one thing's for sure: your title just screams 'What the hell?'
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I want someone to post that stat-block.
There is no way for me as a publisher to track that information unless you d20pfrsd.com used Drivethrurpg/Rpgnow.com and include a source tracking code since paizo does not have it set up for use to be able to look at source tacking codes for purchases.
So you have to balance the idea of giving away your content for free which for people like me pays my house payment and puts food on my table. vs. embracing the concept of the OGL, and enjoying a good database.
What Rite said. I don't know for sure, but I believe so. However, I can say for sure that while having a banner ad on d20pfsrd made a substantial increase in our web traffic and we noticed a decent jump in our sales during that same time. So at worst, the "cost"of the ad is to have the open content posted on the site, it's worth it. More than likely, though, it's better than the worst scenario and probably quite helpful.
|
We've had this discussion before and the ultimate conclusion was that its just too hard for a publisher to be able to say with absolute certainty that having their content on the site hurt sales. It's impossible to say for sure how many sales you MIGHT have had. The main thing is, it doesn't appear to have hurt any of the publishers who have contributed content, but has certainly increased exposure to content potential customers might never have seen or considered previously. I think, at least from my (John's) perspective, the idea is that we (d20pfsrd.com) try to actively promote ALL who are creating content for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, with the hoped-for outcome being simply that the market grows and that each 3PP gets stronger over time. A thriving open gaming community is an awesome thing in my opinion, and not something that is likely to be reproduced by RPG makers/sellers who are owned by massive corporations.
On a separate note, as Dale said, advertising on the site can clearly be shown to have a very positive effect on sales so even if there is any negative from having your content on the site perhaps the free advertising helps make up for it.
Meh, I say we call this conversation done until someone can show clear evidence one way or the other.
|
For us at least (TPK Games), getting the exposure on d20pfsrd.com has been great. Much of our upcoming work has snippets of open content spells, items, feats and such within. I for one have no problem releasing that material, as it supplements our offerings, and is not the entirety of the product as a whole, otherwise my opinion would be probably be different.
In the future, when we release a class for instance (wink,wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean?, know what I mean?, eh!?) then I might suggest waiting for a period of time before seeing it included.
John, I'll be sure you get a copy of our latest adventure, as there is a lot of things we'd like to share.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As a customer I can say this. I have purchased many products because I discovered how well the material works with my campaign from first using it at d20pfsrd.com.
|
Let me open by saying I'm a huge fan of d20pfsrd.com and I think they make the Pathfinder-compatibility license as the whole more valuable. I have no objection to any of our OGC going up on the site, and we produce very open products intentionally.
To answer the OP's question, I don't have any evidence I'd trust one way or the other on the sales impact of material being on the site. The spotty evidence I've got, which is neither broad or detailed enough for me to draw conclusions from it, would suggest we've lost a few sales of material being posted, as people have written to me to ask about material they state they have not, and will not, buy as a result of it being freely available.
However, that does NOT mean i think d20pfsrd.com has cost me money.
First, I've worked the site to create some products that would not exist otherwise. (There's a reason the codex Draconis books all have a big d20pfsrd.com logo on the front, and I thank everyone involved for making those books possible). It's a great searchable, cross-referenced site that also saves me time as a writer, and as a writer time IS money.
On top of that, I have the same kind of weak, narrow evidence that it costs me sales of posted material to suggest it GETS me sales of un-posted material. I have had emails from folks who checked out some material on the site, decided they liked our work, and then bought things not available on the site. (And given our release schedule, i suspect the site will never completely catch up with out backlist, not to mention we have Call of Cthulhu and savage Worlds products on top of Pathfinder). I suspect the rocket to big numbers of the Godling Ascendant is also fueled in part by folks using the godling classes off d20pfsrd.com, and wanting the expansion material immediately.
Also, we haven't rolled out all of our print plans yet, and we may see a boost of sales for things we make available in dead-tree versions, as many folks seem to try things out in electronic formats before moving to the higher cost of paper copies.
So regardless of its impact on the sales of posted material which I'm not convinced is negative, but lack the data to say anything for certain) I AM convinced the site has had a positive impact on SGG's bottom line overall.
|
|
@Caedwyr: Why don't we take this offline and let publishers with specific requests contact us directly. No need to bore people with that stuff here.
Also, for the sake of you 3PP guys, I've started setting up a sort of 3PP Central on the site, with some info for you. The page currently has Hold Time Requests and Ad Run date info. If you want to know who is scheduled to run ads during what month, you see that in the right table. I plan to add more info to that area over time. If you'd like us to delay posting your content you can tell us and we'll add that to and reference the left table. However, respecting requested delay periods really aren't much of an issue for us right now since we're so far behind as it is.
My point caedwyr is that I don't think there's much new to learn here that we haven't already discussed or that we can't discuss via emails.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Also, for the sake of you 3PP guys, I've started setting up a sort of 3PP Central on the site, with some info for you. The page currently has Hold Time Requests and Ad Run date info.
Let me say that this kind of cooperation between 3pp and other "Pathfinder compatible stakeholders" (for lack of a better term) is exactly what I didn't see during the 3e days that makes me excited about Pathfinder as a community, as well as a rules set.