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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7724590" data-attributes="member: 6873517">I'm not saying that WotC doesn't want to sell their product, that's obvious. I don't mind paying for it either. My issue is that I feel that they're pushing novel content delivery platforms that are not too likely to be sticking around and making a confusing and non-transparent marketplace with too many slightly different features. There's the dead tree variety, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, DDB, and now Dialect, maybe yet others. You want to use content in each, pay for it separately. So they care about those companies more than their customers? Many of us have been customers for decades. Big assumption that they'll be "adding value." I'm actually rather skeptical, very much based on WotC's track record in the electronic world. I'm not questioning their right to do it. Clearly they have that legal right. From the (or at least this) consumer's standpoint though they've made a situation with a confusing set of competing ecologies, all built on WotC's cable TV style "bundling" pricing model for books, which are already highly bundled to ensure that there's a large proportion of the book that will never be used by many purchasers, all of which require multiple purchases for the rights. This means WotC is attempting to get me to open my wallet over and over, not for novel content, but for the same thing I already own. The only difference is delivery mode. So what happens when I meet someone who's, say, invested in Roll20 and I'm invested in, say, Fantasy Grounds, and basically we can't play the game simply because of platform incompatibilities? Well the answer is... someone's going to be buying access again. What happens if, as is fairly likely, rights are bought but one of the companies goes under or the inevitable merger happens next time there's a dot.bomb? WotC happily keeps all the cash from the multiple purchases, that's what. Adding value digitally would allow for solid discounts of purchasing unbundled by WotC's choice of how to put the books together. Alas, if you want a few magic items from one of the titles... it's time to spend $5. DM switches platforms? Buy it again! From their standpoint that might be "innovative" and "smart business". From my standpoint, I know rent-seeking behavior when I see it. If I realistically thought I could get a different game going I'd probably do it, just because of their increasingly predatory pricing model built solely on being the biggest game in the marketplace of potential games. Their propensity for bundling already cut way back on what I'm willing to purchase even in dead tree format and I won't be buying their digital stuff.Actually, now that I think about it, they don't really care about the companies they're doing business with, either. It's not going to be fun when the music stops in two years or so and there's one fewer chair....</blockquote>

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