Actually, it is fairly practical, but you seem to be stuck in an old mode of thinking about content...
No, not really.
Gamers expect their books to be consistent. Having page 84 of an electronic text be different than page 84 of the print text is not going to be something that's liked.
How I think about content is not the issue/question. I'm working on getting a TidlyWiki version of the SRD done up so I can drop that onto my iPad, I'm experimenting with using the virtual tabletop program I've got as a DIY character sheet... "content" is just stuff that gets displayed. Whether it's on a page, a screen, whether it's text, image, or sound... no, I'm constantly looking for new ways of dealing with content.
The problem of digital presentation of content is much, much bigger than RPGs. It is an issue pretty much every publisher on the planet has to deal with.
It is, but again that's not really the point. RPGs are a barely successful sub-niche of a niche in publishing. Publishing in general is struggling to make a go of it, and they've also been very against electronic media. Heck, publishers were actively against the _library_ saying that people would never buy books if they could just borrow them for free.
The issue of digital presentation is just one of the many factors that contribute to my belief that RPGs won't be going all digital for some time yet. And if the method of going all digital would be a continuation of what WotC has done with DDI, I'd be actively against it, despite currently being a mostly digital fellow when it comes to rpgs these days. And yes, I amrunning a 4e game, so my dislike of DDI isn't born of a dislike of the system.
Interesting. You know, of course, that cats don't actually "torture" prey, right? That would imply an understanding of pain, and an intent to cause it, that cats don't have. Cats play with prey for roughly the same reasons they play with non-living toys, the same reasons a person might play with a Frisbee or a soccer ball.
*sigh* Yes, I do realize that. Having been a cat owner for many years. My point was apparently completely missed and I don't care enough to bother trying to make it further.
And you know, of course, that generalizing to say that folks resist change just because of inertia insults every single one of us that looked at pdfs as an option, but didn't adopt them for well-considered, logical reasons? Your position implies that you know better than others what is good for them in practical use, which you don't. People choose a format because it works for how they personally operate.
And it's at this point that I bow out of the thread. There's no way I feel I can address this accusation. I've chosen to respond to your other points so that people didn't think I was simply a "drive-by poster".
