A while ago, Wizards of the Coast pulled all PDF material that could be bought from online stores because a few people were caught with illegal copies of the Player's Handbook 2. In effect, what WoTC has done has punished the entire gaming community for the acts of a relative few. They have punished those of us who legitimately bought our PDFs because a few people decided to cheat the system. This would be like giving an entire class a failing grade on an exam because a few people decided to use a downloaded answer key.
Recently, Wizards mentioned that they were working on the PDF issue. I would like to know what has been recently done to correct this issue. Myself, I in the past had bought not only the hard copy of the books but also the PDFs because I found them to be an invaluable resource. However, I am unable to buy the PDFs now not because I had done anythng wrong but simply because people had downloaded illegal copies.
If WoTC is waiting for the day for their material to be safe from illegal distribution, this day will never arrive. Every hour of every day, on thousands of illegal download sites, WoTC material is being handed out like candy and WoTC is powerless to stop it. That is because these sites are being hosted in countries that do not have copyright laws such as we do.
In the past, there were two ways of getting the PDFs for the material. The first way was to buy the PDFs from a legitimate online company. In this way, WoTC would make money from each sale. The second way is to download them from one of the illegal torrent sites. In this way, WoTC makes no money.
So ultimately WoTC has pulled the legitimate PDF material because people were illegally downloading it. However, by doing that WoTC has basically made it only possible to acquire the PDF by using illegal means.
I for one want the PDFs returned to us. I personally liked the idea of carrying around a stack of books on my flash drive rather than having to haul my entire library in a bookbag.
I do think it is ridiculous that it has taken this long and they still haven't fixed the problem. Sell the pdfs yourself off your own website, you certainly wouldn't be the first company to do it, and you'll get 100% of the profits.
EDIT: "you" meaning WotC
Selling the PDFs would be in violation of the Wizard's Intellectual Property. Only Wizards of the Coast would be able to authorize such sales.
By "you" I meant WotC.
Oh, yeah, this is totally a thread that needs to happen again.
You're right; it is. It needs to keep happening, again and again, until Wizards gives customers what they want: PDFs.
This is the point I was trying to make. The illegal copies are out there. The problem is I only want LEGAL copies, which I am willing to pay for. Silly me I suppose.
Lawful neutral modron?
Or, if you live somewhere civilized like Canada, you can copy someone else's PDFs of books you already own, which is also perfectly legal.
It always gets me how people talk about 'illegal pdfs' as though their very existence is an affront to the natural order. To paraphrase an old saw: 'PDFs don't violate copyright law - people violate copyright law.'
While I understand that the problem involved retailers and not individual consumers, my guess is that the 'no pdf' policy is only driving more people to illegally download the products, especially considering that the legitimate alternative right now is to purchase a printed product and scan it yourself.
I think the music and movie industries have already shown that you can't ignore the digital media market. I hope this issue has not gone the way of the Game Table...
Count me among those who prefer to pay for legal electronic copies of the products... I have stopped buying D&D products since they pulled the pdf versions. Not in protest, I just don't do it.
Preach on, brother. I plan to keep banging this drum. WotC's knee-jerk reaction serves no purpose, other to ensure that all D&D PDFs are illegal. I'm still hoping that they'll pull their head out of the sand before someone does it for them (by eating their lunch).
WotC's knee-jerk reaction serves no purpose, other to ensure that all D&D PDFs are illegal.
It makes sure all WotC OGL books aren't available for people to get legitimately. With Pathfinder going strong, WotC probably wants to do all they can to discourage it.
That's what I thought. Absolutely nothing. Gotta love it though - they kill the legal PDF market but allow Paizo to "reprint" D&D 3.5 and Paizo repays them by completing leaving off where they swiped their new game from lol
"The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is an evolution of the 3.5 rules set of the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game."
Sorry if I seem grumpy but it's rather insulting to be punished for buying legal copies of PDFs when an entire company can just swipe an entire edition, change a few rules, slap on a new cover and call it a new game.
Well cmon WoTC - WHAT ABOUT OUR LEGAL PDFS???? ANSWERS WOULD BE NICE. QUIT TREATING US LIKE MUSHROOMS AND LEAVING US IN THE DARK AND FEEDING US BULL ****.
they could have easily killed the OGL PDFs and left the 4E ones intact.
Except how much of a crap-storm would have been stirred up had they tried that one? There was enough bad PR as it was.
Given that there is NO reason to not sell 4th ed PDFs (as has been shown with the release of every new book) I'd say the only reason the 4th ed PDFs were nixed was to hide the true motive.
What we have is "We are pulling the sales of al PDFs at this time." That's not yes or no - that's maybe. Make a commitment and stick to it. If you decide not to sell the PDFs don't be suprised when people make PDFs for their own use and don't be suprised when they are handed out like so much halloween candy.
Me personally, I preferred the PDFs because then I can just take my laptop to my local gaming store and have access to the now very limited library of books and can get answers in a snap. Unfortunately, we are not permitted to use the on-site Internet otherwise we could just use the compendium for the same effect.
So now I have to bring my entire library of books to the gaming table in the case that someone MIGHT have a question from one of the many books already in print.
Please bring back the PDFs for sale. You haven't stopped the illegal distribution, you have only made the people that are illegally downloading your material laugh.
Please bring back the PDFs for sale. You haven't stopped the illegal distribution, you have only made the people that are illegally downloading your material laugh.
Not to mention made at least some former purchasers of legal PDFs turn to illegal means.
The truth is that WotC (or perhaps Hasbro) is completely unable to understand the situation; they're simply in way over their heads. There is no logical basis for the decision to halt sales of 4E PDFs. Unfortunately, most companies are incapable of admitting a mistake, which leads to the sort of PDF senselessness we have now. It happened in music, it happened in movies, and now it's happening in publishing.
I have an ongoing 4E campaign that will be my last if WotC remains silent on this issue (as they appear determined to do).
Please bring back the PDFs for sale. You haven't stopped the illegal distribution, you have only made the people that are illegally downloading your material laugh.
Not to mention made at least some former purchasers of legal PDFs turn to illegal means.
The truth is that WotC (or perhaps Hasbro) is completely unable to understand the situation; they're simply in way over their heads. There is no logical basis for the decision to halt sales of 4E PDFs. Unfortunately, most companies are incapable of admitting a mistake, which leads to the sort of PDF senselessness we have now. It happened in music, it happened in movies, and now it's happening in publishing.
I have an ongoing 4E campaign that will be my last if WotC remains silent on this issue (as they appear determined to do).
Then that's your loss. But thinking that WotC will be scared into rereleasing the PDFs just because one DM is going to quit playing because there aren't PDFs is a ridiculous notion.
I'm not saying I support the no-statement policy. In fact, I want there to be PDFs. But by protesting alone, you don't achieve anything but your own unhappiness and maybe a small boost of self-worth and purpose.
I just don't get responses like yours: I can't change their behavior alone, so why bother trying? I'm guessing you don't vote, either?
When a company fails to provide the products I want, I send my dollars elsewhere. Further, I post this information in a forum where others who may feel the same can see it, perhaps inspiring them to engage in the same behavior. I also hope that WotC might see my post and understand the reasons for my dissatisfaction. I'm not bearing a cross here; there is no martyrdom. or "loss" on my part. I'm simply voting with my dollars. Or I could remain silent and ensure that WotC has no idea what the problem is, and that nothing changes.
Explain to me again how informed consumers are supposed to behave?
Marandahir:
I just don't get responses like yours: I can't change their behavior alone, so why bother trying? I'm guessing you don't vote, either?
When a company fails to provide the products I want, I send my dollars elsewhere. Further, I post this information in a forum where others who may feel the same can see it, perhaps inspiring them to engage in the same behavior. I also hope that WotC might see my post and understand the reasons for my dissatisfaction. I'm not bearing a cross here; there is no martyrdom. or "loss" on my part. I'm simply voting with my dollars. Or I could remain silent and ensure that WotC has no idea what the problem is, and that nothing changes.
Explain to me again how informed consumers are supposed to behave?
I do vote. The thing is, there isn't enough support to change WotC's decision. Or rather, there isn't a vocal majority to make it work. You're throwing away your vote if you vote for something that doesn't have a chance of winning because it doesn't have enough support. It's the fundamental problem with two-party politics – it's extremely difficult for any independent or third party to rally enough support to succeed.
I am well aware that if you do nothing because you don't think it will achieve anything, you'll end up doing less than nothing, because nothing will change, and nothing will end; however, you also have to choose your battles.
I just think you're overreacting by saying that you won't play without digital books. It just seems to be sad reason to abandon a game over.
And we're hardly a majority on these boards to influence the market.
If you REALLY want to change it, you need to go all out, campaigning about this across boards across the internet, push players and DMs alike to flood WotC with emails about it, rather than complaining about it here and saying you're not going to play anymore if they don't do anything.
Alone you're weak, but with an army of consumers, you're strong.