warlordgdx
First Post
I just scanned through the last page of these comments, so I'm sure my two copper have been covered ad-nausea, but here goes
At first I was reluctant to immediately bash WotC for their choice - I try not to fall into that group of folks who are immediately biased against the company because WotC represents the 800 lb. Gorilla of the industry. More specifically, the designers/developers at WotC seem like genuiently great guys and enthusiastic game makers - i.e. they are NOT the business execs at Hasbro or down the line at WotC that make boneheaded decisions like this.
After thinking about it for a bit however, I've really got to agree with the fire branders on this one. This is a decision that will not disable PDF piracy of their products in any capacity (on the contrary, I think this kind of 'grab your ball off court and take it home' approach will actually encourage piracy due to the anti-corporate revolution that seems to be a core tenet of piracy). Not to mention that this may have HUGE ramifications for companies and/or individuals who depend on gaming PDF sales for income. Those WotC PDFs were a big draw for RPG customers to sites like RPGnow.com, which could then be turned into potential customers for indie publishers and the such. So what happens now that WotC eliminates a huge chuck of customer traffic for PDF publishers?
This strategy is regressive (being that paperless medium is going to eventually be the de facto standard of consumption), dismissive of other business partners (i.e Paizo, RPGnow), and is just plain old anti-technology (RIAA anyone?).
Sounds to me like the suits envolved in making this decision probably didn't understand how important it is to have a digital medium, or at least don't know how to wrap a business model around it. Shame that the customers have to be punished for it.
EDIT: I understand that WotC is going to be working on an alternative for digital downloads - let's hope that it's sooner than later.
Also, I'll continue to buy the 4E stuff just simply because I don't want to punish the game designers for their bosses decisions. They make good gaming products and work hard to do so - if only I could determine how much of my $20-30 went to R&D
Warlord GDX
At first I was reluctant to immediately bash WotC for their choice - I try not to fall into that group of folks who are immediately biased against the company because WotC represents the 800 lb. Gorilla of the industry. More specifically, the designers/developers at WotC seem like genuiently great guys and enthusiastic game makers - i.e. they are NOT the business execs at Hasbro or down the line at WotC that make boneheaded decisions like this.
After thinking about it for a bit however, I've really got to agree with the fire branders on this one. This is a decision that will not disable PDF piracy of their products in any capacity (on the contrary, I think this kind of 'grab your ball off court and take it home' approach will actually encourage piracy due to the anti-corporate revolution that seems to be a core tenet of piracy). Not to mention that this may have HUGE ramifications for companies and/or individuals who depend on gaming PDF sales for income. Those WotC PDFs were a big draw for RPG customers to sites like RPGnow.com, which could then be turned into potential customers for indie publishers and the such. So what happens now that WotC eliminates a huge chuck of customer traffic for PDF publishers?
This strategy is regressive (being that paperless medium is going to eventually be the de facto standard of consumption), dismissive of other business partners (i.e Paizo, RPGnow), and is just plain old anti-technology (RIAA anyone?).
Sounds to me like the suits envolved in making this decision probably didn't understand how important it is to have a digital medium, or at least don't know how to wrap a business model around it. Shame that the customers have to be punished for it.
EDIT: I understand that WotC is going to be working on an alternative for digital downloads - let's hope that it's sooner than later.
Also, I'll continue to buy the 4E stuff just simply because I don't want to punish the game designers for their bosses decisions. They make good gaming products and work hard to do so - if only I could determine how much of my $20-30 went to R&D
Warlord GDX
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