Another Cease and Desist Letter: 4E Powercards

[Keefe the Thief]

Sometimes you lean too far out of the window. That site had fallen out of the window and was halfway on its way to the street. Sorry, but: giving people the means to create their own power cards: yes. Create some general powercards: yes. Fill up loads of cards with PHB content and allow people to download it? Hell, no.

I wrote my players a mail a couple of weeks ago, linking to the site: "hey, grab a card if you lack one. That site is going to be closed down with a C&D." You really saw it coming.

 

[Tarrl]

Yes, but will you buy the power cards when they are released?

Yes I will be buying the ones I need.

 

[Shemeska]

ANything to actually back it up with numbers, or is it going to be an hysterical throw away line?

It's probably accurate*, given how prevalent such pirated material is on file sharing networks. The question I would ask though, is if the people downloading such material would have purchased it in the first place, or if they're really using it to the same extent as someone who bought the book (pdf collecting and so on).

*But I think 4e induced market splintering is probably an order of magnitude more of a problem for WotC

 

[carmachu]

As baseline here, roughly 80-90% of pc game installs are pirated. FOr backup to this claims, there are links off this page.

So the short answer is if piracy rates amongst gamers is anywhere near as high as that, and my experience is that that is a distinct possibility, WOTC are loosing a bucketload of sales.

Even discounting those players who wouldn't buy the books anyway and only counting those who aren't buying the books/ddi subscriptions because it is easy enough to find pirated copies WOTC and other gaming companies must be taking a large hit in sales.

Phaezen

The base line is meaningless. PC games are not paper and pencil games.

So, when asked if you have any numbers on WOTC piracy theft, I get PC thefts and told its similar? You dont actually HAVE any numbers, just retoric that its rampant?

So again, any numbers on actualy RPG piracy theft?

Dont get me wrong, I have no doubts it happens, piracy. But if you going to throw around "lots of loss is happening!!!!*, numbers are going to have to come into play.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Yes, but will you buy the power cards when they are released?

Do my official WotC power cards have little boxes where I can write in my values?

And if they do, after I have erased a hole in that box because I have levelled up a few times, can I crank out another fresh blank power card?

DS

 

[carmachu]

It's probably accurate*, given how prevalent such pirated material is on file sharing networks. The question I would ask though, is if the people downloading such material would have purchased it in the first place, or if they're really using it to the same extent as someone who bought the book (pdf collecting and so on).

*But I think 4e induced market splintering is probably an order of magnitude more of a problem for WotC

I think thats a much better headache for WOTC too, in teh long run. Good call.

 

[Nymrohd]

Not really. You admit it is an educated guess. Actually coming up with anything close to an accurate number for the effect of internet piracy is an exercise in futility; you could I guess show how many times the PHB and the like have been downloaded through the most popular sites but it is impossible to cross out people who bought and downloaded, or even people who bought after (and because) they downloaded and liked it. We still know for a fact that WotC considers pirated content a priority since the Rouse said at some point past that they were collecting information on this very issue so I guess their market research indicates so. And honestly, asking for hard numbers on a general discussion is a weak debate strategy

As for the argument that bad PR causes the market splintering, that I think is just a frail trail of reasoning. Every single edition change has caused market splintering, and 3E was very popular, very public and with a massive number of sourcebooks. I am fairly certain noone skipped 4E primarily because of "bad PR" but rather because they felt a previous or alternate version was a better fit. Bad PR is more of a secondary argument to add to the heap of an edition war.

 

[Festivus]

They were complete powercards based upon the PHB. It had a rather neat functionality: You could "build" a deck of power cards by selecting just the ones you needed. The site would then generate a document that would allow you to print out the power cards you had specifically selected.

I am neither approving or condemning, but as far as design, layout, and function, it was a pretty neat site.

Isn't that exactly what the character builder does? I know I select my powers and print out power cards based on those selected, including the correct bonuses already precalculated. Those cards as you describe are in direct competition of that feature and I believe WoTC did the right thing to protect it's IP here.

 

[Jack99]

The base line is meaningless. PC games are not paper and pencil games.

So, when asked if you have any numbers on WOTC piracy theft, I get PC thefts and told its similar? You dont actually HAVE any numbers, just retoric that its rampant?

So again, any numbers on actualy RPG piracy theft?

Dont get me wrong, I have no doubts it happens, piracy. But if you going to throw around "lots of loss is happening!!!!*, numbers are going to have to come into play.

I think thats a much better headache for WOTC too, in teh long run. Good call.

So Phaezen can't make a statement without providing proof, but it's okay when Shemeska does it? Seems like a double standard to me. Do you happen to have any proof of this alleged splintering?

 

[Imaro]

Well I think it's within WotC's rights to send a C&D but it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. If the Insider tools had been ready when 4e was first released, like promised, then I probably wouldn't feel this way, but DDI wasn't.

The funny thing is that one of the touted features of 4e by it's proponents was how they never, or rarely, had to reference the rulebook because of power cards... did WotC facilitate this? No, it was fans of the game.

I find it a tad shady that WotC were more than willing to let these fans do the grunt work while they pulled their own stuff together, but now that there is profit to be made and, a year later, they've finally started to push their own stuff out it's time to push everyone else who promoted 4e through unpaid labor, but might cut into their possible profits, to the side. Eh, I understand it from a business PoV but not sure I really like it personally.

Hey, just another reason I like SWSE more...PDF printable force cards are free.