Arcane Power: How long before the pirated copy appears

[darjr]

One thing I'd like to point out is that DDI does not include everything in the books. All of the powers, Paragon Paths, and feat options, yes. But when I made my Invoker in the Character Builder I had to go back to my PHB2 to find out what the "Summoning" keyword meant for my Angel of Fire ability. Nothing (that I can see) in DDI tells me what a Summoned creature's defenses are, or what their hit points are, etc.

The same can be said for Familiars here in Arcane Power or for some keywords in the other books. Unless I'm missing something obvious, those rules are in the splatbooks and nowhere else.

More of that stuff is going into the compendium. Not everything, and the rules stuff will be 'summaries'.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/255157-character-builder-compendium-update.html

 

[CapnZapp]

I wonder when we will see stage two of hasbro's legal strategy? Perhaps they will ask for a few account details and IP Addresses from the admins of enworld

What on earth would they want the IP addresses of the ENWorld admins for?

I would say that these were the best known parts of AP. While these threads also spoiled quite a few powers, there just so many new powers that the percentage of already known stuff in chapters 1-5 was much lower than for chapter 6 (which was almost 100% known before AP was even released in most places *lucky japanese*)

Sorry, I can't be arsed to plow through twenty pages of noise just to pick up a bit of signal. Just because it's possible to find it doesn't mean everybody will do it - especially when the book itself presents things so much more clearly

But anyway; What I meant was that chapters 1-5 are only (mostly) interesting to players of the respective class. Chapter 6 contains stuff more generally applicable.

(But you are obviously free to have another opinion!)

 

[Piratecat]

I wonder when we will see stage two of hasbro's legal strategy? Perhaps they will ask for a few account details and IP Addresses from the admins of enworld

I'm utterly fascinated to hear the logic behind this assertion.

 

[nnms]

I'm utterly fascinated to hear the logic behind this assertion.

I think he thinks that you're going to collect the IP addresses of those who have said they have seen (or even downloaded) pirated copies and give them to WotC so they can be sued or something.

 

[Bleoberis De Ganis]

Who put Never. Has Greg Leeds been on here? Doh!

 

[lutecius]

Yes, they have. It took the pirates four days to even begin getting parts up, and tomorrow's DDI update will quite likely put the crunch into the Compendium and the Character Builder before the full book is available. As it stands right now, the vast majority of people who preordered or who have a DDI subscription will have the book's info before pirates do. That, ultimately, is about the best case WotC's going to get.

So those who have preordered the book and those who are waiting for the ddi update to decide if they want/need it (ie people whose purchase decision isn't affected by piracy) will get some info (the crunch from chapter6 included in ddi) before pirates? yay wotc

If the goal was just to delay piracy, releasing a pdf version a week or so after the physical book would be more efficient. Fewer pirates would take the time to scan their books knowing that lighter, arguably better pdfs would be available soon.

They've got first-week sales completely unhindered by piracy and the delay is a reason for would-be pirates to seriously wonder how long they're going to have to wait before they get the books. The only sure way to get the material within a week of release now is to buy a physical book. It's a certainty that the books are going to get scanned somewhere down the line, but with the 10:1 ratio they were looking at with PDFs, they really do not need to sell a whole lot more copies with their new policy to make it a flat win in financial terms...

That's assuming pirates who didn't intend to pay for a book would rather buy it than wait a few weeks. Or that those who are willing to pay for a book but want it as early as possible won't have preordered it or rushed to the store on release day.
The delay could make a difference for those who would have bought a book but realize they don't want it after reading the pirated copy. However they could also borrow it from a friend or read it in a store before making a decision.

to say nothing of the goodwill they're buying from LGS retailers by killing their PDFs.

Pdf sales had a negligible impact on LGS compared to online sales of physical products.

 

[CardinalXimenes]

If the goal was just to delay piracy, releasing a pdf version a week or so after the physical book would be more efficient. Fewer pirates would take the time to scan their books knowing that lighter, arguably better pdfs would be available soon.

Yet here we are, approximately eight days after release, and the pirates still have not released the full book to casual pirating sites.

WotC has decided that there is simply no money whatsoever in PDFs, and that any degree of cash they are making off of them at any point in a product's lifespan is completely offset by the negative consequences of trivial piracy or older-edition buy in. The last thing they want is for some newbie to roll up to the WotC PDF store and see the only game in stock as 3.5 or earlier.

Pdf sales had a negligible impact on LGS compared to online sales of physical products.

If you ask your LGS' proprietor what he thinks about the recent rash of "PDFs Cheap!" sales, you might get a different viewpoint. Elsewhere, one proprietor said that he knew perfectly well that he'd lost sales to PDFs, with one customer even going so far as to openly admit that he was just browsing the shop and only intended to buy PDFs online. I think one of the major reasons that WotC never gave a price cut on PDFs in their shop was due to a reluctance to stick the shiv any deeper into the LGS. They clearly believe that the LGS is a meaningful route for sucking new players into D&D, particularly since so many LGSes these days are forced to appeal to more than strict RPG hobbyists in order to pay rent.

 

[Oompa]

I think he thinks that you're going to collect the IP addresses of those who have said they have seen (or even downloaded) pirated copies and give them to WotC so they can be sued or something.

Lucky me downloading is legal here (only software may not be downloaded)

But ontopic..

My local gamestore stopped with selling RPG books, they could not sell the books they had.. And a few years back they had a good stock and sold many books.. but now it just.. died..

People can still order them if they ask, but just no stock..

It's a shame though, how do i check a book if i like it?

 

[CapnZapp]

I think he thinks that you're going to collect the IP addresses of those who have said they have seen (or even downloaded) pirated copies and give them to WotC so they can be sued or something.

In other words, he is needlessly and wrongfully promoting fear, uncertainty and doubt. Hope he's on the IP lawyers' payroll, for his sake.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Yet here we are, approximately eight days after release, and the pirates still have not released the full book to casual pirating sites.

Wishful thinking. A casual search and I found it the day the print version was released. And I don't even really know what I'm doing. Others have said the same, yet somehow it gets drowned in the noise. Maybe because people just don't want to believe it happens that quickly.