The Sigil
Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
I may be in the minority here, but as a consumer, I know one thing I would REALLY love to see from d20 publishers is to offer their print products in electronic form... with the ability to select, copy, and paste text - I understand publishers may not want to do this due to copyright concerns, but at the very least an offering with all of the Open Game Content in a particular product would be nice.
This would not need to be done concurrent with a release, necessarily, as I understand that otherwise, a publisher would see sales plummet as the first couple of people to buy their works published them on the web, but perhaps 6 months to a year after the initial release, it would be nice to offer such things as "web enhancements" or somesuch - at a point when they are no longer cutting into sales, and possibly password-protected in some way.
This would serve several purposes, in my mind.
1.) It would allow MUCH easier access to OGC for other publishers and would probably increase the re-use of OGC in other products (a GOOD thing, in my mind).
2.) It would automatically comply with the OGL provision for making OGC clearly delineated (a provision which few publishers really bother comply with, unfortunately
).
3.) It would save bookshelf space for me. I prefer to have my products in electronic form - I have been converting my entire bookshelf of old D&D products (over 100 of the Basic D&D stuff alone) to PDF by purchasing the ESDs from WotC. My three shelves of stuff now fits nicely on three CDs. Plus, it's much more portable - I can browse it at work, too.
Any thoughts from publishers out there? I know, I know, I'm just an electronic publisher and don't understand the ramifications of print stuff, but it sure would be nice to see from a consumer point of view... at least this consumer's. My opinions represent me myself and nobody else.
BTW, if any publishers want to send me electronic copies of their stuff, I'll happily agree not to distribute it (with a signed document, if needed) and pay the full (print) price for the publication - though I will be picky and choosy about what I choose to "buy" in this fashion.
--The Sigil
This would not need to be done concurrent with a release, necessarily, as I understand that otherwise, a publisher would see sales plummet as the first couple of people to buy their works published them on the web, but perhaps 6 months to a year after the initial release, it would be nice to offer such things as "web enhancements" or somesuch - at a point when they are no longer cutting into sales, and possibly password-protected in some way.
This would serve several purposes, in my mind.
1.) It would allow MUCH easier access to OGC for other publishers and would probably increase the re-use of OGC in other products (a GOOD thing, in my mind).
2.) It would automatically comply with the OGL provision for making OGC clearly delineated (a provision which few publishers really bother comply with, unfortunately
).3.) It would save bookshelf space for me. I prefer to have my products in electronic form - I have been converting my entire bookshelf of old D&D products (over 100 of the Basic D&D stuff alone) to PDF by purchasing the ESDs from WotC. My three shelves of stuff now fits nicely on three CDs. Plus, it's much more portable - I can browse it at work, too.
Any thoughts from publishers out there? I know, I know, I'm just an electronic publisher and don't understand the ramifications of print stuff, but it sure would be nice to see from a consumer point of view... at least this consumer's. My opinions represent me myself and nobody else.
BTW, if any publishers want to send me electronic copies of their stuff, I'll happily agree not to distribute it (with a signed document, if needed) and pay the full (print) price for the publication - though I will be picky and choosy about what I choose to "buy" in this fashion.
--The Sigil
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