Community

Hehe - we were probably running out of relevant (new) stuff to say anyway, except extra people getting involved in giving their feedback on the decision and expressing their support/lack of support/anger/sympathies etc.

I think everyone knows where the rest of us stand.

Summary of My Views
[INDENT]Personally my best hope is that WotC investigate alternative online distribution methods and come to the conclusion that there is no effective alternative to PDF that will provide any ROI. That is, 'return' meaning "increased revenue due to a reduction in piracy". My personal feeling is that any 'return' is likely to be very close to zero.

WotC and many other companies need to wake up and realise that they are charging people for something that they can do for free (namely, making and distributing copies of information). Of course the revenue from "selling copies" doesn't just go towards the cost of making those copies - the price of a PDF is an abstract way of paying the designers/playtesters/typesetters/managers/etc.

The root problem is that that abstraction used to work in the 80s and early 90s because the public could not "do the distribution themselves for cheaper" and now it doesn't work because they can. Businesses must change, because otherwise (regardless of IP/copyright laws) they will be fighting an uphill struggle that will only get harder as time goes on (and technology/Internet connection speeds improve).

Any new/improved business model needs to pay the design-and-production teams without resorting to an abstraction based on copying the information they create (or some other activity that the public can do for free).[/INDENT]

So far, I have not posted on this issue, preferring to lurk in the background and lul at the fecal storm that has been going on, but I think it is time to let my honest opinion be known.

The decision to pull PDFs, while completely legal and understandable, was the most stupid and counterproductive decision that WotC could have made regarding the piracy issue. I understand that the double watermark was designed more as a tracking device than a security measure, and that it could only work once. I also understand that illegal downloading is an issue of concern. However angering your fan base, and inciting nerd rage is not the most intelligent way to deal with such a problem.

That said, there is a subset of the nerds complaining who are stuck on some entitlement binge because the distributes they patronize/d chose to advertise the opportunity for multiple downloads of a file. This was mainly in information loss due to computer crash, or corrupt transfer, and was a wise offer on this level. Wotc has made plans with some of the distributors to assuage the anger of these persons, whether or not their entitlement is correct.

Nobody could imagine that Wotc would pull the files in the way that they did. It has been pointed out that Goodman Games and a number of other smaller companies have pulled PDFs in the past, but handled it in a way that the community felt was correct. This shows that the community is not entirely unreasonable when treated with respect.

As to the cause of piracy, I believe a significant portion of the world at large feels that pure information is something that must be free to all, while still giving compensation to the creators of that information. That compensation is based on two things; the cost of production, and the quality/value of the work itself.

It seems there are a great many who are happy to purchase the information in the form of dead tree and chemical elixirs, and pay for the cost of production thereof, but who are not willing to pay the same, or nearly the same price for the same information in the form ones and aughts transferred electronically through the ether. There is a perception that neither the cost of production, nor the value of the work is enough to charge that much. Obviously there are some who feel that it is.

I personally stay neutral on this matter, as I only purchase dead tree and chemical, but Wotc may loose yet an other customer altogether over this, if the matter is not resolved quickly and satisfactorily. I support the gaming community over a corperation any day.

Are we allowed to mention other companies here? If not I'll amend my post accordingly, being as on the Rackham forums one can't mention GW or WotC, they're referred to respectively as that UK company and that Seattle/American company.

This bickering over a company's actions isn't new to me, and could point to BSG, though prefer Gall Force as an example of a cycle.

A few years ago GW US - came as a surprise to GW UK - used the IP issue with use of its images as a means of monopolizing on internet sales and mail order. At the time I was posting on the Warhammer Players Society and thought that not only was this a boneheaded move, but it restricted one's choices, there were others in agreement with my reasoning. GW claimed they were supporting the brick & mortar sellers in enacting this ban: internet sellers had to have a physical store and phone lines. Any clear-headed person could deduce that this is a crock, as many of the former were the latter and now that they could only sell over the phone, it'll cost more to have additional lines and staff. Many stores started liquidating their GW stock and/or getting out of internet sales, with only a few having the capital to make the switch to phone orders.

Things were tense enough as is on the WPS forums, when the first shots were made, can't recall if it was one of the yes men/fanboyz or almost everyone else lumped by them into the "hater" faction - the mentality of "if you're not with us, you're against us." Things escalated to colorful language starting with the former calling the latter no good cheapskates and "The Hobby" would be better off without you lot and the latter calling them everything short of Nazis - some did use evil in the same sentence as GW. Soon "volunteers" started showing for both sides: someone would say "I've been a lurker for so long, but though I'd chime in now and say you haters are full of ****." The other side's "hired gun" would enter the fray, being just as if not nastier than the fanatics. I noticed that some of the most fanatical GW supporters are from Scandinavia, found out years later that most wargaming in places like Finland's nothing but Warhammer.

Tried to remain neutral, while pointing out the problem with GW US's business practices, but soon was lumped in with the "haters" - like the Russian Civil War. The greater part of a week or two, ended up being angry on the forum in what turned out to be a BB's equivalent of a WWF Royal Rumble.:D Mods would step in, truces would be called for, but these would soon be broken one person or another seeking a rematch. Eventually the place became like Cold War Berlin and all this hostility was for naught, as GW US could only use this IP excuse in the US, as EU, Canada and other countries have rules against this type of business practice.

Karma - not the sitcom - being what it is, a few months later the Warhammer Players Society(WPS) decided to switch to a subscription based format for the forum, due to bandwidth issues. The most vociferous opponents of this move were the same fanboys who had called others cheapskates and scum.:D There's a moral to be learned from this longwinded tale, but I'll leave it for y'all to decide...

Wavester]Continue the discussion here:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1175731

(Before anyone asks, huge threads have a tendency to crash. They don't always, but it's better to deal with it now before it becomes an issue. )

You know what helps avoid those crashes? Not doing something that prompts so many angry responses... wrote: