WotC: Re-issue older editions.

[shadzar]

I have heard estimates that within 50 years, that when you enter into a book store you would find just the front cover of the books that are for sale. There would be a bar code under the front cover. You would take the bard code place it in a POD printer swipe you credit card and select the quality of the paper, print, binding. Then wait as you book is printed for you.

Can I just use the "bard code" and get someone to follow me around with a lute and sing to me the rules?

On a more serious note, why not, maybe sooner than 50 years, since having blank paper on hand is a lot easier than having a specific title for a book, and being able to have the exact book the customer wants, outweighs the losing the customer. The disadvantage is waiting on the printing for the consumer, but I am ready for that kind of printing NOW rather than later.

1. I've looked into POD pricing and have also talked with professional authors who have gotten published. POD is more expensive than traditional publishing, because of volume pricing. However, a chunk of the costs I was refering to was what it would cost to pay someone to do page clean-up. If the scans are bad (and even from a major company who's business is to scan things in bulk can have bad scans, if the original material is in poor condition) that can get expensive.

2, 3, & 4. Companies have marketing departments and management that has to okay things. Managers have to sign off on it, and to do so they have to be informed on the pros and cons of spending the time and money on something like this. Researching this information takes time and money, and people who are looking into other things now have to look into this. Not only do these wages have to be paid, but taxes, benefits, etc. - and if someone is working on this, then they aren't working on something else.

5. And you want them to make it worse? With WotC using early box art on new product, releasing old product with the same art will only add to it.

1. That is the thing, the "bad" scans dont have to be done, all that is needed is those core products, and all of them were clear from what I have been told. Mot even OCR'd for searching and clarity. Maybe you should take your pricing knowledge and go find someone with copies of the PDFs legally on their computer and look at the quality. I think you are not understanding the quality of the needed books,a nd confusing yourself with worrying about the average quality of all books that were made into PDF format.

2~4. With recent events it makes you wonder if anybody at WotC is actually "working" on D&D or just piddle-farting around since they have no idea what it is that they are doing, so what else could they be working on? With the cancellation of books and such, then there you have les for marketing, research failed there since those books arent being printed, so maybe it is time for a turnover of personnel to do something else that will work?

5. It cannot be made worse. You say "D&D" to anyone and the very thing that comes to mind to each individual you say it to will be different. See the fragmentation thread.

 

[Ourph]

You know, WotC are interested in making money. They are also in the best position to know WHAT is likely to make them money. I suspect that, despite all the speculation to the contrary, publishing or offering previous edition material as POD wouldn't give WotC a decent ROI or they would be doing it.

The great news is that people interested in previous edition material don't need WotC anymore; there are already tons of publishers putting out material that is 100% compatible with their OOP D&D version of choice. All of this angst over the fact that it's not WotC doing the publishing doesn't make sense to me.

 

[shadzar]

You know, WotC are interested in making money. They are also in the best position to know WHAT is likely to make them money. I suspect that, despite all the speculation to the contrary, publishing or offering previous edition material as POD wouldn't give WotC a decent ROI or they would be doing it.

But you have to admit, the eggheads of ENWorld including, lawyers, accountants, graphic designers, publishers, writers, programmers, retailers, etc...should know a bit about what they are talking about too, and if this group sees it could be a viable option for a good return on investment, then it makes you wonder "what kind of people do WotC have to see it otherwise?".

Then agian it could be just a simple case of looking form the outside in, or someone else pulling the strings.

Also jsut looking at it from the perspective of a yard sale concept. You have something that takes little to no money or effort to put out for sale, you jsut have to get up and do it and see if someone buys it, it is dumbfounding why you wouldn't take that risk while devoting multi-millions into designing a high-risk new edition?

It isnt so much a ROI that might be being viewed, but as others may have already mentioned the fact of competition and finding their current creation not as healthy a product, which would cause lots of strain on staff involved in that from making and decision making about it.

So are they wanting to make money, or just trying to make X make money for them? X being current endeavors: 4th edition, Esentials, DDi.

 

[Ourph]

But you have to admit, the eggheads of ENWorld including, lawyers, accountants, graphic designers, publishers, writers, programmers, retailers, etc...should know a bit about what they are talking about too, and if this group sees it could be a viable option for a good return on investment, then it makes you wonder "what kind of people do WotC have to see it otherwise?".

No, ENWorld has a lot of very passionate gamers who are speculating without any reliable source of information, but lots of personal biases based in their own gaming preferences. To assume that the "eggsheads" of ENWorld speculating with a tiny fraction of the available information are able to make better predictions and decisions than the people running WotC is silly in the extreme.

 

[prosfilaes]

Now, assuming that WotC were serious about it (and we stick with black and white) and they were paying that particular company to scan something that was in perfect condition

What would they need to scan? Most of the 2E stuff was scanned for when they were selling them in PDF. The 3E stuff should have been born digital; attach a decent PDF printer driver, and it's instantly PDF.

 

[shadzar]

No, ENWorld has a lot of very passionate gamers who are speculating without any reliable source of information, but lots of personal biases based in their own gaming preferences. To assume that the "eggsheads" of ENWorld speculating with a tiny fraction of the available information are able to make better predictions and decisions than the people running WotC is silly in the extreme.

Well if they could buy D&D we could find out, cause they surely couldn't do it without consent...

And look what the eggheads said about TSR, and look what is happening to WotC right now in regards to D&D. Seems like they are currently a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off.

 

[Glade Riven]

What would they need to scan? Most of the 2E stuff was scanned for when they were selling them in PDF. The 3E stuff should have been born digital; attach a decent PDF printer driver, and it's instantly PDF.

A quick history of the digital printing landscape - Adobe wasn't always the king. A program called Quark used to reign supreme, but the software was counter-intuitive and a pain to use. Adobe came along and made InDesign, which is better in every aspect. The transition from Quark to PDF happened between 2000 & 2005. It's probably a good bet that WotC converted fairly early to PDF as their standard for digital archives. TSR...who knows. There are a lot of file formats that are not used and supported anymore, with the standardization that has happened and various software businesses that have died.

And who knows whether or not the TSR stuff was saved in good quality scans or not. Sometimes things happen and the only thing on file are the poor quality scans that were put on the net. We don't know. If it was, then transitioning it to POV is cheap. If it wasn't saved in a high quality scan (300 ppi+), then you have to pay someone to scan it. If the quality of the original scan is crap, you either have to rescan it or pay a lot of money to have someone clean up the scans (even then, some things are not salvagable). If the hard copies are of a good enough quality to scan it in without paying someone to go through and clean them up by removing pencil marks, stains, etc. - then it may be cost effective to POV these products.

That is a lot of "ifs."

 

[Ourph]

Seems like they are currently a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off.

According to whom? The fact that YOU don't know what they are doing doesn't in any way indicate that THEY don't know what they are doing.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Too little, too late. That's my gut reaction to this proposal.

Hrm. But then, it's also pretty much my gut reaction to the company in general, aided and abetted by various recent "data streams" and associated stuff.

But yeah, the OSR has claimed this ground. I doubt anyone could just swoop in and gain/regain it.

Not helped any by the fact you can still pick up many of the originals second hand, for cheap. And there are plenty of folks online willing and able to help, be it in terms of getting said books, rules advice, DMing advice... well, you name it.

Also, there's the "small" matter of lost trust, respect, loyalty. Towards WotC, that is.

It's sewn up, I'd say.

 

[prosfilaes]

To assume that the "eggsheads" of ENWorld speculating with a tiny fraction of the available information are able to make better predictions and decisions than the people running WotC is silly in the extreme.

A financial and reputation interest can be a lot more blinding then mere fandom. History is littered with people who had all the information in the world and then made a decision that was obviously wrong to everyone around them.