Another Cease and Desist Letter: 4E Powercards

[mudbunny]

People asked for an announcement?

 

[DennisB]

Thats along the lines of what i have been saying, this is a multi million dollor corperation and they are fretting about some pirating of there books but they keep lying to us to keep getting more money for a product they dont have, so, I say why stop PDF when it balances out, I just want them to keep the PDF going. It is only fair, stoping the pirating can be fixed real easily, just have the name of the buyer watermarked on the PDF and if it is sent to a turrent then finding out who it was that sent it out will be easy and it will discurrage people from sending it to the net for free web sharing. There is many ways to prevent this from happening. So why should I keep paying for a subscription for something i am not getting, they have gotten enough of my money, and until they return the PDF's in short order then they will get no more money and from what i have read on other blog sights from people that get the PDF's as well, they feel the same way.....

 

[The Little Raven]

But its been almost a year, How long does it take to make the programs.

It's funny how non-programmers seem to think they know more about programming schedules and development than actual programmers.

It is only fair, stoping the pirating can be fixed real easily, just have the name of the buyer watermarked on the PDF and if it is sent to a turrent then finding out who it was that sent it out will be easy and it will discurrage people from sending it to the net for free web sharing.

You seem to be unaware of the fact that any form of copy protection, including watermarks, can be broken rather easily by pirates, because they devote a whole lot of time to doing so.

So why should I keep paying for a subscription for something i am not getting,

Because the subscription is for services they currently offer, all of which are available. You're lamenting about paying for something that subscribers are not being charged for.

 

[DennisB]

well raven they should of not set a date and keep pushing back and back and back and people would not be upset

 

[Dumnbunny]

It's funny how non-programmers seem to think they know more about programming schedules and development than actual programmers.

As a developer, I have some sympathy for what you're saying here. However, my sympathy is tempered by the fact that the VTT is nearly a year overdue. I hope this doesn't become Wizards' Duke Nukem Forever.

You seem to be unaware of the fact that any form of copy protection, including watermarks, can be broken rather easily by pirates, because they devote a whole lot of time to doing so.

Correct. What's more, watermarks can be defeated with no breaking required, just an anonymous, pre-paid credit card and an anonymous, open wifi network. In other words, stopping the pirating can not be fixed real easily.

 

[DennisB]

Well then, they found out about the guys out there in poland, just go after the piraters and let the honest people get the products they want, they have shown that they can find them and sue them, let them be the exsample to everyone else, dont make the loyal honest people suffer. I was looking forward to the upcoming releases of many of the new rules and class expansion. I mean in about a month we will see the new books anyways in PDF, people will photocopy the new books so why not just make a profit of them now. it just makes no sense to me that they are doing this, punishing the majority of honest gammers because of a few dishonest ones.

 

[dinelendarkstar]

Re: Cynical thoughts/suits

I can understand why people get angry and blame "suits" rather than *people* in instances such as when WotC lays off staff that folks here admire. It's hard to not be cynical in such an environment (when on one hand WotC staffers report that D&D is breaking sales expectations yet on the other WotC has to lay off folks who, presumably, helped make the game successful).

So while there are certainly *people* behind decisions like the OGL/GSL, there are also (the same?) people behind the decision to make the layoffs.

There is also the disconnect that fans have with regard to the secretly-kept numbers (sales figures, revenue expectations, etc.) and sometimes deceptive/insulting (or what is perceived to be deceptive/insulting) market-speak originating from people at WotC which puts up a barrier as well.

Since it's unlikely that fans will ever get transparency in all that they desire to know (or a thorough explaination every time something happens that they don't like), it's understandable that they conclude that since things didn't go the way they wanted (or think they should) that those behind the decisions are idiots, and using the term "suits" to define these people makes it easier because it's not personal.

Ok Page 27 of 31. And through it all there has been a few great points on both sides.

But now for the real... There is only ONE WAY to truly make your voice heard to a large corp like WotC/Hasbro. If you don't like what they are doing , STOP BUYING THIER PRODUCTS!!!!! If you don't like what they are doing stop buying books, cancel your D&DI accounts, etc. I wonder how long it would take things to get done or changed if a few million people did that?

But the sad reality to this scenario is WotC/Hasbro probably don't care about that either. Because they have already made their money by selling to the shops that carry their product lines. So in the end you just hurt the little guy.

Because honestly we can all sit here and rant or vent or place blame all day and nothing will truly change. Nothing in life happens until you take action.

I'm sure we would all like to see things happen in a different way and we all hope that us as fans could just say "hey do this..." and just have it happen, but that isn't the way corporate America hears it consumers. It hears them through it's bottom line. And remember it is actually the shareholders that really make these decisions because WotC/Hasbro are public companies. So you can blame the suits all day or even real people. But it is the shareholders that will truly drive the decisions.

I as a member of this corporate world know this all to well. If sales are good then why should a company care about naysayers, if sales are in the tank then there is a reason to care. But at least I don't have shareholders to care about just the real consumers.

 

[dinelendarkstar]

It's funny how non-programmers seem to think they know more about programming schedules and development than actual programmers.

Ok so here is a responce from an actual software programmer.

Myself and one other person have been able to design, write and code a full featured and customizable character management system, maybe you have heard of it (HeroForge) and it took us less than a year do. We are now only weeks away from having to the masses. So nobody can tell me that WotC hasn't had time to do the same since they knew about their 4e way before we did. They have had ALOT of time to get their tools done. I mean the Game Table was pretty solid already from what I saw at D&D XP 2008.

The whole non-programmer/programmer arugment is valid but even the non programmer has a clue when it comes to the programmers saying one thing and getting another. It can be done on schedule, and still be awesome. Especially if you have the money to pay people to do it. And you can't say that WotC doesn't have the money to get it done. Heck we even offered to help work on it and wanted to be a part of it at D&D XP 2008. We met with Scott Rouse and had a sit down to try and work WITH WotC on the project. So I know for a fact that they had and still do have options to get the tools done.

I will not make any assumptions to why they aren't getting it done. But the reality is that they just haven't yet.

As much as I feel that WotC has the right to protect their IP, I also feel we as the consumers deserve options. If all you had to eat was apples all day how are you to know if a banana would be better?

But in the end it doesn't really matter why WotC chose to go the route they did, in the end we all have to deal with it and keep on playing D&D or change game systems. In the end it is OUR choice as a community what we play.

I for one love D&D but also play other games, but even though I don't like the path that was taken I have chosen to still support the game and the company. It isn't the people like Scott Rouse, who is just doing his job, that we need to blame. It is us the consumer that continue to buy the products they sell. The true bottom line is that we are truely to blame. What right do we have to buy the product just to complain about it, but yet keep buying it? If you go to a resturaunt and get bad service or bad food, why keep going there? And if you do, do you really have the right to complain?

We can rant and vent on this board until 10th edition and nothing will change until WE change it.

 

[Harr]

It's funny how non-programmers seem to think they know more about programming schedules and development than actual programmers.

I am a programmer. By profession. I know all about programming schedules and development. And guess what? A year overdue is still a year overdue. You aren't intimidating anybody my friend

Although it's funny how some people think that ambiguity and posturing can actually serve to make any sort of point.

Edit -> Aside from which, what you're actually implying here is that WotC's very own programmers and IT managers are the ones who don't know anything about programming schedules themselves, since they were the ones who drafted the schedule on which the whole marketing campaign was based, gave promises and assurances that all would be done on time to the other departments, and then failed so badly to keep to it in the first place. You think that's normal for a programming team? Sorry but that's amateur hour, all the way. If it was going to take more than a year as scheduled, then the programming team would have said "Hey guys, this is going to take more than a year, just so you know."

So who is it that doesn't know anything again?