Are DMs subsidizing player fun?

[Storm Raven]

Infringing, not stealing.

You can pretty it up all you want, but taking something that belongs to someone else without their permission is stealing. You can try to cloak the truth of the matter in innocuous language, but people who take things that don't belong to them are still thieves.

 

[Nifft]

You can pretty it up all you want, but taking something that belongs to someone else without their permission is stealing. You can try to cloak the truth of the matter in innocuous language, but people who take things that don't belong to them are still thieves.

Copying is different from "taking", because you don't deprive any party of the content in question. So no matter what your opinion of the act's morality, the word "infringement" is more accurate.

In fact, as your post demonstrates, the difference is in the wronged party. If I steal your CD, the record company loses nothing. You, however, lose the CD. If I copy a CD, you lose nothing. The record company might tend to claim that they lost a sale.

See the difference? (And if not, what's your address, and where do you keep your CDs?)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I would find that annoying. As long as you are having fun, I guess this works out.

Baby! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It definitely does get on my nerves from time to time, especially when one of the players that doesn't own a PHB asks to borrow a PHB numerous times during a session. I figure that if you are going to spend a couple of hundred hours a year doing something, you might want to spend at least a little bit of money on it.

The baby will definitely be life changing, but totally worth it at the same time. I'll just say farewell to my good friend sleep for the next few years!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Copying is different from "taking", because you don't deprive any party of the content in question. So no matter what your opinion of the act's morality, the word "infringement" is more accurate.

In fact, as your post demonstrates, the difference is in the wronged party. If I steal your CD, the record company loses nothing. You, however, lose the CD. If I copy a CD, you lose nothing. The record company might tend to claim that they lost a sale.

See the difference? (And if not, what's your address, and where do you keep your CDs?)

Cheers, -- N

Regardless of the differences, it is still the wrong thing to do. I think that most people should be able to agree on that.

(And I have now guaranteed that the next post will be someone disagreeing with the statement that I have just made! )

Olaf the Stout

 

[Storm Raven]

Copying is different from "taking", because you don't deprive any party of the content in question. So no matter what your opinion of the act's morality, the word "infringement" is more accurate.

Actually, it is still stealing, because you are taking something that is not yours and using it. Depriving the owner of the property is not required - all that is necessary is the misappropriation of the property. (You can look up the dictionary definition, stealing is simply taking something that is not yours, depriving the owner of the item is not required).

If course, the property in question is not (for example) the book - it is the exclusive right to make copies of the book. Since someone who pirates intellectual property is taking the right to control the copies available away from the owner, they are stealing something from him that he then no longer has any more.

So the word "stealing" is prefectly accurate. And it is completely correct to call people who indulge in this sort of thing "thieves". You can dress it up as "infringement", but all that does is hide what is really taking place.

 

[Acid_crash]

I have no qualms with spending money on a hobby. I buy a lot of stuff just to read that I don't expect to ever use. If I get use out of it by playing it with friends, bonus!

The thing that does get my goat, however, is that yes, prep time for D&D does take time. That's not a big deal, but if I ask the players to do some simple thing for the game and they don't, it cheezes me off a bit.

I hear you on this one...I'm the same way.

This is probably my biggest gripe about the majority of players who I have tried GMing with over the years is that they simply take me, my time, my prep work, my effort, and all this for Granted, and I get ticked off because of it.

It's simple players... if a GM spends a few hours of his/her life preparing for a game, and that GM asks you to spend a half hour or so working on your character or asks you to read something he/she has spent time typing for you to read, then DO IT. To not do it is disrespectful and you tell your GM that all his work means nothing to you.

I can't stand players that do this.

 

[Acid_crash]

I find that GMs pay more than Players. As a GM I purchase majority of the books, adventures, ink for my printer, etc...

In the last D&D game I tried to play in and run, in a group of 6, only two of us has PHBs (which is still higher than the majority of other games I've tried running that are NOT D&D games). We played for a while, and some of the other players have money, they play D&D all the time, and yet they don't have one. Two refuse to purchase books of their own. I ask them once, and it was simple for them... as long as they were around others (such as me) who forked over their money (my money) for their enjoyment (theirs, not mine) then they didn't see a reason why they should contribute and buy their own books.

It was the last time I've ever played a game with them. I hate my time being wasted, I hate being taken advantage of, and I despise players that smooch off others who don't, or are not willing, to contribute.

 

[Nifft]

Regardless of the differences, it is still the wrong thing to do. I think that most people should be able to agree on that.

No argument there. I support author's rights and accuracy in legal terminology. I do have several illegal PDFs for books that I own, though, because the PDFs enable me to look stuff up quickly without leaving my laptop, and to take books with me (via laptop) that I might need but don't have time to transcribe. But I'm not infringing, and I'm sure as hell not "stealing".

- - -

Back on topic: DMs certainly do subsidize our player's fun by sinking a lot more time, effort, and money into creating and/or preparing adventures. But players enable a DM's fun. It's fun to be a DM, to have people care about your creations and plots, to have people regularly pay attention to the world(s) in your head.

Cheers, -- N

 

[robberbaron]

As my groups DMingest (if you can have winningest, it makes perverse sense to me) DM, I feel that it is my right to enjoy myself.
I spend more time than the players in prep (actually, there is one player who probably does more than me but he doesn't get to use a fraction of the stuff he dreams up so it doesn't count) and I actually turn up nearly every week.
I haven't put more of my money into D&D (if travelling costs are ignored - I travel further than any of the others) as I only buy the books I need. I have a large number of pdfs but only for the sake of general interest; I wouldn't have bought them. If that makes me a thief if StormRaven's eyes, so be it, I don't care.
I did buy a load of Star Wars minis when we were playing it, but got most of them off eBay so not too bad.

Thing is, I don't think players generally appreciate the effort it takes to DM. They think they are being so clever with their lame (or non-existent) backstories and stitching up the rest of the party for the sake of 'role-playing' but rarely consider why the DM DMs or how much work he has put in to their fun.
At the moment, I am a little tired of DMing. I don't enjoy it, though don't really know why and, after the next adventure, I shall be calling a hiatus in my game until I can figure out what I am unhappy about and how to fix it.

Rant over.

 

[TerraDave]

It barely compensates, but nonetheless:

players are required to sacrifice snacks and beverages to the DM.

If this is not happening in your game, something is seriously wrong.