> I wonder what it is that drives decisions like this, not that I am complaining.
In our press release about Free Ars Magica, we laid out some of the reasons, besides the simple "share cool stuff" idea. In short, we want to increase our base of active players. It's a bit like the theory behind the open game license -- our commercial success as publishers depends on the network of players, since it's playing the game that really makes you want to go out and buy books, whether a printed copy of a PDF you downloaded for free, or a nifty adventure or supplement of cool new stuff for your wizard or what have you. So if we give away rulebooks to boost the number of players, we're strengthening our network.
We also are working on a new edition of Ars Magica, and we hope that PDF-downloaders will become potential "upgraders." I suspect that Pinnacle has similar thoughts, hoping that classic Deadlands players will upgrade to their upcoming Savage Worlds game system.
-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games