By and large I’ve been loathe to dip my toe into this series of events that seems to have ignited a nerdrage so great, I’ve not seen the likes of it outside a world of warcraft class forum. I cannot help but notice that the same people who are convinced that WotC have utterly devalued their customers needs and wants to make a buck have no qualms about saving 20% on amazon to the expense of a set of retailers who sweat bullets trying to create an actual environment to facilitate all this gaming. You want to play hardball with your dollars, but anyone trying to improve margins inside a company is some kind of vile suited lawyer out to destroy gaming.
Get real, there is no morality to business, only dollars and cents. If you can’t be bothered to pay +/- 20% of a price for the accoutrements of a product, then the business must find a way to profit when all that matters is the price point. Absolutely giving away PDFs will not end the sale of all hardcovers, and no amount of PDF retraction will stop piracy, but they do have a tangible, if impossible to accurately measure, effect. WotC or the FLGS or GR might not know for sure, but they have a better idea than you or I, and anyone with a job in this economy should be able to appreciate the desire to continue to exist and be profitable.
I can’t believe there even exists a gaming market anymore, because if I were an executive looking at the demographics of the business I would give up on the whole industry. There simply aren’t enough dollars to go around and the expectations of what those dollars acquire continue to grow. That being said, I am eternally grateful it still does and would like to discuss THOSE GAMES instead of the industry that surrounds it. If you are truly unable to pay the difference in cost, may I humbly suggest you budget the money you give to your ISP for RPG products.