DriveThruRPG

I have only gotten things from DTRPG when:
A They were free.
and
B. It was something I was either thinking about purchasing in print, or already owned in print.

RPGNow allows you to reload files that have been lost because of drive crashes etc.

Drive Thru RPG does not.

So when I spend money I spend it at RPGNow, but because I will not spend money at DTRPG I wouldn't feel right by the companies if I didn't have an interest in buying them. If I already have purchased them I use the PDF as a reference while working on scenarios. (Sorcery & Steam comes to mind.)

The Auld Grump
 
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Bah, I won't even take free stuff from DTRPG. If they bundled every D&D product ever created and sent it to me free, I would mark "return to aholes who want to control how I manage files on my own computer" and send it back.
 

For me, it's not a matter of moral indignance. It's a matter of the fact I feel the product is essentially volatile. I can back up the file and put it on a CD and my memory stick and my work computer, and I still won't feel reassured that a few upgrades from know I will be able to use it.

I don't know how many of you use products 5-10 years old. But I do.
 

Excellent point noted by someone ealier. My computer crashed a while ago and i was able to redownload ALL the products i bought from RPGNOW. Most of the products on Drivethrough seem to be the same cost as actually purchasing the print products :confused:
 

I have bought dozens of pdfs from rpgnow but I haven't even gotten the free ones from drivethru. The DRM hassles are not worth it for me.
 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. However in the end I put it to a vote for our fans and they by over 60% supported going with Drive Thru which is what we have done.


I still appericate your thoughts on the matter :)
 

Waylander the Slayer said:
Excellent point noted by someone ealier. My computer crashed a while ago and i was able to redownload ALL the products i bought from RPGNOW. Most of the products on Drivethrough seem to be the same cost as actually purchasing the print products :confused:
I just recently tried to do that and I kept getting the wrong DL link. Basically, if I requested to redownload a product, I was sent the DL link to the product I had purchased most recently, nto the link I requested.
 

Well, the post on this thread would certainly indicate that RPGNow woudl be the better vender for a publisher.

I wonder if there's any hard evidence though on whether one or the other is better for a publisher in terms of th bottom line. I imagine DTRPG gets a lot of traffic. It was linked at the Wizards.com site. And a lot of gamers who use the web dont get to messageboards and see threads like this.

Of course, the flip side is a small publisher might be lost among giants at a vendor like DTRPG.
 

Well, your fans are the ones who are buyin'. ;) So you've probably made the right choice for you.

Lemme just say as someone who once in a while gets paid for pdf books, I can't stand DTRPG. There is the moral angle that Psion pointed out - I don't think it's right for anyone to control how someone who bought my book uses my book. It's a limit on how often you can copy and transfer the file, and it's definately not as secure as they would have you believe (WotC released Frostburn on DTRPG, and that wouldn't stop me from downloading it for free if I wanted to). I think to a certain extent, the Digital Age has opened up Pandora's Box on this...there is no way, ever, that anyone can ever stop the pirating of your stuff. If people want it for free, they can get it. You can't stop it. And to me, that's the only thing DTRPG offers when compared to other pdf stores -- that false sense of security, which allows them to get exclusive contracts with heavyweights who think they're getting what they're really not. And they give *nothing* worthwhile in return.

Yeah, I know people could download my books and transfer them to friends and I wouldn't get paid for it. But so what? The only potential consumers are those who will actually buy it -- their buddies wouldn't buy it anyway, so I'm not loosing a sale, and maybe the friends will like it enough to buy the next one. IMHO, DTRPG is like buying a book you can't show your friends. It's wrong to stop generosity, even if that means I make less money for it. While I have no delusions that the honor system works, it does work for some people...those are who I'm selling to, those are who I'll talk personally with, those are who I'll produce exclusive content and supplements for. Because I'm writing this book for people like me -- who love the game, who want to get some more use out of it, and who respect the creators enough to slip them $3 for a pdf as incentive to keep going.

DTRPG makes you feel like a potential suspect from the very get-go (which their customer service record seems to support, though I admit going on hearsay with that). I find it's much more satisfying to try and maintain a dialogue with those who buy my stuff, to talk to them about it and about their games, to treat them as a friend that I'd like to see buy more of my stuff. :) To take a variation on a theme: Shopping at DTRPG is like having someone you live with murdered. Even if you're innocent, you're still a suspect. I'm not going to assume everyone with my book on their computer might want to load it into a file-sharing program. Some prolly will, and some prolly got it that way, and I hope they enjoy the product. But it's not them I'm interested in asking the opinion of. It's not them I'm interested in seeing what other products they'd like. It's not them I ask how this week's game went. I never had delusions of financial stability making pdf files. I just hope that some people who like my stuff like to see me keep making stuff, and so will make with the dough.

I've prolly babbled enough. I'd say you made the right choice because your fans are the ones who care. ;) But as for me? DTRPG can pull ahead to the next window.
 

Funny I've downloaded several free products from DTRPG and have had no problems using them on my or my girlfriend's computer. People always bitch and moan about how you can't cut n paste more than X amount in a span of Y days with the DTRPG pdfs...well you can't cut n paste at all from print products. So if you owned the print version instead, you would be manually typing everything anyway.

When I do DM prep I really don't see the need of excessive cut n pasting anyway. I mean, pdfs are easily searchable and I would liikely have several of them open at once so I could quickly shoot to say the Brass Dragon stats.

I've bought from rpgnow in the past and had no problems there. DTRPG has given me no issues, but then again, I'm using XP and don't use a different pdf program besides Adobe. I wouldn't be surprised if someone works up the DRM just for compatability sake.

Hagen
 

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