The End of the World as We Know it?

[Dannyalcatraz]

you seem to be against the digital trend

Not at all.

I'm an entertainment lawyer, so I'm constantly advising my clients to use digital media as a secondary or even primary means of advertising and/or releasing their products.

But it's not for me.

As for not paying for ephemeral things, ever, that's an uncharitable way of describing a subscription model.

I'm not saying that subscription models are inherently ephemeral, nor am I saying that I don't have such things in my life.

I subscribe to F&SF Magazine, for instance. And others. Some are even in dual-format form.

(BTW, a mortgage or car note is not a subscription, it's the repayment of a loan over time. AND you get a physical product.)

I'm saying that the price for electronic publications (esp. those whose content I intend to keep for decades) is too high, and I'm not paying it. Ditto online games. I'm saying that I don't find much significant value in having books & magazines tied to electronic formats, and so far as I can see judging from the trends, that price isn't going to get to where I'd find it worth paying. It's a non-starter for me.

To date

Speaking as someone with a smartphone and an uncapped data plan, I think this may be one of those situations where one doesn't quite understand the utility until they experience it firsthand.

1) Experienced it via a Droid. Quite unimpressed- cheerily rerurned to a dumb phone and bought an iTouch (which is what I'm using right now). The extra $360/year isn't worth it to me.

Should I become someone's employee and they want me to have web access 24/7 at that price, they can pay for it. I won't.

2) Uncapped data plans are an endangered species. Verizon just announced they're ending theirs, and AT&T's disappeared a while ago. http://moneyland.time.com/2011/06/23/why-verizon-dropped-its-unlimited-data-plan/

It's timely and illustrative that you mention the rarity and ecological impact of the materials necessary to make modern devices.

Read it already.

Deep sea mining- we're talking 6000 ft down, as I recall- is both dangerous and expensive. The main potential benefit of that deposit is that it may reduce or eliminate the Chinese stranglehold on things like lithium.

It does not, however, do anything to reduce the prices of material like gold or platinum, nor the need for petrochemicals used to make the lightweight, non-conductive plastics used for housings, etc. And oil isn't exactly getting any cheaper or more common. Nor does it affect the environmental or political effects the demand for such materials generate.

Yes, over time, recycling will reduce those impacts, but at this point in time, most gold and platinum is still mined, not recovered, and there are no commercially viable substitutes for plastics.

 

[Danzauker]

It seems to me IMHO that some people are giving an incorrect meaning to the word "digital".

Sure the magazines have gone digital. But a magazine can be digital and still be a magazine. Why not?

Dragon and Dungeon moved to PDF format. That's still a "magazine" format in the broad sense of the word (let's include comics, art books and everything besides narrative in it).

As long as it has fixed size and frames, pictures, and not flowing text, it's a "magazine", as opposed to "true" ebooks (nd the problem with paged documents is that current generation eBook readers IMHO are quite lousy at handling, but that's another story).

More, they have monthly issues. Heck, they even have not one but two magazines, with distinct TOCs and article release dates!!!

Personally, this makes me HATE trying to find what's new and what's updated in Dragon and Dungeon, and it's one of the main motives why i subscribe only once in a few months, usually just after an issue that particularly interest me has been released.

This way I'm sure to get what I want in it's entirety. I'm really not intesested in checking the TOCs daily and compare them to my local folder in order to see if I missed something.

If they really want to go to an "online" format, this is what I think is the right word, they have still a lot to do.

If magazine are no more and what matters is the "article", then get rid of the TOCs, and just present a sorted list of articles as they come out, maybe well tagged with categories, taxonomies or whatever you want to call them, like [player], [DM], [Eye on the realms], [Class acts] and such, so it's a glance to get what's new.

Since downloading requires an account, for most articles, the system could even easily highlight new articles for you. Heck, software forum like the one that runs ENWord does this every day for mew posts!!!

Heck, for the money people pay them, they could even send their customer a mail telling them a new article is out.

Again, it's something newsletter software has been doing for years.

At the moment, it seems to me that the online offer of WotC is giving the worst of two worlds, print and online, instead of the best (techologically speaking, of course)...

 

[Dannager]

If magazine are no more and what matters is the "article", then get rid of the TOCs, and just present a sorted list of articles as they come out, maybe well tagged with categories, taxonomies or whatever you want to call them, like [player], [DM], [Eye on the realms], [Class acts] and such, so it's a glance to get what's new.

You mean sort of like this? Dropdown boxes at the top allow you to display specific categories, there's a search function for you to use, and clicking on any column sorts by that column.

I love it when people are all, "Man, WotC needs to get its act together and do XYZ!" and then WotC is all, "Dude, we've been doing XYZ for years now."

 

[Danzauker]

You mean sort of like this? Dropdown boxes at the top allow you to display specific categories, there's a search function for you to use, and clicking on any column sorts by that column.

I love it when people are all, "Man, WotC needs to get its act together and do XYZ!" and then WotC is all, "Dude, we've been doing XYZ for years now."

I know that, but I don't consider that much because it's still not enough.

First, it still requires me to click to the article page, and then click on the PDF to download, which is all wasted time in my POV.

Second, it doesn't track what articles I already downloaded (doesn't even track my last login, which would have been better than nothing), which would be quite useful for my type of audience.

Third, the filter behaves funny. It sort of smart searches titles and contents, which, while nice, does not substitute a full category filter (you can only sort by category).

 

[Ryujin]

It has nothing to do with rebellion. It has to do with cost/benefit analysis and the way I live.

Purely digital consumer goods do not fit my lifestyle. I do not value them as highly as retailers do- I consider them inferior to the physical products they are being offered as substitutes for- so I will not pay what they ask. Nor will I steal them.

And I surely won't opt for a subscription-based model. EVER. I find those to be grossly overpriced.

Heck, I'm planning on getting an iPad eventually, but whatever eBooks I buy will be supplemental, not substitutions or replacements.

Besides, it's not as if I don't have a lot of other things to do with my time than spend it in front of my iTouch, iMac or what have you.

I have to agree with this. Physical goods have an intrinsic value, in and of themselves, not only in combination with some actual, physical product. A digital 'book' is worthless, without some method of reading it. An online-only one is worth even less, as it requires both a computer/reader/smartphone and an internet connection.

Then there is the simple production cost factor. A physical book requires printing. An electronic one has a much lower distribution cost due to both the method of access, and the delivery method. No one is going to be able to convince me that I should pay anything even approaching the cost of a hard-cover book, for a digital file.

 

[Dannager]

I know that, but I don't consider that much because it's still not enough.

First, it still requires me to click to the article page, and then click on the PDF to download, which is all wasted time in my POV.

Second, it doesn't track what articles I already downloaded (doesn't even track my last login, which would have been better than nothing), which would be quite useful for my type of audience.

Third, the filter behaves funny. It sort of smart searches titles and contents, which, while nice, does not substitute a full category filter (you can only sort by category).

Again, dropdown boxes at the top allow you to filter for individual categories.

Let's face it: the interface they have in place is actually pretty solid, and complaining that you have to click two times instead of one to actually download a PDF is about as incredibly mild as a complaint can possibly get.

I am also very confused by why you would want it to track what you've already downloaded, or what you mean by tracking your last login.

 

[Dannager]

I have to agree with this. Physical goods have an intrinsic value, in and of themselves, not only in combination with some actual, physical product. A digital 'book' is worthless, without some method of reading it.

This argument is, philosophically, dead in the water. A physical book is worthless without a working pair of eyes.

 

[Ryujin]

This argument is, philosophically, dead in the water. A physical book is worthless without a working pair of eyes.

Which stretches that argument to ridiculous levels and, as such, is a flawed argument against it. How far do you take it: Without life, everything is worthless?

Keeping a debate to reasonable levels tends to lend said debate more credibility

 

[Scribble]

Then there is the simple production cost factor. A physical book requires printing. An electronic one has a much lower distribution cost due to both the method of access, and the delivery method. No one is going to be able to convince me that I should pay anything even approaching the cost of a hard-cover book, for a digital file.

I know you said no one will convince you, but I figured I'd at least post something from a credible source.

“People vastly overestimate how much a publisher saves,” says Erik Sherman, an analyst and author who studies ebook economics. Turns out, the physical aspects of book production can account for as little as 15 percent of the cost of the title. The rest can be divvied up among the author, editor, designer, marketers, publicists, distributors, and resellers. A lot of fingers dip into that $14.99 money pie before the house takes a slice.

“People would have heart attacks if they knew all the costs associated with digital publishing,” says Maja Thomas, senior vice president of the Hachette Book Group’s digital division. Tacking an e onto a book requires antipiracy software, digital warehousing, extra legal support, and programmers to adapt each title for Android, iPhone, Kindle, and all the other formats. That’s on top of the regular costs of turning a manuscript into a finished product.

 

[Ryujin]

I know you said no one will convince you, but I figured I'd at least post something from a credible source.

Now consider how much is removed, from that equation, by an online direct-marketing model. Believe me; I understand the costs involved