Races and Classes cover on Amazon!

[w_earle_wheeler]

I love your attitude it really makes me want to make more products like this...Not!

Maybe WotC shouldn't be making products like this? Or, at the very least, not with a MSRP of $20.00?

Actually, this is the first time I've seen a poster advocate pirating RPG material on these boards.

I've seen it before... but posts advocating piracy are against the site rules.

 

[tenkar]

Maybe WotC shouldn't be making products like this? Or, at the very least, not with a MSRP of $20.00?

I have no problem with the price. It's not a price point I would consider fairly priced for value given, but I am not the market... just one small cog.

The market (the average DnD consumer) will determine if the price is a fair price. On amazon it can be had for less then $14 (a price point much closer to what I consider fairly priced for value given)

 

[SteveC]

I love your attitude it really makes me want to make more products like this...Not!

Scott,
If I can make a suggestion that (I hope) will be helpful...I think the problem people are having is with the way in which the products are being marketed.

Everyone seems to be saying "oh, this is just preview material that would normally be on the website, and they're charging for it," and this is making everyone dismiss the product out of hand.

What I think would have worked is to call the entire book a "visual guide to Dungeons and Dragons," and really not make any mention of the preview aspect at all. I have the visual guides to Lord of the Rings, Firefly, Serenity and many more, and they're all basically what these products are. The reason I think they're popular with the fans is precisely because they weren't marketed as a preview for anything, but rather as a "you want to know absolutely everything about X, well here's the guide for it!"

I don't know if there's anything that can really be said to change people's minds about these two books, but I'd like to hear what you have to say about them. What's in them that's cool and interesting and should make me want to buy them? What do I get with them that I won't simply get in June? I'm listening, and I'd like to hear about it. Frankly, at the moment I'm in the strange position of not buying anything from WotC for about eight months (until the launch of 4E)...that's a weird position to be in, so I'd frankly like to find something in these books that will make them appealing.

Just my concerns...

--Steve

 

[Zamkaizer]

Amazon often displays early mockups for the covers of their upcoming products. Anyone who owns the Monster Manual III knows that it's cover looks far better than this. Note also their cover for Races of Eberron. There's an excellent chance the final product will look much nicer. In it's current state, it's doing a grave injustice to William O'Connor's artwork.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Well... I honestly not like it much. The image is ok, but the border around... it looks a bit like step back to old editions instead of leap forward to 4e.

This cover is a way to not only pay homage to the roots of the game, but also to pave the way for the future. I love the art, and am enamored that there actually is art on the cover. I never cared much for the "tome" look of 3e boks. To me, this is more of a D&D book cover than a lot of the 3e books.

I know a lot of people don't like the 4e tiefling, but I have to say that this is the first time I've ever been interested in the tiefling (except for that one Planescape hottie tiefling, of course! ).

 

[see]

I love your attitude it really makes me want to make more products like this...Not!

Hmm.

See, now I'm tempted to declare that I'll pirate any book with eldarin, tieflings, warlocks, devil sucubi, or the Elemental Malestrom in it, while I won't pirate books with high elves, gnomes, druids, demon sucubi, and the Elemental Plane of Earth.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

I love your attitude it really makes me want to make more products like this...Not!

To expand my thought behind my post here. The notion of someone advocating acquiring a pirated book ticks me off.

Not only is it bad for the RPG industry but piracy personally impacts people that work on RPGs. Some writers are compensated on how many books they sell and smaller owner/writer publishing companies live or die by monthly sales.

Personally speaking, the biggest part of my job is managing the revenue and profitability of the D&D brand. Annually we set a revenue goal based on forecasting models. We also manage profitability by brand, product line, and sometimes by SKU. I meet on a monthly basis with WOTC senior management to discuss revenue performance. We look at the past month and evaluate our next months forecast based on trends, orders, and retail and consumer customer feedback (from direct contact and from sources like these boards). I am looking at revenue on a daily basis.

Part of my compensation is based on how I meet my personal performance goals and how the company does at meeting it's goals. Many of these goals are based on revenue and profit. Piracy hurts our performance and has a direct financial impact on me as an employee of WOTC.

I would rather a mediocre book not sell than be acquired via piracy. Of course I want us to make books people want to buy and if people don't want a particular book and they don't sell then we have an opportunity to learn from this and take corrective action to create books that people want to buy.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Scott,
If I can make a suggestion that (I hope) will be helpful...I think the problem people are having is with the way in which the products are being marketed.

Everyone seems to be saying "oh, this is just preview material that would normally be on the website, and they're charging for it," and this is making everyone dismiss the product out of hand.

What I think would have worked is to call the entire book a "visual guide to Dungeons and Dragons," and really not make any mention of the preview aspect at all. I have the visual guides to Lord of the Rings, Firefly, Serenity and many more, and they're all basically what these products are. The reason I think they're popular with the fans is precisely because they weren't marketed as a preview for anything, but rather as a "you want to know absolutely everything about X, well here's the guide for it!"

I don't know if there's anything that can really be said to change people's minds about these two books, but I'd like to hear what you have to say about them. What's in them that's cool and interesting and should make me want to buy them? What do I get with them that I won't simply get in June? I'm listening, and I'd like to hear about it. Frankly, at the moment I'm in the strange position of not buying anything from WotC for about eight months (until the launch of 4E)...that's a weird position to be in, so I'd frankly like to find something in these books that will make them appealing.

Just my concerns...

--Steve

I appreciate your thoughts on the subject. It is certainly something I will discuss back at the office.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Who is the artist?

William O'Connor

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

$20? Twenty dollars? For a preview? For information that will be all over the message boards here, at WotC, and at RPG.net in about twelve seconds after it's released?

Granted, twenty American dollars isn't worth what it used to be worth, but damn. I'll give you $5 for postage, $6 if you throw in some stickers or something.