WotC_GregB talks about using a laptop at the game table.

[Lonely Tylenol]

This wasn't the issue under discussion.

You stated that not offering a PDF for sale (implying a reduced price, since it's not a physical product) means that WotC is pushing people to do something illegal. That's silly and completely wrong. I mean, if I claimed Ford was promoting car theft because they priced their vehicles higher than most people can afford, I'd rightfully be called a fool.

Only that analogy misses the mark by a distance that can be seen from space. It's not a question of what people can afford. It's value for your money. WotC, by backing out on their offer of cheap-as-free PDF versions of the books you buy, are leaving those of us who would love to have PDFs out in the cold. They will either stick with the hardcovers, or download pirate PDFs, because the other option, "pay for stuff you don't get to keep" is a terrible value for the money. If you're not interested in using the VTT or the other components, then you're basically just throwing away money on a product that's pretending to be a service.

And personally, I would buy a PDF if available, but if it isn't, then it's PrintScreen and hours of formatting for me, because that's just how I roll.

So you'll be pirating it yourself then?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

That sucks, but it's the peril of subscribing to a service. It wouldn't be the first time a service has died in the midst of my participation, and I doubt it will be the last, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, and I accept that. Know what you're getting into before you get into it is all I can suggest.

Or, try to get them to change the nature of the transaction to something more suitable. Like what they had initially proposed.

Sure, I can do that... with some shows, but not all. Carnivale, for example, was an awesome show that got the rug pulled and now can only be found on DVDs or pirated on the internet.

So, while you can't throw your Lost party, you can throw your Carnivale party, because it's available for purchase and you can keep it forever. Funny how products are like that and subscriptions aren't. The producers pull the plug on Carnivale, and suddenly you can't watch it on TV as part of a subscription service. But as a product, you can own a copy. Certainly you see which mode serves you better?

Might be because you don't pay as much attention to this stuff. I remember a huge furor going on when DriveThruRPG hit it big, and they explained why they weren't selling reduced-cost PDFs.

I don't really remember hearing that over the din of complaints regarding DRM, which was another (now-aborted) attempt at turning a product into a service. If your computer can't log in and green-light your attempt to open the file, you can't open the file. I periodically hear from people on these boards who complain that they can no longer open the PDFs they paid for under the assumption that they were a product rather than a service.

 

[Wolfspider]

As for the PDF idea, I agree - dump it. It only encourages piracy anyhow.

"Only"? That's ALL that PDFs do? Hmmm. I thought that they helped my game immensely by having all the information from the books available in a searchable format and saved me bookshelf space.

Interesting.

 

[Mistwell]

He pasted images . . . into . . . a . . . Word . . . document? Whiskey tango foxtrot! And then showed that to his players by flipping his screen around?

That's like using a screwdriver to comb your hair.

*head explode*

I am not understanding what your issue is with this. MS Word handles pictures fairly well these days, and flipping your screen around on a laptop to display a high-rez picture is a useful tool that I have used in the past as well. If the goal is to show players a picture, this accomplishes that goal, and in no way is analogous to using a screwdriver to comb your hair (more like using a really useful multiple application tool that includes a hair brush in addition to other things, to comb your hair). What's your issue with this?

 

[Wolfspider]

Yeah, that is a strange complaint. I use my laptop in a similar manner every game.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I am not understanding what your issue is with this. MS Word handles pictures fairly well these days, and flipping your screen around on a laptop to display a high-rez picture is a useful tool that I have used in the past as well. If the goal is to show players a picture, this accomplishes that goal, and in no way is analogous to using a screwdriver to comb your hair (more like using a really useful multiple application tool that includes a hair brush in addition to other things, to comb your hair). What's your issue with this?

I've found MS Word to be a real pain when it comes to pictures. I can also use Excel to write letters but there are better tools for that as well. My choice for simple display of pictures would probably be Power Point. Power Point can also give a nice collection of thumbnails to chose from when figuring out what photo to show.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

MS Word handles pictures fairly well these days, and flipping your screen around on a laptop to display a high-rez picture is a useful tool that I have used in the past as well.

Flipping a laptop around is not the problem. Tossing photos into Word just to show someone the photo is clumsy.

I guess part of my reaction is seeing someone who works at a book publisher doing a type of image layout in Word. I see it as clumsy overkill. There are so many better options to show images.

 

[Mistwell]

Guys, I don't know how old your versions of MS Word are, but at this point Word can handle pictures quite well. It's obviously not the only choice, and if you JUST want to show pictures then it's not the best, but I suspect he is talking using it for more than just showing off pictures to players. It's it's perfectly functional for what he is trying to accomplish. I throw pictures into MS Word documents all the time. It's one of the simplest methods of quickly throwing up and manipulating a picture while you are simultaneously using text.

Nor is it analogous to using excel to type up a letter. Come on guys, MS Word has as a primary function the inclusion of pictures in documents now. It's not just something you can klooge together. All the basic picture formatting commands are in MS Word and easily available.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

"Only"? That's ALL that PDFs do? Hmmm. I thought that they helped my game immensely by having all the information from the books available in a searchable format and saved me bookshelf space.

Interesting.

If you're going to quote me, don't pull things out of context. It's poor form.

~d.

 

[Wolfspider]

Nevermind.