Will you buy the preview books?

[Fifth Element]

I never buy sales catalogues.

Who does? But that wasn't the question.

 

[Mercule]

Unless I'm grossly mistaken about the nature of these books, I will not only not be buying them, but be extremely confused by the folks that do.

 

[Khairn]

Even if I was excited about 4E (which I'm not) the idea of spending money on hardcover books that appears to be little more than a trailer for the actual game coming out in June seems like a real waste of money to me.

 

[Amadan]

They already said that won't be the case. It is essentially a book previewing the ARTWORK of 4th edition races and classes and articles talking about their thoughts and feelings and fluffy inspirations for said classes and races. I think the only numbers you will see in the book are on the bottom corners of the pages.

If that is the case my answer will be "No"
I have no interest in buying 4e (too much money in 3.x and I don't have the time anymore to game often enough to justify the expense).

 

[drothgery]

Unless I'm grossly mistaken about the nature of these books, I will not only not be buying them, but be extremely confused by the folks that do.

They're cheap (<$14 from Amazon), might have something interesting them, I'm not buying any more non-Eberron 3.5 books, and there won't be anywhere near enough Star Wars books released between now and June to suck up my gaming budget.

 

[Morrus]

and if all the good stuff doesn't get posted here

You've just posted an excellent argument for WotC to crack down on their IP distribution policies...

 

[Fifth Element]

Unless I'm grossly mistaken about the nature of these books, I will not only not be buying them, but be extremely confused by the folks that do.

I don't understand the need to judge other people's buying decisions. Not everyone has the same perception of value. Some people will consider it money well spent. There's no need to publicly belittle them.

 

[grimslade]

I think I will be picking these up. I like the idea of a book of concept art and design philosophy. It will be interesting to see the things that did not make it into 4E, like the original wizard article with the tome as a focus. I will mine it for ideas of where to take my 4E campaign and think of things that could have been. The Design and Development articles have been great inspirations to me. Not so much for the minute information they contain about 4E but the implications and springboards for ideas. Plus, I can take a 96 page softcover places a laptop would be inconvenient.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

You've just posted an excellent argument for WotC to crack down on their IP distribution policies...

...which would create a lot of bad blood in the fan base, which would be a corner they'd painted themselves into by pursuing the policy of selling preview material.

"Attention Internet: You are no longer allowed to talk about D&D."

Yeah, that'd both:
1. work
2. preserve what good reputation they have with the community

Or perhaps the community would keep marketing their products for them for free like we always do, and which Rouse has recently commended us for doing. I hardly think that anyone is going to take an IP lockdown seriously. If the heavies come round to ENWorld to harass you guys, the info will pop up elsewhere. And there will certainly be a hell of a lot more anti-WotC sentiment here and on other RPG messageboards. They won't lock it down because they know it won't serve their interests in any way at all.

 

[Fifth Element]

...which would create a lot of bad blood in the fan base, which would be a corner they'd painted themselves into by pursuing the policy of selling preview material.

"Attention Internet: You are no longer allowed to talk about D&D."

We are men of action. Hyperbole does not become us.