Do you think that WotC would not have planned and built this option into their model? What you are calling piracy and abuse, would seem to be more a concession to less affluent gamers. Without that option those gamers would not have as fully embraced 4e - perhaps significantly enough so that WotC's market research decided that that option must be in the model. By taking away that option, WotC are obviously moving to "phase two" of their digital plan.
WotC made money for years selling books, with absolutely no digital component. Considering the status of WotC's websites, I suspect that they simply designed it poorly, hoping people would be more honorable. Since they were not, things have changed.
There is a huge gulf of difference between paying WotC to gain access to the resources they make available, and not paying WotC and downloading those resources from the internet. I'm almost positive that it could be reasonably argued that this phase two move will increase/encourage higher levels of genuine piracy of their material.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Yes, there are different levels of piracy, full on stealing, and abuse of a bad system.
Thats just funny.
First I'm a player not a DM. The groups I play with don't play at my house.
They don't use my ink or my printer. I have been playing since 1982. So I know the expence of this hobby. But i understand how tight things are for people now adays. 20 a month can be alot for some people right now. For who the money can be spent better elsewhere. If you think this hobby is for the rich your wrong.
I know this hobby isn't for the rich, but I do know that it's easier to support with a fatter wallet.
Silly? Trees grow back in a decade, fossil fuels require eons and entire forests.
"trees" don't grow back in a decade. If you compare the wood growing now, with the wood from 30 years ago, the quality difference is HUGE.
Trees die once, the book lasts maybe longer than I will; this happens once.
Every second I spend looking at a book online, or re-accessing or making changes to a character, I'm spending energy. Over and over again.
One book is not all that's being made, a million books are being made. Nobody cuts down "one tree".
Honestly, I can't believe you're arguing that we should preserve fossil fuels and cut down forests. It's so paradoxical I think my head hurts.
Not really. Color and paper and suchnot is expensive. Players can print things off themselves, but my experience is that most don't.
Wow, lazy players you have then. If they don't print it off, then their laziness shouldn't be rewarded by the GM printing it off.
And when you're printing off every character, five or six sheets each, for seven players, on a dinky home printer *every game or level*, it adds up.
This is similar to typing one page after another until a novel is finished. Just keep at it, and keep them all handy in a folder. They add up over the course of even a few game nights.
Don't reward laziness. I don't.
Not everything. And leveling up is a huge issue, as is adding more items. it changes the sheet.
Yes, but to be honest I can't imagine that one would have SO many items on their sheet as to fill up all the space left by the character builder.
That's great. Where I live, however, the cost of an ink cartridge is the same as a printer. Literally, last time I checked, it's cheaper to just buy a new printer than buy ink cartridges. I'm not making this up.
No, I believe you, I even used to sell them(and I didn't even get a discount!).
There's a very good chance you make more money than I do, and that you don't have children. I'm literally counting coins, and money is tight. I can't afford to waste even a few dollars I don't have to.
And the CB has so much in the way of pictures and wasted space on the sheets, I wonder if the makers have stock in printer companies.
Doubtful I make more money, but no I don't have children. Bet lets not bring them into it, if you're going to bring your children up as "why you can't afford" these things, then that's a whole other kettle of fish.
And the CB actually has a lot of options for compressing the text, try out some of the features.
