BSF
Explorer
I received the email announcing the merger yesterday and wondered what the consensus would be. Sadly because of how busy I have been at work and home lately, it took a while to catch up on everything.
I try to be an informed consumer. From the customer perspective in terms of availability, I like the idea of the merger. More titles available from what amounts to one source. Cool!
But this is also a small industry and despite having never met any of the PDF publishers, I appreciate the sense of community and their contributions to it. I have a personal interest in seeing individual publishers succeed. Whenever possible, I like to purchase from places that drive the best value for my favorite publishers. Why? Because that rewards these creative individuals as much as I can.
Gaming material is a luxury item for me. I will buy it so long as it fills my luxury desires. I accomodate rising costs until I reach the point where I would rather buy other luxury items.
In the end it is business, but it is business that is supported by, and supports, the gaming hobby.
One of the reasons I wanted to check the threads was to hear what the buzz is about rates. Another was to hear what would happen for the vendors that are already on all the listed sites. I am annoyed that there appear to be at least some vendors that recently signed on with multiple vendors and did not derive any benefit from the diversification. I would hope that something could be done for those vendors that signed on with all entities. Mind you, I don't know that there is a business obligation to do that. But to allow a vendor to spend the sign up fees, knowing that you are getting ready to make those fees redundant, isn't particulary compassionate.
I am annoyed that OBS is taking a higher percentage, apparently without providing specifics on what the added value is. Perhaps it is still too soon and the specifics haven't been worked out? Could be. But it seems like a prudent business merger would have all those details worked out in advance of the announcement.
You know, in a different industry, I would be very dubious. But I do have respect for the people running the sites involved and I don't think they intend to cut into the bottom line of PDF publishers without offering any value. (It could end up that they do just that. Which would irritate me a great deal.) But I do hope that there are better details being revealed for the publishers somewhere. Otherwise, I can't fault the dissatisfaction of people that have worked hard to build up a fanbase and market their individual companies. Indeed, I would expect those publishers to look for different options. I will follow publishers I respect to whatever outlet they choose to use. This is a small enough industry that it sure isn't very hard to find out where a given publisher has moved to for sales. In many cases, if I had trouble finding a product from a publisher I respect, I would just open one of the PDFs I do have, find an email address and ask.
This isn't doom and gloom time. But I understand why some publishers might be concerned that their bottom line is being negatively impacted here. I also understand why some publishers might not be concerned at all, or perhaps even excited. I hope all the publishers involved have great success, regardless of what they choose to do in the aftermath of this merger. In the end, these are business decisions. But it is a small industry and it is easy to associate individual names with these businesses. In that respect we are lucky. Those of us that are fans of PDFs usually have ready exposure to the people providing those PDFs. So yes, these are business decisions but these are also people. People that I know from messageboards and emails.
I hope OBS can get the details together, or change the direction of some decisions, so that this becomes a win-win situation for all the people involved. Because when the distributors are winning (OBS) and the publishers are winning (Ronin Arts, Expeditious Retreat, etc) then I feel like I am winning.
I'm just one guy, one customer. All I am doing is tossing my thoughts out into the open just so everyone can see how one guy might be thinking. I wish all of you luck with this merger and I certainly hope it strengthens my hobby. But I do like to hear some of the details from time to time because I try to support my favorite publishers when I can.
I try to be an informed consumer. From the customer perspective in terms of availability, I like the idea of the merger. More titles available from what amounts to one source. Cool!
But this is also a small industry and despite having never met any of the PDF publishers, I appreciate the sense of community and their contributions to it. I have a personal interest in seeing individual publishers succeed. Whenever possible, I like to purchase from places that drive the best value for my favorite publishers. Why? Because that rewards these creative individuals as much as I can.
Gaming material is a luxury item for me. I will buy it so long as it fills my luxury desires. I accomodate rising costs until I reach the point where I would rather buy other luxury items.
In the end it is business, but it is business that is supported by, and supports, the gaming hobby.
One of the reasons I wanted to check the threads was to hear what the buzz is about rates. Another was to hear what would happen for the vendors that are already on all the listed sites. I am annoyed that there appear to be at least some vendors that recently signed on with multiple vendors and did not derive any benefit from the diversification. I would hope that something could be done for those vendors that signed on with all entities. Mind you, I don't know that there is a business obligation to do that. But to allow a vendor to spend the sign up fees, knowing that you are getting ready to make those fees redundant, isn't particulary compassionate.
I am annoyed that OBS is taking a higher percentage, apparently without providing specifics on what the added value is. Perhaps it is still too soon and the specifics haven't been worked out? Could be. But it seems like a prudent business merger would have all those details worked out in advance of the announcement.
You know, in a different industry, I would be very dubious. But I do have respect for the people running the sites involved and I don't think they intend to cut into the bottom line of PDF publishers without offering any value. (It could end up that they do just that. Which would irritate me a great deal.) But I do hope that there are better details being revealed for the publishers somewhere. Otherwise, I can't fault the dissatisfaction of people that have worked hard to build up a fanbase and market their individual companies. Indeed, I would expect those publishers to look for different options. I will follow publishers I respect to whatever outlet they choose to use. This is a small enough industry that it sure isn't very hard to find out where a given publisher has moved to for sales. In many cases, if I had trouble finding a product from a publisher I respect, I would just open one of the PDFs I do have, find an email address and ask.
This isn't doom and gloom time. But I understand why some publishers might be concerned that their bottom line is being negatively impacted here. I also understand why some publishers might not be concerned at all, or perhaps even excited. I hope all the publishers involved have great success, regardless of what they choose to do in the aftermath of this merger. In the end, these are business decisions. But it is a small industry and it is easy to associate individual names with these businesses. In that respect we are lucky. Those of us that are fans of PDFs usually have ready exposure to the people providing those PDFs. So yes, these are business decisions but these are also people. People that I know from messageboards and emails.
I hope OBS can get the details together, or change the direction of some decisions, so that this becomes a win-win situation for all the people involved. Because when the distributors are winning (OBS) and the publishers are winning (Ronin Arts, Expeditious Retreat, etc) then I feel like I am winning.
I'm just one guy, one customer. All I am doing is tossing my thoughts out into the open just so everyone can see how one guy might be thinking. I wish all of you luck with this merger and I certainly hope it strengthens my hobby. But I do like to hear some of the details from time to time because I try to support my favorite publishers when I can.
