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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9393579" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Wow. Read through the thread, started skimming the last 10 pages. And I think there are a lot of factors people are just not even conceptualizing that they need to consider in all of this. I have some experience with Video Games, so let me start with that. How did modern Video Game content turn digital? Well, to start with... it was always digital. See, back when I purchased by Xbox One I got very annoyed with Microsoft. I liked having physical discs, but I started buying games and then being forced to download the game from the disc to the Xbox. This was the start of the "slippery slope" people are currently warning of. Once I had to download from my disc, what difference was it to download from the internet. And then they could do anything!!But... there are two sides to this. See, I purchased games from Microsoft... to play on Microsoft's console. They could do this, and I had no choice but to be dragged along, because they controlled the game and the access to the game from the start. IF they didn't want me playing a game, they could "region lock" it so that it would refuse to play on the machine they designed. But WoTC... cannot possibly do this. Even if WoTC burned all the physical books in the world and forced you to buy PDFs... they can't control how you play your game. They don't control the end result, they don't control the machinery the game is run on, because it can be run on paper and pencil. There is no step two here, there is no "they offered digital products, and then they could stop me from playing the game" because once you have the rules... you have everything you need. Now, I did see some people saying that, at some point in the future, WoTC might only release digital products, and then if they delete those products, you lose access to them... but do you? They would not only need to release digital products, those products would have to lack the ability to download them. they would also have to lack the ability to copy paste them, they would also have to lack the ability to screenshot them, they would also have to lack the ability to record your screen and make a video of them. Because if you can do ANY of that, then you can make a file, put it on a hard drive, and eventually have a copy of the rules you control. Even if it take more work in opening a page of DnD Beyond and typing a word document in a second window that exactly copies the PHB. THAT is the step they will need to take to "control" your access and ability to play the game. Go fully digital, prevent any ability of copying the digital information, and then they can force you to subscribe and pay them a monthly membership. And... well they literally cannot do this with 5e or 5.24. Not possible. And even if they go fully digital, then they can't prevent you from making personal copies without some really harsh measures. And once they take those measures? Then that edition of DnD never gets off the ground. But we are just as likely to see DnD die because they went full Digital Hellscape as we are to see it die because DnD stops being profitable and no one makes a new edition. The way that Movies and Video Games are enjoyed (ie relying on other technology that can limit access to them) is so different from how DnD is enjoyed, that I cannot see this terrible future people are sure is going to happen because they want players to use their Digital Tabletop. I'm playing with a group via text message on Dischord right now, using rules and such posted to my Google Drive. Sure, maybe Google will die and my data will be lost (it is backed up on my computer) or Discord will die and I won't be able to use it to message people. Those are just as, if not more, likely than WoTC going fully digital then deleting your pdfs because they could only exist on their servers. It just isn't something worth being concerned over.</blockquote>

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