Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
File-Sharing: Has it affected the RPG industry?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="JingJang" data-source="post: 1536728" data-attributes="member: 18174"><p>This is a good thread - I'm usually a lurker but this one "brought me out of my shell".</p><p></p><p>I am involved in three different games, and we play faily regularly. There is SO much stuff (much of it good and some not so good), that even playing three times a week for several hours - it would take years to wade through all of the material out there. (BTW I don't play three times a week for several hours, although I might if I had the time <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) I have a TON of PDF's and honestly, I'm sure I'll never use all of them. Of the newer "illegal" copies, ALL of the PDF's I have downloaded <em>and used </em> I have bought. I do have a bunch of newer PDF's that I have not bought, but I have not yet had occansion to use them so I "hoard" them on my hard drive until they might prove useful. (Then, if they do, they get bought). </p><p> Most of the PDF's I have downloaded are older out of print modules and accesories. These, due to their size and the difficulty in finding them, I tend to print locally if I am going to use them. </p><p></p><p> I do not know if it applies to the RGP industry, but I know in cartographic publishing when a map goes out of print, it is no longer under copyright. You can make all of the legal copies of out of print maps you want. (I worked for a good sized map publisher and sold copyrights for several years). It would seem to make sense in the world of RPG's but I do not know if that is the case. </p><p></p><p> So I guess I am in the group of people that would say that filesharing has <em>helped </em> the industry - at least from the standpoint of the 11 people in the three groups of which I am a part of. We all have downloaded material and honestly, almost everything we have used, each of us also have hardcopies which we bought. Furthermore, we have ended up with books I know we would not have bought if we didn't have the PDF for previews. </p><p></p><p>As for PDF products to begin with: As far as I am concerned, if I downloaded it via filesharing first and ended up using it, I went ahead and paid for it legitimately. However, that said, I don't think I'm the norm in this regard. Also, to repeat what many have said here, I love the "feel" of the <em>book </em> in my hands. Even though I know there are many great PDF products out there I only have 5 that I have paid for because I have only <em>used </em> those. (I have other "illegal" copies but I have not yet used them so I am not counting those - and again, if I use them, I'll go out there and pay for them).</p><p></p><p>Finally, for the record I agree with those here suggesting a more direct method of distribution. (In fact, I believe this is the heart of this issue, in all of the mediums in which filesharing is effecting.) With the access their consumers have to the internet, corperations that are in the business of distrubution realize they can be very easily replaced. There is no need for corperate "middle-men/distributors" because word-of-mouth is now more powerful than ever (and growing more so). I don't mind my local gaming store getting a cut, but otherwise, I want the rest of the profit going to the those who produced the product. I know this means my local shop may not have everything out there, but I'm willing to get on message boards and websites to see what products I <em>have </em> to have because everyone is talking about it. (And then go back to my local shop and have them get those products).</p><p></p><p>That's my two-cents</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JingJang, post: 1536728, member: 18174"] This is a good thread - I'm usually a lurker but this one "brought me out of my shell". I am involved in three different games, and we play faily regularly. There is SO much stuff (much of it good and some not so good), that even playing three times a week for several hours - it would take years to wade through all of the material out there. (BTW I don't play three times a week for several hours, although I might if I had the time ;) ) I have a TON of PDF's and honestly, I'm sure I'll never use all of them. Of the newer "illegal" copies, ALL of the PDF's I have downloaded [I]and used [/I] I have bought. I do have a bunch of newer PDF's that I have not bought, but I have not yet had occansion to use them so I "hoard" them on my hard drive until they might prove useful. (Then, if they do, they get bought). Most of the PDF's I have downloaded are older out of print modules and accesories. These, due to their size and the difficulty in finding them, I tend to print locally if I am going to use them. I do not know if it applies to the RGP industry, but I know in cartographic publishing when a map goes out of print, it is no longer under copyright. You can make all of the legal copies of out of print maps you want. (I worked for a good sized map publisher and sold copyrights for several years). It would seem to make sense in the world of RPG's but I do not know if that is the case. So I guess I am in the group of people that would say that filesharing has [I]helped [/I] the industry - at least from the standpoint of the 11 people in the three groups of which I am a part of. We all have downloaded material and honestly, almost everything we have used, each of us also have hardcopies which we bought. Furthermore, we have ended up with books I know we would not have bought if we didn't have the PDF for previews. As for PDF products to begin with: As far as I am concerned, if I downloaded it via filesharing first and ended up using it, I went ahead and paid for it legitimately. However, that said, I don't think I'm the norm in this regard. Also, to repeat what many have said here, I love the "feel" of the [I]book [/I] in my hands. Even though I know there are many great PDF products out there I only have 5 that I have paid for because I have only [I]used [/I] those. (I have other "illegal" copies but I have not yet used them so I am not counting those - and again, if I use them, I'll go out there and pay for them). Finally, for the record I agree with those here suggesting a more direct method of distribution. (In fact, I believe this is the heart of this issue, in all of the mediums in which filesharing is effecting.) With the access their consumers have to the internet, corperations that are in the business of distrubution realize they can be very easily replaced. There is no need for corperate "middle-men/distributors" because word-of-mouth is now more powerful than ever (and growing more so). I don't mind my local gaming store getting a cut, but otherwise, I want the rest of the profit going to the those who produced the product. I know this means my local shop may not have everything out there, but I'm willing to get on message boards and websites to see what products I [I]have [/I] to have because everyone is talking about it. (And then go back to my local shop and have them get those products). That's my two-cents [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
File-Sharing: Has it affected the RPG industry?
Top