Likewise, you can't really have an eBook autographed.
My wife gets around that by having authors autograph bookplates that she applies to her Kindle. (Of course, the maximum number of autographs a Kindle can hold is limited compared to the number of books, but for casual fans it may be enough.)
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I promise you that people complain whenever there's white space in RPG books.
I think all books could use more white space and slightly larger fonts. That being said I think the term "luxurious" was banded about and I think it fits. I am blown away by the beautiful, practical layouts and graphic design in the Strategy Guide. I understand why a reference volume like the Core Book can't be done like that but it it a trend I'd like to see continue. The new layouts for the ancillary lines are really well done. I'd like to see lush layouts and graphic design that doesn't trip over itself doing its job of presenting the data. The vibrant colors of Pathfinder books are also a huge draw to me. All of these things printed with ink that doesn't fade on paper that doesn't disintegrate and stitched into a volume that doesn't fall apart is why I happily pay $50+ a book. And I will continue to do so. Honestly, I wish we could get limited edition leather bound, gold-edged, silk bookmark versions even if they cost $100+ a pop. I'd buy them!
I've never been afraid of technology and have no qualms about bending it to my will. Luckily, I've never had to deal with the luddites who refuse to adapt but wail when they find themselves marginalized by their own choices. The nice thing is that the presentation doesn't change from print to pdf. I like using PDFs because I can adjust the text size and have multiple books open on two screens in addition to the multiple books that I have spread out in front of me. I don't miss the days of having 4 or 5 books open and piled everywhere. Now I have to two books I'm using the most in front of me with everything else on the screen. Less clutter is my new mantra.
To directly address the OP. I think luxurious is the right word. Hardcopy books will become works of practical art that people will want to continue own for a long time to come.
SM
I promise you that people complain whenever there's white space in RPG books.
If you included $100 bills in books, some people would complain about whether it was folded or not.
White space is definitely a tricky thing and I get that. I don't think it's something that needs to be addressed now, just pointing out it's a possibility to increase the usefulness of the physical products at some point. Again, more looking at the adventures, which are used fewer times and could benefit from more note space.
Something to look at would be Dyson's Delves. His completed dungeons are decent, but it's really the blank ones (with their notes sections) that I love and use.
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On the original topic, one advantage PDF's have over hardcopies is searchability and ease of use.
Now, this isn't a problem for all books. The bestiaries for instance are incredibly easy to use, and I would argue even easier than the PDF. A lot of that is down to organization and formatting of stat arrays
In contrast, the core rulebook is a thick, dense, hard to read tome. I don't generally even use the book, I just go to the PRD, because I can find stuff a lot quicker. The same with some of the other rulebook line books.
So a major step forward would be redesign of the rule books to more easily facilitate rules use. I think you could vastly improve that book with greater use of bullet lists, use of different fonts, and more diagrams and visual charts.
So that is one step Paizo can go towards for increasing the utility of their books.
Contributor
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On the original topic, one advantage PDF's have over hardcopies is searchability and ease of use.
Now, this isn't a problem for all books. The bestiaries for instance are incredibly easy to use, and I would argue even easier than the PDF. A lot of that is down to organization and formatting of stat arrays
In contrast, the core rulebook is a thick, dense, hard to read tome. I don't generally even use the book, I just go to the PRD, because I can find stuff a lot quicker. The same with some of the other rulebook line books.
So a major step forward would be redesign of the rule books to more easily facilitate rules use. I think you could vastly improve that book with greater use of bullet lists, use of different fonts, and more diagrams and visual charts.
So that is one step Paizo can go towards for increasing the utility of their books.
I generally like hard copies for reading and perusal, but when I'm sitting here commenting, being able to search PDFs really helps. :)
Oddly, I think I preferred the black-and-white version of the C&C PHB to the color version...but I'm pretty sure I'm part of the minority there.
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Hard Copies for Rules..Yes
Both Hard Copies and Digital for Accessories..Hard Copies being first Choice
How Many Generic "Dungeon" type Magazines are in Print Monthly?
How Many Generic "Dragon" type Magazines are in Print Monthy?
or Even Bi-Monthly?
I love the Look of a Well Stocked Book Case..
I love being able to read a Book without Electricity..
I love Fancy Maps and Artwork to Display on the Wall..
I love the Fact once I buy a Printed copy I can go back years later to reread...I never have to worry about the Operating System being Outdated or a Corrupted file.
Only Advantage for me on Digital..is the Ability to enlarge print for my poor old Eyes...
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Well, then again, you're dealing with a target group which is notorious for its hostility towards technology.
Rumors of the death of print have been greatly exaggerated.
I always felt like roleplayers were more technologically and scientifically inclined than average population...
For instance, one I hear a lot (and find to be the case myself, often) is ease of reference. In an RPG rulebook, for instance, using a PDF means you have to either flip one page at a time or already know the page number (or a page number close to where you're aiming, and then return to single-page browsing). With a physical book, you can instead flip huge chunks of pages at once to find the right chapter/section, then do a rapid thumb-flip through a dozen pages per second to narrow it down. Since that's one of the advantages of a physical book, it can be capitalized on: have you ever seen a reference book whose chapters or sections included an inch of colored margin such that when the closed book is viewed from the side, you can see these different colored "blocks" indicating different parts of the book? Using that feature takes one of the main (reference-related) advantages of paper books and improves it.
Properly designed pdf has bookmarks and/or links in table of context or index. Depending upon the structure of the text and the file, they can be browsed as fast or faster than physical book. And you can actual search them for specific word or sequence of words unlike physical book... (unless the pdf is actually a bunch of graphic files put together - some of AD&D second edition books that Wizards of the Coasts offered for free on their website in 3rd edition times were just scans of the old books, and not all of them had the OCR done to turn them into searchable text).
Someone else mentioned the ability to add notes and such. What if certain types of books included white space specifically for that purpose? For instance, suppose a Bestiary was released in which every statblock had the monster's HP situated next to a blank white space where you could then track damage during play? Or had spaces next to limited-use abilities to track expenditures? Or other spaces for status/conditions? Pencil and eraser could wear down the page if you're not careful, but maybe a dry-erase solution would be doable? This one might need further development, but you get the idea.
It could be done with proper choice of paper but I am afraid it would skyrocket the price of the physical book...
The digital book on the other hand could easily include self-recalculating stats, like mark a series of checkbox to apply desired templates.
I'm not sure the question "what is the future of print media?" is terribly meaningful without specifying a time frame.
Assuming we don't blow ourselves up first, the eventual future of print media is death...or so close to it that the distinction doesn't matter. Once technology erases the remaining advantages of print media -- and it will -- then print media will become a commercially-irrelevant historical curiosity. It may not happen my lifetime, but it will happen. Really, how could it not? The encoding of information using paper and ink is inherently inefficient.
Then again, I firmly believe that screens will disappear over time, to be replaced by holograms, which in turn will be replaced by retinal projections, which will eventually give way to direct brain interfaces. So what do I know? :P
I suspect that commercial direct brain interface might be here earlier than holographic screens, with recent progress in connecting video feed to optic nerves...
Chief Technical Officer
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...some of AD&D second edition books that Wizards of the Coasts offered for free on their website in 3rd edition times were just scans of the old books, and not all of them had the OCR done to turn them into searchable text).
Some of those early PDFs that *did* have OCR didn't have very *good* OCR. Here are a couple of excerpts of the OCR text from them: Return to the Tomb of Horrors and Oriental Adventures.
Actually I do... damn complicated, and damm expensive, and I also know that we aren't even at the start of the science and the technology required.Do you have any idea of the complexity and cost of such an operation?I doubt he does. I also doubt you do. I damn well know I don't.
Direct optic nerve manipulation will be the most difficult to deal with (of the senses) because the neurotransmitters are released in "negative." Ie, when your red cones are stimulated they stop releasing glutamate. So, you cant just "add" signal, you have to find a way to selectively disable the natural synaptic process on ~130 million rods and cones at 100 iterations a second. So, yeah, good luck. I expect actual freaking holodecks before we see that.
Anything implanted as an upgrade problem: I can get a new smartphone when a better one comes out. Less so with surgery.
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I always felt like roleplayers were more technologically and scientifically inclined than average population...Well, then again, you're dealing with a target group which is notorious for its hostility towards technology.
Rumors of the death of print have been greatly exaggerated.
That's because you're used to Euro roleplayers, who are a vastly different demographic than the American ones. Your random player background generation table for Poland will result in two M.As, one B.A. and one PhD (half of them did code in Pascal back when before you were born) while in the US it will get you a soldier, a convict, a taxi driver and a college student who's not entirely sure if he shouldn't have just done something more serious with his life like the other guys did.
Anything implanted as an upgrade problem: I can get a new smartphone when a better one comes out. Less so with surgery.
Hopefully, the surgical part would just be an interface, then you could at least go 10 years before your DB9 gets replaced by USB.
That's because you're used to Euro roleplayers, who are a vastly different demographic than the American ones. Your random player background generation table for Poland will result in two M.As, one B.A. and one PhDI always felt like roleplayers were more technologically and scientifically inclined than average population...Well, then again, you're dealing with a target group which is notorious for its hostility towards technology.
Rumors of the death of print have been greatly exaggerated.
Maybe I should do a survey during Smokon on Saturday. I am pretty sure that I usually lower the average level of degrees at the table, though.
(half of them did code in Pascal back when before you were born)
I'd have to play with people around fifty for that. Of course I wrote simple programs in BASIC, read about progress of nuclear science, and was interested in space flights before some of my players were born...
while in the US it will get you a soldier, a convict, a taxi driver and a college student who's not entirely sure if he shouldn't have just done something more serious with his life like the other guys did.
At my gaming tables, I could count for 3 out 4 of your examples.
In the US, gamer's have a higher rate of degrees than the general population. From 2004, GenCon SoCal did some research on their attendees. Now, this will be slightly biased, because people who can travel for their hobby tend to have more money and people with higher educations tend to make more money, but the numbers are still interesting. The most interesting number is that there were 0% of respondents with ONLY a high school diploma.
Compared to the general US population, roughly 9% more had a college degree and about 4% more had a postgraduate degree.
This is anecdotal, but at most of my tables college graduates usually out number non-graduates. The lowest ratio would be 3 out of 8, but another one should finish his degree sometime soon.
Do you have any idea of the complexity and cost of such an operation?
Nope; but what I do have is an appreciation for economies of scale, time, and human ingenuity. :P
Hopefully, the surgical part would just be an interface, then you could at least go 10 years before your DB9 gets replaced by USB.
Or you get upgrades by nanotechnology. In fact, there might not be a "surgical" part at all.
Hopefully, the surgical part would just be an interface, then you could at least go 10 years before your DB9 gets replaced by USB.Or you get upgrades by nanotechnology. In fact, there might not be a "surgical" part at all.
Yea, so you're in a sci-fi pipe dream. How do you expect this to beat holovideo to the consumer market (technology already exists) ?
while in the US it will get you a soldier, a convict, a taxi driver and a college student who's not entirely sure if he shouldn't have just done something more serious with his life like the other guys did.
At my gaming tables, I could count for 3 out 4 of your examples.
In the US, gamer's have a higher rate of degrees than the general population. From 2004, GenCon SoCal did some research on their attendees. Now, this will be slightly biased, because people who can travel for their hobby tend to have more money and people with higher educations tend to make more money, but the numbers are still interesting. The most interesting number is that there were 0% of respondents with ONLY a high school diploma.
Compared to the general US population, roughly 9% more had a college degree and about 4% more had a postgraduate degree.
This is anecdotal, but at most of my tables college graduates usually out number non-graduates. The lowest ratio would be 3 out of 8, but another one should finish his degree sometime soon.
Yep...my last gaming group was comprised entirely of PhD students/people with Masters.
Yea, so you're in a sci-fi pipe dream. How do you expect this to beat holovideo to the consumer market (technology already exists) ?
I don't. I've been pretty clear about this being a far-future endgame scenario. In fact, are we even part of the same discussion? :P
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To the OP, something I can imagine that might make hard copy books (games books in particular) more attractive.
A three ring binder version that's turned up to 11. By that I mean, it has to have a good durable cover, not cheap cardboard, can be easily taken apart, but when put together still has the feel of a solid book. This allows for "upgrades" to the pages within. It also opens the possibility of custom additions or entire add-on books with owner content... forget sticky notes.
The pages themselves would need to be more durable of course, perhaps with re-enforcement around the attachment area. No, I am not sure how that could be done.
I feel this is important if RPGs wish to truly be a living ruleset without forcing the players to worry about which print run they are buying or gathering up eratta scattered across FAQ entries and developer forum posts. I can imagine an interface on a company website where someone can overlay house rules on the core and get a new page or pages printed on demand for some small cost. There would be concerns here... how does the company make sure the content is not offensive before putting their name on it? Slightly different color scheme or branding for house rules pages with a disclaimer about non-official content maybe? Then there would be the worry of layout issues and whether that could be automated to handle this sort of thing.
They could also offer "blank" books. So you have Monster Book 1 through 32 from the company and you can modify pages. But you could also buy Generic Monster Book Cover 1 and fillout a template page, provide your own artwork and get at least a moderate quality custom book created page by page.
This sort of thing would require a complete shift in how printing is done though... I don't think it's viable in today's market for something of truly "luxurious" quality, or even Paizo's current quality. I'm fairly sure the cost to print a single custom page would be very prohibitive unless Paizo suddenly obtained the ability to high quality printing on their own.
Didn't Paizo just announce a 'print on demand' service for errata-ed or custom Adventure Card Game cards? That's a step in that direction.
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I think it'll go a little something like this.
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On the original topic, one advantage PDF's have over hardcopies is searchability and ease of use.
Now, this isn't a problem for all books. The bestiaries for instance are incredibly easy to use, and I would argue even easier than the PDF. A lot of that is down to organization and formatting of stat arrays
In contrast, the core rulebook is a thick, dense, hard to read tome. I don't generally even use the book, I just go to the PRD, because I can find stuff a lot quicker. The same with some of the other rulebook line books.
So a major step forward would be redesign of the rule books to more easily facilitate rules use. I think you could vastly improve that book with greater use of bullet lists, use of different fonts, and more diagrams and visual charts.
So that is one step Paizo can go towards for increasing the utility of their books.
I'm the exact opposite.
My memory is spatial. When I am looking for a rule, I have imprinted the quadrant of the page it's on, and the thickness of the book to get to that point (how many pages in it is), and the nearby artwork serves as a major cue.
I'm perfectly able to use pdf's (and do), but they don't imprint memories in the same way, so I find them rather useless as references. Search features will help me find the one piece of information I want at that moment, but won't help me *learn* it.
Anything I'm going to be using non-linearly (like a PFS scenario) I will print out before I use it.
I know I'm not alone in this -- memory-building works better the more senses are involved. So I can't imagine physical print not being very important for a long time to come.
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Arteficial vision is very close.
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/etumble.htm
They're looking at bypassing optic nerves completely and hard wiring directly to the interpretive brain. That way it works for all blind people, not just those with ocular damage but still functional nerves.
As for Nanotechnology, it's already being used in certain medical practices and according recent New Scientist articles is being trailed in nerve regeneration for crippling injuries (inhibiting natural immune responses that are preventing spinal chord re growth after massive trauma).
As far as book technology goes, I recommend reading Neil Stephensons "the diamond age". The book in that is a story that is self learning and changes to help provide lessons to the reader as needed. Awesome concept, but mostly replaced in the modern age by iPads etc. note he wrote that book in the late 80s early 90s.
That story also has machines that let you print what you want from atomic restructuring. Effectively put in cartridges of pure elements and print a standard template and you get blankets, or food etc.
I read recently that 3d printers are experimenting with this level of tech.
This sci fi future being mentioned in this thread is not as far off as some might imagine.
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I promise you that people complain whenever there's white space in RPG books.
You could have put a period after "complain". :-)
Despite my above suggestion, and as much as I like actual books, I would actually prefer to see advancements in electronic formats. After 30+ years of gaming, I have enough books to fill plenty of bookshelves. Carrying everything on a laptop or tablet would be nicer to me, and Paizo already does updates to many of their PDFs. I'm looking forward to going all digital in the next game/system I get into. There won't be enough change in printed books in the near enough future to change that for me personally.
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How about digital books using smart glass technology.
Looks like a real book. Has the same format as a real book with turning pages and such, but each page holds digital content. You can store as many books in it as a standard e reader, but get the real book reading experience. You can read a novel using it one night, then swith to university readings the next. The pages themselves change what content they hold.
Now I'm dreaming of course. But it is a nice dream.
That might be a digital solution I could get behind.
It still feels wrong, but so do mobile phones and I got used to them.
How about digital books using smart glass technology.
Looks like a real book. Has the same format as a real book with turning pages and such, but each page holds digital content. You can store as many books in it as a standard e reader, but get the real book reading experience. You can read a novel using it one night, then swith to university readings the next. The pages themselves change what content they hold.
Now I'm dreaming of course. But it is a nice dream.
Pranav Mistry in a talk from 2009.
It hasn't really been developed, mostly because I think the wearable device seems awkward, but this guy made some pretty cool things... over 6 years ago.
He was impatient to wait for the iPad, so he made his own tablet out of a piece of paper.
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I myself prefer print media to electronic. Better on the eyes. The tactical quality of holding a book/paper object. The consistent color of the ink.
I also love me some White Space
IM a latecomer to this topic so, sorry if I repeat something said before....
I have a frustating problem with some of my fellow players. They have been playing for a while and still have probems grasping some of the mechanics and sometimes make poor choices in their feat lists. They also just, plain forget abilities and powers during crucial points in the adventure.
The best example is when a player forgot about mythic surge which would have allowed him to his some big baddie. I sorta reminded him about them and asked, «did you or did you not read the book.» The answer was «No, I dont have the book, only a pdf.» I then asked if he read the pdf from beginning to end. « No, he said, just sporadically. If I need to check anything I do it online.»
I indicated that the fact he never read the whole text is the reason he has a hard time to remember stuff, to which he replied, «I don't want to read a 300 page document on a computer.» Who would?!?
IMHO a pdf is a tool that can be used along with a book for quick lookups, but in order to grasp the whole concept of the game you need the book unless you want to sit in front of a computer for several hours which I don't.
For DM's the pdf is a good tool to annotate and allows you to print maps and tables or player handouts, without recking you book. This is why I love Paizo's AP's where you get both (if you subscribe of course you get it for free. Woot!) I Also like FGG's wares because if you order their books you get a free pdf also.
Besides, when you run out of power on you tablet, or laptop and you have a power failure, at least you can light a candle to read. :-)
As a consumer, I don't see myself buying Slumering Tsar in pdf form only, for example, and read the massive thing on a computer. If not available in print, I would look for something else.
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My predictions on the future of print media:
- Newspapers and other journalistic media, and periodicals of all sorts, will become less ubiquitous, but not go away; they will creatively adapt their business models and/or accept becoming a less lucrative industry.
- Alternatives to paper will become increasingly common as wood becomes more precious, petrochemicals in particular are used less for toxic fuel but remain useful for plastics, and altogether new materials are developed (to give you an idea of how much potential lies unexplored in this realm, we appear poised to work miracles with - of all things - hagfish slime).
- As Bill Watterson once observed in an interview, "books are like sharks." They're a good technology, and will never go away. However, they have the potential to go in new directions - literally. The linear structure of books, and of language in general, is a much more crippling limitation than most people realize. The cosmos we live in isn't one-dimensional, so why should the way we describe it be so? Other media structures - think of Tibet's and Mesoamerica's ornate mandalas - could facilitate readers in thinking in completely different ways. I've long wanted to create a spherical book....