Exclusive interview WotC President Greg Leeds

[El Mahdi]

Personally I believe that one of the significant factors driving the piracy is the absurd price that WOTC is charging for the pdfs. When the pdf costs more than the hardcopy does from amazon one would expect very few people to buy it.

There are lots of people who bought the hardcover and got a pirated pdf as well. At least some of those probably would have bought the pdf if it had been sufficiently cheap (<= $5 or so).

Yeah, I know WOTC couldn't figure out how to match up hardcover purchases and pdfs. There are all sorts of solutions to that problem

So, you're right. WOTC set the price and is suffering the consequences.

Yup, I think that's the kicker also.


Then consider...

Take the troubles they've had with DDI, add to that the fact that they weren't able to find a way to offer pdf's at a nominal fee, and also add in the layoffs (significantly lowering their manpower) - and to me it adds up to a company that doesn't have the resources or proficiency to pull off developing a whole new alternative medium to pdf's, that are also secure enough for their standards.

I just don't think we're ever going to see it come to fruition.

 

[Friadoc]

It'd have been nice to seen a few fastballs thrown in that interview, especially about the 10:1 Ratio theory, as it's a bitter pill to swallow that this is all we've really gotten, thus far, from Wizard's in almost a week. It's a modest puff piece, with shadow PR thrown in for fun, and it didn't really answer anything.

Heck, at best it implied thoughts that could form into answers if inferred properly.

I've been in IT for well over a decade, worked in shallow ends of it and deep, and while there are means to track how many of what file where downloaded from here and there, it is common knowledge not to trust the file download numbers from various peer to peer, as well as other such methods of piracy, since all you are getting is the number of downloads attempted. I bet the truer ration is closer to 1:1, maybe 2:1, with a lot of folk starting downloads having them end due to timeouts, net issues, or what not and then starting all over again.

Now, I will say, it is a given that an individual could also be downloading for a group and then making a copy of the file for their friends and passing them around via various media, but that's still not the issue at hand.

Nothing WotC has just done will stop piracy, period. In fact, WotC has just done something that might increase the tenacity of pirates to nail their products. I do not agree with piracy, but I do agree with the concept that a person has the right to a digital copy of their hard copy product, even if they do not have the means to make it themselves.

Not theft, folks, but fair use.

Paizo has a clue, as do many other companies, when it comes to New Media and its methods and usage. Obviously, very obviously, WotC, at least at the higher leadership levels, is clueless toward New Media and is stuck in the elder mindset.

Is this an end of the world moment?

No, not really, as it is fairly common that some, not all mind you, but some of the older guard are out of touch when it comes to new methods, means, and technology. It's the nature of the best, look at the old wars of film versus video and look who won.

The choice, when it comes to the future, is to either lead the way, keep up, or fall behind and, oddly enough, WotC seems to be staggering around like a drunk between all three.

They're falling behind, when it comes to PDFs, as Paizo obviously is leading the way in that with their subscription concepts, of which I am a proud user, but they're keeping up, possibly even leading the way, with their much maligned, but sporadically useful, DDI. Of course, if Paizo were to come out with such a tool for Pathfinder, I'm fairly sure I could see the touch being fully passed to them.

Kobold Quarterly also gets it, as they've a magazine that has both print and PDF options, so they're definitely keeping up and about to throw down their kick and fully take the lead.

You're Wizards of the Coast, for goodness sake, not some shut-in who should be screaming at the kids to get off of the lawn. You're suppose to be out there, showing the kids the fun games, new and old, and teaching them to do what you did, think and innovate.

Innovate and be vocal, for the love of the game, and just talk to your customers, not at them. We're not idiots and we can generally pick-up on sales speak, marketing smoke, and other such things when we read them or hear them.

I don't have an issue with WotC pulling their IP, it's their choice, but that doesn't mean I can't call them out for obfuscating the truth, for blowing smoke up my backside, or making what I feel is a tremendous mistake similar to the days when TSR was being a bit clueless and this young, aggressive, and innovative company pull D&D's bacon out of the fire.

Sound familiar?

 

[Friadoc]

It still makes no sense:

First: "We can track it" -- If piracy was that easy to track, there wouldn't be any piracy. You can estimate, but you're probably wrong.

But just going with sample "X" figures -- if your sales looked like this:

100X = printed sales
10X = pirated PDFs
1X = legitimate PDF sales.

Getting rid of the 1X in legit sales doesn't do a damn thing but lose you the money from those sales. A large segment of the 10X pirates were never going to be customers in the first place -- they just grabbed it because they could. In addition, even without the legit PDFs to use as source, you're still going to have 10X pirated -- they'll come from book scans, production files (y'know, like the CORE BOOKS were?), etc.

So all they're doing is irritating customers, and leaving the legit PDF money on the table.

The trends on this kind of thing and the failures of past responses are well-documented. There's an entire array of study and dissection of ePublishing, digital commerce and piracy, yet it seems like nobody is bothering to educate themselves on it before making decisions.

See, computer crime has had this, let's call it faith-based initiative, that started with Kevin Mitnick, in which loss numbers are estimated or created even though, in a real sense, no real loss occurred. Of course, the reason for this is so that hefty fines and sentences, based on larger numbers, can be assigned to a case and used against the suspected criminal as a sign of how serious the prosecution is going to be with the case.

In the end, much of these inflated, or whole created from smoke, were tossed out or redone, but thanks to the RIAA and ilk it's only gotten worse in recent years. Hence why the focus has turned mostly, or in some cases solely, toward infringement, as opposed to theft and loss of profit.

While I am totally for punishing criminals for crimes, I am totally against crafting crime to fit the whims of the prosecution and corporations, or even individuals involved, as that is not fair or just.

 

[Mark]

I do not agree with piracy, but I do agree with the concept that a person has the right to a digital copy of their hard copy product, even if they do not have the means to make it themselves.

Not theft, folks, but fair use.

Careful. You're mixing things up a bit. A person probably has a right to an electronic copy of their hardcopy if it is legally acquired either through making it themself or through an authorized distributor. This is a matter of personal use. Fair use is something else.

 

[Morrus]

I guess I'm a little disturbed that the president of WotC doesn't have a vision for D&D ready to go... Why do I suspect that if you asked the same question about Magic you'd have been treated to a pre-vetted paragraph about "cyber-synergy enabling us to dominate the market space" or something? "Huh, good question, let me think about that. We try not to have too much of a vision for D&D, it restricts our ability to make random kneejerk decisions."

You're assuming too much, and we didn't give you his position verbatim.

He wanted to leave that one because he felt it deserved an interview all of its own, and required more depth than a single question. At no point was there any impliaction of Greg not "having an answer"; the implication was completely "I have a lot to say, but let's stick to this topic for now and I'll delve into the latter later".

 

[Morrus]

What is the point of journalism then?

I'm sorry, I don't feel qualified to answer the massive question "what is the point of journalism"?

Assuming that was an actual question; if it was a rhetorical question, then presumably you already know the answer, so I'd be grateful if you'd enlighten me.

 

[GodDelusion]

I'm sorry, I don't feel qualified to answer the massive question "what is the point of journalism"?

Assuming that was an actual question; if it was a rhetorical question, then presumably you already know the answer, so I'd be grateful if you'd enlighten me.

Seems like a rather smug reply...

 

[DonTadow]

Damage Control can be difficult at time. The problem isn't the decision, its the patten of a bad decision followed by a response of " my bad we had no idea it would ..." . It's like a class clown who continues to push the teacher testing their limits. Then when they hit their limits they attempt to apologize fo the action and patch it with duct tape.

Here we have prepared statements from the Hasbro Public Relations and Legal staff cut and pasted to the interview.

 

[DonTadow]

You're assuming too much, and we didn't give you his position verbatim.

He wanted to leave that one because he felt it deserved an interview all of its own, and required more depth than a single question. At no point was there any impliaction of Greg not "having an answer"; the implication was completely "I have a lot to say, but let's stick to this topic for now and I'll delve into the latter later".

More like our pr people haven't given me an answer for that one. This might as well be a press release with the lack of substance and soul. In journalism, a good editor can tell if the quote is real o prepared by how natural it sounds. The answers here are very stiff. I know Morrus isn't a journalist, but he should have grilled him more. Then again, its hard to believe that this is a legitimate interview, considering WOTC is a major ad contributor for enworld. Not calling anyone into question, but any interview provided by people who are paid by the interviewee can be toated as little more than a press release.

Lets remember, Leads has no love for role playing, ccgs or board games. His previous job has been in international sales. He's a hired gun by Hasbro to bring WOTC in line with the rest of the toy company. He probaby hadn't heard of magic the gathering or dungeons and dragons until he got the job.

Leeds is good at marketing crap as interesting. BAck in 2003, he was in charge of marketing Beyblades. Beyblades were essentially the 100s year old game of tops decorated to look like robots. He creates fads that come and go. He also was prominent in marketing during the big pokemon craze.

 

[Beginning of the End]

Ninety one percent of PHB2 pdfs were acquired through piracy? If that figure is true then this debate is over. Wizards was completely justified in shutting down pdf sales. I do not forgive them, however, for giving less than 24 hours notice or for screwing over people who paid legitimately.

100% of the PDFs for all future WotC books will be acquired through piracy.

This is the part where the theory falls apart: Their books were available in PDF before they started selling PDFs. They will still be available now that they've stopped selling PDFs.

I was at a convention game with a guy three years ago who boasted that he had a complete set of Palladium books on his laptop. I had no reason to doubt him. Palladium has only just announced that they will be making e-books available for sale in the future.

Saying that the solution to "our books are being pirated" is "stop selling e-books" doesn't make any sense. The "solution" has absolutely no chance of solving the problem.

I actually don't think it's possible WotC could be stupid enough to actually believe that it would be a solution. So I have to assume they're lying.