D&D General DDB/WOTC Price Increases

[djotaku]

Further, you cannot transfer or will your account to anyone else. If you die, the account cannot be used by your kids etc.

As more and more of us with digital libraries start dying, I wonder if there will be new laws passed that overturn this because it's ridiculous.

 

[AlViking]

they are free to complain about a 33% price hike, and stop buying the product as a consequence of it.

The books have not kept up with inflation and D&D is still a bargain. I currently share my books with a dozen people who don't have to purchase copies of anything I own. If I cared about the cost, I'd ask everyone to chip in and it would be dirt cheap. As it is, I get years of entertainment from books that end up costing less then tickets to a movie for everyone at the table.

Not sure why you need to try to turn this into a ‘nothing to see here folks, move on’ moment

Because there's not anything (new) to see?

not a good one though, a properly laid out and linked PDF as offered by everyone else is better than whatever print-to-pdf approach you are using for DDB. If you have one that gets close, I’d like to know

Those other companies aren't offering DDB. I'm not saying I disagree with their decision but they have a different market presence and options other companies do not. That particular horse died long ago no matter how often you beat it.

The PDF options don't include links as far as I know but I've only glanced at them out of curiosity. But if you go into the book view of anything you purchase the layout works just fine from what little experiment I did. On the other hand I'm not concerned about DDB going away - it's a core part of their business now unlike previous attempts like Gleemax.

 

[mamba]

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean here by "host the PDF and give them access that way"?

basically to host them on Google Drive restricted to view-only, no download, no printing. There probably are other options too

 

[djotaku]

I don't think anyone begrudges the right to make copies of your own stuff, for your personal use. Distributing those copies, for money or not, raises different issues. I just purchased a bunch of PDFs from Morrus's last KS; I'm not going to make digital copies and send them to my friends.

I think we're saying the same thing or almost the same thing. To me, letting my wife or my kids read my PDFs is not distribution - we all live in the same house. So I wouldn't argue you could share with your friends. Although there does come to be a weird situation - if you're playing online with them - do you make them buy the PDFs, too? or do you screenshare or something? So they can get the character options they need without distributing the book?

 

[AlViking]

I have to wonder if that violates their terms of services, thus being considered piracy.

I don't think it's necessary but I rather doubt anyone would care unless you make it available to the public.

 

[AlViking]

... This is why I stopped buying ebooks on amazon when they ended the option to download and transfer my purchased content via my PC.
...

Meanwhile I get all my books for my Kindle either through purchase or from Libby (library app) because I can read in the dark and carry all my books in my pocket. For me it's worth it. When I die? Even if I have paper copies about the only thing that would probably happen is them being sold to a used bookstore by the pound.

 

[djotaku]

Meanwhile I get all my books for my Kindle either through purchase or from Libby (library app) because I can read in the dark and carry all my books in my pocket. For me it's worth it. When I die? Even if I have paper copies about the only thing that would probably happen is them being sold to a used bookstore by the pound.

you just took it to a sad place, but it's the truth. The odds that my kids want my books - TTRPG or not - are pretty low. However, to protect against losing access to books (this has happened to me twice - once with books and once with music) - I've mostly gone to buying DRM-free books published by Tor or Humble Bundle. Sure, my hard drive could die. And my backups could die, too. And the servers I would need to access to get the books coudl be down....but that's a lot of things going wrong at once vs the whims of one company.

 

[mamba]

The books have not kept up with inflation and D&D is still a bargain.

price increases vary, not everything increases in lockstep with the overall inflation rate. If printing got cheaper then it makes sense for books to not get more expensive at the same rate.

In any case, we were talking about DDB I believe, and that just had a 33% price hike for the new book when chances are hosting stuff is not exactly getting more expensive and the cost goes down with volume, so if this price had anything to do with cost to WotC, it would be going down, not up.

Because there's not anything (new) to see?

they just increased the price by 33% yesterday, that is new

Those other companies aren't offering DDB. I'm not saying I disagree with their decision but they have a different market presence and options other companies do not. That particular horse died long ago no matter how often you beat it.

yes, and if I got a proper PDF along with the DDB access then the $10 price hike might even be fine, but right now it is just a price hike for providing the exact same service as they did before.

I know WotC won’t provide PDFs, I still will complain about that, just being quiet and accepting it never improved anything.

The PDF options don't include links as far as I know but I've only glanced at them out of curiosity. But if you go into the book view of anything you purchase the layout works just fine from what little experiment I did.

it looks nothing like the printed book, it looks like printing out a website, which basically is what you did

 

[djotaku]

price increases vary, not everything increases in lockstep with the overall inflation rate. If printing got cheaper then it makes sense for books to not get more expensive at the same rate.

In any case, we were talking about DDB I believe, and that just had a 33% price hike for the new book when chances are hosting stuff is not exactly getting more expensive and the cost goes down with volume, so if this price had anything to do with cost to WotC, it would be going down, not up.


they just increased the price by 33% yesterday, that is new


yes, and if I got a proper PDF along with the DDB access then the $10 price hike might even be fine, but right now it is just a price hike for providing the exact same service as they did before.

I know WotC won’t provide PDFs, I still will complain about that, just being quiet and accepting it never improved anything.


it looks nothing like the printed book, it looks like printing out a website, which basically is what you did

I'm on your side in terms of wanting a PDF, however there are 2 things wrong with your assumptions there. Hosting prices have indeed gone up. At least at the places where I'm hosting websites. Blame AI driving up costs of server components. Second, if inflation goes up you have to pay the artists and authors more and they worked on the digital and the print books. Like I said before, even paizo raised their digital book prices. (and all their stuff is legit free on AoN)

 

[AlViking]

you just took it to a sad place, but it's the truth. The odds that my kids want my books - TTRPG or not - are pretty low. However, to protect against losing access to books (this has happened to me twice - once with books and once with music) - I've mostly gone to buying DRM-free books published by Tor or Humble Bundle. Sure, my hard drive could die. And my backups could die, too. And the servers I would need to access to get the books coudl be down....but that's a lot of things going wrong at once vs the whims of one company.

There's always a risk, but there are plenty of risks with physical books as well. There are several books from previous editions I should still have but no longer do. No clue if they were loaned out and never returned, just lost in the shuffle of moving or accidentally tossed.

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes.