40 Dollar Cap?

[GILGAMESH]

Anyway, for the time being, beautiful, full-color hardbacks with nice paper are a big step up from 150-dpi scans, and the poster-sized maps and miniatures in a hypothetical $100 product wouldn't transfer well over copper cable.

I agree whole heartedly. I love all the "bells and whistles" in buying the books new. But, many just want the content and not the "high polished glow". These people will pirate to get what they need. I know that this isn't the record industry. But look at all the trouble that's been going on since Napster with the continued music pirating and song trading. Technology has made it easier for us to get whatever we want, especialy at the expense of the artist. Raise the prices and you will see more and more of this. That's my opinion.

 

[thundershot]

I like my high polished glow.

I've bought a few pdfs, and on the ones I ended up REALLY liking, I'd buy the print version when it was available. Wild Spellcraft, BoEM, and eventually TFT...

I would much rather have BOOKS in my hand (and on my shelf) than a printed out copy of a pdf.

You get what you pay for... most of the time.


Chris

 

[Henry]

if we do get some of this high-end stuff, i can guarantee that it will be pirated off of morpheus et. al.

let's face it, not many 7th graders, 12th graders, or even college students are going to pay $100 for a book that can be grabbed off of a PtoP sight in a few minutes.

Hail to the King, baby!

Remember one thing though - by the time the average gaming product costs 70 bucks, now much will a gallon of gas cost? or a fast food meal? It may take 70 dollars to fill up a compact car by then!!!

One other issue - cost is a factor in piracy, but it is not the sole determining factor. Many people who pirate will do so regardless of cost, and if you are going to pirate a 70 dollar book and so cost the owing company money, then why pay 20 or 25 dollars for that matter? (I won't get into specifics here about whether it really hurts them financially or not, that's a topic for a whole flame war - I speak from experience)

And with regards to publishers underestimating how much piracy is out there - I think most publishers know full well that as much as one third of their "product sales" are actually pirated copies. In a computer-savvy niche market, this figure is as high as one-half of all copies in circulation. I'll have to look up the figures' original web site, but I think it was from gamespot - I'll have to check. In any even the figures are still estimates at best, specualtions at worst, but probably very close on.

 

[Pramas]

Re: Breaking $40...

Has examples of the game, and sample pdfs of the book so you can see the layout and some of the art. It looks like a coffee-table art book in many way. If, say, Book of the Righteous had a similar 'total package' good gamebook/sexy looking book version for a $40+ price, I'd buy it...

I'm pretty confident in saying that Book of the Righteous does indeed have the "total package." It's a beautiful book, packed with content, and full of great ideas. If you check to here

http://www.greenronin.com/cgi-bin/product.cgi?prodid=1015

you can download web preview #2, which is an entire church from the book. There's also an art preview on the same page.

 

[Ranger REG]

Re: Breaking $40...

BTW, not a d20 book, but Hogshead Publishing put out Nobilis, a very nice looking, good crunch & fluff book. It is $42, I believe, and I very much like the book. I haven't found a typo yet, and the art is excellent...

http://www.hogshead.demon.co.uk/Nobilis_index.htm

Has examples of the game, and sample pdfs of the book so you can see the layout and some of the art. It looks like a coffee-table art book in many way. If, say, Book of the Righteous had a similar 'total package' good gamebook/sexy looking book version for a $40+ price, I'd buy it...

VRYLAKOS

I can top that. Within two month or less, T20: The Traveller's Handbook will be on sale with a price tag of:

$44.95

And yes, it will be one huge d20-based tome, over 440 pages.

www.travellerrpg.com

 

[thundershot]

See? It's already starting to peer over the horizon! No one's touching the 50 mark yet, but it's climbing.

The question will now be... will it be WORTH it? Only time will tell...



Chris (VERY tempted on the BotR now, simply because of the rave reviews it's getting. I'm just afraid that I'll end up not using most of it...)

 

[King_Stannis]

Chris (VERY tempted on the BotR now, simply because of the rave reviews it's getting. I'm just afraid that I'll end up not using most of it...)

thus the temptation to pirate such things by those with less scruples than perhaps you have.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

I can certainly understand some of the appeal of pirating books, because for one thing, it's damn hard to lug all those books to a gaming session. I haven't downloaded any of those pdfs, but I could see myself doing so if I played more often and needed to reference said books more often. That being said, I do spend a lot of money on d20 books and wouldn't stop doing so, since for non-playing times, I love having a nice solid book in my hands.

I would love it if publishers could include a cd in their books that contained a pdf of said book, but that might be cost prohibitive.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Heh, was just going over it today and T20 will actually be 464 pages for $44.95. The index, glossary, forms, etc. kicked it over the previously expected 448 pages once we got it layed out. (Yes we are at the FINAL stages, and expect it to go to the printer on Friday!)

Ohh goody, I will probably never play it, put it's contents will dance around my braind and it's binding will adorn my bookshelf.

 

[mmadsen]

Remember one thing though - by the time the average gaming product costs 70 bucks, now much will a gallon of gas cost?

Ryan Dancey wasn't discussing the average gaming product creeping up to $70 via inflation; he was suggesting higher-end products. If people are willing to buy Warhammer for $70, why not something similar for an RPG? An RPG product doesn't have to be a Monster Manual clone. (Incidentally, the production values of the core books have risen dramatically over the years. Compare black-and-white line art to full-color paintings.)