Pirates Force D&D Books Offline
- Thread starter The_root_of_all_evil
- Start date
I'm big on Star Wars SAGA myself, but maybe Fung Shui will replace it... if my book ever arrives!The_root_of_all_evil said:
I think $35 is very fair. Not just because of the quality of the physical book, but because with one book you can play unlimited D&D (as a player). If you are a DM, then you probably want a few more books, but in the end you get a lot out of your relatively small investment.
You could also compare it to a video game, which is $60 for less than 10 hours. A $35 D&D player's manual is like infinite hours of enjoyment.
You could also compare it to a video game, which is $60 for less than 10 hours. A $35 D&D player's manual is like infinite hours of enjoyment.
I am absolutely STUNNED that they only realised this now.
I will admit, I pirated the PH2. Two days before I bought it. And I never even read the pdf. I just got it so I could stick it on my laptop and not have to bring my books with me everywhere. I did the same with the PH1, except I got the digital version after buying the book.
The reason most people pirate DnD books is because there are SO MANY of them. For 3.5 alone, there are something like 120 books. PHBs 1 and 2, DMGs 1 and 2, Monster Manuals 1 through 5, six or so Complete books. And those are just the stuff usually approved by DMs. And all of those were sold for €32 (yes, my 3.5 PHB, which I bought two weeks before 4e was announced, costed nearly €10 more than the 4e PH). Why are they so surprised?
As an aside, my local sells the PH2 for €24, which is $31.83, nearly $4 off the RRP. They also discount all GW stuff by 20%, compared with GW's prices.
I will admit, I pirated the PH2. Two days before I bought it. And I never even read the pdf. I just got it so I could stick it on my laptop and not have to bring my books with me everywhere. I did the same with the PH1, except I got the digital version after buying the book.
The reason most people pirate DnD books is because there are SO MANY of them. For 3.5 alone, there are something like 120 books. PHBs 1 and 2, DMGs 1 and 2, Monster Manuals 1 through 5, six or so Complete books. And those are just the stuff usually approved by DMs. And all of those were sold for €32 (yes, my 3.5 PHB, which I bought two weeks before 4e was announced, costed nearly €10 more than the 4e PH). Why are they so surprised?
As an aside, my local sells the PH2 for €24, which is $31.83, nearly $4 off the RRP. They also discount all GW stuff by 20%, compared with GW's prices.
Damn, this would be my roommate. I've had moral qualms in the past about his pirating, but I guess that never stopped me from recieving them when he sent them to me.
From now on, I'm just gonna buy the books myself.
From now on, I'm just gonna buy the books myself.
Why does everyone blame anyone they can EXCEPT for the offenders? If these books cost 50 cents they would still be pirated, which is still illegal, period. The books are the price they are because there are enough people that pay for them to support the price point.
Bindox makes a good point. True, arguments about price and quality have merit, but the vast majority of pirates would still steal content even if price and quality weren't issues. Most pirates are simply too cheap to pay money for stuff. Now, I'll admit to pirating music, but I'll still go out and buy a CD if there are enough tracks to make the purchase worthwhile and I want to support that particular artist. However, I know there are people who will pirate entire albums (or even album catalogs) rather than purchase a single album. This creates an irritating cycle where companies need to increase prices to make up for lost profits, which in turn drives more people to piracy. Hmm... Well, that rant seems to have lost all direction, so I guess I'll rant about D&D now...
Now, I'm not overly fond of WotC's business practices with 4.0. They've learned from 3.0/3.5 precisely which classes, races, monsters, and settings people love, and they're making sure to mete those out carefully while providing a lot of filler. The fact that Monk- a class which is now considered by many players to be a core class- won't be in the game until PHB3 is outrageous. Meanwhile, we'll see Arcane Power, Divine Power, Adventurer's Vault 2, and the Eberron Player's Guide between now and then- and that's to say nothing of DMG2; why we need a second DMG already is beyond me. The fact that they're releasing a new Player's Guide every year is ridiculous.
I have no problems with the gameplay mechanics or the quality of 4.0. However, I do believe that they're intentionally creating as many "essential" books as possible in order to milk players for everything we're worth.
Now, I'm not overly fond of WotC's business practices with 4.0. They've learned from 3.0/3.5 precisely which classes, races, monsters, and settings people love, and they're making sure to mete those out carefully while providing a lot of filler. The fact that Monk- a class which is now considered by many players to be a core class- won't be in the game until PHB3 is outrageous. Meanwhile, we'll see Arcane Power, Divine Power, Adventurer's Vault 2, and the Eberron Player's Guide between now and then- and that's to say nothing of DMG2; why we need a second DMG already is beyond me. The fact that they're releasing a new Player's Guide every year is ridiculous.
I have no problems with the gameplay mechanics or the quality of 4.0. However, I do believe that they're intentionally creating as many "essential" books as possible in order to milk players for everything we're worth.
It just sucks to keep having the rule book republished and republished and republished. This is pretty much why people pirate these now. It's a tediously expensive hobby to follow but they don't just have one book do they? They have those smaller ones of less quality, the prices are pretty reasonable, but when all you want to know are the rules - you're going to want it for free.
I don't know how DRM will fix that.
I don't know how DRM will fix that.
It has nothing to do with piracy, in my opinion. WOTC is just jumping on the piracy bandwagon to justify yet another bone-headed business decision in a long string of bone-headed business decisions. They are pulling in the PDF sales so they can attempt (and fail) to strangle the 3rd edition market in favor of the 4th edition market. They also want to bring all of the sales in-house, much like they are trying to do with their online "magazines" and software aids. This is pretty much just like what they did when they canceled (or didn't renew) all of the licenses, such as the one for Codemonkey to develop Etools.
One of the big reasons I say it has nothing to do with piracy, is that they can't have not known that the D&D books have been pirated since before WotC existed! It's always been out there, as people have scanned, OCRed and posted pretty much every one of the books ever made. That's been going on since before the Web, on various BBS's. Even now, it's not gotten any worse over the last 10 years. Book files aren't huge bandwidth hogs (so broadband access isn't an issue for downloading them) and while it's easier to distribute an already made PDF file, all you needed was one person willing to do the scans for everyone to get the book. You can always find one person with too much time on their hands.
This is a bad PR move, and should serve as a warning to the entire game industry: go into business with Wizards of the Coast at your own risk! They WILL screw you over at some point.
One of the big reasons I say it has nothing to do with piracy, is that they can't have not known that the D&D books have been pirated since before WotC existed! It's always been out there, as people have scanned, OCRed and posted pretty much every one of the books ever made. That's been going on since before the Web, on various BBS's. Even now, it's not gotten any worse over the last 10 years. Book files aren't huge bandwidth hogs (so broadband access isn't an issue for downloading them) and while it's easier to distribute an already made PDF file, all you needed was one person willing to do the scans for everyone to get the book. You can always find one person with too much time on their hands.
This is a bad PR move, and should serve as a warning to the entire game industry: go into business with Wizards of the Coast at your own risk! They WILL screw you over at some point.
I found a legal way to get around the exorbitant expense of all those books. I bought a subscription to D&Dinsider. $60 a year and I get every book released plus the semi-official content from Dragon magazine all rolled into their character builder, and compendium. Heck, there is even a character visualizer in development (no release date).
Alternatively you could just buy the previuos edition for as little as $1 at a local retailer.Virgil said:
Having briefly poked at my friend's Character Builder, I definitely agree that $5/month looks like a great deal, especially with having nearly instant gratification when the new releases come out. Being able to generate character sheets with all the updated numbers on them after you level up, being able to easily generate characters of higher than first level... drooling commences. I do notice that my friend who was showing me the character builder ALSO has all the print versions. It's nice to be portable (and to support the gaming industry)!boneyard said:
Regarding piracy: it's like any other crime. Graffiti "artists" don't want to paint murals on a freely available wall, they want to do something illicit and risky, to show how smart they are by avoiding getting caught. These yutzes didn't just make a copy for personal use, they were distributing them. They're not Robin Hoods; they are just lame.
So let me get this straight. They pulled their newest book of the net and now the only wat to get it online is to pirate it? In other words anyone who is willing to pirate will get it but WotC will not get so much as a penny from the people who were willing to buy it? Well that's just pants-on-head retarded.
The_root_of_all_evil said:
If this is not the most stupid thing I've heard all week, I don't know what is. The books were already released, which means they're an INFINITE GOOD. They can and will be reproduced infinitely, so if consumers want them and they are no longer available for purchase, all that means is that they're now forcing themselves to have even LESS sales!
Um, clearly you didn't read the article. Wizards forced it offline. I guess they cast a black magic spell on you to confuse you.The_root_of_all_evil said:
This must be the most stupid thing I've heard all week - Wizards is deciding to fight piracy by NOT COMPETING. They're going to take off their books, and what will that accomplish? That means everyone who wants an online version HAS to pirate it now.
Brilliant move.