Are we gamers an ungrateful lot?

[Dire Bare]

Personally I feel a little disturbed that a publisher feels like they should charge a lot for a pdf. As far as I can tell a pdf. holds no market value because they can be replicated and distributed with very little or no effeort or resources. In my opinion this infinite supply is a problem and basically makes them worthless.
There may be some confusion in this thread with "gamer" and the more general term of "consumer"

Dude, are you joking? Or are you serving yourself up as an example of the thread topic?

 

[Glyfair]

Dude, are you joking? Or are you serving yourself up as an example of the thread topic?

Take a look at his other thread.

 

[Treebore]

It ain't just gamers - it happens in all walks of life, unfortunately. Some people just really like to bitch & moan.

You ain't kidding. My father in law is the living Icon of "gripe and moan". Never mind he is his own worst enemy. Thank God my wife isn't like him.

Of course if she was I wouldn't have married her.

 

[Dire Bare]

In the stated cases, I'd say because they were offered something. I mean, it's a straightforward chain of events. You offer X. Offer of X sets up an expectation of X (you can call it entitlement, if you want). X is not provided or comes with fine print Y or unannounced bundled Z. Expectations were not met, so there is a sense of disapointment. People voice their disapointment, otherwise known as "complaining".

Sometimes expectations are unrealistic. Hey I've been there on the customer service end. "Yes sir, I know this is slightly more than the estimate I gave you for de-skunking your dog, but you didn't mention over the phone that you had soaked him in chunky style Ragu before coming in... If you had asked about the additional 'de-pasta-saucing' fee I could have told you, and you didn't answer your phone when the groomer tried to let you know how things were going..." But I don't see that in the opening post and only your general assessment of that in your post.

There's a difference between communicating with a company to see if they can redress a problem you have with their services and/or products and a gamer with an over-developed sense of entitlement bitching and moaning over problems with free stuff.

Fictional Green Ronin Customer A: "Hey, that Free RPG Day offer on your webpage is awesome! Only your server was so clogged I couldn't get myself a copy. Can you help me out?"

Fictional Green Ronin Customer B: "You cheap bastards! Oh, so you're offering so-called free products for ONE DAY only!!! And it's not like you weren't expecting your servers to be clogged and that many of us wouldn't be able to get the so-called free downloads!! You've ripped me off!! I think it's a scam, a bait-and-switch, to get me to actually PAY for your products!!! Well, forget that!"

Which of the above fictional customers are representative of what Pramas and Cook were bemoaning? I'm guessing an unfortunately large number of Customer B's . . . .

 

[Treebore]

I think anyone who didn't get the free PDF offer on free RPG day had every right to be unhappy about not being able to get it.

That doesn't give them a right to complain about it in a rude fashion however.

Plus, if they were as familiar with GR as I was they would have known GR is a class act and would do something to make up for not anticipating the demand.

I have to admit I was still stunned by how awesome they were about "making it up to them".

I kind of expected a big demand on their servers, which is why I downloaded mine as soon as I saw it was available. Still, I didn't expect them to be so swamped people would have to take 4 hours or more to be successful at getting the materials. Which wan't me. I already had an account with them and was done in several minutes. Just posts I saw on RPG Net said that is how long it took them to be successful.

So I think everyone had the right to complain. Nicely. GR isn't one of those companies who ignore your complaints until you get in their face.

They are a class act. Proven to be even better than I believed.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Fictional Green Ronin Customer B: "You cheap bastards! Oh, so you're offering so-called free products for ONE DAY only!!! And it's not like you weren't expecting your servers to be clogged and that many of us wouldn't be able to get the so-called free downloads!! You've ripped me off!! I think it's a scam, a bait-and-switch, to get me to actually PAY for your products!!! Well, forget that!"

As I recall, we had a few of these posts either here or at RPG.net on Free RPG Day, in fact.

 

[Dire Bare]

Take a look at his other thread.

Wow.

I am always amused when someone feels they've somehow found the loophole that everyone else has missed.

Props to Ryan and Scott for all the good info, and some laughs.

 

[Glyfair]

Fictional Green Ronin Customer B: "You cheap bastards! Oh, so you're offering so-called free products for ONE DAY only!!! And it's not like you weren't expecting your servers to be clogged and that many of us wouldn't be able to get the so-called free downloads!! You've ripped me off!! I think it's a scam, a bait-and-switch, to get me to actually PAY for your products!!! Well, forget that!"

My favorite one is still the example of the one that complained at Monte's discount because they would have to buy more than they intended because of RPGNow's minimum.

 

[Clueless]

Hm. My previous job was helpdesk... really- a *lot* of people are like this.

 

[Odhanan]

Take a look at his other thread.

That was... painful to read.