As some of you may know, I am one of the folks who would love to get a Pathfinder Chronicles subscription without getting the item cards. Paizo, and some folks here, talk about committment, and wanting to make the subscription "deluxe" or all inclusive. The biggest thing seems to be this view that asking for something to not be included in the subscription is showing a lack of committment in the subscription program and in Paizo. Frankly, I do not see it that way at all.
To show Paizo my level of committment in wishing to purchase a subscription without the item cards, I am making the following offer. I am willing to take $150 right now and put it either in a Paypal account, or some other account where it can be used to purchase that amount of Pathfinder Chronicles material. When that money runs out, I will put up another $150 within 2 weeks. That's my part of the deal. Paizo, for their part, will send me all the Pathfinder Chronicles material that is produced that is not a card. As a subscriber, that would also mean making pdfs available for download.
So, basically, if it is for Pathfinder Chronicles, and it is not a card set, then I am buying it. Heck, you can even include a goblin t-shirt (XL) in the mix.
There's my offer. There is my level of committment.
Stephen Miller
Ancient Gamer and Curmudgeon
Paizo, and some folks here, talk about committment, and wanting to make the subscription "deluxe" or all inclusive. The biggest thing seems to be this view that asking for something to not be included in the subscription is showing a lack of committment in the subscription program and in Paizo. Frankly, I do not see it that way at all.
That's a fairly big distortion.
The subscription is about strategic business planning. The PDF is an incentive program for being a 'measured quantity' in that strategic business planning. That is, a variable in a fiscal decision.
Now, no one likes to talk about their customers in those very clinical terms, so Paizo tried to clean it up by using the term 'committment' instead. Nevertheless they've been paying for that ever since because the term committment has been read into like this.
This has always been my understanding of it. I *hope* I'm on friendly terms with most Paizo employees, but I'm not sending them an art endowment to continue their work. It's a business arrangement and both parties are getting something, and the terms were made clear when the deal was formally announced.
You might be referring to Djoc's post. He can speak for himself, but I don't read what you've stated above in his post.
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I've answered the "commitment" question in part in the other tread. Let me finish my point on "commitment". Maybe it's just me, but I see a big difference between "commitment" and "dedication".
Commitment, to me, is subscribing. You're directly saying to Paizo: "To the extend of my capacity of paying and up to the point I stop enjoying your products (at which point I will cancel), I'll buy what you have to offer to me. Please write other products of the same quality, print me a copy and ship it to me ASAP. In exchange for that information, I'll get a few bonus."
Dedication, to me, is more like sharing the good news, and/or buying often and a lot, and/or tellings friends and FLGS people about Paizo and their products, and/or playing the game to share the Golarion experience, and/or comming here and posting regularly to give feedback and ask questions and make requests, and/or many other things. You don't necessary get bonus for that, mainly because it's a lot harder to track. But you can still get comfort that you're helping Paizo stay alive and may create dedication (and commitments) of new Paizo customers. That will still help you ensure you get the great customer service, wide range of products, and quality you have from Paizo.
Both have a lot of merits. Everyone can be neither, either or both, as they see fit and as they can. I'm not pretending to judge anyone, nor their level of commitment or dedication to Paizo. I'm sure there are many out there more commited and/or dedicated than I am, as there surely are some that are less commited/dedicated than I am. I won't judge anybody on that. My own commitemnt and dedication is fairly new, a year old for the commitment (Dragon mag sub) and a couple months old for the dedication (after Gencon, right when PF started).
Well, I just wanted to explain my view on things, the distinction I make and maybe why it didn't come across right when I talked about commitment.
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I have to agree with Watcher and Djoc. Ever since the word "commitment" was used on this subject, people have been focusing on it. It was originally used in the context of a subscription. In that context a "commitment" is a promise to buy products in a line, usually with the undertanding that you'll get some discount or added perk. This has nothing to do with people's dedication or support for Paizo, this is about promising to buy everything in the PC line. They use the subscriptions numbers to help predict how many of each item they'll sell, and so in turn how many to print. If the current subscription doesn't work for you, don't subscribe.