RPG Illegal File Sharing Hurts the Hobby

[Flexor the Mighty!]

These days I like to use comic books for price comparisons when the "blah blah blah cost $X in 19__ ."

It can be fun to ask someone, after they tell you an AD&D PHB cost $12 in 1979, "How many comic books could you have bought in 1979 for the price of a PHB? How many comic books can you buy today for the price of a PHB?"

An average Marvel comics then cost $0.40 so you could get 30 comics for the price of a PHB. Now an average comic costs $2.50-$2.99 and a PHB costs $29.95 so you can a measley 10-12 comics for that amount. If the ratio of inflation was the same and you could still buy 30 comics for the price of PHB we would need .99 cent comics. Something that we have not seen since the early 1990's. So compared to comics I suppose RPG's are doing quite well in terms of inflation. However comics inflation is insane compared to other things and sales reflect that with top titles selling a fraction of what they did in 1979. In October only 4 books broke the 100k mark and two of them were big hyped "special event" books linked into company wide crossovers and another was a big Super-Friends miniseries painted by Alex Ross. Heck the X-Men was cancelled in the early 70's for selling 100k a month, now that is an amazing sales level that most books never see.

What does this have to do with everything? Hell I dunno...

 

[Dr. Harry]

Hey, neato. Thomas Jefferson was some kinda pinko!

Yes, but ...

Thomas Jefferson was also a scientist, and in science, the dissemeniation of knowledge if what determines the value of your work,

Thomas Jefferson was also of the age when the question was one of "who got the credit" vs. "who got to use it." Scientists, political philospohers and other "professional IP generators" of that age had to be independently solvent to be able to do that work in addition to whatever they needed to do to survive.

While Thomas Jefferson had a lot of great ideas, his ideas on human property weaken his authority to speak on intellectual property.

 

[Dr. Harry]

I get it from a lot of places. Look at the iTunes music store. You can easily get all that music from the p2p networks for free, but somehow Apple is running a booming business. By your logic, that should be impossible. I get it from observing how people around me (me included) act. I've personally paid for some music that I could have *legally* gotten for free, just to support the artist.


If you think that people will never (or very rarely) buy things they can easily get for free, then you're saying the iTunes music store cannot do business. And you'd be wrong.

I agree with Jim Hague's assessment of this situation.

Do you think that iTunes would be seeing this level of interest and activity if the RIAA lawsuits had not happened?

 

[philreed]

So compared to comics I suppose RPG's are doing quite well in terms of inflation.

Exactly my point. Each time someone complains about the cost of RPGs they need to look at the cost of others things from their distant past.

However comics inflation is insane compared to other things and sales reflect that with top titles selling a fraction of what they did in 1979.

This is also the case in the RPG industry. And television show ratings. And . . .

The list goes on.

 

[Dr. Harry]

After two years of selling the 3.0 book for $20.

Welcome to the "ten years later" machine. Look at anything available ten years ago, it's almost certainly more expensive today (with the exception of electronics and things that devalue, like most cars).

For comparing U.S. prices, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics has a Consumer Price Index price generator:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

To crunch some numbers:

A $12 1979 PH would cost $32.93 in 2005 -- and the 3.5 PHB has much better layout, paper, page count, etc.

A 19.95 Player's Handbook from 1994 would translate (in 2005 dollars) to $26.82, or a little less, but then consider the qualitative physical differences between the two books.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Exactly my point. Each time someone complains about the cost of RPGs they need to look at the cost of others things from their distant past.

If the customer finds it too expensive then you can say all you want that its not, but that really doesn't matter if there is an entrenched view to the opposite, and that view is held by a large number of the people you are selling too.

So you have to either change the view, lower prices, or go out of buisness.

How widely held is the view that RPGs are too expensive is the question. I hear it a lot on RPG forums but that isn't a good indicator of the view of the "masses".

 

[Mallus]

Do you think that iTunes would be seeing this level of interest and activity if the RIAA lawsuits had not happened?

Yes.

I think you're oversestimating the effect of the RIAA suits. iTunes works because its slick, convenient (don't underestimate the value of pure, simple convenience), and while I won't go as far as to say most folks are fundementally honest, most folks will play by basic rules of commerce, so long as the price point is right. Which, apparently, it is, as far as iTunes is concerned.

Don't mistake the behavior of a group of hardcore media pirates with that of the general population.

 

[philreed]

If the customer finds it too expensive then you can say all you want that its not, but that really doesn't matter if there is an entrenched view to the opposite, and that view is held by a large number of the people you are selling too.

So you have to either change the view, lower prices, or go out of buisness.

How widely held is the view that RPGs are too expensive is the question. I hear it a lot on RPG forums but that isn't a good indicator of the view of the "masses".

Do you feel that just because someone feels a product's price is too high they are justified in downloading an illegal PDF/copy?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Do you feel that just because someone feels a product's price is too high they are justified in downloading an illegal PDF/copy?

No.

People act like that though and its something has to be addressed. Some try to treat all thier customers like criminals which is stupid IMO. Or put in DRM methods that hamper usability.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I think you're oversestimating the effect of the RIAA suits.

Pretty much the RIAA suits have made people more aware of the law of copyright infringement...

which means that people who didn't know they were possibly acting in violation of the law have wised up and complied. That max fine of $150k/per violation (here, a single download) gets people's attention.

Those who already knew or didn't care continue unfazed- though they may be acting more carefully.