Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
I have no idea what a fair price should be for a PDF. I don't know how much money it costs to develop a new core rule system or a supplement or an adventure, and how much goes into the production of the physical item.
I tend to think that a PDF should include cost appropriate for the cost of developing and writing the material, not the cost for producing the physical item.
Oh, and of course, a "reasonable" extra to make some profit.
I don't know if it will eventually hurt FLGS or not. And I am even less certain I should care. Yes, it sucks going out of business, but I hate limiting technological possibilities just for maintaining a "traditional business" a lot. I think that if we manage to utilize the technologies fully, new opportunities can arise and while there might be different types of business models behind it, overall we just get more or better products or both.
It is not as if we suddenly spend less money when things get cheaper. We spend money on more and different stuff.
EDIT:
But there is one thing to note:
It is quite possible that some publishers can't be so fast to change business models, since their customers might not change fast enough either. And in such cases, they might have to enter compromises to keep the "old" buisness around.
My own company is in a similar situation. We traditionally have all "B2B" business, meaning we sell something to another company and they sell that to others. But in the times of the Internet, this is no longer strictly necessary. In essence, most of this works now that we program a design & ordering software or website, brand it for the businesses we deal with, they offer it to their customers online or via CD, and than people order with us. The extreme case is that the application is downloaded online, used on the end consumers PC, he orders with our servers, and it is delivered by mail. The user never has to enter the other business shops, nor talk with any of his service personnel. But still, the intermediate business gets his cut. The reason we keep it is that we still need this business for acquiring our customers and for a sizable chunk of our products. We can't do direct B2C, because than they would stop dealing with us and we lose many of their end customers.
Maybe this can change over time...
I tend to think that a PDF should include cost appropriate for the cost of developing and writing the material, not the cost for producing the physical item.
Oh, and of course, a "reasonable" extra to make some profit.
I don't know if it will eventually hurt FLGS or not. And I am even less certain I should care. Yes, it sucks going out of business, but I hate limiting technological possibilities just for maintaining a "traditional business" a lot. I think that if we manage to utilize the technologies fully, new opportunities can arise and while there might be different types of business models behind it, overall we just get more or better products or both.
It is not as if we suddenly spend less money when things get cheaper. We spend money on more and different stuff.
EDIT:
But there is one thing to note:
It is quite possible that some publishers can't be so fast to change business models, since their customers might not change fast enough either. And in such cases, they might have to enter compromises to keep the "old" buisness around.
My own company is in a similar situation. We traditionally have all "B2B" business, meaning we sell something to another company and they sell that to others. But in the times of the Internet, this is no longer strictly necessary. In essence, most of this works now that we program a design & ordering software or website, brand it for the businesses we deal with, they offer it to their customers online or via CD, and than people order with us. The extreme case is that the application is downloaded online, used on the end consumers PC, he orders with our servers, and it is delivered by mail. The user never has to enter the other business shops, nor talk with any of his service personnel. But still, the intermediate business gets his cut. The reason we keep it is that we still need this business for acquiring our customers and for a sizable chunk of our products. We can't do direct B2C, because than they would stop dealing with us and we lose many of their end customers.
Maybe this can change over time...
Last edited:
