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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 5418309" data-attributes="member: 44797">Androrc, welcome to the boards!  Also, you're re-treading a debate we've had here since the time it happened.  Nothing new.  Nonetheless, I'll bite at the bait in a hopefully-friendly manner of debate.For me, I don't really view what they did as immoral, even though I hate that they did it.  To me, immorality is too strong -- it describes corruption, which I don't see here.  However, I do see the move as perplexing in the best of light, and downright stupid when I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.Here's the thing: Removing the previous versions from sale doesn't force me to go into 4th edition, because I'm not buying it, ever.  It's been out for years, I've played it a bunch, I hate it a bunch, and things like the Essentials publications aren't winning me back.  So the speculation that older editions might be cannibalizing 4th edition sales doesn't wash with me, because they made the old version sales go away and I still didn't buy.I will concede that maybe a vast majority of other people saw the removal of old PDFs and decided to go right into 4th edition.  If so, Wizards of the Coast may have made a brilliant financial decision.  Having conceded that such a thing is possible I must also say that I do not find it probable at all.  Every person I know that even dabbles in 3.5 or Pathfinder will not go near 4th edition.  The idea that the 100 or so people I know in my area who play 3.5 edition are an anomaly seems... well, unlikely IMHO.So here's what I'm left with: a bunch of people who liked the older editions and were buying the PDFs now no longer have a viable outlet.  Some of these people have pirated (not advocating, just noting the reality), some have turned to free old-school RPGs like Basic Fantasy, and some have turned to the SRD or eBay for materials.  Oh, and more & more of them are turning to Pathfinder.  Like, a lot of them.  This is a loss for just about everyone except Paizo!  People who were legitimate paying customers are now infringing copyrights instead, or going to competitors.  In fact, it kinda feels like Wizards of the Coast is pushing previous customers into Paizo's arms.And that really doesn't make sense to me at all.You know who does it right?  En World.  Right now, they're running a sale -- "stock up on new 4E stuff, or older 3.5 stuff."  They have moved on to 4th edition right along with Wizards of the Coast, but their 3.5 edition materials all still exist and have zero cost now.  Every sale is just a bonus for them.  And more importantly for the market, since they're offering 3.5 edition materials, they retain me as a customer and I'm giving them money tonight that otherwise they wouldn't receive.  That just makes sense.  So I do not get the "We ban PDFs!  No options!" kind of thinking from WotC.</blockquote>

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