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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roudi" data-source="post: 1951424" data-attributes="member: 12423"><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/year2004.pdf" target="_blank">The RPGNow 2004 Year in Review can be found here</a>After perusing the 7-page PDF titled "RPGNow 2004 Year in Review" from the front page of RPGNow.com, I'm left a little disappointed.  Let me break down the content of the PDF and offer my commentary as we go:The introduction of the PDF states that it "is designed to help you in making your product selections while at RPGNow," which seems a bit contrary to the PDF's title, "Year in Review."  The three following sections, titled "What is a PDF?", "The benefits of PDFs to gamers include:", and "What is RPGNow?" are clearly directed at people unfamiliar with RPGNow and people unfamiliar with the concept of buying RPG material in PDF form.  The "What is a PDF?" section is particularly quirky, as it describes the PDF file format as electronic book that can be bought or sold.  Clearly this is the context in which PDFs are presented on RPGNow, but PDFs are not used exclusively in this manner, so the title "What is a PDF?" is a tad misleading.What follows are three lists: "The Top 30 (bestselling) PDFs of 2004", "Platinum Vendors as of December 2004", and "Top 10 (bestselling) AD&D PDFs".  These lists make up the bulk of the "Year in Review" portion, and this is the area I find this document the most wanting.  Where is the review of the 2004 PDF publishing year?  Where are the sales reports, the discussion of publishing trends, the movers and shakers, the up-and-comers?  Where is the industry insight?  I opened the Year in Review expecting to see some insight into the events of this year in the PDF publishing world and found only a hyperlinked compilation of the best sellers on RPGNow for 2004.  I know for a fact this industry is affected by more than just the best-selling vendors and products.To top it off, there are oodles of coupons and adverts throughout the PDF.  As a customer, these coupons are enticing.  From a publisher's perspective, they probably have no place in a Year in Review.  What it comes down to is this: The RPGNow 2004 Year in Review is not an adequate Year in Review.  However, it is a really good "Introduction to RPGNow."  It is clearly targetted at new and existing customers, not the vendors and publishers who use RPGNow.  The problem is, the current title and location of that document do not help it reach it's intended target.  First of all, the Year in Review should be renamed to reflect it's target audience: something like "New to RPGNow?"  or "RPGNow Primer" would be more appropriate.  Secondly, it should be made available outside of RPGNow, and perhaps even outside of established gaming circles.  The document does strive to introduce the RPG PDF market to those who are unfamiliar with it, so making it available in areas not typically frequented by RPG PDF consumers would be prudent.That said, I eagerly await the real "Year in Review."</blockquote>

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