[DRM] - Retun of Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!

[maddman75]

Last week I started a thread here and elsewhere urging people to let the publishers of non-DRM games know that we appreciate them and order some PDFs. Many people did so, and I encourage everyone to make this a part of your gaming budget. There's some really great things out there right now!

But now I want to address the other side of this controversy - the companies on DTRPG. I myself will make this pledge - the first company on DriveThruRPG.com to rethink its business decisions and offer a PDF game without DRM, I will buy it. As a consumer, this is my best means to reach a company about the kinds of services and products I want to see, voting with my dollar. So the first company to break from the pack will get my vote.

Anyone else who feels the same way and wishes to make the same pledge should join the yahoo group I've set up, http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/no_drm_rpg/

The group will discuss DRM as well as promote non-drm materials. If you don't want to participate in the discussion, that's fine. Just join and say you don't want to recieve anything but special announcements. If and when a company 'sees the light' and offers a non-DRM game, I'll use the special announcement to notify the group. This function will not be used for any other purpose.

Of course, the companies have only my word, but hopefully all the debate has some of them rethinking the whole scheme, and maybe this could help push them over the edge. I personally think the DRM is going to be bad for the industry in the long run, so I'm doing what I can to remedy the damage.

I hope that anyone who feels strongly about DRMed games joins in this pledge.

 

[Belen]

DriveThru has already alienated me to the point where I will not buy from them. period. I enjoyed PDFs because they are useful to me in rare cases that I am away from home etc and I want to work on DnD. For instance, I purchased a pen drive for this reason. This way, I could go anywhere and still use my legally purchased material.

As long as those companies offer their material on an exclusive basis with DriveThru, I will no longer purchase their material. As my FLGS does not carry White Wolf products or products distributed by WW, then I will be unable to purchase most of those products in print as well.

Plenty of other RPG companies exist. I will just change my purchasing habits to those companies who value their customers.

 

[maddman75]

DriveThru has already alienated me to the point where I will not buy from them. period. I enjoyed PDFs because they are useful to me in rare cases that I am away from home etc and I want to work on DnD. For instance, I purchased a pen drive for this reason. This way, I could go anywhere and still use my legally purchased material.

As long as those companies offer their material on an exclusive basis with DriveThru, I will no longer purchase their material. As my FLGS does not carry White Wolf products or products distributed by WW, then I will be unable to purchase most of those products in print as well.

Plenty of other RPG companies exist. I will just change my purchasing habits to those companies who value their customers.

Well, while I agree that I feel pretty alienated by DTRPG, they are some of the best gaming companies out there. So should they admit that DRM is the wrong way to go, I'll be rewarding them with my business.

 

[Dinkeldog]

I guess I should put a civility warning here. Please keep things nice, okay gang?

 

[Desdichado]

pdfs are already a losing proposition to me; they're a pain to use, unless you want to actually do some cutting and pasting work. I'd rather have something in print any day of the week.

DRM is the straw the broke the camel's back for me. I already didn't buy pdfs that often, but I'll certainly never buy one that's DRM enabled.

 

[Belen]

Well, while I agree that I feel pretty alienated by DTRPG, they are some of the best gaming companies out there. So should they admit that DRM is the wrong way to go, I'll be rewarding them with my business.

No worries, I intend to be civil.

This whole debacle has really turned me away from the PDF market. I received limited use for them in the first place and I have never been supertech boy, so why should I consider PDFs in the future? I really only bought from Malhavoc with regards to PDFs, so the only PDF publications that I will continue to support is EnWorld publishing.

There is no value in watching my rights as a consumers dwindle. If I buy print, I do not have to worry about big brother tactics or the hassle of signing up for yet another site that will help me into that extra bit of spam.

However, this whole issue is the perfect reason why we need to form a gaming society, whether we have the support of EnWorld or not. A society of 5000+ members would have had far more leverage to influence things like DriveThru, poor editing etc.