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"The Future of D&D is International" (Inverse article)
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<blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 7636800" data-attributes="member: 2525"><p>I disagree, but let me provide some background for other people reading this before I state my disagreement.</p><p></p><p>BACKGROUND </p><p></p><p>A little over a decade ago (around April 2009) WOTC <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/04/wizards-of-the-coast-fails-saving-throw-against-pirates/" target="_blank">mentioned piracy as one of the major reasons for them pulling PDFs that year</a>.</p><p></p><p>That policy was real, and was part of a crew at WOTC which isn't there anymore. Literally almost a complete turnover in personnel, from the Legal department to the PR department, to the content development department, it's all different people now from those who formulated or supported that policy. </p><p></p><p>In the past 5 years, WOTC representatives have consistently and repeatedly stated a different reason for not liking PDFs. And it's reflected in this most recent article as well. And that is, simply put, they don't think PDFs provide a good experience. WOTC prefers either hardcopy, OR digital means which are more interactive and allow a user to immediately pull up a cited rule or section of another book on the same page, like a popup or whatever.</p><p></p><p>And consistent with that stated policy, WOTC has supported DnDBeyond, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, etc., which all have a much more interactive element to digital content. </p><p></p><p>As far as I know, not one single WOTC representative has mentioned piracy as a major, or even minor, factor in their approach to digital content, for nearly a decade now. Not since early 2009 have I seen anyone from WOTC (on the D&D side at least) mention piracy.</p><p></p><p>RETORT</p><p></p><p>To believe that the primary reason WOTC's D&D team doesn't like PDFs is that they make piracy easier is to essentially claim either WOTC employees are all lying, or at least misrepresenting the reasons they support other forms of digital content and hardcopies over PDFs. It also assumes all the previous people at WOTC who used to work there and have piracy as their major objection to PDFs somehow passed that policy down to their successors, and those successors have for some reason never mentioned that reason again despite their predecessors being rather open with Piracy being their primary motivation for opposing PDFs. </p><p></p><p>I don't buy it. And without some evidence piracy is a major motivating factor <strong>now</strong> (as opposed to a decade ago), I think Occam's Razor dictates the stated reasons are the real reasons currently, and not piracy. </p><p></p><p>If you disagree, I'd love to see some evidence, any evidence from later than 2009, that shows the current employees working on the D&D end of WOTC think piracy is a major reason to avoid PDFs. Because I just have not seen it, and I don't think they're lying or misrepresenting when they say the primary reason is the antiquated static usability of PDFs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mistwell, post: 7636800, member: 2525"] I disagree, but let me provide some background for other people reading this before I state my disagreement. BACKGROUND A little over a decade ago (around April 2009) WOTC [URL="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/04/wizards-of-the-coast-fails-saving-throw-against-pirates/"]mentioned piracy as one of the major reasons for them pulling PDFs that year[/URL]. That policy was real, and was part of a crew at WOTC which isn't there anymore. Literally almost a complete turnover in personnel, from the Legal department to the PR department, to the content development department, it's all different people now from those who formulated or supported that policy. In the past 5 years, WOTC representatives have consistently and repeatedly stated a different reason for not liking PDFs. And it's reflected in this most recent article as well. And that is, simply put, they don't think PDFs provide a good experience. WOTC prefers either hardcopy, OR digital means which are more interactive and allow a user to immediately pull up a cited rule or section of another book on the same page, like a popup or whatever. And consistent with that stated policy, WOTC has supported DnDBeyond, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, etc., which all have a much more interactive element to digital content. As far as I know, not one single WOTC representative has mentioned piracy as a major, or even minor, factor in their approach to digital content, for nearly a decade now. Not since early 2009 have I seen anyone from WOTC (on the D&D side at least) mention piracy. RETORT To believe that the primary reason WOTC's D&D team doesn't like PDFs is that they make piracy easier is to essentially claim either WOTC employees are all lying, or at least misrepresenting the reasons they support other forms of digital content and hardcopies over PDFs. It also assumes all the previous people at WOTC who used to work there and have piracy as their major objection to PDFs somehow passed that policy down to their successors, and those successors have for some reason never mentioned that reason again despite their predecessors being rather open with Piracy being their primary motivation for opposing PDFs. I don't buy it. And without some evidence piracy is a major motivating factor [B]now[/B] (as opposed to a decade ago), I think Occam's Razor dictates the stated reasons are the real reasons currently, and not piracy. If you disagree, I'd love to see some evidence, any evidence from later than 2009, that shows the current employees working on the D&D end of WOTC think piracy is a major reason to avoid PDFs. Because I just have not seen it, and I don't think they're lying or misrepresenting when they say the primary reason is the antiquated static usability of PDFs. [/QUOTE]
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