I'd like to posit the idea that while perfectly legal, it does hurt you, indirectly, because it makes D&D fans look like the kind of people who burn books that they don't agree with rather than face the ideas in them. It puts fans of the game in the position of censors and morality police who deem certain books unworthy of even existing. Imagine being a 4e fan in that community...or even being just an RPG fan, knowing that the opposition is strong enough to want to obliterate whatever texts they could get their hands on. Imagine trying to have the idea that this is "just a game" and that "it's not that serious" and "everyone likes different things" in the context of a group of people who cannot abide different things.
That is just it. It isn't an attempt to "obliterate whatever texts they could get their hands on." No one is coming for your books. No one is saying that ALL 4e is bad. It is one person burning their OWN set of books. That is why it is not illegal, because it is not wrong. It is not bad. I think it is probably in poor taste to try and enrage others, if doing it solely for that purpose. I don't see that as the case here. I suspect that the person burning the books is doing that because they want to. If there were no cameras they might still do the exact same thing and you would never know. It isn't "obliteration" of the media in any sense. It is destruction of private property. That is pure and simple legal. More than that, that is pure and simple NOT WRONG to do. It isn't a moral choice at all. Moral choices affect other people, destroying one's own property isn't a moral choice.
It's legal, and it's small scale, but it's harmful to their community directly and to gamers in general via network effects. They're allowed to be dumb as stumps, yes, but part of the reason this is dumb as stumps is because burning a book, regardless of stated intent, is trucking in the symbols and methodology of various self-proclaimed authoritarian purity police throughout history who must guard the tribe's boundaries against any taboo material, and I figure most gamers are much better than that reactionary tribalism that forbids outsider material to even exist.
To say this attaches a whole lot of extra baggage to something that is a fairly simple act. Let me bring up that example I gave last time of the neighbours with a wood-chipper and a table they want to destroy. There is no social action that says doing so is
wrong. It doesn't harm the carpentry community, nor the table-enthusiasts. It is arguably dumb since somebody else could probably use a table that is otherwise perfectly fine. But it doesn't affect me that my neighbours want to destroy a wooden table just because they want to. Why does it suddenly harm the whole RPG community to see someone burn their copy of a PHB? If they used some spray paint, brstleboard, glue and glitter, turning it into "art" would it have been better? Worse? Why? This person got a positive effect out of destruction of THEIR OWN property, my rights and "moral implications" stop when I am unaffected - which I am.
It hurts you like graffitti on someone else's wall hurts you, like a mugging a few blocks away hurts you, like a KKK meeting-house down the street hurts you. Regardless of the legality of it, it changes the tone of the smallish D&D neighborhood to allow stuff like that to go with just a shrug and "folks can be dumb." Because other dumb folks see those dumb folks, and eventually, it's doofuses as far as the eye can see, who all imagine that their being dumb must be acceptable since no one is telling them they're wrong.
So I feel confident telling them that they were wrong to do this. Within their legal rights, but wrong, in a way that makes the world a little bit of a worse place for everyone who likes imaginary elf games.
Yeah, no those examples aren't really comparable either. (Graffiti isn't by itself harmful either so goodluck with that.) It isn't bringing down the whole community. Your examples relate more to 'letting those undesirables move in down the street is hurting my resale value'. Even so, those people down the street could be painting their walls a terrible shade of red (paint, not blood) that I find perfectly awful. That is their choice, it is not a moral choice, it is a fashion choice. More than having "every [legal] right" they have every MORAL right to do so because its none of my darn business what colour they paint their wall, or what they do with their own property. Heck, even if they took a jackhammer to the walls it is still none of my business. A terrible idea as far as insulation goes, but none of my business. I am not harmed in them doing so in ANY way.
That said, the actions of these 4E book-burners are in poor taste, and many people here are having visceral reactions to it. Book burning itself evokes unpleasant events of history, and the implications of destroying information shouldn't be taken lightly. Deliberately destroying any creative work can be seen as an insult to both its fans and its creators, especially in a small, divided community like this one. Fans and new players could yet have used and enjoyed those books, but that potential was squandered too. Proudly posting images compounds the burners' complicity, because it emphasizes that this was done deliberately and without regret or remorse.
Yeah, but simply being bad taste doesn't make it wrong. Maybe this owner thought that the product was so terrible that he didn't want to "inflict" it upon others. At that point he can A. sell/donate it (inflicting it on others), B. keep it (a product he dislikes), C. burn it (which he did), D. ????? I don't even have an option D. To someone who owns the product, who spent money on it and is fully the owner of that object and, has no interest in selling/donating it, what option is there? Keeping it forever is the only one I see - that strikes me as a very silly assumption.
Now, yes they could have sold/given it away. No question there. But they're under no responsibility to do so.
(Sorry doctorhook, your quote just gave me a lot to reply to but I don't disagree with you thought it seems that way.)
Boy howdy, you guys are right, the people who enjoy 4e are the real edition warriors and there's obviously equally crazy behavior from all parties.
...wait, this wasn't 4e edition warriors burning books? This was non-4e edition warriors burning 4e books? Oh. Never mind.
No, it's just a bunch of terrible nerds being terrible about elfgames. It's pretty much par for the course.
It is comments like this that are unhelpful. Burning the 4e books isn't a edition war starter all by itself. There is an implied preference for something else, but not a "4e bad, X good" which is usually needed for edition wars.
