Would you Swap 3.5e for Exalted?

[bento]

White Wolf is saying, "Hey, we'll trade your 3.5 PHB for Exalted 2nd." They are not holding a copy of Exalted hostage, demanding a deep and personal sacrifice lest the copy of Exalted somehow wither and die. It is aimed at people who don't want their 3.5 PHB any more. What's the issue?

Cheers,
Cam

I meant WoTC destroying inventory, not WW. I was contrasting WW's deal with Ourph's statement of WoTC destroying excess book inventory once 4E hits the shelves.

 

[bento]

I think you're getting the idea that I'm calling WotC evil for pulping books. I'm not. Pulping books is a good business decision, which I respect. I just find it hypocritical that people are calling foul on WW for doing something that WotC does to its own books on a regular basis and on a much larger scale.

That's cool. Some people though think that burning any books is evil, and get their shorts in a wad when some inconvienent truths about the book industry arise. Publishers and booksellers are companies that have to deal with inventory that either won't move, or will hurt the sale of future products. Destroying inventory is just common business practice.

Personally, WW's offer is making me curious about Exhalted. I've heard good and bad about the game over on RPGnet, and this kind of offer makes me think I should take a look at it. I won't be trading in my PHB though. If I ever get rid of it, it will probably be through a used bookstore, where eventually it will find another home (or get pulped).

 

[thedungeondelver]

White Wolf is saying, "Hey, we'll trade your 3.5 PHB for Exalted 2nd." They are not holding a copy of Exalted hostage, demanding a deep and personal sacrifice lest the copy of Exalted somehow wither and die. It is aimed at people who don't want their 3.5 PHB any more. What's the issue?

Cheers,
Cam

No they're not, and you know that's not what they're doing. What they're doing is saying "Dungeon crawl games are dumb and if you play them you're dumb so don't be dumb give us the dumb rulebooks and you can play a cool game instead."

Jolly Blackburn, on these forums, offered to give away copies of the HACKMASTER rules to anyone who asked.

That's giving stuff away.

The "issue" is being treated like some kind of sped whose gaming habits are only acceptable with the magnanimity of White Wolf at the cost of my stinky old (gasp) DUNGEONS & DRAGONS* books.

You can strip away the wording as you like, at the end of the day, WW are being s about this.

I mean, they gave away THE TOMB OF FIVE CORNERS which was a pretty cool gesture as it had quick-play EXALTED rules and was a good introduction on how the game worked. So why not something like that now? Why, suddenly, are D&D players neanderthals unless they board the Wapanese train?


*=even 3.5 - I'm getting ecumenical regarding D&D...hm. I need to ask my physician about that...

 

[Asmor]

No they're not, and you know that's not what they're doing. What they're doing is saying "Dungeon crawl games are dumb and if you play them you're dumb so don't be dumb give us the dumb rulebooks and you can play a cool game instead."

Hasn't that been White Wolf's MO for as long as it's existed?

 

[jdrakeh]

That's giving stuff away.

I don't think Cam said that WW was giving stuff away. Reading what he posted, he said that they're offering Exalted books in trade for D&D books. Which is, in fact, what they appear to be doing.

You can strip away the wording as you like, at the end of the day, WW are being s about this.

You can rewrite the press release in your mind to say something totally different but, at the end of the day, it's still an offer to trade one thing for another.

 

[Darkwolf71]

That's cool. Some people though think that burning any books is evil, and get their shorts in a wad when some inconvienent truths about the book industry arise.

'Inconvienient truths'? :insert much rolling of eyes:

There is nothing inconvienent about it. If company A needs to purge it's inventory, that fine with me. (maybe not the best choice, but I'm ok with it).

When company B, who happens to be in direct competition with company A, comes along and destroys company A's product, yes, I have issue with that.

 

[BryonD]

The difference in this situation is WW wants to destroy a book from your personal collection, rather than a company disposing of obsolete inventory.

No they don't. They want to trade you something they have for something you have.
Then they will dispose of their own property as they see fit.
There is nothing wrong with that.

I'm very strongly opposed to "book burning" in the typical sense. But I think comparing disposal of unwanted material to anti-information/censorship type activities is a disservice to being opposed to censorship.

I'm not going to take this deal because I have zero interest. But it doesn't bother me.

 

[BryonD]

'Inconvienient truths'? :insert much rolling of eyes:

There is nothing inconvienent about it. If company A needs to purge it's inventory, that fine with me. (maybe not the best choice, but I'm ok with it).

When company B, who happens to be in direct competition with company A, comes along and destroys company A's product, yes, I have issue with that.

They are going to destroy property that belongs to some other company?

 

[Darkwolf71]

They are going to destroy property that belongs to some other company?

Property? Wait, I thought I said product...

Yes, after re-reading my post, I did in fact say product.
I'm not sure where your sarcasim was going, but it took a wrong turn when it tried to put words in my mouth.

 

[SavageRobby]

When company B, who happens to be in direct competition with company A, comes along and destroys company A's product, yes, I have issue with that.

How can you possibly have a problem with that? Thats asinine. At that point in time, the product will physically belong to them, legally acquired. And note, they are acquiring those PHBs on a voluntary basis, from people who obviously aren't going to want them anymore - its not like they're threatening someone's first born if they don't take them up on it.

Put another way, if they bought 2500 PHBs in the store and shredded them, would you have a problem? If I shredded my PHB, would you have a problem with that?


Their offer might be insulting - although I find it no more insulting than Wizards has been about 4x - but it seems like someone really has to WANT to find fault with WW for disposing of the PHBs, once acquired.