Shadowdark Gary con

[Velderan]

I believe Drivethrurpg takes a 30-35% cut of sales, so I can understand why, if you can have your own web presence, you would not want to redirect all your sales through them. Like Arcane Library.

Drivethrurpg, on the other hand, probably would love to be taking a 35% cut on a product line as popular as Shadowdark.

And while I can (sort of) understand the poster's desire to have persistent access to the datastore, without having to email customer service if you lose something, the anger and vitriol is...surprising.

Which makes me wonder (...tinfoil hat ON!) if there's some connection there.

I forget which YouTube interview it was on, but Kelsey specifically said selling stuff on her own storefront was to eliminate the middle man taking a large chunk of her sales. It's also why she doesn't sell stuff on Amazon and other retailers that would massively undercut her. I don't blame her, especially if you're willing to put in the work to constantly be driving traffic to your storefront.

I get the instant gratification thing. But like others have said, I backup my PDFs in multiple locations (desktop computer, external USB drive, Proton Drive cloud) so it's rare I don't have a copy of a digital purchase saved somewhere. I recently realized I was missing a PDF I somehow forgot to backup that I received from an early Kickstarter that used a Dropbox link for distribution that had since expired. I went to their website and used the contact us form to explain the situation, providing my backer number for the campaign to look me up. 24ish hours later I had a reply with PDFs of everything from the campaign attached. It wasn't instant, but I got what I needed and as @Whizbang Dustyboots mentioned Arcane Library will do the same if you need a refreshed link. It really shouldn't be that big of a deal.

 

[Velderan]

They take a 35% cut of my Shadowdark stuff, yes.

Kelsey, and others, have been open about the fact that, once you reach a certain level of success, it makes more sense to run your own web store. She still has the most-downloaded (and I think best-reviewed) adventure on DMs Guild (which takes a 50% cut) to help drive awareness, but when it comes to actual financial transactions -- and even before Shadowdark, I believe she had transitioned to being a full-time game designer -- she handles both the costs of a website and takes all of the proceeds.

Which selling popular 5e stuff on DTRPG builds a mailing list for her to send promotional stuff to, which is really smart.

 

[Belen]

I believe Drivethrurpg takes a 30-35% cut of sales, so I can understand why, if you can have your own web presence, you would not want to redirect all your sales through them. Like Arcane Library.

Drivethrurpg, on the other hand, probably would love to be taking a 35% cut on a product line as popular as Shadowdark.

And while I can (sort of) understand the poster's desire to have persistent access to the datastore, without having to email customer service if you lose something, the anger and vitriol is...surprising.

Which makes me wonder (...tinfoil hat ON!) if there's some connection there.

I have been burned multiple times by rpg publishers that do not have persistent links.

Ghostfire Games, for instance, took 15 months to deliver and order and a lot of time to manage. I would not have made the effort except it was a $400 order. It was a nightmare.

I have also had an instance where a lightning strike took out my pc and NAS at the same time. Because the emails were pop3 at the time, I could not recover my purchase history or content links.

If I see no account option and limited use links that are hidden in emails, then I will not purchase from them no matter how cool they may be. It carries too much risk.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I have been burned multiple times by rpg publishers that do not have persistent links.

Ghostfire Games, for instance, took 15 months to deliver and order and a lot of time to manage. I would not have made the effort except it was a $400 order. It was a nightmare.

What does that have to do with persistent links?

I have also had an instance where a lightning strike took out my pc and NAS at the same time. Because the emails were pop3 at the time, I could not recover my purchase history or content links.

How was a lightning strike you getting "burned" by the publisher? (Maybe the publisher was Thor?). Why are you not backing up your stuff in the cloud, and/or on drives that you disconnect when not in use?

If I see no account option and limited use links that are hidden in emails, then I will not purchase from them no matter how cool they may be. It carries too much risk.

That is totally fine and is your choice. It's the nasty accusations against publishers that don't offer that service, that they have "terrible customer service", that I'm pushing back against.

EDIT: I's the attitude that anybody selling you a digital product has an obligation to make that digital product not just available forever but easily accessible forever that seems....bizarre. You bought it; you store it. Any additional service is generosity.

Reminds me of this song:

 

[Retreater]

I just wanted to come in with a perspective from a different industry. Digital book aren't always "forever" - it's already not for your public library.

So I'm in charge of digital content ordering for my library. The licenses we purchase for eBooks and eAudiobooks are "rentals." Different publishers have different terms of purchase. Sometimes we pay the company $1-5 per book download. Sometimes we purchase a set of circulations, usually 26 checkouts, before the item "expires." Others are based on time lengths, expiring after 1 or 2 years.

And those licenses cost far more than you'd expect. We don't get a PDF "discount" like you see in the RPG industry or what you'd pay for a Kindle book. We're spending $60-$100 or more for each of those licenses that expire in 1-2 years.

Publishers can control everything about the usage of digital books that libraries access. I expect this to catch-on with the RPG industry where your PDFs expire and you have to purchase new copies - and you can't lend or share (or print).

 

[Velderan]

I have also had an instance where a lightning strike took out my pc and NAS at the same time.

I hope you at least learned to not rely on a backup solution that can fall victim to the same disaster. I also sincerely hope you're not relying on a website to keep your stuff for you. There's an immediate example of that not being a good idea.

How MySpace deleted everything uploaded to its site between 2003 and 2015

'I'm deeply skeptical this was an accident,' a noted technologist says

www.the-independent.com