ICv2's interview WotC President Greg Leeds

[xechnao]

But for all intents and purposes, isn't WoTC "the industry"?

Not saying that other companies don't exist or that they're #1 in the miniatures business but the gap between them and their second competitor is well, all of their competitors probably don't do as much business RPG wise and probably CCG wise no?

I really cant say I can trust myself making a guess here and this is a pretty significant one. I am not sure: there are a number of companies that each month make a considerable amount of new product for their fanbases.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I really cant say I can trust myself making a guess here and this is a pretty significant one. I am not sure: there are a number of companies that each month make a considerable amount of new product for their fanbases.

Serious question with no snark.

Can you name two companies that product two full hardcover books a month that run $30 or under?

I'm not familiar enough with the 'industry' to know any. And most that I do either price themselves way outside that $30 tag or print quarterly products.

Heck, how about PDF companies that produce say... 140-160 full color pages a month for $5.

 

[Xyxox]

I just wonder when Greg Leeds (is he related to Lorraine Williams?) will take a lead from Games Workshop and start calling it the "Dungeons and Dragons" hobby (as opposed to the RPG hobby).

 

[The Little Raven]

We worry about piracy and brick and mortar business.

This is factually what he said.

Others, doesn't. They keep using the evil PDF format. They want to ruin your hobby. We are heroes.

This isn't. This is just a rude attempt to assign some sort of negative motivation to someone because you don't like them or what they're doing. It's childish and a perfect example of why message boards get dismissed as cesspools of discourse.

 

[xechnao]

Serious question with no snark.

Can you name two companies that product two full hardcover books a month that run $30 or under?

I'm not familiar enough with the 'industry' to know any. And most that I do either price themselves way outside that $30 tag or print quarterly products.

Heck, how about PDF companies that produce say... 140-160 full color pages a month for $5.

Mongoose, White Wolf and Paizo? Not sure if they fit exactly but they seem to have a regular monthly printing schedule.

 

[xechnao]

This isn't. This is just a rude attempt to assign some sort of negative motivation to someone because you don't like them or what they're doing. It's childish and a perfect example of why message boards get dismissed as cesspools of discourse.

Call me a child and a rude person but that was the impression I got of his message too. Thinking about the existing pdf market and the position he puts pdf publishing-ers by his remarks.

In fact there has been a bit of movement after this among some retail store owners and publishers that publish pdfs.

I personally do not want to pick a side on this, neither do I like the fact that there are sides on debate about this but it seems that the argument of the message of the interview picked a side indeed.

 

[The Little Raven]

Call me a child and a rude person but that was the impression I got of his message too.

What I got from his messages was that piracy could have a negative effect on brick-and-mortar stores (because why drive to a store to drop $30 on a book you can score for free while sitting on your ass?) and they wanted to ensure the health and continued business of those stores, since they are a key component of the industry.

The second part can only be applied to his message if you come with the preconceived notion that he's being dismissive of other publishers (who are, in fact, orders of magnitude smaller than WotC) by highlighting a different strategy than theirs. It strikes me as people getting their panties in a twist over something he never actually said, because they want to get their panties in a twist, not because the facts warrant it.

Judge people by what they actually say and do, not by what actions or words you assign to them.

 

[Mark]

(. . .) and they wanted to ensure the health and continued business of those stores (. . .)

How does he contend that the discontinuation of selling OOP product PDFs do that?

 

[The Little Raven]

How does he contend that the discontinuation of selling OOP product PDFs do that?

Obviously, he's stating the strategy as an overview, not delving into the details of individual product lines and how they factor into it.

Older edition material obviously doesn't sell through brick-and-mortar stores (except as the second-hand market), but having the PDFs available for sale leads to them being as easily pirated as the current edition material. They obviously want to cut down piracy as much as possible.

 

[xechnao]

What I got from his messages was that piracy could have a negative effect on brick-and-mortar stores (because why drive to a store to drop $30 on a book you can score for free while sitting on your ass?) and they wanted to ensure the health and continued business of those stores, since they are a key component of the industry.

So far so good (if you are willing to not put amazon in the equation and accept that free pdfs hurt retailers in the current situation).

The second part can only be applied to his message if you come with the preconceived notion that he's being dismissive of other publishers (who are, in fact, orders of magnitude smaller than WotC) by highlighting a different strategy than theirs. It strikes me as people getting their panties in a twist over something he never actually said, because they want to get their panties in a twist, not because the facts warrant it.

Judge people by what they actually say and do, not by what actions or words you assign to them.

The second part gets applied if you go to a thread about retailers in this forum and see the arguments that got born over there and in the linked pages (and how they were born). Even if you think that Wotc is a different league, you can see pretty well over there how it works. And remember that Wotc provided an exclusive interview to this site over here, the same site that the thread I am telling you about has been made.