RangerWickett said:I, for one, long since stopped caring if people pirated PDFs of products I wrote.
Wolfgang Baur uses a ransom model, where he only actually releases the work he has written once a certain amount of money has been paid. He releases some free content to raise interest, then raises money to make writing worth his while.
WotC is part of Hasbro, and is probably too corporate to change their thought processes enough to make that work. Plus they have a business cycle they have to keep with, so their quarterly profits are high enough. However, they are doing more than just releasing books. They've also got minis, maps, online programs (theoretically) -- all things that you can't just 'pirate.'
I do wish WotC had put PDFs of their books on sale. I know a fair number of people would have actually paid for it. A lot would pirate it, sure, but I figure in any given gaming group, at least one player will buy a physical copy to make playing the game easier.
If they could have sold the books by PDF, and if the Digital Initiative was already up and running, I think WotC could have really profited. As some people have pointed out, a lot of folks online just expect to be able to get stuff for free. You can fight this, but I suspect we've tilted too far, and society is just changing.
So you don't fight it. You find other things to sell people: services (DI) and physical objects (minis and maps).
Even if some people just pirate 4e and play it without buying the books, I imagine a fair number of them will still buy minis and maps. WotC still gets to move product. The game just becomes a big advertising campaign for the real product: the minis and maps. Just like cartoons for the longest time have just been ads for toys.
Thank you! I made the point a few pages ago that the books are just PART of the D&D revenue stream. Now we have DDI, separate books with "core material" in them (Frost Giants, anyone?), miniatures, and maps. D&D (Gygax, TSR, WotC) have NEVER had a business model where every player had to purchase their books, as they've found out that the more people who "play", the more books they actually sell.
The vast majority of people like owning stuff!
I'm also an aspiring author. Of course, I want people to buy my book!!! But do I expect every person who ever reads it to have paid me for that pleasure?! No... it would just be greedy to assume this was how things are supposed to be. Obviously, if a significant portion of readers only read "copied" versions of my book, I'd be a little pissed. But guess what? Fans of mine (I can only wish to have fans one day) are GOING to buy the book because they know that, if they don't, there won't be a second one.
And guess what? As an artist, I'd rather give my work away FREE to a million people than require EVERY reader to have legally purchased a copy. That situation reeks of thought-police and big brother on a corporate scale.