johnsemlak
First Post
Jim Butler has posted the following on this thread
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3288#post=51580
at dragonsfoot about the WotC ESD program:
Just before I left WotC, I managed to convince the company that they shouldn't cancel it. The costs for scanning in the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Dark Sun materials were too high. And the company we were dealing with wouldn't budge on price.
So, when I started Bastion Press I took the scanning with me. WotC had new rules to follow (keep costs down; keep file sizes small; produce no more than 6/week because that's all our online store can process; etc.). As they laid off more and more staff, there was no one who had time to adequately review the materials for errors (and even the readers we hired missed lots of things).
The small file sizes resulted in a number of quality complaints (due to the resolution we had to use to keep file sizes reasonable for WotC). I eventually convinced them to drop the file size requirement, and our later scans were amazingly better. But they didn't want to pay for the older products to be rescanned.
When Wizards sold the online store to another company, they ran into revenue issues internally. While the scanning program eventually paid for itself, it never paid back the scanning costs for the products in the same quarter those costs were incurred. So, WotC cancelled the program because it couldn't pay for itself fast enough.
I guess this confirms what's been clear all along. There are still some very significant products left that haven't been scanned, particularly in the OD&D line.
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3288#post=51580
at dragonsfoot about the WotC ESD program:
Just before I left WotC, I managed to convince the company that they shouldn't cancel it. The costs for scanning in the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Dark Sun materials were too high. And the company we were dealing with wouldn't budge on price.
So, when I started Bastion Press I took the scanning with me. WotC had new rules to follow (keep costs down; keep file sizes small; produce no more than 6/week because that's all our online store can process; etc.). As they laid off more and more staff, there was no one who had time to adequately review the materials for errors (and even the readers we hired missed lots of things).
The small file sizes resulted in a number of quality complaints (due to the resolution we had to use to keep file sizes reasonable for WotC). I eventually convinced them to drop the file size requirement, and our later scans were amazingly better. But they didn't want to pay for the older products to be rescanned.
When Wizards sold the online store to another company, they ran into revenue issues internally. While the scanning program eventually paid for itself, it never paid back the scanning costs for the products in the same quarter those costs were incurred. So, WotC cancelled the program because it couldn't pay for itself fast enough.
I guess this confirms what's been clear all along. There are still some very significant products left that haven't been scanned, particularly in the OD&D line.
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