D&D 5E Rants Regarding the Corporate Castration of our Beloved Hobby

[DEFCON 1]

It's really easy... if you want it fast and good, you pay for it and it's not cheap.

If you want it fast and cheap, you grab a character sheet from anywhere and fill all the info in yourself, which isn't easy.

If you want it cheap and easy... you build your own character sheet builder but that isn't going to be fast.

Go ahead and do any of those. But don't be fooled into thinking you can have everyone else do all the work for you building and maintaining it and that you can just drop a couple bucks to pick it up.

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[tardigrade]

I am not a lawyer either, but my day job does involve some IP. And while it is true that a company has to defend its intellectual property, I don't entirely understand why they didn't just offer Orcpub a noncommercial license for the relevant content. That's basically how DMsGuild operates, and generating a perception of moneygrabbing attitudes among users isn't a great idea. Or a commercial license (for a fee), or just buy them/him out.

Of course they might have tried this route and failed; we just don't know.

 

[Patrick McGill]

I am not a lawyer either, but my day job does involve some IP. And while it is true that a company has to defend its intellectual property, I don't entirely understand why they didn't just offer Orcpub a noncommercial license for the relevant content. That's basically how DMsGuild operates, and generating a perception of moneygrabbing attitudes among users isn't a great idea. Or a commercial license (for a fee), or just buy them/him out.

Of course they might have tried this route and failed; we just don't know.

If I owned a company the last thing I'd do is offer a commercial license to someone who decided to steal my intellectual property.

 

[Sunseeker]

Okay, so what? I got into WoW by first playing on private servers.

Didn't make them right. Didn't make me right. Same is true for OrcPub. They were in the wrong.

Yeah I understand liking the thing, but they're still in the wrong.

And this isn't new either.

 

[Schmoe]

Regardless of copyright protection, etc., it would be pretty nice if every hardcover book contained a unique unlock code that someone could use to unlock that content one time on a digital platform. They could then keep a central database of each time a code has been used on each platform, to prevent content/platform piracy.

 

[Keravath]

There are many sides to this issue.

-WotC defending their copyright.
-Players wanting to utilize online content to facilitate game play
-utilizing hard copy material in a digital format (what would be considered fair use as allowed by copyright if you own the books? Adding the small sections needed to create a character generator from source material you already own might well fall within fair use .. though I am not a lawyer)
-character creation tools really facilitate game play by making the entry learning curve to the hobby less steep .. good tools could lead to more players and ultimately more sales
- charging players twice for both hard copy and digital access to the content is probably one of the items that bothers people most .. especially since their digital licensing model is broken .. if you want to use D&D beyond, roll 20, fantasy grounds .. you have to purchase platform dependent digital access. This might work for the “whales” in the hobby but it won’t get much traction with the masses. Speaking as someone who could afford this if I wanted to .. the WotC digital licensing model as currently implemented does not represent a reasonable value proposition for most folks. Ideally, people should be able to purchase a D&D digital license that is transportable across WotC digital content providers.
-last .. when I compare orcpub2 and some of the fillable pdf character sheet efforts to the character creation tools on D&D beyond .. the beyond content is lacking in usability, user friendliness, UI design .. they present essentially the same content but beyond does not do it as well as the other products in my opinion .. where is the motivation for players to pay for a substandard product? If Beyond was clearly better there might be a case but in my opinion from using their free to access character creation tools .. it isn’t.



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[Sunseeker]

Regardless of copyright protection, etc., it would be pretty nice if every hardcover book contained a unique unlock code that someone could use to unlock that content one time on a digital platform. They could then keep a central database of each time a code has been used on each platform, to prevent content/platform piracy.

Sure, no argument there, but then, like with most products that contain codes, the packaging would have to be sealed to prevent someone from simply going in to the book store, writing down the code and not buying the book. I don't know if people are cool with that or not, since at least for me I like to flip through new releases to see if I like the contents.

 

[Art the DM]

Fair points

Everyone who has commented has brought up some fair points. I appreciate the discussion, and I do understand that the part about orcpub was, indeed, speculation on my part. True enough.

As a writer and someone who dabbles in independent film, I understand intellectual property all too well. I am a firm believer in paying for the IP of others, hence I own HARD copies of everything rather than hitting the torrents to find it and going to town at Kinkos. What I am not fond of is paying for something twice, something I already own. I also understand that the devs of D&D Beyond need to get paid too. However, there are other ways to accomplish this without forcing your customer base to buy the same product multiple times in order to unlock it's content. Rather than making us buy the entire book digitally, they should offer an option to unlock the content in the character builder separately, for those of us with enough respect for WotC to have bought the books rather than pirating it like most. This is the part that is most upsetting to me. The concept of having to pay twice for the same product just to use a complete character builder. I will notnsupport that end. I will continue to buy the hard copies, but I will not resign to buy the digital for the books I already bought for a higher price.

Now, one or two of you have essentially accused me of laziness in a passive agressive way. I am not lazy, I do pen and paper characters. However, when I was starting out I wanted the process simplified so that I did not get overwhelmed. Also, I have a 10 year old who doesn't have the patience for the pen and paper work. Character builders have their uses, not just for the lazy, but for the inexperienced as well. This hobby, which we presumably want more people to join and enjoy, would be much easier to introduce if there was an available tool that simplified the process of getting started for those who might be otherwise put off by all the paperwork. That being said, I have now put two full days of time into custom entering all the core rulebook content into OrcPub to return it to its former glory, at least for me.

My frustration is mainly the principle of the perceived expectation of having to purchase the same product twice just to use a toolset, when other options could have been possible.

 

[tardigrade]

If I owned a company the last thing I'd do is offer a commercial license to someone who decided to steal my intellectual property.

And that would be up to you. But if someone is successfully making money from it, one low effort option is to offer them the option of legitimising it in return for a significant proportion of the profits. Another, more common solution is simply to insist that it's noncommercial, like the eventual outcome of the Axanar fiasco.

 

[Parmandur]

I am not a lawyer either, but my day job does involve some IP. And while it is true that a company has to defend its intellectual property, I don't entirely understand why they didn't just offer Orcpub a noncommercial license for the relevant content. That's basically how DMsGuild operates, and generating a perception of moneygrabbing attitudes among users isn't a great idea. Or a commercial license (for a fee), or just buy them/him out.

Of course they might have tried this route and failed; we just don't know.

I'm sure if OrcPub had been willing to pay WotC the same fees, they could have done so.