Do you consider PDF cost by Page Count?

[Aus_Snow]

Do you consider price per page when you buy PDF's?

Yes. Well, I usually do.

I can't recall any exceptions right now, but I know there have been some (i.e., PDFs that were that good, or just desirable for whatever reason, such that page count wasn't factored in at all).

Same goes for print, mind you. I see them much the same way, though I do expect a PDF's price to be significantly lower than that of its print counterpart, where applicable. I find 50-67% to be acceptable, typically. Lower is fine, mind you.

 

[Umbran]

Not usually - I go by expected utility or entertainment value, rather than raw page count.

 

[Sigurd]

So for those who say they dont use it.

Working with only what you're typically told in a pdf description blurb, you see two pdf's on Fighting Orcs - one is 8 pages and the second is 80 pages. Neither has terrible anything and they are roughly the same cost.

What will make you buy the 8 page one?

 

[Crothian]

So for those who say they dont use it.

Working with only what you're typically told in a pdf description blurb, you see two pdf's on Fighting Orcs - one is 8 pages and the second is 80 pages. Neither has terrible anything and they are roughly the same cost.

What will make you buy the 8 page one?

The Publisher and/or the writer. And if I'm not familiar with either of them I probably am not buying unless I read a good review from a trusted source. But I imagine it is a rare situation that has an 8 page the same cost as an 80 one.

 

[Zendragon]

No, i judge it on the quality just like I do of printed works. Like the new Expedition to Demon Webs for $34.95. Way overpriced for basically a module. But $29.95 for Fiendish Codex I snapped up as quick as I could. Same with PDF's, If it is good and something that I will use, I'll pay good money for it.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I judged a PDF by the amount of material in it I can use. Page count is a pretty reliable estimation for this, assuming I can't preview the PDF first, have a good idea of what's in it, and I can tell how much information is on each page.

15 cents per page for a PDF is ridiculous though. Acceptable for some full-color print products, yes, but not for a PDF, because I will have to print it out myself.

 

[Umbran]

Working with only what you're typically told in a pdf description blurb, you see two pdf's on Fighting Orcs - one is 8 pages and the second is 80 pages. Neither has terrible anything and they are roughly the same cost.

What will make you buy the 8 page one?

It isn't often that I'm presented with two pdf products on the same topic that I'd be trying to compare them. The example doesn't closely mirror my buying habits, so I'm speculating...

Based on that information, I'd probably not buy either. I'm not of the opinion that I need a pdf on Fighting Orcs, and the typical pdf blurb does not contain information that'll convince me otherwise.

I generally buy a gaming product because 1)I have had a chance to look it over, or 2) because someone I trust to have good taste has reviewed it or recommended it. I almost never buy "pig in a poke".

 

[jgbrowning]

Do you consider price per page when you buy PDF's?

Yes. I also consider price per page when I sell PDFs. To me it's one part of the pricing equation for either buying or selling.

joe b.

 

[Prest0]

Word count would be better. If I use a big enough font, I could make a PDF 10,000 pages long!

Maybe we as an (e-book) industry need to start disclosing word count along with page count. Page count is fine when you're talking PDF, but as soon as someone releases an RPG in a true reflowable e-book format (for instance, one designed for use on a PDA) then the whole concept of page count becomes meaningless.

 

[JustinA]

Although it is not the only point of comparison I think cost per page is a very valid one. I appreciate publishers who give you the page count of a pdf. It keeps me coming back to RPGNow as they have page counts for every product. At Your Games Now it is apparently not required universally but many publishers include it with their product descriptions.

It's somewhat valid.

More specifically, it's only valid insofar as its an accurate reflection of a content-to-cost comparison. I can bloat my page counts by introducing large margins and large type, but that doesn't mean I've actually increased my usable content.

And, in truth, content-to-cost is only a useful metric insofar as it reflects USEFUL content-to-cost. If (a) your content is useless or (b) you've bloated up what could have been one page of rules into a twenty page treatise, you've haven't actually increased the utility of your product.

I'd prefer a well-organized and efficiently written supplement with only a few pages to a bloated one with lots of pages.

So page count, as a metric, is actually two steps removed from the metric of actual relevance: Page count is indicative (but not definitive) of the amount of content. The amount of content is indicative (but not definitive) of the amount of useful content.