Spelljammer 64-page Spelljammer books?

[Micah Sweet]

It's a format for designing a book layout for print, not reading.

It's designed, as was said above, to copy and preserve a document formatting intact. I read my pdfs just fine, on a device intended for that use. I'm not saying there shouldn't be the web format you prefer. But it is not inherently better than pdf. You just prefer it, like I prefer pdfs. Again, you don't care about what I care about. That's fine.

 

[Parmandur]

It's designed, as was said above, to copy and preserve a document formatting intact. I read my pdfs just fine, on a device intended for that use. I'm not saying there shouldn't be the web format you prefer. But it is not inherently better than pdf. You just prefer it, like I prefer pdfs. Again, you don't care about what I care about. That's fine.

The format I prefer is paper...I don't do electronic documents if it can be avoided.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The format I prefer is paper...I don't do electronic documents if it can be avoided.

That I can get behind.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes - but if you don't read on phones it's much worse than a lot of other options.

There's the thing...the overwhelming majority of people who do digital, when they must, are going to be reading on a phone. Particularly middle schoolers ,high schoolers, and college students...the core audience for the game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There's the thing...the overwhelming majority of people who do digital, when they must, are going to be reading on a phone. Particularly middle schoolers ,high schoolers, and college students...the core audience for the game.

Does that mean that people who access digital content in any way other than online with their phone should just be ignored?

 

[Jer]

There's the thing...the overwhelming majority of people who do digital, when they must, are going to be reading on a phone. Particularly middle schoolers ,high schoolers, and college students...the core audience for the game.

You're making two different arguments here though - one is about the PDF format being a dated format, and the other about who the digital tools are catering to. I can both think that the PDF format is if not a great format a useful format for books and gaming and the only one that really exists to serve the niche it serves, and also understand why Wizards is more interested in supporting D&D Beyond than in the relative piddling amount of money they might get selling PDFs to old farts like me. Especially since they get my money from the physical books anyway and that's actually the format I prefer the most of all.

 

[Nikosandros]

Complaining about Wizards not putting out PDFs is never going to get them to put out PDFs. What needs to change is that they need to think they'll make more money by putting out PDFs than by not doing it. And just saying "well, I'll never subscribe to Beyond" isn't going to cut it because their suits are going to be thinking about how many copies people don't have to buy if sites like The Trove can just pop up and give it away for free.

Pirates already scan all the books from WotC and make them available.

 

[Parmandur]

Does that mean that people who access digital content in any way other than online with their phone should just be ignored?

Morally, that's a neutral question objectively speaking. Financially for a corporation, quite possibly yes, and if so then ethically it would be the vest route for the company.

 

[Parmandur]

You're making two different arguments here though - one is about the PDF format being a dated format, and the other about who the digital tools are catering to. I can both think that the PDF format is if not a great format a useful format for books and gaming and the only one that really exists to serve the niche it serves, and also understand why Wizards is more interested in supporting D&D Beyond than in the relative piddling amount of money they might get selling PDFs to old farts like me. Especially since they get my money from the physical books anyway and that's actually the format I prefer the most of all.

Well, but it's both at the same time: PDFs are not a great format for the target audience, and that makes it less than ideal financially.

I wouldn't be shocked to see the DMsGuild transition or expand into Beyond.

 

[Parmandur]

Pirates already scan all the books from WotC and make them available.

Yeah, piracy is pretty clearly not the issue. Market confusion, however, is very possibly a motive: if WotC wants people to use Beyond and feel that it provides a superior experience, then they don't want to trip people up with what they see as a suboptimal choice.