Article: Gamehackery: How Long Can PDF Last?

[Tranquilis]

I came to the conclusion over a year and a half ago, when I gave up my Droid, that technology would just have to pass me by to some extent (i'm 39). I think we as a whole have been sold a bill of goods that we must.have.these.gadgets (see cell phones; it's almost absurd). Some things just don't need conversion to the "next best thing".

Give me Erol Otus-style B&W drawings and printed text. I'll purchase that in spades over a core rulebook in pdf. That said, I own scores and scores of pdfs that are not overloaded with graphics and page count and that I can print with a home printer.

This is hyperbole, but looking at a fine painting in "RL" versus a monitor screen? No comparison. The same can be said with a book - not just certain books, and not just RPG books.

I envision a future where the print industry tanks due to their electronic equivalents, and then later people will "rediscover" the utility of printed material. The print industry will come back as almost a novelty, with printed material commanding much inflated prices compared to the same equivalents today.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I envision a future where the print industry tanks due to their electronic equivalents, and then later people will "rediscover" the utility of printed material. The print industry will come back as almost a novelty, with printed material commanding much inflated prices compared to the same equivalents today.

I hear what you're saying -- I know that I still have a preference for paper for some things at the table (and I've got you beat in the old fogey department - I'm 45).

But you're romanticizing paper. There are a ton of problems with paper as a delivery method. If I'm using the books to run a game, and I'm running an encounter that includes both goblins and worgs, for example, I have to flip back and forth between the two pages I need to reference -- and everything from hipporgryphs to Vargoules is in my way. Or maybe I've made photocopies of the two pages (more expense and hassle for me) and I don't have to flip around, but I've got two sheets of loose paper to keep track of -- not a problem when it's just two, but when you've got a whole session worth of loose pages like that you need to come up with a solution for gathering and organizing those papes.

Limiting ourselves to just paper means that my game is a whole lot less portable -- I need shelves and shelves of books to keep up with the material.

It means that the content I buy is always a snapshot -- a record of what the state of the game was at the moment the book was printed -- but as we've seen with more "modern" games like 4e, the rules evolve and improve over time -- making that print snapshot more or less obsolete.

And then there's the paper cuts.

Seriously, though -- as the husband of a woman whose hobby is bookbinding, I totally understand the allure of books as artifacts, paper as a medium, etc. But there are plenty of problems with paper as way of delivering game content.

-rg

 

[Tranquilis]

But you're romanticizing paper. There are a ton of problems with paper as a delivery method. If I'm using the books to run a game, and I'm running an encounter that includes both goblins and worgs, for example, I have to flip back and forth between the two pages I need to reference...

Are you serious!? Waaa, Waaa! Reread that and tell me that complaint doesn't sound pretty silly! You just described what every gamer has done for the last 40 years! It hasn't been a grindstone 'round the neck. Cry me a river... After you've walked 10 miles one way to school in the snow...

One word: bookmark!

Now if you simply prefer PDF over paper, or some mix thereof, fine.


And I'm not romanticizing paper... Good grief. If it weren't for that accusation, I wouldn't have even practiced thread necromancy here.

As far as the "snapshots" issue: constant revision of "modern" rule sets is a symptom of a larger problem. Perhaps the games are too complex, perhaps the designers are tying too hard to compromise between hardcore rpgers, hardcore tactical combat/board game types, and/or ueber-optimizers, but the constant revisions and updates really drag games down. Players must have a unified, consistent rules set and the designers need the courage to stand up to a million screaming fanboys on the 'net. Otherwise, you get something akin to the "living, breathing" document interpretation that has caused such ridiculousness in other facets of society (US Constitution, anyone? Or see 4e and 4e Essentials).

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Are you serious!? Waaa, Waaa! Reread that and tell me that complaint doesn't sound pretty silly! You just described what every gamer has done for the last 40 years! It hasn't been a grindstone 'round the neck. Cry me a river... After you've walked 10 miles one way to school in the snow...

One word: bookmark!

Now if you simply prefer PDF over paper, or some mix thereof, fine.


And I'm not romanticizing paper... Good grief. If it weren't for that accusation, I wouldn't have even practiced thread necromancy here.

As far as the "snapshots" issue: constant revision of "modern" rule sets is a symptom of a larger problem. Perhaps the games are too complex, perhaps the designers are tying too hard to compromise between hardcore rpgers, hardcore tactical combat/board game types, and/or ueber-optimizers, but the constant revisions and updates really drag games down. Players must have a unified, consistent rules set and the designers need the courage to stand up to a million screaming fanboys on the 'net. Otherwise, you get something akin to the "living, breathing" document interpretation that has caused such ridiculousness in other facets of society (US Constitution, anyone? Or see 4e and 4e Essentials).

I knew it was silly months ago when I wrote it -- doesn't mean it's not also true. And just because we've done it for 40 years doesn't mean it's the right way to keep doing it. Or, do you still have a land-line, wired, rotary dial phone?

Actually, my original column that this grew out of was an argument that PDF is a dying format -- I'm not trying to defend or attack print itself (I don't really see a need to attack print as a primary format) but look ahead to a time when we experience our game content in a post-pdf format -- very digital, fluid, and so on. I get it that you're not a fan of the idea -- you've given up your android phone and are letting the technology pass you by. As a gadget nerd, that's hard for me to imagine, but right on, that's cool. And maybe you DO still have a rotary dial phone, if you gave up on your android.

-rg