mach1.9pants
Hero
What if they turn the servers off in a few years? My Pathfinder PDFs will still work, will Dungeonscape?
D&D 5E Where are the PDFs?
- Thread starter Bugleyman
- Start date
What if they turn the servers off in a few years? My Pathfinder PDFs will still work, will Dungeonscape?
Probably not, unless they go to great pains to make it so. Besides, if it weren't about control, they would just release PDFs. The world is going digital, and PDFs are the industry standard.
Look, I really like 5E. I want it to succeed. Then again, I really liked 4E, and we all know how that turned out.
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Hussar
Legend
I disagree. The guys at Morningstar have flat out said that when you buy the package, you buy it forever. It's not going to be like the DDI where you simply access the server somewhere, you will actually own whatever it is you buy.
My feeling is that the DungeonThingy app will be proprietary, kind of like a Kindle Reader. You can't simply read a Kindle book on a computer, you have to use the Kindle Reader app. This will likely be the same thing. You can read the stuff that you buy, but, it will be in a format that you can only read it through the Morningstar program.
Not a horrible way to go. Certainly makes piracy a bit more difficult and keeps everyone happy. Also means that updates could actually be inserted directly into whatever book you happen to buy, which is going to be very important for the Basic rules.
My feeling is that the DungeonThingy app will be proprietary, kind of like a Kindle Reader. You can't simply read a Kindle book on a computer, you have to use the Kindle Reader app. This will likely be the same thing. You can read the stuff that you buy, but, it will be in a format that you can only read it through the Morningstar program.
Not a horrible way to go. Certainly makes piracy a bit more difficult and keeps everyone happy. Also means that updates could actually be inserted directly into whatever book you happen to buy, which is going to be very important for the Basic rules.
I do; just not in the format I greatly prefer.
I sincerely hope you're right. But given that the 4E PDF debacle was explicitly a (hilariously misguided) response to piracy, I'm not holding my breath.
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Yep that's what they said, seems reasonable. But hey, go ahead and jump to the most cynical interpretation and fill in any missing information with conspiracy, the worst that can happen is you will be wrong.
I'm not entirely sure how that could possibly be accomplished in a way that wouldn't be immediately cracked -- after all, the client can only decrypt something if it has the key.
That said, if that is the intended usage model -- as technically naive as it is -- I can live with that. I just don't understand why they're not communicating it better.
Iosue
Legend
Because in 2007, a software developer showed them a bunch of awesome prototypes for digital offerings, and WotC announced it with great fanfare. Then it turned out the developer couldn't deliver on its promises, and WotC found itself with both egg on its face and a whole lotta fan illwill.
So now WotC keeps its cards close to its chest, and they hold off on announcing product until they can be reasonably certain they can release it. As far as digital forms of the rulebooks go, it looks like they have a promising system in the works, so they are letting that quietly develop, without making any promises or raising expectations. If it turns out that DungeonScape craps out, then they go with a more vanilla PDF release. But releasing PDFs now would cut into retailers' revenue as well as DungeonScape's, so they're not going to do that. Nor would it be fair for them to announce "We'll release PDFs if DungeonScape doesn't work out." So they're keeping quiet, and letting Trapdoor do their thing. And they'll announce their plans when they have something concrete to announce.
I thought the dungeonscape people had said that the computer version might well require online access, just the tablet ones being usable offline.
Anyway, I did at one point have a sub to DDI, but I abandoned it when they dropped the (admittedly pretty horrible) offline-usable tools in favor of the web site thing. I much prefer local content I can use; I used to pay money to the d20srd people for their very nicely cleaned up HTML SRD download. And my best 2e purchase ever was a CD that had Microsoft Help files which I could massage through a perl script to end up with usable, searchable, HTML.
I would absolutely buy PDFs of all the books if they were for sale. I continue buying Pathfinder PDFs whether or not I plan to use them...
Anyway, I did at one point have a sub to DDI, but I abandoned it when they dropped the (admittedly pretty horrible) offline-usable tools in favor of the web site thing. I much prefer local content I can use; I used to pay money to the d20srd people for their very nicely cleaned up HTML SRD download. And my best 2e purchase ever was a CD that had Microsoft Help files which I could massage through a perl script to end up with usable, searchable, HTML.
I would absolutely buy PDFs of all the books if they were for sale. I continue buying Pathfinder PDFs whether or not I plan to use them...
Jan van Leyden
Adventurer
If the DungeonScape thingy delivers as promised, i.e. usable regardless of your device's form factor, no constant internet connection needed, contents including images and stuff extremely linked, it would be the first electronic format for roleplaying books I can see myself using.
PDF for RPG books are a major pain; the format is not suitable. Face it, PDFs are yesterdy's technology for delivering electronic documents.
PDF for RPG books are a major pain; the format is not suitable. Face it, PDFs are yesterdy's technology for delivering electronic documents.
fanboy2000
Adventurer
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