WotC to publish D&D PDFs again?
Son of Meepo
First Post
Selling out-of-print material via pdfs seems like a no-brainer. Those items are out there for people who want to pirate them, which right now is about the only way to get them without going though the reseller market (which again provides them no additional revenue). They aren't delivering these products in any form, so the best they can do it to make no money off them. At least with pdf sold through an online retailer they have a chance to make more than zero.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
Yes, and my point was that they are effectively punishing people like me who don't pirate stuff. Why it's taking them so long to figure out that selling them again means free money is beyond me.
Well, first off, even if they figured it out a while ago, corporations can't always change their behavior the instant they realize they ought to. New agreements need to be hammered out, and while you call it "free money", it isn't exactly free, so budget cycles may need to be accommodated.
I think, however, the lag was in the old "competing with themselves" idea - that if they sell you pdfs of old books (especially cheap pdfs), they are giving you reason to not be a customer for their current line of products, which probably have a higher profit margin, and for which they very much want to build the ever-useful "network externalities".
It may be now they either have data, or at least the idea, that sale of old material does not negatively impact sale of new material.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
I doubt things have changed based on data, particularly since they have no new data on that since they pulled the old material from sale. My guess is someone finally was struck with the metaphorical clue bat and conceded the idea had merit. It's entirely possible that the impetus to reunify the market with D&D Next has taken enough root to convince them selling older edition PDFs is not a bad idea.
iwarrior-poet
Explorer
Maybe, but WoTC was notoriously stinty on allowing access to datasets. I am hoping they allow a freer range of potential apps. Combat tracker, dungeon mapping, treasure creator, Magic Item creator etc. In addition to datasets like Forgotten Realms, Ebberron, Grey Hawk etc.
El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
From past hints and obscure statements, it may be that they've actually been working toward this for quite a while. I wonder if part of how long it's taken might also be due to time needed to convert all of those old pdf's to more secure electronic formats...? It's also possible they may have spent some time doing better digital conversions than what they had in the past. Some of those pdf's they used to sell looked like rather amateurish scans.
EmbraCraig
Explorer
I like the app store idea for plug in/module stuff - but I'd like to go a bit further. I'd like to see WotC go down the API route in the same way that CCP does with Eve Online character data.
Pay a monthly sub that gives you access to an API key that gives access to the game data (WotC can do something at the back end to need the key regenerated after so many requests, or from different IMAP addresses or something). WotC's job is to make sure that the online data is up to date - 3rd party publishers/websites can develop tools which access and use it.
WotC focus on making sure the content is right, and updated quickly - that's their job. The development of online (and offline) tools gets left to outside software developers.
Pay a monthly sub that gives you access to an API key that gives access to the game data (WotC can do something at the back end to need the key regenerated after so many requests, or from different IMAP addresses or something). WotC's job is to make sure that the online data is up to date - 3rd party publishers/websites can develop tools which access and use it.
WotC focus on making sure the content is right, and updated quickly - that's their job. The development of online (and offline) tools gets left to outside software developers.
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