DriveThruRPG Exclusivity

[The Black Kestrel]

I'll have to vote against DriveThru and DRM as well. I have tried Adobe's DRM with Amazon (yes I'm a victim) and was displeased. I can barely stand using MS Reader with the ebooks I do get.

The only place I've been satisfied with an e-publisher besides RPGNow is Baen's Webscription site. They offer a variety of formats (MS Reader, RTF, HTML Rocket/RCA REB1100 and Palm/Win CE/Psion Zip (Mobipocket)) and very large selection of free books! The companies getting into e-publishing should be expanding ways to get their content to consumers not limiting them.

If they're so concerned about piracy they should ask Jim Baen if Webscriptions has helped or hurt his bottom line. If a big publisher like Baen can forgo any form of DRM why should we tolerate it?

 

[jaerdaph]

I only buy electronic RPG products exclusively from RPGNow. So if your product isn't available there, well...

 

[DanMcS]

The publisher needs to be able to produce material which satisfies his purchaser base and must do so in a profitable manner, eliminating or avoiding the effects of any elements which tend to reduce profitability (like piracy).

There is no proof that either:
a) Piracy reduces profits (the people who pirate a product are either cheapskates or broke, and would not have bought it anyway).
or
b) DRM reduces piracy.

Who does DRM help? Adobe.

Hmm, we've released acrobat 5, we sold a lot, it has saturated the market, people are happy with it, they can create their PDFs, sales are slowing. We can patch a few bugs and shine it up, but we're really obligated to patch the bugs in 5 anyway, and if version 6 is just another PDF creator, the people who are happy with 5 won't buy it. We need some new marketing gimick to really kick the sales of version 6. By jove, I've got it!

 

[The Sigil]

I doubt that drivethrurpg.com will be around a year from now.

First off, the pricing is ridiculous. An entire level of the distribution system is gone. It's now vendor->retailer->consumer, cutting out the distribution channel. That should eliminate about 30% of the cover price. The second thing that needs to be factored into PDF pricing is print production costs; not the cost of 1 unit when the publisher prints 1,000+ at a time, but the cost for the consumer to print the book out and store it in an organized fashion (be it a binder or taking it to kino's for output). At the very least, that's another $4 knocked off the price. Given the ridiculous prices, entities involved on the vendor or retailer tiers are being greedy. The existence of some low cost PDFs on the site suggest that it is the vendors.

Second, it looks like no one bothered explaining to the vendors exactly how easy it is to break the DRM of PDF files. Adobe has been pushing their DRM crap for more than 5 years now. If it worked, it would be commonplace by now. But to give you an idea how easy it is, for me, it is a simple process involving 5 clicks of the mouse, nothing more. If any DriveThruRPG vendor wants more details, they can email me and ask.

Third, consumers don't like DRM. They're restricted in copy'n'paste (10 times in 10 days) and I've heard some complaints about printing issues (DRM interferes with PS output to printers using Adobe's own drivers). Consumers can't keep a copy at home on the desktop they use for internet services and their laptops, because each time you open the file on the other computer, you have to get permission to read it. You upgrade your memory, add a new hard drive, change the processor, and you need to get permissions again. How many times do you think a consumer will tolerate that overly intrusive nonsense before they abandon a game system anyway?

I hope vendors are paying attention to the VAST negative feedback that has developed in the last 48 hours. There are literally hundreds of negative posts on the subject on rpg.net. I have no doubt that we'll see a drastic rise in the number of posts in coming weeks.

Dana, normally I don't quite see eye-to-eye with all of your points... but in this case, I agree 1000% (yes, that's 1000, not 100).

PDFs have been struggling to gain a consumer base (there's been no shortage of suppliers trying their hand at PDFs). While publishers/suppliers like DRM as it adds value for THEM, the problem is that value added to the publisher is directly removed from the consumer... in fact, I would argue that the value added to publishers is much less than the value removed from consumers (worse than a zero-sum game). When you're still struggling to gain a consumer base, I think it's ... well... assinine to try to squeeze more blood from a turnip by adding DRM which decreases the attractiveness of your products (IIRC, RPGNow's polls show that the #1 annoyance/deterrent to customers when it comes to PDFs is copy/paste lockout - i.e., DRM). Remember what Dancey said about ignoring the voice of your customers in the RPG business... doing so led to the death of TSR.

Not to be making business forecasts for others, but TSR was a heck of a lot bigger than any PDF Publisher today (in fact, probably bigger than all of them put together) and any PDF Publisher that ignores their customers' #1 complaint is probably signing their own death warrant... and will not be able to survive "by eating their own fat" (cash reserves) for long like TSR did.

I think going DRM is a BIG mistake for PDF publishers, mostly because the consumerbase at large hates DRM.

--The Sigil

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I doubt DTRPG will be going anywhere. Remember, it's not some fly by night company, it's White Wolf. They have both the money and the contacts in the industry to get exclusive licenses for just about every major RPG company.

If you want to buy an electronic version of those of those product, you'll have to buy it from DTRPG.

I'm sure they'll make enough money that it's profitable.

I would imagine most PDF-only companies would stay with RPGNow. Has DTRPG even tried to recruit any of those? I don't see anyone on their page.

 

[GMSkarka]

I would imagine most PDF-only companies would stay with RPGNow. Has DTRPG even tried to recruit any of those? I don't see anyone on their page.

I suspect that they're not going to--which is probably what this insulting reference in Monte's press release over on Gamingreport.com refers to:

"DriveThruRPG.com is the first completely professional gaming e-Book site"

 

[Maggan]

The war between publishers

Second, it looks like no one bothered explaining to the vendors exactly how easy it is to break the DRM of PDF files. Adobe has been pushing their DRM crap for more than 5 years now. If it worked, it would be commonplace by now. But to give you an idea how easy it is, for me, it is a simple process involving 5 clicks of the mouse, nothing more. If any DriveThruRPG vendor wants more details, they can email me and ask.

I don't know about anyone else, but a publisher offering advice on how to deactivate other publishers' DRM is... not something that inspires respect in me.

Maggan

 

[Vigilance]

He's not offering it to the general public... but to DTRPG vendors to show them how the increased hassle to their customers doesn't even HELP them increase "security".

There's a lot of things you can say about Dana, but aiding computer piracy isnt on the list.

Chuck

 

[Maggan]

I offer my apologies to Dana

He's not offering it to the general public... but to DTRPG vendors to show them how the increased hassle to their customers doesn't even HELP them increase "security".

There's a lot of things you can say about Dana, but aiding computer piracy isnt on the list.

Chuck

Check. It said "vendors". I misread, and I offer my apologies to Dana.

Maggan

 

[BryonD]

I suspect that they're not going to--which is probably what this insulting reference in Monte's press release over on Gamingreport.com refers to:

"DriveThruRPG.com is the first completely professional gaming e-Book site"

Did he really say that? If so, that is pretty pathetic.
It is both insulting to RPGNow and to many of the quality writers who might not be published if it were not for RPGNow.

I'd like to think that giving the fan base what they want would be a little higher up the priority list.