DriveThruRPG Exclusivity

[Dana_Jorgensen]

FWIW.
Depends on how you define "into".
Look at the title list the publishers had available in electronic format before DriveThruRPG.com and now after.
White Wolf having 20-30 titles is not the same as 300 and the same is true with most of the other publishers you mentioned.

Having in print titles as well as out of print titles.
Releasing new titles electroncially simultaneously with print.

Steve

Oh, give it a rest. White Wolf may not own DTRPG, but White Wolf's owners do. Do you honestly think we're all going to keep buying into your "WW doesn't own DTRPG" claims any further, when we know the project was initiated by White Wolf thanks to the fact that it was WW, not its owners, that approached RPGnow with an attempted buyout at the start of the year?

WW has had DTRPG in the works for at least six months. It is no surprise that they held off on selling more PDFs through their old store when they knew that a little patience would get them a false sense of security about their own PDF products and make it look like DTRPG has had a significant impact. And no, it is not true of the other publishers. FanPro offers fewer PDFs than they had previously. GoO only added a few. Same for Eden. Malhavoc, I don't think added any new product. Overall, DTRPG has had little impact in the offering of its vendors, since most of them already offered in print titles as PDFs.

Hate to tell you this, but your smoke projector is running out of mineral oil and your mirrors are all broken.

 

[Steve Wieck]

Oh, give it a rest. White Wolf may not own DTRPG, but White Wolf's owners do. .

While I cannot comment on the complete ownership of the companies, I have already stated that I'm involved with both, so I thought I already put that to rest?

FanPro offers fewer PDFs than they had previously. GoO only added a few. Same for Eden. Malhavoc, I don't think added any new product. Overall, DTRPG has had little impact in the offering of its vendors, since most of them already offered in print titles as PDFs.

Hate to tell you this, but your smoke projector is running out of mineral oil and your mirrors are all broken.

I believe GoO had about 4? titles on RPGNow now they are at 36 and counting.
And FFG? and FGU? and HDI? and GDW? and FFE? and Dork Storm? and Feder & Schwert?
and the offerings AEG and Chaosium and DP9 will shortly have?

I guess we just see this quite differently.

Steve

 

[Vigilance]

edited by request

 

[The Mad Kaiser]

Why are you avoiding these questions, Wieck?

Just to keep debunking misinformation here.

Please do. You can start by answering these questions:

Just as I know James at RPGNow does, we would naturally want to review material for legal-pornogrpahy reasons as well as to make sure we're not loading up vaporware products. That's not the same thing in my mind as "approval".

How many have been rejected?
How many popular non-print publishers have been aquired?
What is your commision rate(s)?

DriveThruRPG.com did not approach pdf-only publishers prior to our launch for a couple reasons 1) Too busy to take on the additional publisher clients and provide any level of service and 2) We have no enimity for James and RPGNow and feel no compulsion to aggressively compete with his great business by aggressively pursruing his whole publisher base and redundantly offering them to the market.

Then why was your company trying to aquire RPGNow?
Why did James turn you down?
If you can't handle more than 16 publishers at a time, what would you have done to the "additional publisher clients" already selling at RPGNow?
What makes pdf-only publishers so "service intensive" compaired to print-only?
If you do not wish to "aggressively compete" with RPGNow, why do you insist that popular (now former RPGNow) publishers be exclusive?

When we are prepared to take on and properly service more publishers we will make the type of terms Kosala (and others here have discussed in posts) available for publishers to review. There's not much point in our taking on more publishers if we can't treat them properly. It's not being elitist it's being realistic.

So you aren't ready take on and properly service publishers? You were ready to take over RPGNow.
Your site brags it's the first "All Professional" pdf site. Will you change this motto to match your "When we are prepared to take on and properly service more publishers we will make the type of terms... available for publishers to review." statement?
What exactly do you mean by 'properly service'? What services do you offer publishers beyond a check and webspace?
Couldn't you save everyone much work by removing the questionable and unpopular DRM restrictions?

I'm sure we would all love to hear your answers. Or is Dana correct? Are you just smoke and glass?

 

[Brown Jenkin]

What exactly do you mean by 'properly service'? What services do you offer publishers beyond a check and webspace?

There are plenty of unanswered questions but this one has been. Clark over at Necromancer has stated that the reason they have decided to use DTRPG was that Necromancer had to do 0 work. All they had to do was provide the files they gave to the printer and DTRPG would convert and optimize the files for distribution, run the store, decide on apropriate pricing and send back a check every so often. This way Necromancer could focus on writing books and not worring about anything whatsover in regards to PDF sales. (Except maybe dealing with the PR problem that this has caused) I am not saying this is neccesarily difficult work but some people are not interested in doing it themselves.

 

[Henry]

Hate to tell you this, but your smoke projector is running out of mineral oil and your mirrors are all broken.

I'm sure we would all love to hear your answers. Or is Dana correct? Are you just smoke and glass?

Dana and Kaiser, I can appreciate wanting answers to some very pressing questions, and certainly don't mind them, but adding insult is not the best way to go about it.

 

[froggie]

forced?

No one compelled us to work through this method, we chose to. The reason?

1) its 0 effort for us
2) its more secure
3) we really do not care at all about pdf sales, we sell books. Biut if someone wants a pdf, great.

Bill Webb

 

[Psion]

What exactly do you mean by 'properly service'? What services do you offer publishers beyond a check and webspace?

One thing they offer is scanning/ocring products and producing the PDFs. This gave many publishers an opportunity and selling point that had nothing to do with DRM, and I know at least one publisher for whom the DRM was not a selling point at all.

So not all participating publishers are under the illusion that you can't easily bypass DRM protections (c'mon ... I've read carefully tiptoed around methods designed not to aggravate the mods and I still got the point); it was the rest of DTRPG's sales pitch that pulled them in.

 

[Funksaw]

Oh, give it a rest. White Wolf may not own DTRPG, but White Wolf's owners do. Do you honestly think we're all going to keep buying into your "WW doesn't own DTRPG" claims any further, when we know the project was initiated by White Wolf thanks to the fact that it was WW, not its owners, that approached RPGnow with an attempted buyout at the start of the year?

WW has had DTRPG in the works for at least six months. It is no surprise that they held off on selling more PDFs through their old store when they knew that a little patience would get them a false sense of security about their own PDF products and make it look like DTRPG has had a significant impact. And no, it is not true of the other publishers. FanPro offers fewer PDFs than they had previously. GoO only added a few. Same for Eden. Malhavoc, I don't think added any new product. Overall, DTRPG has had little impact in the offering of its vendors, since most of them already offered in print titles as PDFs.

Hate to tell you this, but your smoke projector is running out of mineral oil and your mirrors are all broken.

GOO, Malhavoc, Eden - I really think they're acting out of ignorance, that they really do like their customers and really want to put out good products. I really believe that they want to do produce good games and appreciate customers.

I don't think any of that applies to White Wolf, who, from all indications, really believe thier customers are s.

 

[frankthedm]

I would recomend making companies that try BS like this suffer.