jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
It's a simple mnemonic device. The text also tells you what the powers are and do. Assuming that one can read, the lack of color isn't a big deal
Cost of Core Books PDFs
- Thread starter fenzer
- Start date
It's a simple mnemonic device. The text also tells you what the powers are and do. Assuming that one can read, the lack of color isn't a big deal
charlesatan
Explorer
From http://www.gamespy.com/articles/885/885692p6.html
Would it be possible for people to automatically get licenses for online features of D&D books and supplements that they've purchased in physical form?
Andy Collins: We're not able to link purchase of a specific product to ownership of anything digital. We looked at it for a long time, we really wanted to make something like that work, but the realities of the technology and the retail world prevented that from being viable. The fraud that we were inviting from that, the dissatisfaction of players who buy a book from their retailer only to find out that somebody's swiped the code from that and taken the digital content... we were going to be driving retailers nuts. We ultimately realized that wasn't the best way to get customers the content they want.
Our goal right now is to be primarily a subscription-driven model, at least in the short run, but we will definitely be having separate digital objects for purchase. How, exactly, those are going to work for subscribers versus non-subscribers is still being worked on.
FireLance
Legend
I wonder if it might be feasible to tie pdf discounts to a DDI account. Say, if you sign up for one year in advance, you can buy pdfs at $10 each.
charlesatan
Explorer
It WotC was selling the PDFs on their site, that could theoretically be feasible but since the books are being sold at a third-party site...
If you look at Wizards of the Coast as a whole you'll note that Magic: The Gathering boosters cost the same in Magic Online as MSRP for paper cards. The same concept seems to apply to Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition PDFs except for the current price reduction which may or may not be temporary.
Dire Bare
Legend
Interesting that you and others complain WotC is selling the 4e digital products at full retail price, when clearly they are not.
Point 1: Game companies control costs and discounts on DriveThruRPG.com, not the retailer. WotC discounted the PDFs 30%, not DriveThru. And there is no indication that this is a temporary sale. While at some point WotC might eliminate or change the discount, we've seen absolutely no evidence that they will, so why bitch?
Point 2: If you look at most other "A-list" publishers that sell digital products through DriveThruRPG.com, the practice of listing the product at full retail price, crossed out with a discounted price below, is the norm rather than the exception. And WotC's asking price of roughly $25 per e-book is also in line with other A-list publishers newer products. It's the old crap that you find for $4.95 or such.
So, really, some peeps here are bitching that WotC does what all of their real competition also does.
I also get annoyed with the, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD PAY THAT MUCH FOR A PDF crap. It's cool if the price point is too high for you, but to imply that those of us who find value in these products and find them reasonably priced are fools is insulting and simply wrong.
Well, let me start with portability. I run all of my games from my home, so portability means bringing things from downstairs to upstairs. Plus, a book is more portable when I want to read it in bed, or on the john, or anywhere that is not right in front of my desktop. I can only read a pdf sitting in front of my computer, which is not all that comfortable for a multi-hour reading.
I also prefer to write adventures (and new game books for that matter) while sitting on my couch. Without a laptop, a pdf is pretty worthless in this sort of project. This is entirely personal, of course, but it is how I work.
I find that copying notes for creatures into my handwritten game notes gives me a better knowledge of the creature. Sometimes I hardly need to check the notes during game play, as I tend to memorize things as I write them. This makes for a quick flowing game, which is always a good thing.
For me, a pdf is good for printing a couple of pages for a player to use, or maybe print a few pages to read when I do not want to take the whole book with me. If I have a pdf of a book I own, then I sometimes use the pdf to search for things when the books index is not enough (or is nonexistant).
Oh, and finally, because I do not have Acrobat Professional, I cannot make notes or comments or highlights in a pdf like I can in my physical book. Notes, tabs, and highlights make a book more useful to me, so not being able to do that to a pdf makes it much less useful.
So, there you have it. Long winded, but that is why a pdf is not worth as much to me as a physical book.
Yip. The pdf is much more valuable to me than the hardcover. In fact, given that I wasn't ever planning on buying a hardcover, the pdf is great news for me. People have to remember that those that want hardcovers can get hardcovers, but that that only want a pdf or can't get a hardcover, can now get the pdf. And that's good.
Pinotage
Treebore
First Post
I guess "cost of production" is a meaningless aspect for determining prices anymore. IT cost much, much more to get a book into my hands then it costs to get a PDF onto my computer.
If others are willing to pay overly high prices on a PDF, well, then there are companies out there more than happy to take your money.
They won't get mine. Ever.
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