Ampersand: 2011 releases officially gutted

[Goonalan]

Hell, I'm planning on obtaining 3 high-end eReaders/tablet computers in the coming year. (Plus a top-end iPod Classic- so I can tote around my 5K+ CD collection with me- and a Verizon iPhone along the way as well.)

That doesn't mean I want to game with one. And I say THAT having used a Palm PDA- recently replaced by a top-end iPod Touch- for my PCs of the past few years.

But I still want books, not PDFs and the like, for my gaming. I have enough stuff plugged into the wall being charged, etc. to irrevocably tie my gaming experience to some lithium batteries. I don't want to be playing a game and get that little warning message, "Battery at 20%."

There is something to be said for having a physical product.

I agree with everything you say, I'd be a fool not too what with you being a Sharktopus XP wise, but I keep coming back to the thought- I'm not the guy they're aiming to sell their products to, they've already hooked me.

I teach in Higher Education at present, until this academic year I used to teach in Further Education as well- my students, at all levels, don't read books- hell I had to start putting special classes on in which I actually took large groups of degree students to the library, many of whom in the second year of their qualification had never been to the place.

I used to start each terms classes with a series of questionnaires and fun (-ish) hand outs, one of the questions has always been along the lines of tell me in twenty five words about the last book you read this year. This is my last year of asking this question.

If I discounted the Twilight series and Harry Potter books then 75% of my students have read no books- this fact obviously makes me alternatively sad/angry/frustrated etc.

My students quote lines from video games at me, not films or books. Actually some still quote films, I can't remember the last time one of them referenced a book outside of an academic essay.

They have mostly never read the classics, not even the modern classics, hell a good percentage of them have never seen Jaws, Star Wars, Bladerunner (and if you're over 30 then any other film of your youth that you consider a classic)- and that includes the students from the Film & TV degree I teach a chunk of.

My point is cultural references, and my pathway to enlightenment through books and films etc. has, seemingly, been replaced by a different route and media.

My students are not stupid, they sometimes have a limited vocabulary (and are prone to using text/leet speak in their academic writing). They do however possess, use and interact with a enormous amount of electronic data in a myriad forms. There knowledge and capability in this area far far exceeds mine.

These days every hand out I do is made available in an on-line learning environment- I don't print anything, it's all viewed on-line. Informal tests are done on-line, assignments are completed on-line and submitted and critiqued, and re-submitted electronically. Every example I use in a lesson has had to be updated to take account of the fact that my past experiences (books and films) are no longer applicable, obviously I sneak in a few classics here and there but we have to run special sessions for the Film & TV degree to screen the films that changed the world (cinema/screen-wise).

WOTC, as much as I hate it, is aiming for the 21st century and the people that live there, they're the market it seems.

Please note the last bit is not an insult, I just think we're experiencing a little life-lag here, the youth of today IMHO are going to become ever more dependent on electronic/on-line media.

Goonalan

 

[caudor]

Dropping the books introduces a new problem for me.

Reading eZines online is one thing, but reading volumes of material posted online is another. I can't comfortably huddle over a computer screen for that long. That's why I buy books.

OK, so e-reader devices are getting popular. However, most devices I've seen are too small to display D&D books properly (7 to 10 inches). Is there a e-reader device out there that can display D&D books in full color without all the pinching and zooming?

I would not mind things going electronic if there were devices fit to read the material on (aside from a computer screen).

 

[shadzar]

Most e-readers are monochrome right now on purpose, because they're trying to replicate the look and feel of a real book. Their market isn't built around full-color, it's built around being as close to a book as possible but better. It's the same reason they're not usually backlit.

(I work for Indigo, fourth largest bookseller in North America - one of the core parts of my job is selling these damned things)

Good luck with that as e-readers time has done come and gone because they were too slow considering more functioning fuil computers can do the same thigns and are coming out as tablet PCs that wont cost too much more soon than those readers, so the readers prices will have to drop fast, and the things they "read" will have to compete with a harddrive that can do things offline without fear of having your "book" repossessed and deleted.

Black-and-white as opposed to the calculator gray-and-white would help that emulation, but there is still problems in trying to emulate a book as a book would be with an electronic device. the only gain is the size of your bookshelf decreasing, when the electronic device can do much more, and for that price it should, but doesnt.

I really mean it, good luck selling those things, as I feel bad for you. As for being backlit, that is one of the advantages the electronic device should offer, so you don't have to turn on a light since the e-readers have their own power source. Something handheld gaming systems learned decades ago so you could use the device during a power outage. I wouldn't want to try to read one by candle-light.

As to what you responded to but not this point of it, I dont see the D&D product line being given to anyone else to manage in any way shape or form. If HASBRO cannot control it or it isn't under the total control of WotC, then they don't want anyone else touching it, especially not a digital format, as the recent online character builder should add that emphasis to. They jsut can't control nickle and dime-ing you themselves to take the biggest part that way and have to share the wealth.

Those missing things will appear in DDi, I bet my hat on it. (If I am wrong i will have to buy a hat to give to whoever wants to oppose that bet, and it would be a cheap or ugly one, so if you one it you would have to wear it if you won it. )

 

[Almacov]

I want to own the content I pay for.

If I don't think I'll still be able to dig out and play a game with my friends or children 20 years down the line, I'm not going for it.

If I'm not going to have access to content on my own terms (offline!), that also kills the sale.

A subscription-based, online-tethered game is something I have no interest in. I'm sure there are enough people who do have interest for WotC to make a buck, but... well, I'm satisfied with my decision.

If they put out physical product I want, I'll still consider picking it up.

Sincerely,

Player Unable or Unwilling to Get With the Times.

(Does this make me a grumpy nostalgic grognard now?)

 

[The Halfling]

I don't see e-readers as an obsolete piece of technology, anymore than a calculator is obsolete. Sure tablets and pc's can do more, with the right apps, but sometimes you want something that does one thing, and one thing well. Basic e-readers like the Kindle and regular Nook offer the storage capability of a pc (libraries of books stored locally) with a weight and battery life that a pc just cannot touch.

Tablets may be that bridge between the two (I myself can't wait for the Android 3.0 tablets), but for some things you just want that ready to go, simple device.

that 's the route my wife took. She saw my nookcolor, and loved it, but purchased the regular nook, as did my daughter, BECAUSE neither needed all the extra functionality.

 

[DEFCON 1]

(Does this make me a grumpy nostalgic grognard now?)[/I]

Kinda. Yeah.

In 10 years time you'll still play 4E with the hardcover books the same way we currently still have players playing 1E Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But you are one of the minority that WotC is probably willing to give up in exchange for the other two they hope to pick up by being completely digital.

 

[Riastlin]

Well, I can't say that this is definitely a good thing. Frankly, I'm sure that a big reason for this move is a general decline in sales.

However, I also don't think its entirely bad. One of the WotC guys (I think it was Huscarl but not sure) stated matter of factly that the future of the D&D brand was in digital distribution. This was over a year ago if I recall. He said this not as an employee but as a blogger. Simply stating that it was inevitable giving the changing dynamic.

What this move does do; however, is give them an opportunity to guage the digital/subscription based market without having to commit fully to it. Much as the Book of Nine Swords was a test for 4th Ed. mechanics, so too could this be a test for future distribution.

From a personal standpoint, I echo what a number of others have said, in particular with the crunch. The splat books especially really have become obsolete. Right now if I want to build a fighter, I don't pull out PHB, Martial Power, Martial Power 2, AV, and a host of Dragon articles in order to make my character. Instead I fire up the CB and all of that is right there for me already. I don't own either of the "Heroes of . . . " books, but I am fully able to make a Mage, Slayer, Knight, etc.

The fact of the matter is that all those books have a very minimal level of readability to me right now. I'm just not going to read through the Fighter Chapter front to back. I do agree that the "fluff" books are still viable in the book format as they are much more readable. But even then I could probably survive. Even with all of these DDI materials though, I still print out my character sheet and leave the electronic devices at home. Nothing is forcing me to play online (unless I cannot find a group local . . . in which case, online is a great resource).

Even my mom, who took roughly 3 years to figure out how to turn on my TV (admittedly she only visited a few times a year) now has a Nook Color and is taking Nook classes (at 65 its hard for her to learn something new). If she can convert to reading her newspaper and romance novels on a Nook, I'm pretty sure I can handle a move to digital distribution as well, be it an IPad, Nook, or something else.

 

[Keldryn]

I'm a bit conflicted about this, but for the most part I don't like it.

I have to agree that publishing more books which primarily consist of new character options (powers, feats, etc) doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as the Character Builder has proven to be very popular and is a lot easier than searching through half a dozen books to create or level up a character.

Unfortunately, the CB tends to just turn any new character options into more entries in an already massive and often overwhelming list of powers and feats. The original context of those options is frequently obscured or lost altogether. If a Dragon article features a new "school of fighting" for martial characters, the powers and feats associated with that write-up typically just get added to the CB as yet more options, without much of the story elements joining them. There is a list of "Dragonmark Feats" in the CB, but again the context is missing, as there is no mention of which dragonmarked house is associated with that dragonmark, which race comprises that house, or that a PC not of that race is probably the only individual in the world to manifest a dragonmark in that manner. (This does trace back to the 4e EPG however, as the descriptions for those dragonmark feats don't mention houses or races either; you have to flip back to the intro section to match them up. The original 3.5 Eberron book not only mentions the house in each dragonmark feat write-up, but also briefly touches on how marked house members have used their powers in the world and even the associated guilds that non-marked members belong to.)

If most future "splatbook" expansions are published digitally, the story elements will of course still be there to read. However, it feels like the CB is becoming the focus for creating D&D characters, to the point where many players don't buy the book or even bother to read through the new options in their original context. Everybody will of course approach it differently, but for me the massive lists of powers and feats in the CB don't do a whole lot to spark my imagination or suggest interesting character stories.

On top of that, I spend my workdays sitting in front of a computer screen all day (I'm a programmer). I play a fair amount of video games (or at least I used to before the baby came along last year). I feel rather over-saturated in my exposure to electronic media, and I find myself longing for some time when I'm not plugged in to the digital world. I want to be able to prep for a D&D game without sitting at a computer or reading a PDF off of a screen. I want to spend an evening every couple of weeks sitting around a table with friends who are physically present and who are not distracted every 15 minutes by instant messages and cell phone calls. I want at least one leisure activity that isn't polluted by the need to be "plugged in" 24/7.

If they more or less cease publishing physical books, then I'm likely finished with being a customer. Reading off a tablet screen or an eReader is not the same experience as reading a physical book (which may be a plus for some, but not for me). It's probably a good business decision on their part, but it no longer meets my needs as a consumer.

 

[Primal]

While I sympathize with all of you who are clinging to the idea of actual print material... we as a culture are moving on from it. Magazines are going away and being replaced with websites and blogs... books are being replaced with their digital versions on Kindles and Nooks. The need, desire and requirement for printed books is over. And if it saves time and money for D&D to follow that river towards the completely digital sea... then that's the way it's going to go.

We are? Well, I'm a librarian, and I have to disagree a bit with your statement that "books are being replaced with their digital versions on Kindles and Nooks" -- they aren't, at least over here. First of all, there are still pricing and copyright/IP issues with e-books; many publishers around here are charging the full price (minus a few euros, at most) for digital copies, and regardless of digitalization permeating our society, people feel a bit leery about paying that much for an "intangible" book. Likewise for digital magazines. Although the annual book sales have gone up, e-books are not doing that well; IIRC only 5-10% of the national total sales consist of books in digital format.

And speaking as a librarian, we still have serious licensing issues with many, many publishers; some public libraries *do* have e-book readers, but even the largest e-book collection in my country (i.e. at the library I work at) consists of something like 500-1000 titles (can't recall the exact number, and I'm too lazy to look it up ATM). Also, not every title is available (in fact, publishers seem to be quite reluctant on, and like I said above, they're relatively expensive and we don't even get the same rights we do with physical books (sadly, IP and copyright laws are pretty hazy on digital content, especially in relation to library services and collections). There are ongoing discussions with publishers and the organizations representing IP holders, but so far we haven't found a lot of common ground. In addition to this, what makes both libraries and customers a bit scared of digital books is the fear of change; namely, formats may change and upcoming readers may not support the books you have purchased. With traditional books this problem does not exist.

Gamers may be more comfortable than the general public with the e-book, and gaming books may make this transition faster than any other type of literature. However, I'd dare to estimate that it will take at least 5-10 years before e-book will take the world by storm, if even then. And let me say that I'm not totally convinced of using digital tools only for gaming; not only do I prefer physical dungeon tiles and minis to computer screen with fuzzy tokens, but I'm also aware that sometimes your internet connection and software can be unreliable, too (e.g. we tried MapTools in one of the groups I game with, and it totally crashed in the middle of the session; not even our IT experts could save the day, and thus we gamed without a battlemap or minis/tokens).

So, if you ask me, "the need, desire and requirement for printed books" is not yet over -- not by a long shot.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I agree with everything you say, I'd be a fool not too what with you being a Sharktopus XP wise, but I keep coming back to the thought- I'm not the guy they're aiming to sell their products to, they've already hooked me.
<snip many good, well stated points>

I'm both with you and ahead of you: when I was in my first year of law school (back in the 1990s), I often found myself explaining cultural allusions like "sword of Damocles" to my classmates, most of whom only read magazines or newspapers unless forced to for class. I actually caused a traffic jam of unbelieving rubberneckers when I was spotted reading a novel while eating lunch in the school cafeteria. Books were for class or work, not leisure.

BTW, I found it amusing- not surprising*- that "the kids" haven't seen Blade Runner (along with certain seminal cyberpunk works) since that culture is essentially what we're headed for.




* I've seen many stories like this, including the one about when Paul McCartney "first felt old."