The Real Reason(s) Behind the PDF Debacle

[CardinalXimenes]

Many people are eager to have the next book in a fictional series as soon as it comes out, because the story in it is expected to be enormously satisfying. Speaking for myself, I'm eager to have the next book in the 4e line because I expect it to help me make my own stories more satisfying. Spending thirty or forty bucks once a month is a trivial expense for me, and the sooner I buy the brainwork of some very good game designers, the sooner I can start building on top of it or scavenging it for shiny, well-machined parts.

 

[Mark]

Many people are eager to have the next book in a fictional series as soon as it comes out, because the story in it is expected to be enormously satisfying. Speaking for myself, I'm eager to have the next book in the 4e line because I expect it to help me make my own stories more satisfying. Spending thirty or forty bucks once a month is a trivial expense for me, and the sooner I buy the brainwork of some very good game designers, the sooner I can start building on top of it or scavenging it for shiny, well-machined parts.

Interesting. Thanks for the reply.

 

[xechnao]

I am seriously curious, and not be snarky at all, but what drives people to this mindset?

I guess the fact that in some gaming groups individuals may want to have it before others (others not necessarily referring to members of that same group only but rather the greater population of D&D gamers) or at least not later.

They may want this so they do not feel they get less from their investment in the hobby than others or what generally is possible.

 

[darjr]

Publishing PDF editions does nothing to increase piracy. People were simply scanning the print books before and making them freely available.

From what I hear those copies were crap. They will be crap in the future. Yea you'll still be able to get it. The bigger titles might get the care and feeding that the WotC pdf's had.

 

[xechnao]

how much time does it take each month to deal with said distributors?
How much do said distributors charge and/or take from the sale?

If it doesn't make them X amount of money...then it isn't worth staying in the game.

Somehow I doubt it is really

I doubt they charge anything. I would guess they take a cut from each sale.

 

[Mark]

The bigger tittles might get the care and feeding (. . .)

That reminds me. I have to call Melanie and Jocelyn about lunch before the game tomorrow.

 

[CardinalXimenes]

You are so hilariously wrong about how piracy works, I have to wonder if you really work for WotC (BA-ZING!). I'm not saying you're a bad person, mind you. I'm just saying that you're...well, you're incredibly factually incorrect. Possibly even saying the opposite of what actually happens.

Comments like this aren't terribly useful for conveying rational arguments, ProfessorCirno. I'd encourage you to develop your theories with a little more rigor.

My theory is that eliminating a reliably certain source of zero-hour, maximum-quality PDFs will delay the torrenting of product PDFs by a nontrivial amount- and moreover, this window of delay will be anticipated by people desiring the product. Anyone not willing to wait through that window of delay will therefore either preorder the hardcopy or visit the bookstore during the window. I'd hypothesize that these sales will outweigh the profits to be had for a 10:1 ratio of pirated to sold PDFs.

One could say that this is piffle, and that the vast majority of pirates will be perfectly willing to wait several days to get their PDFs. That may be the case- but if it is, WotC only needs 11 out of 100 to get impatient and they'll better the ratio that they're working with now, and feed the book's sales numbers with a set of vendors they love much more than online-only operations.

Of course, if you have hard numbers to suggest that a window of delay is no use at all in decreasing piracy when a comparable product is available for sale, ProfessorCirno, I'd welcome seeing them.

 

[Castellan]

From what I hear those copies were crap. They will be crap in the future.

You'd be surprised how many have been carefully OCRed and proofread. Many older pirated titles are better than what WotC provided for folks to buy. This has less to do with title popularity or value, and more to do with the uploader's prestige within his circle of "friends" -- quality and attention to detail are well-regarded.

 

[darjr]

That reminds me. I have to call Melanie and Jocelyn about lunch before the game tomorrow.

What can I say... It's late.

Anway, to add, It's the main reason I'll miss those pdfs.

 

[Roman]

I doubt they charge anything. I would guess they take a cut from each sale.

This.

My theory is that eliminating a reliably certain source of zero-hour, maximum-quality PDFs will delay the torrenting of product PDFs by a nontrivial amount- and moreover, this window of delay will be anticipated by people desiring the product. Anyone not willing to wait through that window of delay will therefore either preorder the hardcopy or visit the bookstore during the window. I'd hypothesize that these sales will outweigh the profits to be had for a 10:1 ratio of pirated to sold PDFs.

I am inclined to agree with this, but my point is that this only applies to future products. Pulling existing PDFs off the market is not going to decrease the availability of pirated copies nor lead to decreases in quality of the pirated copies nor delay them (if they already exist they can no longer be delayed). As I said, I accept their rationale that they are doing this to fight piracy for not making PDFs of new products, but there are other reasons behind the decision to pull existing PDFs off the market.