The all-or-nothing approach to the problem on WotC's still puzzles me a bit, though -- for example, as has been pointed out, even free downloads were taken down.
Odd.
Has this actually been done? I know that the free adventures are still on their own site. Link
Also I've done a search for a couple of these free games and at least the sites I found still appear to have the download stuff there. Is there an official statement somewhere that states what has been stopped.
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I never said that piracy is running rampant in the Pathfinder fanbase. Please do not twist my words. I said that piracy is running rampant in the D&D fanbase as a whole - that's true, and I make that statement based on evidence submitted in court documents this past week explaining that thousands of copies of the PHB2 were downloaded illegally online within the space of a couple days.
I went back and reread the post I was referring to:
My statement wasn't "misleading" in the slightest. You are reading intent into it that doesn't exist. I write enough that I am usually pretty aware of how my words will be received, and the clarification I wrote was intended only to explain that piracy probably doesn't run rampant in this community, but that it does exist within the Pathfinder fan base.* If you find that somehow insulting, I'm afraid it's something you're going to have to deal with - it's the truth. There is probably no subgroup within the D&D community that is immune from this. I don't think anyone here should operate under the delusion that the Paizo fan base is somehow collectively "above" piracy any more than the next group.
I read this as, "While piracy doesn't run rampant in this community, it does exist within the Pathfinder fan base." I read that as "running rampant" in the fan base. I don't think, now that I've re-read your post (and others since then) that's what you meant.
I wasn't, however, trying to maliciously twist your words. If you took as such (and from your post, it appears you did), I appolagize.
*Italics my own.
Chief Technical Officer
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The Book of Erotic Fantasy is still in print as an OGL product. We carry it here. (Note that we have labeled it as "adult content," so if you're not signed in as an adult, you can't even see the product page; thus, that link won't work.)
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Chief Technical Officer
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Here's my completely speculative theory on why this is the case. Any portion, or all of it, may turn out to be completely incorrect.
WotC had contractual agreements with PDF distributors to sell their product catalog. WotC terminated those contracts because they needed to remove their 4th Edition catalog for the reasons you suggest. Because these contracts were terminated, all materials covered by them had to be removed. The fact that out-of-print material was removed as well is a side effect of this situation.
As you know by know, I can't talk about the details of this particular situation.
However, I can tell you a story about a time not so long ago when Goodman Games and a number of other publishers decided that they needed to stop selling their d20 PDFs. (For simplicity, I'll just refer to Goodman in the following paragraphs, though the situation was similar for several other publishers.)
Goodman Games has contractual agreements with us to sell their product catalog. Goodman notified us that they wished to stop selling some of their products on a given date in the future. We asked Goodman if we could keep the files available after that date to those who had already purchased them, and Goodman said that was fine with them. We then let our customers know that the products were going to become unavailable for purchase soon, and we cooperated with Goodman to run a sale on those PDFs in their final days of availability. Finally, we made them unavailable for purchase at the appropriate time. No contracts needed to be cancelled, or even revised, and Goodman, Paizo, and many customers were satisfied.
I like that story.
I have an urge to let my inner smurf run rampant.
The all-or-nothing approach to the problem on WotC's still puzzles me a bit, though -- for example, as has been pointed out, even free downloads were taken down.
Odd.
Again, this is probably because the decision involved the termination of WotC's contract with PDF distributors - with the contract terminated, no PDFs provided by WotC could be sold through these distributors, even the free ones. It would require the creation of a new contract to re-establish that service, and I get the feeling WotC is being intentionally cautious about this.
I like that story.I love story time!
Tell us a story Unca Paizo ...
Here's my completely speculative theory on why this is the case. Any portion, or all of it, may turn out to be completely incorrect.
WotC had contractual agreements with PDF distributors to sell their product catalog. WotC terminated those contracts because they needed to remove their 4th Edition catalog for the reasons you suggest. Because these contracts were terminated, all materials covered by them had to be removed. The fact that out-of-print material was removed as well is a side effect of this situation.
As you know by know, I can't talk about the details of this particular situation.
However, I can tell you a story about a time not so long ago when Goodman Games and a number of other publishers decided that they needed to stop selling their d20 PDFs. (For simplicity, I'll just refer to Goodman in the following paragraphs, though the situation was similar for several other publishers.)
Goodman Games has contractual agreements with us to sell their product catalog. Goodman notified us that they wished to stop selling some of their products on a given date in the future. We asked Goodman if we could keep the files available after that date to those who had already purchased them, and Goodman said that was fine with them. We then let our customers know that the products were going to become unavailable for purchase soon, and we cooperated with Goodman to run a sale on those PDFs in their final days of availability. Finally, we made them unavailable for purchase at the appropriate time. No contracts needed to be cancelled, or even revised, and Goodman, Paizo, and many customers were satisfied.
I like that story.
Paizo always has been of the highest caliber in the storytelling department.
In case anyone cares here is an interview from the WoTC president. He is not saying a lot, and there are a few obvious lies to those that are not wearing blinders.
In case anyone cares here is an interview from the WoTC president. He is not saying a lot, and there are a few obvious lies to those that are not wearing blinders.
Lenny gonna be mad if I get rick-rolled...
In case anyone cares here is an interview from the WoTC president. He is not saying a lot, and there are a few obvious lies to those that are not wearing blinders.
Other than the corporate-speak answer to question 9, which answers in there do you think contained these obvious lies?
In case anyone cares here is an interview from the WoTC president. He is not saying a lot, and there are a few obvious lies to those that are not wearing blinders.
5. Online retailers received notice of the new policy less than 24 hours before PDF sales were required to cease. Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?
It wasn’t our intention to have customers feel as though they weren’t receiving what they paid for. Our understanding is that both Paizo Publishing and OneBookShelf are working with their customers to make sure they receive what they paid for.
Hmmm. He didn't answer the actual question.
8. What’s your vision for the role of electronic media in D&D? How do you plan to get there, and how long do you suspect it might take to implement? What priority is this being given?
Electronic media will continue to play an even greater role in our D&D business as the months and years go on. Continuing to improve the D&D Insider experience for our customers and fans is one of our top priorities.
More evidence to my suspicion that this is driven more by poor D&D Insider numbers than "loss of sales" with print/PDF material.
Can't say I see anything enlightening in that interview...but I LOLed at "...and yes, we can track it" in the clarification. Mostly it was well-coached corporate double-talk, no real answers included.
M
8. What’s your vision for the role of electronic media in D&D? How do you plan to get there, and how long do you suspect it might take to implement? What priority is this being given?
Electronic media will continue to play an even greater role in our D&D business as the months and years go on. Continuing to improve the D&D Insider experience for our customers and fans is one of our top priorities.
More evidence to my suspicion that this is driven more by poor D&D Insider numbers than "loss of sales" with print/PDF material.
The fact that he answered a question about electronic media with an answer that referenced WotC's electronic media service is evidence of that?
The 10:1 illegal to legal PDF ratio is pretty startling. Over 90% of all copies of 4th Edition PDFs floating around now are not legitimate, even when legitimate copies were available for sale.
5. Online retailers received notice of the new policy less than 24 hours before PDF sales were required to cease. Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?
It wasn’t our intention to have customers feel as though they weren’t receiving what they paid for. Our understanding is that both Paizo Publishing and OneBookShelf are working with their customers to make sure they receive what they paid for.
Hmmm. He didn't answer the actual question.
I don't quite understand why people think it makes sense to have a period of time for people to know that the items are being stop being sold. I think it makes sense to have a period of time for people who have already bought their products to get their downloads, but to purchase more doesn't really make sense. This is not a situation like the GG games pdf sale where the products were being stopped due to a license (d20) being terminated. But a situation where they tracked down the (most egregious) pirating was coming from pdf sales. Once you decide the way to stop that is by stopping sales there isn't any logical reason to drag your feet or to give a long advertisement that you are doing it. Continuing to compare this situation to something like the GG pdf sales is just confusing the issue.
The 10:1 illegal to legal PDF ratio is pretty startling. Over 90% of all copies of 4th Edition PDFs floating around now are not legitimate, even when legitimate copies were available for sale.
Yeah, startling it is not worse. Serious it is ONLY 10:1, that hardly seems something to worry about. If it was 100:1, I wouldn't have been overly surprised.
True, but they're on the second printing of the PHB2 for 4E. They've sold a lot of books.
Last edition they sold *zero* pdfs of PHB2. This time they sold *some* pdfs. I'd be willing to bet that ownership of a pdf (legal or not) hasn't really stopped that many people who would have bought books from actually buying books.
Back "in the day" plenty of kids I knew used to sneak off to the school office to photocopy what they could of the 1E DMG and PHB before somebody in authority caught them. They didn't buy the books - usually because their parents couldn't or wouldn't pony up the cash for them. They borrowed books from kids whose parents would do it - or who earned their own cash - and made copies (stealing, I might add, the school's paper and toner in the bargain).
Nothing has really changed...it's just happening on a larger scale. I would be willing to bet that TSR/Wizards sold more 2nd edition PHBs than 1st and more 3rd and 3.5th edition than 2nd and, finally, more 4th edition than 3.5th (or eventually will have sold, probably haven't reached that point yet). Piracy has only increased with each edition.
Okay, I have nothing to back up those assumptions but you know they're right.
M
Other than the corporate-speak answer to question 9, which answers in there do you think contained these obvious lies?In case anyone cares here is an interview from the WoTC president. He is not saying a lot, and there are a few obvious lies to those that are not wearing blinders.
2. Is online piracy a continuing annoyance for Wizards, a substantial concern, or something between the two? Are there estimates of lost sales figures that you can share?
The piracy became a substantial concern when we saw thousands of copies of our recently released Player’s Handbook 2 being downloaded illegally within hours of its release. We cannot share sales figures, but I can tell you that we conservatively estimate the ratio of illicit downloads to legally purchased copies was 10:1.
A quick clarification from WotC regarding the answer to Question 2, above:
The 10:1 ratio that Greg references is for PDFs only – it has nothing to do with the physical books. For every one PDF purchased legally, there were at least 10 downloaded illegally. And yes, we can track it.
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They just discovered the pirating according to the early response, but they can track it. <-----Makes not sense. If I was so behind the times that I just caught onto a scheme that is years old I am sure I would also be to behind the times to track it when it was designed not to be tracked.
So either they already knew about it, and for some reason just decided to use the information now(most likely answer), or they just discovered it and have little/no ways of tracking it. If the second option were true and there that behind the time they would probably have been out of business a long time ago.
PS: 3rd edit
The 10:1 illegal to legal PDF ratio is pretty startling. Over 90% of all copies of 4th Edition PDFs floating around now are not legitimate, even when legitimate copies were available for sale.
Yes, it is pretty bad, but it is also completely irrelevant to pulling existing PDFs. Consider that now that ratio gets infinitely worse: from 10:1 to 10:0. Piracy of the existing products will not decline at all, because they have already apparently been made available to the pirate 'market'. Net effect on piracy of this move = ZERO (well, it may increase, I suppose, but my point is that this move won't help at all to reduce the availability of pirated books). Now, not releasing any NEW products as PDFs, that might have some impact, but pulling the old PDFs already available to the pirates - no impact at all!
There is pretty much only one new piece of information that can be gleaned from the interview: The interview contains an admission that piracy was not the only thing responsible for pulling the PDFs - it was also a strategic business decision. This could mean many things, from bringing electronic sales in-house or switching to a service/DDI model or a warning shot to GSL companies that WotC will have no qualms about terminating their contracts directly removing OOP product competition with 4E and so on.
Here is the relevant quote:
Question:
1. Please tell us the reasons for the new policy on PDF sales. Is this a strategic business decision, a response to piracy, or a combination of the two?
Answer:
The decision was made for both reasons.
He then goes on to talk about piracy thus deflecting attention and the interviewer doesn't pursue the matter of the other reasons...
This shows to me that the piracy argument for pulling PDFs was bogus to begin with even in the eyes of WotC. Taking what Mr. Leeds is saying at face value (I am not sure I can do that with WotC any more after their numerous blunders over the past two years or so, though I have done so before), I am willing to interpret it thusly: The part of the policy of not offering new products as PDFs could indeed be part of their anti-piracy fight. The part of their policy that pulled existing PDFs - that has nothing to do with fighting piracy and is motivated by other aims - I have provided a sampling of possible reasons above.
Anyway, as far as I am concerned, this is a clear admission that the initial 'piracy-is-the-reason' statements were misleading (through omission - piracy could be responsible for not offering new PDF products, but not for pulling old ones) and there are clearly other reasons behind the decision. This is what most of us have long pretty much known anyway. I have provided a sampling of what some of those possible 'other reasons' might be.
They just discovered the pirating according to the early response, but they can track it. <-----Makes not sense.
That is actually not necessarily a logical conclusion one could draw from the statement. He said it "became a substantial concern", they could have been already aware of the pirating (perhaps been developing a means to track it) but that it hadn't reached the "substantial concern" level yet.
They just discovered the pirating according to the early response, but they can track it. <-----Makes not sense.
They didn't just discover piracy. They have known about piracy for as long as any of us have. They just recently noticed a significant spike in pirating of their products that coincided with the release of the PHB2, because they've been tracking it.
That answer makes perfect sense.
Interview also says PDFS are DEAD
Well, WotC PDFs anyway.
In case anyone cares here is an interview from the WoTC president. He is not saying a lot, and there are a few obvious lies to those that are not wearing blinders.
After reading that interview, I am now convinced that he is perhaps the ***EXPLETIVE DELETED*** CEO in America. I cannot believe he actually thinks that their action will reduce piracy or even slow it down. In fact, it would be my guess that their actions have actually increased piracy of their materials.
And that answer about pdfs being basically dead to WotC and they are going to work with the DDI initiative to come up with a different digital format or some such...that is all about pushing people into the DDI continuous pay format...they are using the MMORPG business model trying to establish a never-ending revenue stream.
This whole thing ends up being more about corporate greed than a minor amount of lost sales. Once again, I don't think that there is any support for the argument that those pirated copies equal lost sales, at least not on a significant scale.
But the whole interview smelled like a BS PR job...sort of like when your older brother grabs your arm and makes you slap yourself in the face while repeatedly asking you why are you hitting yourself.
That interview didn't do anything to assuage my annoyance at them and actually just the opposite. He now has confirmed that I will have to copy and paste from their crappy compendium product if I want a digital copy of anything from their upcoming releases.
Not Happy!
Interview also says PDFS are DEAD
Good point - that hints at the 'other reasons' leading to the decision. I suspect WotC wants to move to a subscription-based service model (perhaps the DDI) for offering all its electronic offerings. If that is the case, however, I will certainly not be buying - in fact that would be the quickest way of them permanently losing me as their customer for their electronic products, no matter how great a product they create, no matter how good 5E might be. I want to own the products I pay for and not lose them when I cease to subscribe to something. Mind you, they wouldn't automatically lose me as a customer altogether - if they produced products I still wanted to buy in print format (say an excellent 5E), I would still buy them, but I wouldn't touch their electronic offerings.
Hey, I just found a couple of copies of the Player's Handbook and a Monster Manual at the local library. That means I don't have to buy the books now that I can check them out...
Does this now mean that the Public Libraries are going to find themselves being sued?
The fact that he answered a question about electronic media with an answer that referenced WotC's electronic media service is evidence of that?8. What’s your vision for the role of electronic media in D&D? How do you plan to get there, and how long do you suspect it might take to implement? What priority is this being given?
Electronic media will continue to play an even greater role in our D&D business as the months and years go on. Continuing to improve the D&D Insider experience for our customers and fans is one of our top priorities.
More evidence to my suspicion that this is driven more by poor D&D Insider numbers than "loss of sales" with print/PDF material.
When WotC is making decisions that 1) cut off a source of revenue (PDF sales) to 2) supposedly fight something that will hardly be affected by the decision (piracy) and 3) cannot be proven to have hurt product sales (piracy of legal PDFs don't seem to have affected the sales of print PHB2 if they sold out so fast) it makes me wonder. In that context, "electronic media will continue to play an even greater role in our D&D business" (emphasis mine), coupled with "improve the D&D Insider experience," the way that they are chasing after the MMO business model, and the complete lack of hype regarding their subscription numbers (if it were successful, they'd probably be touting its popularity the same way they're highlighting their 4e book sales) make me suspicious.
As I've said earlier, I can see why they may wish to discontinue PDF sales for material still in print (although, lacking the numbers for legal PDF sales vs. print copies, I can't say how much revenue they're actually giving up). However, I don't understand how giving up all revenue from out of print material (it's not like they're making money on that material in any other fashion any more, so the PDF sales are just gravy) makes business sense, unless they are going to use a different method (only accessible through D&D Insider subscription) or (not my suspicion, but others have stated it) they want to kill all support for older editions so that 4e is "the only game in town."
I don't quite understand why people think it makes sense to have a period of time for people to know that the items are being stop being sold. I think it makes sense to have a period of time for people who have already bought their products to get their downloads, but to purchase more doesn't really make sense. This is not a situation like the GG games pdf sale where the products were being stopped due to a license (d20) being terminated. But a situation where they tracked down the (most egregious) pirating was coming from pdf sales. Once you decide the way to stop that is by stopping sales there isn't any logical reason to drag your feet or to give a long advertisement that you are doing it. Continuing to compare this situation to something like the GG pdf sales is just confusing the issue.5. Online retailers received notice of the new policy less than 24 hours before PDF sales were required to cease. Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?
It wasn’t our intention to have customers feel as though they weren’t receiving what they paid for. Our understanding is that both Paizo Publishing and OneBookShelf are working with their customers to make sure they receive what they paid for.
Hmmm. He didn't answer the actual question.
I was only commenting that he didn't say a word about "Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?" Not. One. Word.
Wow -- a 10:1 ratio?!?? Holy smurfs, Batman, that's a lot!
Well, I can see why they'd want to pull the recent publications at least on that ground. In fact, I wonder whether the speed of the removal wasn't prompted by a bit of indignation on their part -- and I couldn't blame them if they were a bit alarmed and outraged over that.
However, the removal of the older material strikes me as one of two things -- (I think that the "they must either pull none or all PDFs" idea is possible, but a little farfetched -- IMO, of course).... either they think that the older material is cutting into the sales of the new edition as well, or they're planning on the subscription model. Or maybe both. I guess only time will tell ....
I was only commenting that he didn't say a word about "Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?" Not. One. Word.I don't quite understand why people think it makes sense to have a period of time for people to know that the items are being stop being sold. I think it makes sense to have a period of time for people who have already bought their products to get their downloads, but to purchase more doesn't really make sense. This is not a situation like the GG games pdf sale where the products were being stopped due to a license (d20) being terminated. But a situation where they tracked down the (most egregious) pirating was coming from pdf sales. Once you decide the way to stop that is by stopping sales there isn't any logical reason to drag your feet or to give a long advertisement that you are doing it. Continuing to compare this situation to something like the GG pdf sales is just confusing the issue.5. Online retailers received notice of the new policy less than 24 hours before PDF sales were required to cease. Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?
It wasn’t our intention to have customers feel as though they weren’t receiving what they paid for. Our understanding is that both Paizo Publishing and OneBookShelf are working with their customers to make sure they receive what they paid for.
Hmmm. He didn't answer the actual question.
My comment was more about the question itself. It just strikes me as kind of a dumb question in the first place.
I was only commenting that he didn't say a word about "Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?" Not. One. Word.My comment was more about the question itself. It just strikes me as kind of a dumb question in the first place.
Considering the utter lack of communication by WotC to the customers until after the fact and the speed with which they required distributors to cease offering the content (not just cease selling, cease offering), it's a very pertinent question. Basically, WotC has still not explained why they handled this the way they did.
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CEO
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For your edification, here is another interview with Greg Leeds on retailer website icV2. The most interesting part is where he says that theories that WotC is going to sell PDFs themselves are "incorrect." Makes me wonder whether they are going to sell the books through Kindle and Sony's e-reader, like their novels are being sold right now.
-Lisa
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And, in case it matters to those Marvel fans out there, it also includes the website that had all the oop Marvel Super Hero game pdfs available for free with permission from WOTC [http://www.classicmarvel.com./] It's gone.Googling suggests that they've just moved.
I'm not sure why.
Cool. Thanks for the link.
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For your edification, here is another interview with Greg Leeds on retailer website icV2. The most interesting part is where he says that theories that WotC is going to sell PDFs themselves are "incorrect." Makes me wonder whether they are going to sell the books through Kindle and Sony's e-reader, like their novels are being sold right now.
-Lisa
Now I might just buy some WotC novels for Kindle. That would be pretty awesome, in fact.
//open threadjack//Edit: Just read the article--I'm happy to hear the novels are being released for Kindle, Here's a Salvatore novel.
I like these because I'd read the book in the house, and take the Kindle when I travel.//close threadjack//
I like that story.I love story time!
Me too. Uncle Vic tells great stories.
For your edification, here is another interview with Greg Leeds on retailer website icV2. The most interesting part is where he says that theories that WotC is going to sell PDFs themselves are "incorrect." Makes me wonder whether they are going to sell the books through Kindle and Sony's e-reader, like their novels are being sold right now.
A different method indeed... I can see how they may want to sweeten the pot by offering exclusive distribution rights to the content as part of that sort of deal (pure speculation on my part).
Why?
To control any future access of WoTC electronic material,
likely not pdf format. Old and new. Why let 3PP providers make money when a couple of new servers will do it for you? Plus it weakens 'some' competition for RPG dollars. Supply and demand. They've locked down the supply.
Money grab.
Considering the utter lack of communication by WotC to the customers until after the fact and the speed with which they required distributors to cease offering the content (not just cease selling, cease offering), it's a very pertinent question. Basically, WotC has still not explained why they handled this the way they did.I was only commenting that he didn't say a word about "Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?" Not. One. Word.My comment was more about the question itself. It just strikes me as kind of a dumb question in the first place.
Which goes back to my comment above. Why do people think it would be in WotC interest to announce ahead of time, "We are stopping the sale of pdfs in a couple of days because we don't want people to buy them and then break them and then pirate them. So then please go on a buying spree and then you pirates start breaking all the other ones you might not have gotten around to yet, because you aren't going to get another chance."
However, I can tell you a story about a time not so long ago when ...I like that story.
I like that story too! How come all industry stories involving WotC start like the normal happy stories, but then start sounding like something from "Saw 12: The Spiked Strap-on?"
10 to 1 of what number?
10 (illegal downloads) : 1 (legal download)
I'm not sure how bad that is, thinking about it, I would imagine most unaware customers who go to the Internet to find a source for PDFs are first going to come up to illegal download pages rather than pages they can purchase them. I'm not even sure how widely it is known one can purchase legal PDFs.
I think that might be normal to me, as I can certianly imagine, for every 11 readers of an internet comic, only one purchasing the compilation, if that even. Although it isn't exactly the same situation.
For your edification, here is another interview with Greg Leeds on retailer website icV2. The most interesting part is where he says that theories that WotC is going to sell PDFs themselves are "incorrect." Makes me wonder whether they are going to sell the books through Kindle and Sony's e-reader, like their novels are being sold right now.
-Lisa
That's good speculation, but since the main DRM formats I can find for the Kindle and e-reader have already been cracked, I can't imagine they think this will prevent piracy.
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Hmm Kindle would be cool.
The other way they could do it is either with some form of embedded reader in the DDI ... something like a flash based reader or something, though any kind of offline reading would be effectively eliminated.
Or, they go some kind of client/server model where users download some kind of interface to DDI. (Then it really smells like MMO, come to think of it.)
Either way, I can't say my opinion of the situation has changed all that much after reading the interview(s). WotC just hasn't come to the face the fact that in the digital age, piracy is a cost of doing business - you can't avoid it, so you have to offer better customer support, better prices, and better incentives to those looking to obtain legitimate copies.
Pulling PDFs isn't going to solve that problem. Taking a quick gander at a few torrent sites, the listings with the most seeds are OCR PDF - duplicates made directly from the print copies WotC is looking to sell more of.
Unless they can find a way to copy protect the printed page they're facing a losing battle.
Which goes back to my comment above. Why do people think it would be in WotC interest to announce ahead of time, "We are stopping the sale of pdfs in a couple of days because we don't want people to buy them and then break them and then pirate them. So then please go on a buying spree and then you pirates start breaking all the other ones you might not have gotten around to yet, because you aren't going to get another chance."Considering the utter lack of communication by WotC to the customers until after the fact and the speed with which they required distributors to cease offering the content (not just cease selling, cease offering), it's a very pertinent question. Basically, WotC has still not explained why they handled this the way they did.I was only commenting that he didn't say a word about "Why wasn't the cessation of PDF sales announced with more than a few hours before the materials were no longer available?" Not. One. Word.My comment was more about the question itself. It just strikes me as kind of a dumb question in the first place.
You are being deliberately obtuse regarding the points in my last post:
1) They didn't just stop sales on no notice, they required distributors to pull the plug completely in an extremely short timeframe, even if that meant legitimate customers would be unable to get content they paid for. There's a big difference between that and an immediate halt to new sales, with a reasonable timeframe (2-3 days) for customers to download material they had already bought.
2) They refuse to say anything about why it was so time-critical for them to act in such a high-handed manner. This goes back to being a PR blunder. If there was a compelling need for them to act immediately even if it caused consumer anger, why don't they explain it and mend their reputation?
I'm going to post a possible option. I've seen the sandisk slot radio and slot players. Why not a fancy "kindle" like D&D book with multiple slots for putting all your DM and player info. use a stylus and fold or slide out keyboard to access the necessary data. Linked wireless between them. Info is locked on slot media, read only. Store game and other info on other media slot, etc. Can buy "books" on slot media. Of course this means a large upfront fee for the reader and then multiple slot purchases to get the necessary handbooks and episodal info. Buy hey, we're all rich (cough). Maybe a rental program where you can trade in slot media for new episodes. Just a thought.
(weep)- I'll miss turning physical pages, post-it notes, etc....
(lightbulb)- oops- this will have a negative economic affect on 3M (post-it), Bic (highlighters), Zebra/Pentel (pencils/pens), Mead (paper), dry erase, etc. Hm. just a thought.