How Has the WotC PDF Situation Affected You REALLY?

[CleverNickName]

It definitely caught us by surprise, that's for sure. Now, PDFs have been banned, ENWorld has been SlashDotted, PirateCat has been installing padlocks on threads left and right, legal advice in all flavors abounds, and The Rouse has probably switched from Maalox to Bacardi right about now.

You could say that emotions are a bit high.

Seriously...all hyperbole, strong emotions, and hurt feelings aside: how has the decision to stop all PDF sales actually affected you? Check all that apply.

(please stand by...poll forthcoming) Poll is up.

 

[Mark]

As a PDF-providing ePublisher, it likely will have some impact on my sales. As a gamer it limits my ability to get OOP D&D material. That's about it.


Your poll, now that it is up, doesn't really cover my perspective since it is asking more about how people have reacted (and implies most overreacted) rather polling as a straightforward question like that to which I responsed.

 

[Evenglare]

This is the first thing i have replied to the PDF thing.

Honestly this hasnt affected me at all. People (the customers) think they are SO smart about all of this . But honestly do you think the wotc people just said " LOL O LETS YANK THE PDFS OFF THE INTERNET !!!" No , they obvously had a reason for it. Yes, i will admit that they should have given about a weeks notice . However whats done is done. And honestly it probably only affects MAYBE 5% of the community of D&D . And thats probably a pretty high estimate. ~You dont have to agree with me but thats what i think.~

 

[Nifft]

It's spawned a bunch of threads which I find personally useless on my favorite D&D message board, thus pushing potentially interesting threads off the front page.

(In other words: not a whole lot.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[CleverNickName]

As a PDF-providing ePublisher, it likely will have some impact on my sales. As a gamer it limits my ability to get OOP D&D material. That's about it.


Your poll, now that it is up, doesn't really cover my perspective since it is asking more about how people have reacted (and implies most overreacted) rather polling as a straightforward question like that to which I responsed.

Yeah, it's hard to cover every possible perspective in a poll. Much less an internet poll. Thanks for letting us know your thoughts, though.

It's tongue-in-cheek, sure, but the point was to make a thread that focused on action, rather than emotion. Sure, a lot of people are upset...but are they doing anything about it? That's what I wanna know.

It's spawned a bunch of threads which I find personally useless on my favorite D&D message board, thus pushing potentially interesting threads off the front page.

(In other words: not a whole lot.)

I saw what you did there.

 

[Omro Gamer]

In the past I bought some D&D older edition materials, and I will regret not being able to buy some Planescape PDFs I had my eye on. But I understand why they made the choice they did.

 

[jdrakeh]

FWIW, I've been one of the most staunch defenders of 4e here (to the degree that people complained about my pro 4e stance elsewhere), so take that into consideration when you read my responses. How has the situation affected me?

1. I can't currently obtain legal PDF copies of OOP TSR products.

2. I don't have enough trust in WotC to commit to subscription-based services that they offer, as they have now twice demonstrated a willingness to cancel services or products on short notice.

3. Since subscription-based services are currently a huge selling point for D&D 4e, I don't forsee myself buying into said edition anymore. I had planned on buying into it full tilt (once the errata was incorporated into the core books).

Truth be told, I still don't have anything against D&D 4e (in fact, if anybody other than WotC was publishing it at this point, I'd probably buy it).

 

[Ktulu]

Doesn't bother or irritate me. Every company makes questionable decisions; just like people. I feel bad for the employees, they're constantly under scrutiny from people who scream at the slighest issue.

 

[Elephant]

Bad poll. I use and care about PDFs, but I don't buy or use WOTC 4.0 PDFs in my (3.5) gaming.

I'm rather perplexed by WOTC's petulant reaction to their PDFs appearing on file sharing networks, though. Some people are infringing WOTC's copyright by downloading 'em for free from elsewhere instead of buying 'em direct from WOTC, and WOTC's reaction is...to make it so the ONLY way to get 'em is to infringe the copyright? That's like a retail store having all their customers arrested for shoplifting after the shoplifter has left the premises.

 

[Ktulu]

Bad poll. I use and care about PDFs, but I don't buy or use WOTC 4.0 PDFs in my (3.5) gaming.

I'm rather perplexed by WOTC's petulant reaction to their PDFs appearing on file sharing networks, though. Some people are infringing WOTC's copyright by downloading 'em for free from elsewhere instead of buying 'em direct from WOTC, and WOTC's reaction is...to make it so the ONLY way to get 'em is to infringe the copyright? That's like a retail store having all their customers arrested for shoplifting after the shoplifter has left the premises.

No, that's like saying X is now illegal, continue to download them and be arrested. Is it fair that it's now illegal for everyone? That's the debate. However, they answered the problem the easiest way possible. Now, rather than heavily investigating every .pdf out there, they can simply say, "all .pdf's out there for products going forward are illegally made."

I don't completely agree with the decision, but I can see the logic behind it.