Responses to Questions about the DI

[Nifft]

I'm doomed.

Could be worse. You could be a skinny, pretty girl* who always wanted to RP as a smelly fatbeard with a negative charisma modifier.

Wait, how is that worse?

Hmm, -- N

*) with pointy ears.

 

[ssampier]

I know a great way to keep piracy down! Print a whole bunch of copies of the DI, with glossy pretty covers and a catchy title that refers to the game it supports. Then place it on magazine racks in stores so customers are forced to pay for each copy they want. You could even reach shut-ins or overseas folks by offering to deliver the "pre-printed-DI-with-a-glossy-cover" on a monthly basis for a set yearly fee.

If R&D likes my idea, I expect compensation.

 

[Mercule]

What're you gonna do if the DRM won't let you save the information or burn it to DVD?

Print to-->XPS. I just tried it with a couple of the articles on the Wizards site, currently, and it renders beautifully.

Of course, if someone is willing to scan in a truckload of existing books, they could do it with a print-out of a DI page, too. Heck, it would be easier because you could stack them in one of those auto-feeding scanners.

That said, I don't see what the big deal is with a digital watermark. Talk about unobtrusive.

Also (not directed at you), the "why don't you make a hardcopy" quips have gotten a bit old. If you want someone from Wizards to show up and discuss what's happening with the DI, being a passive-aggressive twit is really a great way to go about it.

 

[Olive]

Print to-->XPS.

What does this mean?

 

[WhatGravitas]

Remember the Rubber Brain? It was the Gleemax thing - and Wizards announced today, that Gleemax will be some kind of "House for Gamers", that will provide "Community, Content, and, of course, Games."

Source: Gleemax Announcement by Randy Buehler

 

[Nifft]

What does this mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Paper_Specification

If you can choose the driver to output it, you can reformat it into something that you can save.

Cheers, -- N

 

[rgard]

Could be worse. You could be a skinny, pretty girl* who always wanted to RP as a smelly fatbeard with a negative charisma modifier.

Wait, how is that worse?

Hmm, -- N

*) with pointy ears.

I'm convinced. No drugs, prescribed or otherwise. And certainly no HRT. And I'm going to shave and run 2 miles today.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Brown Jenkin]

When are we going to hear something besides "On the Advice form my Legal Counsel I cannot answer that question at this time"

It seems that the legal council probably advised them not to answer that question either.

 

[Mercule]

What does this mean?

Microsoft's answer to PDF. It's standard on Vista machines (the same way PDF is standard on a Mac), and available (I think) for Win XP. I'm sure PDF is still somewhat better than XPS, but it's close enough for this discussion. Basically, any Mac or Windows now has the capability to just print anything they can pull up in their browser to an electronic document available for posterity.

 

[Nifft]

Basically, any Mac or Windows now has the capability to just print anything they can pull up in their browser to an electronic document available for posterity.

The more general implication is: if you control the output driver, you can "redirect" rendering to anything you wish -- including into a format that you can save.

(Of course, Linux could do this for print, audio and video forever... blah blah OPWNZ SOURCE FTW blah blah...)

Cheers, -- N