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

[MechaPilot]

Or maybe their market research has shown that PDFs aren't heavily desired. They do have digital offerings available for sale of all the books, with more added value than a PDF.

Which is a nice hypothetical. Fact is we really don't have access to their pdf sales research. All I can do is draw on my own experiences, both with people I know in real life and with what I've read on the forums. A lot of people seem to want pdfs, for the right price. A lot of people also seem to want both pdfs and physical copies, and some of the people who've said they want this have said they'd want the pdfs in addition to more than one physical copy of the books.

 

[Parmandur]

Which is a nice hypothetical. Fact is we really don't have access to their pdf sales research. All I can do is draw on my own experiences, both with people I know in real life and with what I've read on the forums. A lot of people seem to want pdfs, for the right price. A lot of people also seem to want both pdfs and physical copies, and some of the people who've said they want this have said they'd want the pdfs in addition to more than one physical copy of the books.

Sure, we don't have access to their market research, but we can be fairly certain that it exists and that they are acting on this data, whereas anecdotes together do not string into data.

 

[Schmoe]

That would require a TARDIS.

One can dream.

 

[MechaPilot]

Sure, we don't have access to their market research, but we can be fairly certain that it exists and that they are acting on this data, whereas anecdotes together do not string into data.

Look, I'm not a statistician (though I am an accountant), but even I know anecdotes aren't data. However, it is the closest thing to data that's available for me to draw conclusions from.

As for knowing that the research exists, I don't reasonably think we can say that. WotC, while very good about research for the most part, has been very paranoid about piracy and pdf offerings. It's not unreasonable to think it may have affected either their willingness to perform pdf sales research, or the depths of that research compared to their other studies.

 

[Guest 6801328]

It's not unreasonable to think it may have affected either their willingness to perform pdf sales research, or the depths of that research compared to their other studies.

On the contrary, I do think it's unreasonable to think their justifiable concerns about piracy would mean that they wouldn't even be willing to perform the research. Politicians avoid gathering data that may contradict their assumptions, but businesspeople do not.

Then again, you just called them "paranoid", so maybe you also think they are "willfully ignorant" or whatever.

("What? Digital millennials sharing PDFs with each other? Yeah, that's just freaking paranoid.")

What's ironic is that you are basically accusing them of ignoring any information that might contradict the foregone conclusions you ascribe to them, and yet you seem (based on your posts) to have already decided they are just flat out wrong for not giving you the products that you want, and are ignoring any evidence/arguments that suggest maybe this is the right decision for them (if not for you).

 

[Parmandur]

Look, I'm not a statistician (though I am an accountant), but even I know anecdotes aren't data. However, it is the closest thing to data that's available for me to draw conclusions from.

As for knowing that the research exists, I don't reasonably think we can say that. WotC, while very good about research for the most part, has been very paranoid about piracy and pdf offerings. It's not unreasonable to think it may have affected either their willingness to perform pdf sales research, or the depths of that research compared to their other studies.

But they have made digital offerings of all the books, priced at apparently what the market will bear: so it isn't that they don't do digital, but they have made specific choices about what they are releasing.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Yeah. It's extremely common with textbooks.

But do you buy those textbooks from Barnes and Noble? Or your local independent bookseller?

 

[MechaPilot]

But do you buy those textbooks from Barnes and Noble? Or your local independent bookseller?

I buy them wherever I get the best price. Sometimes that's from a local bookseller. Sometimes that's from a seller through Amazon. And, some books are exclusively available through my college bookstore.

 

[gyor]

I like 5e better then 4e, but the one thing 4e did better then 5e was handling digital content.

Wizard's kept the digital stuff in house, so you payed a subscription for for everything, including Dragon and Dungeon magazine, but you didn't have to purchase everything twice.

 

[Satyrn]

On the contrary, I do think it's unreasonable to think their justifiable concerns about piracy would mean that they wouldn't even be willing to perform the research.

I'd think WotC has lots of data about PDF sales from DMs Guild, and from conversations with Green Ronin and Mearls' experience with Monte Cook's company, etc.