RPGNow vs. DTRPG

[PetriWessman]

If they are misrepresenting themselves then it most certainly does matter.

Well, I don't know misrepresenting, but they have tried to sweep it under the mat. Steve W. (I think) said that "White Wolf does not own DTRPG". Which is technically true, they are a separate business entity. But (to the best of my knowledge) the same people own and control White Wolf and DTRPG (via Publisher Services Inc), so from a practical and customer viewpoint White Wolf owns DTRPG. Normal business doublespeak which is not quite lying but is not quite honest either.

To the original question, yes, the complaints are mostly about the DRM ebook format. Won't repeat the problems here, read the threads. Other issues such as very high pricing have gotten negative feedback, but that's more minor.

 

[Bagpuss]

Also, for most (not all) books it the cost per book isn't that much cheaper than if you bought the book from Amazon. I've heard of savings of only $5 compared to a print book ordered from Amazon.

One publisher only sells them at $0.95 off the retail recommended price so that's actually significantly more expensive than Amazon. But they say they don't want to complete with their print products (by that I think they mean they don't want to sell any PDFs).

 

[Samothdm]

Payment Options?

I got up to Page 16 on the thread here (I hear the one on RPG.net was up to 63 pages!) but I haven't been able to find an answer to this yet. I also looked on the DriveThruRPG site and in their FAQ but couldn't find the information anywhere (they really need to get some help organizing information on their site - it's very "user-unfriendly").

People seem to be intimating that DriveThruRPG only accepts Paypal. Does anyone know if this is true? I prefer not to use paypal to pay for my PDFs.

 

[Dagda]

There's that (and the DRM thing seems to be what's causing the most outcry), the exclusivity thing, the ownership by White Wolf people thing, and the press release thing.

The press release they wrote up for their publishers billed themselves as "the first completely professional gaming e-Book site" which many people see as an unprofessional slap at the companies which have been delivering these services to consumers for several years now (without DRM, exclusivity, etc.).

I'm assuming that the quote "the first completely professional gaming e-Book site" is nitpicking that they sell e-Books as opposed to pdf's. That's how I read it. Marketing hyerbole usually seems to work that way. RPGNow sells pdfs, but DT sells e-books (mean DRM'ed pdf's) and e-books are so much better. (sarcasm intended) This is just a guess though.

I tend not to trust things said by companies using this type of nitpick, but it is pretty common.

 

[Asmor]

I'm assuming that the quote "the first completely professional gaming e-Book site" is nitpicking that they sell e-Books as opposed to pdf's. That's how I read it. Marketing hyerbole usually seems to work that way. RPGNow sells pdfs, but DT sells e-books (mean DRM'ed pdf's) and e-books are so much better. (sarcasm intended) This is just a guess though.

I tend not to trust things said by companies using this type of nitpick, but it is pretty common.

I hope they end up like their completely professional former competitor, TSR.

Quick summary on the relevant bits for consumers...

*Uses DRM, severely limiting your use of the product
*Forces publishers to publish all of their products on their site
*If you lose something you bought, tough (as opposed to RPGNow, where you can always go to your account and download any PDF you bought any time anywhere)
*Higher prices for inherently inferior and less useful product
*AFAIK, impossible to use in Linux or other alternative operating systems unless Adobe comes out with a reader for them.