A Technical Look at D&D Insider Applications

[Hussar]

But, if you want the pdf without the DI, then you get to buy the pdf at full price.

The whole point of the pdf is that it integrates with the chargen, VTT and (presumably) any other features that get added to the DI.

But, in any case, it's already been stated in this thread that you don't need to sign into the DI to unlock your book. The DI and the pdf you get from unlocking your code are separate. You will need a membership on the DI site, but, that's free, just like a membership at RPG Now is free.

So, if you buy the book, you can spend an extra 2 bucks and get the pdf. IF you are also a DI subscriber, you also get additional features linked into your DI programs.

This has been answered already, more than once.

The first time, Scott Rouse answered it SPECIFICALLY, in Post 62

I'm really, really getting the feeling that people are just looking for something to bitch about, rather than trying to gain any hard information. Mr. Rouse has already answered most of the questions in this thread and people still can't be bothered to read. Time and again, people bitch about how WOTC isn't being forthcoming, yet, when they give specific, exact answers to questions, people don't even bother to read them.

Sigh.

 

[3catcircus]

I'm really, really getting the feeling that people are just looking for something to bitch about, rather than trying to gain any hard information. Mr. Rouse has already answered most of the questions in this thread and people still can't be bothered to read. Time and again, people bitch about how WOTC isn't being forthcoming, yet, when they give specific, exact answers to questions, people don't even bother to read them.

Sigh.

The problem *isn't* that people are looking for something to bitch about. The problem is the well-established Hasbro corporate attitude that may end up having corporate guys require WotC low-level employees to lie to our faces about what they are going to do...

I much prefer being told the truth rather than being strung along. Unfortunately - I don't see that happening from Hasbro and WotC.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Offer everyone choices.

I don't understand what the difference is between having a choice between a normal PH for $30 and a deluxe PH (book + e-book) for $32 and what WotC is doing by selling the PH for $30 and allowing an optional e-book for $2. In both cases you're paying the same amount for the same thing.

In fact, the way WotC is doing it is better because LGSs won't have to try to decide how many normal books vs. how many deluxe books to stock. Can you imagine how bad that would turn out? The LGSs have it bad enough as it is without WotC making life even more difficult for them.

I much prefer being told the truth rather than being strung along. Unfortunately - I don't see that happening from Hasbro and WotC.

Guilty until proven innocent?

 

[Hussar]

The problem *isn't* that people are looking for something to bitch about. The problem is the well-established Hasbro corporate attitude that may end up having corporate guys require WotC low-level employees to lie to our faces about what they are going to do...

I much prefer being told the truth rather than being strung along. Unfortunately - I don't see that happening from Hasbro and WotC.

Damned either way huh? Either they aren't forthcoming enough, or they're lying. Either way, doesn't make much sense for them to say anything does it?

 

[RFisher]

Well, also, the premise of the second assumption almost always fails to obtain. I think I remember that it took only a couple of weeks before people were starting to report cracked DRM-"protected" PDFs after DriveThruRPG started producing them...and this demonstrated the futility of the exercise, and was part of the basis for dropping DRM. There is no "if people can't pirate."

Oh, certainly. It's the idea that if there were perfect copy protection that the publisher would suddenly have a windfall equal to (or even a significant percentage of) the number of pirated copies that I find most preposterous, though.

 

[Imaro]

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.

I really fail to see how this is true. Can't you purchase gift cards and bank cards that work just like credit cards and hold no real information about their user? Furthermore, one can easily create an e-mail account on something like hotmail for "verification" purposes. This all being said because my biggest concern with this model is those who go into stores and take the numbers without buying a book...or even purchase the book from some place like Borders and take it back after unlocking the PDF. Then the person who actually buys the book gets screwed over. I don't see these measures as preventing that at all.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I really fail to see how this is true. Can't you purchase gift cards and bank cards that work just like credit cards and hold no real information about their user? Furthermore, one can easily create an e-mail account on something like hotmail for "verification" purposes. This all being said because my biggest concern with this model is those who go into stores and take the numbers without buying a book...or even purchase the book from some place like Borders and take it back after unlocking the PDF. Then the person who actually buys the book gets screwed over. I don't see these measures as preventing that at all.

There are lot of things we don't know yet:
1) Can you easily copy get the number without buying the book?
2) What will happen if you buy a book and notice that the number has already been used?
Will you be compensated?
3) What will happen with the person that stole the number, once the steal is confirmed?
4) How many D&D players have enough criminal energy to steal the number, or buy stolen numbers from someone else?

 

[3catcircus]

There are lot of things we don't know yet:
1) Can you easily copy get the number without buying the book?
2) What will happen if you buy a book and notice that the number has already been used?
Will you be compensated?
3) What will happen with the person that stole the number, once the steal is confirmed?
4) How many D&D players have enough criminal energy to steal the number, or buy stolen numbers from someone else?

It isn't about ease of stealing or criminal energy. It is above perceived fairness.

Right now (i.e. 3.x books) I don't think that WotC charging full hardcover price for a pdf that they had to generate *anyway* in order to generate the hardcover is fair. Judging from others' complaints, the consensus is that charging hardcover prices for a pdf is just gouging the customer.

What is so hard to grasp about the concept of charging one price for a hardcover and charging a different price for a pdf, with no strings attached either way?

1. Not everyone who buys a hardcover wants a pdf.
2. Not everyone who buys a pdf wants a hardcover.
3. An even smaller portion of #'s 1 and 2, above, want access to WotC's DI/VTT/whatever.

WotC will maximize profit by taking those factors into account, which it doesn't appear as if they've done, judging by the "if you buy the book and buy a subscription, we'll give you the privilege of charging you even more money to allow you to purchase a pdf with all of these DI features."

I think the most annoying point about pdf's vs. hardcovers is that printers almost always *require* you to give them a pdf for them to pre-flight before starting a print run. The costs are already accounted for in their print stream, so *any* price that they charge a customer is almost entirely pure profit.

For a small publisher that uses POD and vanity press work, it is different than for a big publisher like WotC.

 

[ThirdWizard]

judging by the "if you buy the book and buy a subscription, we'll give you the privilege of charging you even more money to allow you to purchase a pdf with all of these DI features."

You don't have to have a subscription.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

But if I don't want their DI, and just want a pdf, then they aren't protecting my security at all.

Except they are, because if someone steals your code, or guesses it, they can't register it without identifying themselves somehow so that the monetary transaction can go through. That has nothing to do with DDI.

My point concerning DDI is that once a ton of people, like you, have the electronic editions, they'll be able to tempt you into subscribing by telling you about all the great features you'd be able to use with your electronic editions if you sign up. It'll be easier to market the DDI if you don't have to also make people buy data modules (one of the reasons I never got into e-tools) in order to access the functionality of their books.

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.

Who is suggesting that they do that?