Would you buy Essentials if it was Digital

[Dice4Hire]

Nah, would not change my decision not to use it.

 

[Wicht]

This wasn't some big gift. The OGL requires the rules be open. They just put it up, made it look pretty, and let people assume it was a gift to the world.

Actually the OGL only requires a user to make part of their product open and acknowledge whose rules they are using in addition to their own. There is no obligation for a company to release all of their creation as open. It would have been, I believe, possible for Paizo to legally close off their character creation rules and any new monsters they themselves had created, much as WotC did. They were also under no obligation to actually put the OGL rules up on an SRD at their own expense. Paizo's promotion of the OGL goes beyond what the OGL actually demands and I can only conclude that those who say otherwise either have an ax to grind or are misinformed.

Edit: I see I wasn't the first to respond to this. Should have read to the next page.

 

[El Mahdi]

Yes, contingent upon other assumptions/conditions.

1. It would have to be a downloadable and ownable digital format.
2. All of their print products, including out-of-print products, would also need to be available in this manner.
3. The selling price of a digital version would need to be significantly less than a print version (no more than 50%), and discounted even more for those who also own a print version.

If all the above points weren't fulfilled, then the answer would be a resounding NO.

 

[SteveC]

Like all other gaming PDFs, it would depend on the price. I've bought a lot of PDFs, but I won't pay list price for an electronic product, or frankly anything close to is, since the PDF removes the cost of multiple levels of distribution that add so much to the final cost.

Since WotC had their products priced at or near the list price previously, I'd say the most likely answer is "no."

 

[Greg K]

No, I wouldn't. I prefer physical books and would buy the original books before touching Essentials. The only decent part of Essentials, in my opinion, are some of the racial variants and the thief's starting weapon proficiencies