Races and Classes cover on Amazon!

[The Little Raven]

Heck, instead of comparing this to buying Halo 3, I'd compare it to buying a paperback and then being expected to buy the hardcover.

I'd compare it to buying the Rivan Codex and the Belgariad.

The Belgariad is the main work, and the Rivan Codex is a collection of materials that provide insight into the development of the Belgariad (and the Mallorean, as well).

 

[Andor]

For 98 pages of interesting reading. The same reason why people buy novels and magazines. Clearly, if you never buy books just to read them, then this book isn't for you.

That's just silly. Just to read what? Is it an art book? A bunch of insight to the design process? The worlds most expensive pamphlet?

I buy magazines. I pay $20 for a years subscription (actually 3 years for my favorite magazine.) If anyone tried to sell me an idividual issue of a magazine for $20 I'd laugh in their face. (And checking the page count of the 2 closest magazines to where I sit they come in at 112 and 126 pages.)

I buy novels. They are well written (usually) and contain interesting plots/worlds/characters/viewpoints. This product might possibly contain an interesting viewpoint, but otherwise it has none of the entertainment value of a novel. And checking the page count of the last novel I bought I find it comes in at 377 pages. Paperbacks cost about $6-$8 these days. Only hardcovers break $20.

I don't often buy art books so I can't address how the previews might compare to those.

I buy reference books. These contain information that I wish to learn, and provide entertainment. The last one I bought comes in at 526 pages and cost £9. So better than 5 times the pages for about the same money.

I submit to you it's valid for me to ask how this book could possibly be worth $20 of my money, when it seems so overpriced compared to magazines, novels, or reference books. And asking that question does not imply I am illiterate.

 

[The Little Raven]

I buy magazines. I pay $20 for a years subscription (actually 3 years for my favorite magazine.) If anyone tried to sell me an idividual issue of a magazine for $20 I'd laugh in their face. (And checking the page count of the 2 closest magazines to where I sit they come in at 112 and 126 pages.)

To be fair, magazines give up at least 1/4 of their page count to advertisements (some give up 1/2), which is why they don't cost as much. Remove every single ad from a magazine, replace it with appropriate content, and you'd probably be paying $20 or more for each issue.

 

[Aldarc]

For 98 pages of interesting reading. The same reason why people buy novels and magazines. Clearly, if you never buy books just to read them, then this book isn't for you.

So do you buy two chapters of a novel just so you can buy the book again with the same chapters included?

To be fair, magazines give up at least 1/4 of their page count to advertisements (some give up 1/2), which is why they don't cost as much. Remove every single ad from a magazine, replace it with appropriate content, and you'd probably be paying $20 or more for each issue.

And to be fair, this preview book is a giant advertisement for what will be released five months later.

 

[The Little Raven]

So do you buy two chapters of a novel just so you can buy the book again with the same chapters included?

Faulty comparison. This isn't the PHB Classes and Races chapters cut out, wholecloth, and put into separate volumes. As I said, the comparison between the Rivan Codex and the Belgariad is probably the most apt one (one just gives insight into the development of the other, while containing some amount of material from the main product).

 

[Fifth Element]

So do you buy two chapters of a novel just so you can buy the book again with the same chapters included?

Not an apt analogy, but even so, some people might. We understand that you don't want to. So don't.

 

[WhatGravitas]

That book sounds... bad. And it is marketed in a bad fashion. If it'd be a coffee table book, and/or a "behind the curtain"-compilation, that it's great. But if it's what it sounds like - a book full of previews and some later-to-be reprinted art - then it's bad.

Make it a decent coffee table book with 'lavishly illustrated' pages, and it goes up a notch (or more). Sell it as 'exclusive preview', then it tastes like cheap money-grubbing. And I think, in this case, it's more about the attitude of the marketing, especially considering it's not a 'for use in game'-book, but rather a 'read for fun'-book.

Cheers, LT.

 

[The Little Raven]

And to be fair, this preview book is a giant advertisement for what will be released five months later.

I've yet to see an advertisement that gives design insight into the development of the subject matter, in form of essays and concept art. When I do see one of that nature, I might concede the point.

 

[Pale]

They seem to be preview books combined with "Making Of" information and a nice spread of concept art.

Yeah, I'll buy that. I tend to purchase art books in any case.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

So do you buy two chapters of a novel just so you can buy the book again with the same chapters included?

And to be fair, this preview book is a giant advertisement for what will be released five months later.

You're spot on target. It's a poorly thought out attempt at generating revenue during the dead zone between now and 4e. WotC is betting it all (well, not ALL, see below) on the MMORPG marketing horse: "Hey, people will buy a guide for World of Warcraft, I bet they'll buy a preview of fourth edition... and then pay ten bucks a month!"

"If you don't like it, then don't buy it." WotC has fired you as a customer.

But it isn't all bad.

Grand History of the Realms? That was a great book to fill the edition gap. It's really too bad we couldn't have more system-less capstone products, like a Grand History of Greyhawk.

Dungeon Tiles? Another good idea for products during this period.

The Dungeon Survival Guide had the potential to be a good product... well, it was a great idea, at least. Be sure to pick it up at your local used bookstore.

The Rules Compendium? Good idea, mediocre execution... but then again WotC doesn't want to give us too many reasons to stick with 3.5, so might as well leave it a mess like they did with 2e.

The Part-Time Sorceress Book was another brilliant and innovative idea. Too closely tied to 3.5 mechanics (why not make this a 4e preview as well) and I was a little dubious that it didn't have any review blurbs of female authors. In any case, it flew off the shelf at my FLGS.