Of PDFs and Piracy
I received extremely short notice from Paizo that my old 1st edition D&D module PDFs that I purchased from them were no longer available, and could no longer be downloaded, nor (obviously) new ones purchased. This was a mandate from Wizards of the Coast (WotC) - they are no longer making PDF versions of their products available. Period.

This had nothing to do with Paizo, I later discovered (who are, for their part, EXTREMELY pro-PDF, and are offering a PDF sale this month). This was apparently a surprise decision from Wizards of the Coast. Talking to friends last night, I found they received similar notices from other venders. Some digging led to the discovery that piracy concerns are being cited as their reason to pull all PDFs from sale.

If this is truly Wizards' stance on the subject, then it is a complete smokescreen of ludicrous proportions. I mean, the genie long out of that bottle. There's no getting it back in. And as for the legacy products - like those for older editions of Dungeons & Dragons - let's get real, here. Those books haven't been for sale in print format in years. PDF sales generated some income or them where there was previously nothing. They may not exactly be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, but they are definitely shutting off a pipeline that was as close to getting "money for nothing" as you can ask for.

So instead, you've got a demand for these products and no legal supply other than some used book dealers. If you outlaw PDFs, then only outlaws will have PDFs... bah, that doesn't sound right. Anyway, moving right along. This lends itself to a lot of speculation. There are a couple of popular theories:

#1 - WotC is starting up a big ol' program of their own that keeps more of that money in-house. Or in amongst a select few that agrees to to newer, more favorable terms to WotC. This jives disturbingly well with their initial third-party license for 4th edition D&D, which mandated a bunch of nasty restrictions on any publisher that wanted to support 4th edition. Or - hey - maybe they'll even go so far as to have a subscription-based system that requires you to pay monthly to look at their older products or something.

#2 - WotC is trying to shut down the sale of older editions of D&D to bolster sales in 4th edition D&D. If their older products are seriously jeapardizing the sales of the newest game, this would indicate that 4E is a lot less healthy than anyone would believe.

Maybe there's some sort of super-secret, amazing trick that WotC has up its sleeve that will make its actions this month make some kind of sense. But at this point, it seems like knee-jerk reactions from a technologically illiterate VP.

I mean, I do feel for them. Really. Piracy Sucks. And while it's a losing battle, you still have to fight it. We'd all dearly love a magical button which would make bits behave in such a way that is fair to consumers and publishers. But ... we don't.

Admittedly, this decision doesn't affect me greatly. While there were some WotC / TSR books I was looking to purchase in convenient PDF format, I'd either bought (and downloaded) the PDFs already, or I own the print copies. In one case, I'd accidentally left a module I was running at home (I'd converted a 1st edition module to 3.5 rules), and it was far more convenient to shell out $5 to buy a PDF copy and download it onto my laptop than to drive home and get it.

It was great having that option.

Hopefully, WotC will reconsider or work out whatever weirdness they've got going on, and be able to restore their rich legacy of RPG materials in digital format for sale and distribution soon.

But in the meantime, it's a suck, and it sure ain't earning them many brownie points.

It's also been an opportunity for other publishers, like Paizo and Dreamscarred Press, who are taking advantage of the controversy to offer a sale on their PDF products. More power to 'em.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:31 PM (Permalink)