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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DracoSuave" data-source="post: 5206602" data-attributes="member: 71571">Short-sighted.'Protecting the IP' is corp-speak for 'protecting the revenue stream' when referring to piracy.There's a huge difference.There's also the issue of PDF sales endanger the sales garnered through the brick and mortar shops that they -need- to fund their other revenue streams.  RPGs can be done strictly online, being that it is a strictly intellectual property consisting of information.Collectable Card Games on the other hand are not so simply 'pdf'd'.I remember once working for a company the guy in charge said 'Look, if you're in sales, so long as you're making the sales, the company will go under before it'll lay you off.  Anyone else is expendable, but even if the company is down to two people, you're the guy sitting with the CEO.'Essentially, the brick and mortar shops are THE primary sales units for Wizards of the Coast.  Any business strategy that endangers that is -directly- messing with their revenue.Any suggestion otherwise has no idea what a 'salesperson' is.  You cannot know a subjective opinion.  You feel those things.However, for this statement to be true, the idea that a lack of third party support means that a gaming product suffers, that would mean that one would have to cite evidence towards this.Instead, however, I ask of you this.  If the lack of third party support causes a role playing product line to suffer, then why is White Wolf still in business?  Steve Jackson Games?  Chaosium?Moreover Paizo's third party support isn't actually a good example of 'good business practices.'  Such support is required under the OGL that they've had to adopt in order to use the very game system they're founded on.  They have to have third party support, because they -ARE- third party support.It's not a matter of choice for them... they use d20 and therefore must allow third party support.  AND, to boot, if Wizards truly wanted to, they'd be absolutely allowed to rescind the OGL for 3rd edition, thus causing Pathfinder to completely end.  Done.  Finito.It's a good thing then that Wizards is pro-third parties, or their 'number one competition' if I interpret your opinion correctly simply would not be.  The only thing less trustworthy than statistics are statistics that don't even bother with the numbers.Sources, mate.  You need them before you start passing off personal impressions as 'facts.'Your opinion is based on your opinion.  I can't argue against a tautology like that.I can however argue against its validity in application to the current argument.Again, you're putting the cart before the horse.You've taken 'Put it into other avenues' and equated that with sales.But sales does not work that way.  It never has.In order to sell a product, you have to make the person want the product more than the money they have in their hand.  You have to make them value your product.  And for entertainment dollars, that means you have to give them an entertainment experience.The easiest, and most effective way to do so, with roleplaying games has always been to allow the prospective buyer the opportunity to see how fun the game is.  More games are sold by -playing- the game than by any other means.Successful game stores don't have games just sitting on the shelves waiting for buyers.  They have games on tables waiting for players.  And the player plays the game, and then get sold by the simple fact that they've -already had a positive experience with the product.-'The kids' might want pdfs, but 'the kids' don't yet want Dungeons and Dragons pdfs because 'The kids' don't know about it and don't want to play it.  They want to spend money on other things, and telling them 'Hey look, it's now on pdf!' isn't exactly a selling point when they don't give a crap about the thing in the first place.</blockquote>

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