A Technical Look at D&D Insider Applications

[Nifft]

True - watermarking generally won't prevent you from sharing with your group, but most of the other types of security will. And - nothing prevents them from watermarking *and* adding DRM features.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's very unlikely they'll do both.

By "most other types of security" you just mean DRM, right? Or are there other kinds?

Cheers, -- N

 

[portermj]

WotC are offering pdf versions of some (well, 56 to be exact) of their D&D 3.5 books on http://enworld.rpgnow.com/index.php?cPath=160.

At those prices, I say "no". I buy the hardbacks already, but I don't want to shell out 30 bucks again for the pdf version.

For a dollar or two? I'll buy the pdf version.

/M

It is wierd how they are doing it now. I'm suprised they have any takers at that price. Must be a gift to B & Ms. Only further supports my arguement that people that are currently nonusers of BitTorrent will not switch when the price goes from $30 to $2.

I'd still like to have an option to not by the physical books. I can see value in the 4th edition books if they include add ons to the dungeon/encounter/character building parts of the DDI. Maybe $5-10 depending on how crunchy it is. Not going to hold my breath though. If the Core books ever hit the web for $10 a pop the distributors and every B & M owner will cry bloody murder.

 

[Nifft]

It is wierd how they are doing it now. I'm suprised they have any takers at that price. Must be a gift to B & Ms. Only further supports my arguement that people that are currently nonusers of BitTorrent will not switch when the price goes from $30 to $2.

Hold on a sec... could you explain how this fact supports your argument?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

His point, though, remains. If he's not going to be using the electronic version, then if it's included in the cover price, then he's paying for something he'll never use and doesn't want but doesn't have any choice about.

Well, I'm not speaking to that point at all. I'm just making sure he doesn't have a completely erroneous idea of how the pricing system is supposed to work. There are good reasons why the fee will not be included in the price of the book, not least of which is the fact that by including it in the price of the book you defeat the purpose of charging the activation fee in the first place: security.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Security can *always* be broken. Better to just offer choices: the basic book, the "deluxe" book with a pdf on CD included for a few more dollars, and just a pdf for an even cheaper price.

The security here isn't really for WotC. It's for the customer. By paying $1 with a credit card, it can be proven who paid for the book, so if someone guesses at a code and activates it, it can be traced when the book that really contains that code is purchased and the swindle discovered. Since the book will be available on the internet within a week of release anyway, there's really no other benefit. It's not going to prevent piracy.

However, it will mean that the majority of D&D players will have electronic editions of their books. And they'll be constantly reminded that for just $10 a month, they can plug those books into the DDI, which you can't do with pirated books. The more electronic books you own, the better the DDI deal gets. That's why WotC is even bothering to do this in the first place. To get people signed up for their electronic services. The e-books are just a hook.

 

[portermj]

Hold on a sec... could you explain how this fact supports your argument?

Cheers, -- N

There are people who are paying MSRP for pdf now instead of going to BitTorrent to get it for free. With 4th edition that pdf becomes much cheaper and includes increased DDI functionality. Why would people who aren't using BitTorrent now suddenly decide to use it when the legal version becomes a lot cheaper than the past version and has more features?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

There are people who are paying MSRP for pdf now instead of going to BitTorrent to get it for free. With 4th edition that pdf becomes much cheaper and includes increased DDI functionality. Why would people who aren't using BitTorrent now suddenly decide to use it when the legal version becomes a lot cheaper than the past version and has more features?

So, your argument is that they're not going to start using BitTorrent to download pirate PDFs as a result of WotC releasing $2 PDFs of their books? That's hardly a controversial position.

 

[Nifft]

There are people who are paying MSRP for pdf now instead of going to BitTorrent to get it for free. With 4th edition that pdf becomes much cheaper and includes increased DDI functionality. Why would people who aren't using BitTorrent now suddenly decide to use it when the legal version becomes a lot cheaper than the past version and has more features?

Ah yes, that makes perfect sense.

However, the thing to note is that the intended market for those full-price PDFs is different from the market for the cheap add-on PDFs. The full price PDFs are mostly sold to folks who cannot get a hardcover, due to location.

In contrast, the cheap add-on PDFs are intended to be bought by folks who already have the hardcover books.

Cheers, -- N

 

[3catcircus]

By "deluxe" do you mean with a downloadable pdf? You are aware that the e-book will be about $2, right?

Ok - so if just a pdf costs $2, then any additional cost beyond that and the basic price of the book for what would be the "deluxe edition" of the book would have to include the costs of pressing the CD (pennies), and the costs of glueing a CD pouch into the back cover.

Remember, it also unlocks access to the database on the VTT, which is something that must be maintained with each book release.

And how many people really care about that? I'd wager that the majority of the people who want pdfs want them so they don't have to lug a ton of books to their game, not to play over the internet.

 

[3catcircus]

The security here isn't really for WotC. It's for the customer. By paying $1 with a credit card, it can be proven who paid for the book, so if someone guesses at a code and activates it, it can be traced when the book that really contains that code is purchased and the swindle discovered. Since the book will be available on the internet within a week of release anyway, there's really no other benefit. It's not going to prevent piracy.

However, it will mean that the majority of D&D players will have electronic editions of their books. And they'll be constantly reminded that for just $10 a month, they can plug those books into the DDI, which you can't do with pirated books. The more electronic books you own, the better the DDI deal gets. That's why WotC is even bothering to do this in the first place. To get people signed up for their electronic services. The e-books are just a hook.

But if I don't want their DI, and just want a pdf, then they aren't protecting my security at all. It is much easier buy either a deluxe version of the book with a "deluxe" serial number, or buy a pdf online, with a purchase order number and cross-ref them to the DI than it is to try and keep track of whether or not someone legitimately bought a hardcover book and crossreference three or more different sets of information.

Bottom-line - not everyone who wants a pdf wants the DI, and vice versa.

Offer everyone choices.