insulated us to a large degree from the current financial crisis.

Because of the leadership cult that seems to accompany anyone with CEO on his business card, there needs to be marked shifts in strategy to show that the CEO is indeed receiving revelation from on high.

One of the things that has shocked me about this whole situation is the total absence of COMMERCIAL leadership that has been exercised. The lawyers seem very much in charge but they are not balancing their advice with commercial/market realities (and I do not criticise the lawyers for this: they have their role to play but the company leadership should be measuring that advice based on commercial reality). It's time for the "leadership cult" to attract some new adherents and actually exercise some leadership so that this fiasco is sorted out without further complication and delay.

 

[avin]

After reading tons of pages here, at RPGNet, slashdot and some other forums all I can think is that this decision will hurt Wotc sales more than help.

 

[Clefton Twain]

Ugh

I haven't much cared for WotC's direction the last couple of years. I care for it even less, now. There was already rampant piracy of WotC materials before they offered PDFs. People would simply scan their books and offer them as PDFs. I don't really see how this move will do much against piracy--if people want something badly enough, they will find it.

--CT

 

[roguerouge]

So, according to the lawsuits, all this was for less than 3000 .pdf copies resulting in a MAXIMUM of 100,000 bucks, if one makes the absurd assumption that every pdf download represents a lost sale. I doubt that the PR hit is worth 100 grand.

 

[Kask]

I dunno. Maybe this is all a tragically ineffectual response to online piracy... but I can't help but think that perhaps WOTC has realized that a lot of people consider 4E inferior to the legacy products. And they're tired of competing with those golden games... so out they go.

That's the only logical business reason to kill a revenue source that has no costs associated with it. They (legacy product line PDFs) are more popular than the current line.

 

[Brian Compton]

I haven't waded through all the posts here, but I did want to ask this (and apologies if this has already been dealt with):

When 4E was being rolled out, was there not a point that every WotC book would be available on-line for free if you bought the actual book? Something about every book having a code and, by inputting that code, you could access all the material from that book on the WotC site? What happened with this? And wouldn't this have helped alleviate some of these problems?

 

[JohnRTroy]

PR doesn't mean squat if it means losing your rights.

When you discover copyright violations, you are obligated to defend them. If you don't, that non-action can be used against you later.

The only thing that might be the PR hit is taking down the PDFs from sales. However, I suspect they're either going to strengthen the watermarks, ban or delay availability of these works in foreign countries, or find alternate means of distribution. After reading the works, I really doubt it's some kind of an excuse for a conspiracy.