Has WoTC announced any ebooks yet?

[JediSoth]

And it's made out of pure Unobtainium!

Many Na'vi died to bring us these gaming supplements....

 

[JoeGKushner]

I can appreciate WoTC wanting to have some type of control over the material but in the time its been ongoing, the older material could still have been made available. As the boxes reach unto the ceiling awaiting the movers tomorrow, I'm just hoping WoTC gets it together.

 

[Piratecat]

We've sure beat that horse.

When I interviewed Greg Leeds last summer, he was pretty adamant that they were working on a non-pdf method for addressing this. If I speak to him at this coming GenCon, I'll ask him the same question.

 

[Raven Crowking]

We've sure beat that horse.

Yup.

The only thing left to do is beat it some more!

RC

 

[Festivus]

Here's what my crystal ball sees at Gencon this year:

D&D books available for purchase on the iPad via the new iBooks bookstore.

And yes, that would sway me to purchase an iPad.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Here's what my crystal ball sees at Gencon this year:

D&D books available for purchase on the iPad via the new iBooks bookstore.

And yes, that would sway me to purchase an iPad.

Interesting theory. I think that would be too commonsense for WoTC.

I'd love to be proven wrong on this though.

My question here though, is because I'm iPad ignorant, is can you view that format on other devices? For example, the Kindle store allows you to read the books on your PC.

 

[Festivus]

I am also iPad ignorant... but we are getting one at the office (to test our web site), so I will be able to play with one soon as we can get one.

 

[pedr]

I'm not sure that iBooks, which uses epub I think, could cope with layout-focused image-heavy rpg books. You could have a searchable SRD-style document, including fluff text etc, but it probably wouldn't be very good at displaying power 'cards', and charts would be very difficult, if I understand epub correctly.

If I were at WotC, I'd be making contact with people like Wired or Pixel Mags and talking to them about distributing D&D books through the solutions being developed for magazines. I've tried a Pixels Mags-delivered magazine (SciFi Now) on an 8Gb iPod Touch and it works very well, though it's a bit slow on that device. Hopefully it's faster on the iPad (I can't test it as you can't seem to get Pixel Mags content on the iPad in the UK yet) but it seems to faithfully reproduce the layout and artwork of a real magazine with pretty good navigation, zoom where necessary, etc. Since Pixel Mags already have a sales-processing system it may be quite straight forward, except that D&D books are longer than magazines. And since it's a closed system, WotC don't have to worry (too much!) about it being a vector for IP infringment.

 

[MoxieFu]

I bought an ePint at the ePub the other night.

All said it was an empty experience...

 

[Elton Robb]

Since Pixel Mags already have a sales-processing system it may be quite straight forward, except that D&D books are longer than magazines. And since it's a closed system, WotC don't have to worry (too much!) about it being a vector for IP infringment.

That's great! I'd be happy to buy into the technology. Unfortunately -- my pals at QuestionCopyright.org calls it the iBad for a reason.