D&D General Hey, are we all cool with having to buy the same book twice, or what?

[Parmandur]

Sure it is.

When I buy a PDF from Drivethru and download it, it's mine forever.

When you buy a book on Beyond or one of those other VTTs it's yours as long as they find it worth their while to exist.

You used to own a thing forever, now you don't. Who benefits? The consumer?

If you buy the hardciver book, and lose it in a fire, it isn't anti-consumer business practice for WotC to have used flammable paper to print the book.

 

[eyeheartawk]

If you the book, and lose it in a fire, it isn't anti-consumer business practice for WotC to have used paper to print the book.

You got me. Thread's over, guys.

 

[Parmandur]

You got me. Thread's over, guys.

Well, I mean, you asked a question and got the correct answer. You are welcome.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

Sure it is.

When I buy a PDF from Drivethru and download it, it's mine forever.

When you buy a book on Beyond or one of those other VTTs it's yours as long as they find it worth their while to exist.

You used to own a thing forever, now you don't. Who benefits? The consumer?

Caveat-empor dude. You know the risks, and by buying the product, you have decided that those risks are acceptable in owning the product

 

[Jester David]

It's been three years since D&D Beyond launched and I see many people, here and elsewhere, gladly pay for the physical copy of a release and then again for the virtual copy.

I don't mind.
Did the same thing with Pathfinder, paying twice for the book and the rules of HeroLabs.

There are companies 1/100th the size of WotC that will gladly provide a virtual copy of the physical book you bought for free, and have been doing it for years (Not to mention they're generally normal PDFs that aren't tied to a service).

Some give away PDFs. Some require a bundle. Some charge separately.
Generally, you need to pay $20 for a digital copy. That's probably the standard.

Also D&D Beyond isn't a PDF. It's a character builder as well. People are spending time converting the product and adding the rules options to their system, and deserve to be compensated for their time.

My question is this: is the consensus that this is fine and normal and the other publishers are wrong or should we be banging a drum about how this is a anti-consumer practice?

People deserve to be paid for a day's work and can ask whatever they want for their product.
While I prefer to get a free PDF with a book, if a small company wants a little extra money to offset their expenses and pay their freelancers, I can afford it and am happy to pay. Gaming is a cheap hobby.

 

[the Jester]

It's been three years since D&D Beyond launched and I see many people, here and elsewhere, gladly pay for the physical copy of a release and then again for the virtual copy.

Nobody is forced to buy a virtual copy, and if I'm not mistaken, you can enter the info from your subclass from (f'rinstance) Xanathar's manually if you want.

I'm actually about to buy a second set of the core books in physical form so I don't have to lug them back and forth between my house and my gf's.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

I'm actually about to buy a second set of the core books in physical form so I don't have to lug them back and forth between my house and my gf's.

I'm sad to say this, but that means you're a corporate stooge.

 

[the Jester]

I'm sad to say this, but that means you're a corporate stooge.

Does it help that I don't buy most of the setting books?

 

[Jester David]

Sure it is.

When I buy a PDF from Drivethru and download it, it's mine forever.

Until you have a hard drive failure.

Which is a thing that has literally happened to me, and cost me MANY PDFs.
Thankfully, I had some of the older ones backed-up on burnt DVD discs. Unfortunately, a couple of the discs had degraded and couldn't be read.
So the files were lost. And some games and files no longer online were gone forever...

When you buy a book on Beyond or one of those other VTTs it's yours as long as they find it worth their while to exist.

The 4e Character Builder was online from 2010 to 2020 and only went offline when Silverlight, the program it used, ceased to be supported. Which was still six years after the launch of 5e and eight years after 4e ceased to meaningfully be supported.

There's no clear reason to believe DnDBeyond will cease operation any time soon.
Nor is there a firm reason to believe that if the partnership does end, the program won't remain online but cease to be updated.

You used to own a thing forever, now you don't. Who benefits? The consumer?

Owning things forever has never really been a thing.

I can't tell you how many times I bought a copy of Star Wars or Army of Darkness. I just moved and threw away several boxes of VHS tapes that I "owned forever".
Or the box of CDs that I still "own" despite not having a CD player apart from the optical drive in my computer I'm debating removing because it barely works and could be replaced by another hard drive. Yeah, I don't "own" the music I buy off iTunes and it could be removed, but at least I can play it still.

Will I care in 2035 when DnDBeyond goes down and I lose access to all the books I paid for on there?
Sure. But not a lot as I won't still be playing 5e. Those books will be in a closet somewhere beside my Pathfinder and Palladium books. If I haven't recycled those or gifted them to Goodwill. I'm losing something, but it's something I don't care that I'm losing as it's not being used.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If you have enough money to pay for both digital and physical copies of all the D&D books, go ahead and buy both. What else are you going to spend that money on? If you have the money to do it, you might as well, as you get the benefit of having both a physical copy and digital copy. Would it be nice if the physical purchases would give you codes for the online version? Of course it would! Is it evil for WotC to not do this? No, it's not. Simply, they make more money this way. More money equals paying their employees and hiring more. More D&D employees being payed means more D&D content. More content equals happiness, as well as more money out of your pocket.

It's a cycle. You're funding D&D, and helping it continue to exist.