Pros and cons of PDFs

[Psionicist]

One of the major cons with PDFs (the ones you buy) are that you can make unlimited copies and distribute on the Internet, and the author won't get any money.

 

[Morrus]

The biggest con is not having a professionally bound book, in front of you, that you can page back and forth through. You lose the feel of the pages, the smell of printers ink and good paper pulp (rather than the steril computer paper you get when you print it out), and the overall feel that this is a lasting thing, a book that will go on public and private library shelves and be paged through by perhaps another generation. In other words...you lose its bookishness, which is a wonderous and powerful thing. How many of us would be playing this game if we were not enamoured with books when we were younger?

Agreed. That's the main problem.

You cannot resell a pdf file. You will never dig it out of a dusty bin in a used book store, or admire it at an auction.

It will never be something your nongaming friends see on your shelf and inquire about. It will not be there when you glance over at your gaming material, ready to inspire a new idea, merely because it stands out in your mind as an image of a complete work as opposed to a few electronic words.

You will not take it with you to your gaming sessions, or to browse while in the bathroom, or while on vacation, unless you print it out or carry a laptop.

You will not be able to flip through the pages before you buy it at your local gaming store.

All much the same thing, and the same as the original problem above. Physical manipulation, I agree, is not possible.

You will not support your local gaming store in buying it, spelling potential doom for the industry as new entry into the hobby becomes more and more difficult from lack of exposure at such stores.

But, instead, you can support your local community website... whether or not you consider that less worthy of support is a personal decision, I guess, but I think it's equally valid. I am, of course, biased.

You will make it all that much easier for people to steal it. If you doubt this, ask yourself how many people download mp3s without permission, compared to how many steal it from a music store. And then ask yourself if you have ever known a gamer who would download it, given the opportunity.

I don't understand this one. How does the fact that people steal the material affect your use of it? Do you no longer listen to music because people download it?

If your computer ever crashes, gets infected by a virus, or gets corrupted files, you may very well lose the pdf forever.

The are easily backed up, though. And I know for a fact that RPGNow is willing to check its records and issue a replacement should the worst happen. I think that, on balance, a PDF is more permanent than a print object should you be willing to accomodate appropiate methodology.

There are a few more "cons" to pdf books.

Undoubtely. But there are also "pros". I accept that you're anti-PDF as is apparent from your post, and that is fully your decision to make. But I do hope you're not SO anti-PDF that you;re unwilling to accept that there are pros to, even if on balance you decide that PDFs are not for you.

 

[doctorjeff98]

Pros: Many very good general products and lots of niche products that would never see the light of day are able to be released and enjoyed.

 

[The Blue Elf]

Pro

Its a good way check out the product.

Its Cheep and Free sometimes

Con
Examples

If your computer Hard Drive was fired then your lost are you Books the only way to get them back is downloading them again.

If you buy them less then $7.00 for a D&D 3.5, and the orginal price is 29.95 plus tax, then that would effect the market even more increasing the price on the Book in Retail stores every were.


Don't get me wrong I do support the whole PDF thing but, you have to look at it buisness wise that it would cause some problems in the Gaming industry, because they would not be making any profit from it unless, RPGnow is Compensating the companys who are making these products.

 

[Mach2.5]

PDFs all the Way

Point 1:
No one ever makes a 300+ page book, sends it within a day to your home, and charges you absolutely nothing at all. That's about the amount of pdf material my old 26 k modem was able to download in a day in freebies, web enhancements, pet projects, fan submissions, etc. DSL connection=much more free stuff taking of space on the ol hardrive. Deleting OS to make more room

Point 2:
Game company X puts time effort and energy into a project only to have the plug yanked at the last minute before sending it to the printers. Product becomes available on the net soon after, at no extra cost to company X. Companies can still put out side projects and other material without fear of 'product innundation' to the market due to the low cost of pdfs as well. Gamer Joe spending 5-10 bucks on a pdf or 25-35 bucks on the same book in print means Gamer Joe still has money left . . . we hope.

Point 3:
Oftentimes replacable. You likely backed up important files on your hardrive before. If you didn't backup something that cost you money, that's your fault. Most companies keep some kind of traceable log that can get you your pdf should the untold happen and your dog eats your floppy of the pdf. In oposition: Try scanning or xeroxing your game books someday and see how time consuming and costly those become to backup in case your overzealous player jacked on Mt Dew and coffee spills a couple of drinks on your book. And try explaining to your game store why you need a new book for free since your old one now has pages stuck together.

Point 4:
I don't lend out books. Ever. I mean never, ever, ever. I'm either not getting them back if I do (it got lost, I forgot, etc) or its never given back in the 'mint, pristine, I only open the book with sterilized gloves in a Clean Room' condition that I lent it out in. I can though print out a few pages of relevant material off the pdf and lend that out, not fretting about it comming back worn and torn with dog bites, coffee rings, spilled beer and pizza grease stains. If it gets lost, heh, oh well. If you forget, heh, oh well. Plus, no one can *gasp* crack the bindings of my prized pdfs.

Point 5:
It helps out for those who have Obsessive Compulsive Role-Playing Book Behavior, also dubbed OCRPBB, who take better care of their book collections than their pets, or spouse, or children, or themselves (err . . . . not that I would do that or anything . . . often . . .). See the rational in point 4.

 

[trancejeremy]

One of the major cons with PDFs (the ones you buy) are that you can make unlimited copies and distribute on the Internet, and the author won't get any money.

Yeah, but's also true of printed books - they get scanned in.

Selling PDFs gives honest people the option of buying them.

 

[James McMurray]

I've gotten to where I trly regret my pdf purchases. Not because the products are lower quality. Monte's stuff is great for instance. What I regret is not being able to read[/] them. Sure, I can browse through them, but my eyes get strained if I try to actually kick back and read them.

Its also hard to find things in them. Some do have the search option enabled, which is helpful, but if I've got a print book I've read cover to cover, I can usually just crack it open to within three pages of where i want to be.

Also, I'm currently doing a lot of character generation for my epic campaign and the Exodus epic arena over at rpol.com. Thumbing through electronic items for character building is a massive pain, because it means I have to be at my deck to even go browsing for character ideas, much less actual generation.

 

[Cergorach]

PRO: Free Updates, from a simple update to correct errata to updating to the 3.5 version of the SRD.

CON: Poor quality due to ease of publication, lack of seriousness, lack of willingness to dedicate resources, etc.

Although your idea has merrit your arguments do not.

1.) Just because it's in PDF (or any other electronic format) doesn't mean the publisher has to make available <i>free</i> updates, it can be done, but it isn't always so.

2.) Poor quality due to ease of publication? Yeah right! Ever seen any of the of Malhavoc Press PDFs? These are exactly their printed products.

3.) Lack of seriousness With a statement like this, not very many people are going to take you seriously. Yes, there are many people who make a PDF just for the heck of it, but so are some publishers (i'll not name any companies).

4.) Lack of willingness to dedicate resources? Again i point you to the Malhavoc Press PDFs, but i think what you should say is lack of money to dedicate to resources. Most of the PDF publishers lack Monte's resources (and success in selling PDFs), that means they just don't have as many recources as they would want to use.

Are there Pros and Cons? Hell yeah, but they all depend on your point of view.

I like it a lot that i can search a couple of hundred books (all the ESDs from WotC) with just a few key strokes.

I like it a lot that i can check a couple of hundred books just about anywhere i take my laptop to, or more recently, where i can take my pda to.

I like it a lot that i can select small parts of the text and copy it into whatever document i choose, without having to scan one or more pages and OCR them.

I like it a lot that i can easily create player handouts from whatever PDF i have, without having to lend the entire book to one or all of my players and possibly expose them to material i didn't want them to read.

I like it a lot that after having worked hard all day and coming home when all the stores have already closed that i can order and download a product in just a few minutes (gotta love my high bandwith connection).

I don't like it a lot that reading it on a vertical screen isn't very comfortable.

I have to start up one of my computers to look at a PDF, instead of picking it from one of my many bookshelves.

Printing it at home could be very expensive, i on the other hand (like a lot of folks), have access to laser printers at work. Most people only have access to B&W letter sized laser printers, i'm one of those lucky few that has access to a high quality A3 color laser printer that makes the most awesome prints! When i really want to print a pdf, i run it trough a couple of my programs so that it'll print correctly on A3 and is doublesided. I just fold the pages correctly and the guys that 'control' the printer are always willing to help to help me bind the 'book'. So printing isn't really a big problem for me ;-)

I still prefer to buy the book from the publisher though, but i'm in a luxury position there as well, i buy my game books at wholesale prices.

But books take up a lot more space than a couple of MBs, and in my room, space i something i don't have a lot of...

See how suddenly i have a lot of Pros and don't have a lot of Cons. These are things that are important and re4levant to me, but obviously not to some others. Yes i'm pro PDF but am realistic enough that it's not the end all and be all for gaming products, some people find them usefull and others don't. It's all about target adience...

 

[Mistwell]

Agreed. That's the main problem.



All much the same thing, and the same as the original problem above. Physical manipulation, I agree, is not possible.



But, instead, you can support your local community website... whether or not you consider that less worthy of support is a personal decision, I guess, but I think it's equally valid. I am, of course, biased.



I don't understand this one. How does the fact that people steal the material affect your use of it? Do you no longer listen to music because people download it?



The are easily backed up, though. And I know for a fact that RPGNow is willing to check its records and issue a replacement should the worst happen. I think that, on balance, a PDF is more permanent than a print object should you be willing to accomodate appropiate methodology.

Undoubtely. But there are also "pros". I accept that you're anti-PDF as is apparent from your post, and that is fully your decision to make. But I do hope you're not SO anti-PDF that you;re unwilling to accept that there are pros to, even if on balance you decide that PDFs are not for you.

Given that I emailed you after your article complimenting you on it, and how you had persuaded me to perhaps make a pdf purchase I had previously decided against, I don't see how you came to that conclusion. I merely offered some additional cons. But I am not anti-pdf. I was just helping the guy collect some arguments.

Maybe my saying "There are a few more cons" was vague. I meant to say "There, you now have a few more cons".

The backup and replacement point - I've never purchased a PDF off of rpgnow. I did buy several from montecook.com, and then lost all the files later. I mentioned this happened, and people asked for the exact dates I made the purchases (which I could not possibly recall). I'm sure if I had pushed further I could have gotten replacements, but it just wasn't worth it at that point. I bought the hardcopies instead. However, I have never once lost a hardcopy book (unless I gave it away to a friend, which would also happen with a PDF). I don't know a single person who hasn't had a hard drive crash. Nor do I know anyone, other than businesses, who backs up as often as they should. I'm sure there are plenty of people on this board who will say "I lost a hardcopy book" and "I backup regularly" and "I've never lost a hard drive", I'm just saying the circle of friends I have all fit the pattern I just described.

As for the stealing point...yes, the fact that people steal music is in fact resulting in less music overall. Fewer avant garde bands are being signed right now due to the industry drain of theft, and it ultimately means there is less music out there, and fewer genres of music being supported. It doesn't mean *I* stop listening to music or buying games, it means it isn't healthy for the music or gaming industry if people steal the stuff (in a long term way).

The other way I feel PDFs can hurt the long term industry is by not marketing the industry through the product covers and shelf space at stores (which is one of the primary methods a niche industry has to bring in new people to the hobby). When people go to a store to look at a chess set or to buy a monopoly game, and they see a D&D product (or an entire wall of D&D products), there is a chance they will become interested and inquire further. PDFs do not bring in new people at the same level hardcopy products do.

Since I like some PDFs, I think the solution to this is to offer products in both formats. That way, you still get the shelf space and marketing factor, but also the benefits of a PDF.

This solution doesn't help with theft much. It may help that issue a little bit, however, when people can conceptualize a physical product in their game store as something they are stealing when they get the PDF for free. I think psychologically it is easier for people to justify downloading a PDF for free if that product only exists in electronic format, than it is for people to do the same thing if they have also seen the hardcopy book in their local game story.

 

[Cergorach]

As for the stealing point...yes, the fact that people steal music is in fact resulting in less music overall. Fewer avant garde bands are being signed right now due to the industry drain of theft, and it ultimately means there is less music out there, and fewer genres of music being supported. It doesn't mean *I* stop listening to music or buying games, it means it isn't healthy for the music or gaming industry if people steal the stuff (in a long term way).

You might want to note that most of the world isn't doing to well economically. Although record companies would like to claim that pirating is the cause of lower sales, economists would point out that as an economy is in a decline, people spend less on luxury items (such as music). I would also like to point out, hopefully without reopening the 'copy' issue, that companies such as apple are finally seeing the light and are finnally selling music through the net...

The other way I feel PDFs can hurt the long term industry is by not marketing the industry through the product covers and shelf space at stores (which is one of the primary methods a niche industry has to bring in new people to the hobby). When people go to a store to look at a chess set or to buy a monopoly game, and they see a D&D product (or an entire wall of D&D products), there is a chance they will become interested and inquire further. PDFs do not bring in new people at the same level hardcopy products do.

This is old school thinking! More and more people are using the internet as a way to satisfy their hobby needs. FLGS are getting more and more difficult to operate, more people want to buy through the internet for various reasons (cheaper, ease of use, more stuff to choose from, etc.). Industries change, if the people who work in those industries don't keep up, they'll be out of a job. Just how many companies do you know of that still handwrite books...

As for 'theft', it has it's uses, but ultimately it depends on the people who want to use such products in the future. Your right one one point if everyone does not want to pay for a product, soon there will be no product to pay for...