D&D General Is D&D Beyond Exclusivity Bad for D&D?

[AlViking]

Of an entirely different order.

Still luxury entertainment.

"D&D" is not in the Creative Commons. The 5E SRD is.

We are having this discussion because there are literally Beyond exclusive materials already.

The 1% of content on DDB that are not published elsewhere are things that in the past would never have been published in the past, except perhaps with Dungeon magazine which died with TSR.

 

[Reynard]

The 1% of content on DDB that are not published elsewhere are things that in the past would never have been published in the past, except perhaps with Dungeon magazine which died with TSR.

This ignores literal decades of alternate digital distribution methods employed by the industry, WotC included.

 

[AlViking]

This ignores literal decades of alternate digital distribution methods employed by the industry, WotC included.

It's still only a miniscule percentage and things that do not justify a physical release.

 

[Reynard]

It's still only a miniscule percentage and things that do not justify a physical release.

No one is asking for a physical release.

 

[AlViking]

No one is asking for a physical release.

Then they will be published on a website. Like DDB for WOTC.

 

[Reynard]

Then they will be published on a website. Like DDB for WOTC.

Or just as a PDF on their website or via DMs Guild or whatever. it seems very strange that you are so adamant that Beyond is the only venue for small products even though that has not been the case for decades.

 

[Maxperson]

Completely unrelated? I wouldn't say so.

A person thinks they should be able to buy something they currently can't have, when they aren't buying something they currently can. Both sides are an inverse to each other. And thus in my opinion related.

I find this thinking to be odd. It has nothing to do with buying everything or not buying everything, and has everything to do with sales and profits. That's how corporations work.

Nobody is going to sit down at a corporation and say, "Well, since most people don't buy everything, we're going to not sell PDFs and lose out on money in order to show them that they really should have bought everything."

By not selling PDFs WotC is leaving money on the table and that only makes sense if they have some sort of strategy to make even more in the long run by doing things the way that they are doing. The only real strategy that makes sense to me along those lines is for them to be trying to pull more and more people into DDB for exclusive content in order to then shift to selling larger and more expensive exclusive content once they hit a certain threshold. The kind of content that they CAN sell in print, but won't because digital is cheaper and they can sell it exclusively on DDB.

That will in my opinion ultimately be bad for D&D, but greed often puts corporation on bad paths.

 

[saviirkad]

There had been precedence for small digital-only releases to be put on D&D Beyond,  and other sites like DMs Guild. The recent digital-only releases are a shift away from that practice, so there is cause to be concerned from those who specifically want to buy the product from somewhere other than D&D Beyond.

 

[AlViking]

Or just as a PDF on their website or via DMs Guild or whatever. it seems very strange that you are so adamant that Beyond is the only venue for small products even though that has not been the case for decades.

I've never said DDB is the only venue. In the past things like this ever published by WOTC have been on a website they own - other than AL which I think is still hosted on DMs Guild. Obviously there's a ton of D&D content from amateurs or third parties available on many different sites.

 

[AlViking]

There had been precedence for small digital-only releases to be put on D&D Beyond,  and other sites like DMs Guild. The recent digital-only releases are a shift away from that practice, so there is cause to be concerned from those who specifically want to buy the product from somewhere other than D&D Beyond.

Has WOTC ever published things on DmsGuild other than AL stuff since they purchased DDB?