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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scurvy_Platypus" data-source="post: 5279322" data-attributes="member: 43283">I'll grant without reserve that current pdfs are not an ideal approach to the digital approach. Given what most gamers are demanding their rpgs behave as (instruction manual and art book) there's not much choice though.Producing 2 entirely different versions isn't practical. I believe most pdfs are generated from the same files that are sent off to be printed. Doing a landscape version for pdf and a portrait version for print means that pagination is going to be different, the art might very well not be matching up with the text... it's just messy.And doing landscape isn't practical, because many people don't like the style, there's additional stress on the pages in the book, compensating for that additional stress means that cost is likely to go up... it gets messy just like doing 2 different versions.Plus, who wants to take point on trying to set a "standard"? D&D could have done it, but they refuse to consider the electronic market, except for subscription based services. Even if they were to change their stance, they're not going to take the risk of innovating. They won't set a standard for format, because right now there's too many competing agendas and they want to upset the least number of people possible.If WotC isn't willing to step up and try and set up some standards, there's no way anyone else will. Sure, small press/indy rpgs are doing this, but they don't really count. Why? A variety of reasons, one of which is they don't care about their customer base. By which I mean, the general approach small press rpgs have is, "if it works for you, great. If it doesn't, that's fine change it until it does or buy a new game". This is not a D&D philosophy.I'm not sure "better" is correct. Being an early adopter of pdfs for rpgs, I've seen plenty of reasons/excuses for why gamers don't do digital or insist on print in addition to digital. And let's not forget everyone that argues that pdf is inherently inferior and not worth as much as print products. Every person that's arguing that pdfs should be cheaper? They're saying pdf is worth less. "No, they're arguing that pdfs are over-priced because the costs are so substantially lower!"No. The problem isn't that pdfs are over-priced, it's that rpg books are under-priced. And I say this as a dude that has left the U.S. and now lives in a country where the average rpg book costs $80-$100. Hell, a Dresden Files paperback costs $20 here.People have a default: buy print product. It's what most are used to doing, and humans are creatures of comfort and habit, just like anything else. They don't want to change without incentive. And for every incentive offered, they've got an excuse (or reason) to justify staying with the familiar, known, and comfortable.Judging people for this is kinda like judging a cat for torturing its prey before eating (or killing) it.People change once that incentive exceeds their reasons/excuses for not doing so. As long as the incentive continues to benefit them more, they'll continue doing it.There is no such thing as a perfect medium. Electronic or print, both have their problems. You have to find solutions to these problems, which people are already used to doing with print. They're so used to these solutions, they don't think about the coping mechanisms in print as coping mechanisms, they're just "logical" or "obvious" and just the way things are done.Is it judgemental of me? I suppose so. I call it the way I see it. Much like the glass half-empty/half-full thing, it's a matter of perspective. I don't sit around thinking how gamers are scum for collectively disliking pdf products, nor do I feel morally superior, or anything else like that. I simply buy pdf preferentially, and refuse to spend more than $150 on a gameline. They can either get that upfront in one fell swoop on a single product, or they can get it over time via several products which are less expensive individually.</blockquote>

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