Spelljammer 64-page Spelljammer books?

Jer

Legend
Supporter
And yet, WotC is about the only game company that doesn't use pdfs, despite those issues. Do they just care more?
Wizards is the only game company that is owned by Hasbro, who have shareholders and upper level executives to deal with. They are also the only company making the kind of profits that Hasbro reports in their annual reports. Other companies need that PDF money to survive, Wizards doesn't, and suits can make the case that they'd actually lose money by putting official PDFs out there due to piracy. So it's like comparing apples and sponges - they're being held to different standards.

They got a big black eye with piracy when 4e dropped and it gave the higher ups a really bad impression - they even pulled older material off of DriveThru for a while because of it (even though that piracy was apparently someone at the publisher leaking documents not about sales). Their suits are going to be in a 20th century mindset around piracy for a long time, and I doubt we'll ever get PDFs of current material out of them, even as they were able to convince folks that they were leaving money on the table by not putting the old stuff back on DriveThru.

Complaining about Wizards not putting out PDFs is never going to get them to put out PDFs. What needs to change is that they need to think they'll make more money by putting out PDFs than by not doing it. And just saying "well, I'll never subscribe to Beyond" isn't going to cut it because their suits are going to be thinking about how many copies people don't have to buy if sites like The Trove can just pop up and give it away for free.
 

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Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
They have put out PDFs for new things too. Like the Monstrous Compendium and things in DMSGUILD (see several charity adventures, etc)

But the removal of the Monstrous Compendium pdf for a link to DnDBeyond may be a glimpse into their future plans.
DMsguild is the only part of WotC I can really get behind at this point. Hopefully they'll open up Spelljammer soon.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend, he/him
They have put out PDFs for new things too. Like the Monstrous Compendium and things in DMSGUILD (see several charity adventures, etc)

But the removal of the Monstrous Compendium pdf for a link to DnDBeyond may be a glimpse into their future plans.
Yup.

Heck, in a few years maybe older Ed's will be on Beyond.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend, he/him
Wizards is the only game company that is owned by Hasbro, who have shareholders and upper level executives to deal with. They are also the only company making the kind of profits that Hasbro reports in their annual reports. Other companies need that PDF money to survive, Wizards doesn't, and suits can make the case that they'd actually lose money by putting official PDFs out there due to piracy. So it's like comparing apples and sponges - they're being held to different standards.

They got a big black eye with piracy when 4e dropped and it gave the higher ups a really bad impression - they even pulled older material off of DriveThru for a while because of it (even though that piracy was apparently someone at the publisher leaking documents not about sales). Their suits are going to be in a 20th century mindset around piracy for a long time, and I doubt we'll ever get PDFs of current material out of them, even as they were able to convince folks that they were leaving money on the table by not putting the old stuff back on DriveThru.

Complaining about Wizards not putting out PDFs is never going to get them to put out PDFs. What needs to change is that they need to think they'll make more money by putting out PDFs than by not doing it. And just saying "well, I'll never subscribe to Beyond" isn't going to cut it because their suits are going to be thinking about how many copies people don't have to buy if sites like The Trove can just pop up and give it away for free.
Beyond all that, PDFs are themselves a but of an outmoded format: it's 90's tech.
 



Jer

Legend
Supporter
Beyond all that, PDFs are themselves a but of an outmoded format: it's 90's tech.
I disagree with this one - if you want to have an actual archival copy of a work there is literally no other digital format that is as good as a PDF both for reading and for preserving.

Also PDF is one of the most convenient format for reading on an e-reader device when you don't have internet access. ePub is slightly better for novels and other works that don't have figures or illustrations, but if anything ePub is an even more primitive format than PDF is.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend, he/him
I disagree with this one - if you want to have an actual archival copy of a work there is literally no other digital format that is as good as a PDF both for reading and for preserving.

Also PDF is one of the most convenient format for reading on an e-reader device when you don't have internet access. ePub is slightly better for novels and other works that don't have figures or illustrations, but if anything ePub is an even more primitive format than PDF is.
The Beyond format in the App is much better to read on a Phone than any PDF.
 


Jer

Legend
Supporter
The Beyond format in the App is much better to read on a Phone than any PDF.
Yes - but if you don't read on phones it's much worse than a lot of other options.

I have a nice tablet that is about the size of a book (not D&D hardcover size, but your typical PbtA paperback). PDF format is much more convenient for me to have on my local SD card and read on that device than D&D Beyond ever will be. Especially when I'm on an airplane or out in a cabin where there's no internet access (which is when I most want to read).
 

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