WotC is going ebook at DrivethruRPG...

[MerricB]

DRM & cover price. It cannot get any easier to say no.

Given that, recently, my D&D releases have come in a month or two after the release date, and the cost of shipping to Australia, I'm getting more and more interested in these products.

One other, big, big advantage of them is that if my entire D&D collection was in pdf format, I could take it all with me, anywhere. I'd only have to transport a laptop, rather than my collection which grows even more heavy every day.

Given that I regularly have to take 8-10 hardcover books to each session, along with miniatures and other material, it become even more attractive.

I'm still in love with my hardcover books, though, but I could see a time when I no longer thought such was a good thing.

Cheers!

 

[Ranger REG]

Hmm. Is WotC abandoning print publishing?

 

[Greentrees]

If WotC abandons hardcover book publishing, I stop buying. I've used .pdf DRM books in the past and they are evil . I'll never buy another one unless it's price is <= $US 5.00.

 

[Davelozzi]

Hmm. Is WotC abandoning print publishing?

There are absolutely no signs pointing to that happening.

 

[Castellan]

Of course the last reason that adobes DRM is stupid is:

...

Basically it
restricts and annoys legitimate users
has no effect on illegitimate users
causes no end of troubles

This is my major beef with it. Since Reader 7 can't even read these files, it makes you wonder how serious Adobe is about supporting DRM. Ultimately, the pirates continue to pirate just as before, and the legitimate users are punished for being loyal customers.

That said, if the PDFs were cheaper than full retail price (a bare minimum of 50% off would be required to entice me) I'd buy it and strip the DRM out myself. But with this kind of price, they've created the best DRM scheme I can imagine: one where nearly nobody wants to buy the product.

I can respect some folks' situations. MerricB clearly has a good reason to be interested in PDF releases instead of waiting forever for a book to arrive. I still don't think he should have to pay full price or do the DRM dance for these materials.

 

[Kershek]

I hate DRM. I'd much rather use direct-scan PDFs with no OCR then have to deal with those restrictions. I understand why WotC is doing it - they're pandering to brick & mortar distributors (price) and giving a knee-jerk reaction to digital publishing (DRM). As a customer, though, it doesn't make the product worth purchasing. The reaction to this will be low sales and an impression that online digital distribution just doesn't work, which is a load of bull.

 

[Asmor]

Hmm...

Way back when, I decided to download some of the free things DrivethruRPG was giving away. I had no intentions of actually buying anything from them since, even if the DRM wasn't as restrictive as I believed it, I am still morally opposed.

Anyways, I've recently had to change computers. In copying all my files over, I noticed that I now had those free DRMed PDFs. I figured this was a good chance to put it to the test. And it failed miserably.

They didn't open.

Oh, sure, I was told that if I registered my copy of Reader with the same email address or something like that I'd used before I could open them... but... no. Too much trouble. Not to mention I have no idea what email address I used, since I've got 3 that I use for various purposes and usually make up something random and fake when registering for things.

Oh, and add to all of this the fact that if you lose a PDF you got from DriveThruRPG, you're SOL.

Now, on the other hand, a while back before I'd made the decision to start really considering buying PDFs, I'd made an impulse buy at RPGnow.com (hentacle, the hentai card game, if you care). Now, fast-forward a few months. I've totally forgotten about it. But now I've also started buying things from RPGnow... and one day while looking at my previous purchases, I notice hentacle! And so I click a link and they send me an email to download it! Just like that!

Can you believe them? I mean, how can they possibly be in business? They keep track of what you bought and let you download them any time from any computer? No DRM? Surely RPGNow must be crazy, and on the brink of bankruptcy... Everyone knows honesty and a trusting policy don't make money.

 

[Sammael]

Since Reader 7 can't even read these files

There must be something wrong with my version of Reader 7, since it can read DRM PDFs without any problems whatsoever.

This is the second time I've seen this statement made here, and I just don't get it. Download a free DRM PDF from DriveThruRPG and try it out in Reader 7. It will work.

 

[Asmor]

Basically it
restricts and annoys legitimate users
has no effect on illegitimate users
causes no end of troubles

That applies to every single form of copy protection ever made. Period. Dongles? Real users lose them, pirates bypass them. CD has to be in drive? Real users lose them, or even if they don't it's still a PITA, pirates bypass it. Copy protection? Real users disc gets destroyed and their back up is non-functional. Pirates (you guessed it) bypass it.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I'm very much in the camp that is WotC put out their books in non-DRM pdf and sold them for at least half of cover price, then I would buy a bunch of them. However, they aren't doing that, so I'll just buy the hardbacks that I really want and leave the rest that's only a marginal want alone.

Kane