D&D 5E OrcPub is Closing Down

[Parmandur]

I will not claim to speak for the good Captain, however; I believe you are grossly mischaracterizing his text.

In any case, what they should have done was scooped up his superior product, and sold it for a small fee of about 9.99. Period. I have already purchased every book that they have published. Reading through this thread I am beginning to regret it. Expecting me to repurchase the players handbook in order to use a character builder, that is primarily going to be used to get new players into their game....especially, as it would be trivially easy to code it so that the actual data is still kept in the player's handbook. Allow me to be absolutely clear, I will not buy the player's handbook again, as I already own three hard copies, so with their gross mishandling of the situation, now, instead of scooping up or creating their own reasonable tools, and me paying them a nominal fee for the privilege, I will pay them nothing, and will either create my own for personal use, or will use one where I can input my own parameters, again, for fair use. And no, I will not run a foul of any bobbies, as I won't be providing it to others. I doubt that my stance is uncommon.

OK, so you don't want to pay fair market price for a given product: that's fair, but that doesn't make Curse or SmiteWorks bad guys (WotC wouldn't buy out OrcPub, OrcPub would have to pay WotC for content like other licencees).

 

[Severite]

OK, so you don't want to pay fair market price for a given product: that's fair, but that doesn't make Curse or SmiteWorks bad guys (WotC wouldn't buy out OrcPub, OrcPub would have to pay WotC for content like other licencees).

To point of fact, they didn't offer a paid license, least as far as I know, and, you have a VERY strange idea on what fair market price constitutes. As an example, the housing bubble that closed down the united state's economy for years, was based on what the market would bear, at least until it didn't, but nobody in their right minds would declare the lending practices fair or healthy for long term stability.

As to Curse being the company providing the service at that price point, either they are over charging by making the character creator inexplicably tied to the PHB. When it can easily be written that it doesn't.; or WotC is, by the way they wrote the contract in providing that service. As a and user, the specifics do not matter, and either way, is based on blanket greed, and has left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

[Parmandur]

To point of fact, they didn't offer a paid license, least as far as I know, and, you have a VERY strange idea on what fair market price constitutes. As an example, the housing bubble that closed down the united state's economy for years, was based on what the market would bear, at least until it didn't, but nobody in their right minds would declare the lending practices fair or healthy for long term stability.

As to Curse being the company providing the service at that price point, either they are over charging by making the character creator inexplicably tied to the PHB. When it can easily be written that it doesn't.; or WotC is, by the way they wrote the contract in providing that service. As a and user, the specifics do not matter, and either way, is based on blanket greed, and has left a sour taste in my mouth.

We don't know that they didn't offer a paid license, either; if they did, it would be based on similar terms to the companies who have paid WotC for their intellectual property, certainly. The price is fair insifar as people are paying it, and coding isn't free: the worker is worth his wages.

I just use pen and paper myself, but if you want a product certainly the companies involved have every right to offer it for compensation.

 

[Severite]

We don't know that they didn't offer a paid license, either; if they did, it would be based on similar terms to the companies who have paid WotC for their intellectual property, certainly. The price is fair insifar as people are paying it, and coding isn't free: the worker is worth his wages.

I just use pen and paper myself, but if you want a product certainly the companies involved have every right to offer it for compensation.

Obviously I have strong feelings about this, but, let's look at this another way. How much money would WotC gain by having a "fair" price, which, just so we are very clear, charging me even remotely the same price for a version that once produced, is free for you to make infinite copies of, should not be valued anywhere near what the nicely done hardback books regularly sell at, which is around 33$.

Now, weigh the difference between 9.99 for the PHB only character editor, sell the expansions for each book somewhere between 1.99 and 9.99 on the editor, that describes the options, but not the mechanics, so you still need the books in question. And compare it to the 30$ that WotC is selling each digital copy for for a net loss of 20$ per sale. While this is all true, the other side of it, is that the thing, once made, costs negligible amounts to distribute, and how many more people will buy everything., like myself at that "fair" price. Compared to how much indemnity they are creating by removing that option, which is right and good, but than not supplanting it with a comparable product. Not to mention, the added benefit of making it intrinsically easier to introduce new players., increasing your customer base.

 

[Parmandur]

Obviously I have strong feelings about this, but, let's look at this another way. How much money would WotC gain by having a "fair" price, which, just so we are very clear, charging me even remotely the same price for a version that once produced, is free for you to make infinite copies of, should not be valued anywhere near what the nicely done hardback books regularly sell at, which is around 33$.

Now, weigh the difference between 9.99 for the PHB only character editor, sell the expansions for each book somewhere between 1.99 and 9.99 on the editor, that describes the options, but not the mechanics, so you still need the books in question. And compare it to the 30$ that WotC is selling each digital copy for for a net loss of 20$ per sale. While this is all true, the other side of it, is that the thing, once made, costs negligible amounts to distribute, and how many more people will buy everything., like myself at that "fair" price. Compared to how much indemnity they are creating by removing that option, which is right and good, but than not supplanting it with a comparable product. Not to mention, the added benefit of making it intrinsically easier to introduce new players., increasing your customer base.

But how much indemnity are they actually producing, how much money are they making, and how much money are they leaving on the table? We don't know, and neither does WotC, but they probably have some idea and are acting in their interest based on that idea. Fantasy Grounds, Roll20 and Beyond all seem to be doing alright as it is.

 

[epithet]

...We don't know, and neither does WotC, but they probably have some idea and are acting in their interest based on that idea. ...

I don't think there is anything I've seen to suggest that WotC has much in the way of a bright idea when it comes to digital products and digital tools. They are, as far as I know, the only company in the industry that still refuses to offer watermarked pdfs of their current edition products. They can't seem to grasp the idea that their refusal to offer a legitimate pdfs just creates demand for pirated ones.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think there is anything I've seen to suggest that WotC has much in the way of a bright idea when it comes to digital products and digital tools. They are, as far as I know, the only company in the industry that still refuses to offer watermarked pdfs of their current edition products. They can't seem to grasp the idea that their refusal to offer a legitimate pdfs just creates demand for pirated ones.

Does it? Do you have market research to back that up...?

They do have digital versions, multiple versions, of all their books available for purchase on more modern platforms than PDF, and St prices they consider fair. They don't owe q particular version to the world, nor does that justify theft.

 

[Morrus]

They are, as far as I know, the only company in the industry that still refuses to offer watermarked pdfs of their current edition products.

FFG.

 

[Parmandur]

FFG.

They do alright, last I checked.

 

[Morrus]

They do alright, last I checked.

But where can I buy their Star Wars RPG in PDF?

The point being that there are many reasons not to do so. FFG doesn’t for one reason, WotC doesn’t for another. Piracy is not either reason.