I know it's been answered before, but no one has given a good reason why the decision was made (other than possibly plain old greed).
I bought hard copy 5th Ed books when they came out, but I can't access the D&D Beyond information unless I buy the electronic versions through the D&D Beyond website. Even if I bought electronic versions through RPGNow or other on-line vendors I can't access them here.
Why has Fandom preventing the import of my electronic copies or doesn't have a QR reader that can grant access by scanning hard copy proof of purchase?
I shouldn't have to pay twice to use my player's handbook on an "Official D&D 5e" site.
Maybe they'll get the hint if enough threads get posted. They're still making money off the subscriptions and add-ons (dice, etc...), limiting use of source books to those that are only purchased on their website is a little short sighted. There are several apps coming out that have cheap subscriptions (or free content) that don't have these restrictions. I like the D&D Beyond architecture, and prefer it. But should I have to drop $100s for material I already paid WotC for? Sure, keep selling on the site here....make some money that way. I might even buy new stuff here rather than RPGNow, but let me use what I've already spent money on so it will make financial sense for me invest in future purchases through this site.
I get electronic copies of hard copies with every textbook I purchase. I also get them through Tor for free downloads with a hard copy purchase, not to mention DVD movie purchases have free downloads.
Maybe they'll get the hint if enough threads get posted. They're still making money off the subscriptions and add-ons (dice, etc...), limiting use of source books to those that are only purchased on their website is a little short sighted. There are several apps coming out that have cheap subscriptions (or free content) that don't have these restrictions. I like the D&D Beyond architecture, and prefer it. But should I have to drop $100s for material I already paid WotC for? Sure, keep selling on the site here....make some money that way. I might even buy new stuff here rather than RPGNow, but let me use what I've already spent money on so it will make financial sense for me invest in future purchases through this site.
Any app or site offering published material for free is doing so illegally, period. If you deem the digital tools here not worth your money then don't invest in them, but nothing you say will change the way business is done here.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Lightning Strike - A rebranded Fire Bolt for Wizards & Sorcerers.
Spirit Bomb - A holy fireball for Clerics, Paladins, & Divine Soul Sorcerers!
Sword Dancer - A Cleric subclass specifically for the Drow goddess Eilistraee.
Kinda my point. I've already purchased the source materials, this website could easily authorize use of those materials electronically similar to how many publishing houses and entertainment industry is offering free streaming for physical products. This would make using this website more attractive to users garnering a larger market share for D&DB. If they wanted to, they could add functionality to the system that allows users to register physical products under their DCI to prevent bootlegging. D&DB is already allowing content sharing between players for Master level subscriptions. Just an extension of that concept.
Kinda my point. I've already purchased the source materials, this website could easily authorize use of those materials electronically similar to how many publishing houses and entertainment industry is offering free streaming for physical products. This would make using this website more attractive to users garnering a larger market share for D&DB. If they wanted to, they could add functionality to the system that allows users to register physical products under their DCI to prevent bootlegging. D&DB is already allowing content sharing between players for Master level subscriptions. Just an extension of that concept.
And prices for physical product would increase to absorb that cost. Not to mention you would still get nothing as that would be a new feature with sealed books, so you'd still be making an additional purchase.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Lightning Strike - A rebranded Fire Bolt for Wizards & Sorcerers.
Spirit Bomb - A holy fireball for Clerics, Paladins, & Divine Soul Sorcerers!
Sword Dancer - A Cleric subclass specifically for the Drow goddess Eilistraee.
this website could easily authorize use of those materials electronically similar to how many publishing houses and entertainment industry is offering free streaming for physical products. This would make using this website more attractive to users garnering a larger market share for D&DB. If they wanted to, they could add functionality to the system that allows users to register physical products under their DCI to prevent bootlegging.
You've made some bad assumptions here.
"Easily authorize use of those materials" is hand waving away the complete lack of any way to guarantee D&D Beyond users have actually purchased the physical books.
And what's the value of "larger market share" if those customers aren't actually paying for anything? They provide no revenue, but still incur an expense. By that metric, huge success leads to bankruptcy.
If you're not happy with what D&D Beyond offers for the money, don't spend the money. It's that simple.
I'm waiting for the day somebody in Starbucks demands a lifetime of free coffee because they paid for an entire cup yesterday! Or in the bookstore, demanding an additional copy of their favorite book because they bought a copy in another bookstore 10 years ago!
Sorry Terry, I wasn't making assumptions I was short cutting my thought process for the sake of posting brevity. To answer you questions:
1- Hand waving. Physical products are computer controlled printing and can easily have a random number generator print a code on the inside of the covers that link to the DCI website to add your products to your inventory. This is how we do it for manufacturing registration based on serial numbers. The individual serial numbers are printed in the warranty manual or instructions book. Once this serial number is registered it can't be registered to another account until a transfer action is processed. Datadwarf posed a t link to a thread that talked about the issues involved with protecting those codes form premature "browsing" in the stores.
2- Larger Market Sher. Sorry, an example of my short cutting. By Larger Market Share I was referring to the on-line PDF purchase market. If D&DB allowed pdf inclusion based on DCI authorization to their players app while charging the same price for pdfs that RPGNow charges, they would start to see more purchases of their pdf products as gamers use D&DB as their go-to D&D pdfs. It's just easier to go to your player app and purchase the product than use a web browser to get to RPGNow, filter search D&D, purchase, download, and then go register the serial number with DCI. Never underestimate the power of simplification when attracting customers.
3- Don't spend the money if not happy. This is my point in 2. I haven't spent any money in D&DB because it won't let me use the physical products I've already spent money on. I'll use the free apps until something better comes along.
4- Starbucks and Book stores. Starbucks are a consumable, not applicable comparison to refence materials (apples and oranges). Book store is a closer and more applicable comparison. Yes, there are "book stores" that allow you to get more copies of the same book you purchased years ago. Apple Books, Amazon Books, Tor Books and Disney allow you to download "digital copies" as well as download multiple copies of their product that you've purchased. Even RPGNow lets me re-download copies of pdfs I purchased back in 2002.
Sorry Terry, I wasn't making assumptions I was short cutting my thought process for the sake of posting brevity. To answer you questions:
1- Hand waving. Physical products are computer controlled printing and can easily have a random number generator print a code on the inside of the covers that link to the DCI website to add your products to your inventory.
2- Larger Market Sher. Sorry, an example of my short cutting. By Larger Market Share I was referring to the on-line PDF purchase market.
3- Don't spend the money if not happy. This is my point in 2. I haven't spent any money in D&DB because it won't let me use the physical products I've already spent money on. I'll use the free apps until something better comes along.
4- Starbucks and Book stores. Starbucks are a consumable, not applicable comparison to refence materials (apples and oranges). Book store is a closer and more applicable comparison. Yes, there are "book stores" that allow you to get more copies of the same book you purchased years ago. Apple Books, Amazon Books, Tor Books and Disney allow you to download "digital copies" as well as download multiple copies of their product that you've purchased. Even RPGNow lets me re-download copies of pdfs I purchased back in 2002.
D&D Beyond isn't selling physical books. They don't publish a physical product they can slip a code into. WotC publishes a physical book, but does not publish a digital product. These are different companies. D&D Beyond, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds license the content from WotC and resell it. None of them publish physical books. None of them got a cent from your purchase of the physical books. _They_ owe you nothing.
There is no online PDF purchase market for WotC books. None. Nobody legally publishes a PDF of the 5e Player's Handbook or any of the other WotC 5e books.
D&D Beyond is not stopping you from using your physical books. There's nobody in your house, hiding them. I played D&D online last night and I used my physical books. You really mean that D&D Beyond provides a convenience that your physical books don't, but you don't value the convenience enough to pay for it. Refusing to pay for convenience is not the same as being prevented from doing something.
Amazon has never given me a free Kindle copy of any physical book I've purchased there. Not even a discount. And re-downloading ebooks and PDFs is not the same as getting another copy for free. You still only own one copy.
I find these repeated arguments disheartening. So many people are demanding faster service, quicker bug fixes, more functionality, plus free!
How is a company supposed to pay its staff to do all these things without charging money?
And the answer to that is _ads_. Every complaint pushes us closer to _ads_. Ads on every page. Ads on your character sheet. Ads in the rules. Ads in your encounters.
You seem to make the assumption that DNDBeyond is making the source material and choosing to sell digital copies along with the physical copy. This would be a valid argument if we were on the Wizards of the Coast site (the publisher of D&D) and they were selling both physical and digital copies and providing a digital toolset. DNDBeyond is not affiliated in any way with WOTC. They pay a licensing agreement fee and built a digital toolset. Your argument is being placed on the wrong website and should solely exist on the WOTC site... except they don't do any of the digital books or digital toolsets, which is why you are here because they are both useful. But the maker of a useful product doesn't mean it is the owner of the copyright and can make changes to distribution policy.
Both you guys don’t seem to understand the pint I’m trying to make. Your focusing on the mistake that I think D&DB publishes hard copies. I’m very well aware who publishes what and in what media. It’s not my responsibility to ensure any company can make payroll (what they really focus on is profit margin, not payroll), it’s the company’s responsibility to figure how to pay expenses and make a profit by providing goods and services while remaining competitive. If they can’t, then they’ll go the way of KMart, Borders Books and ACE Hardware. As far as “I’m tired of hearing”......stop reading and replying to posts.
I shouldn't have to pay twice to use my player's handbook on an "Official D&D 5e" site.
I guess this is where we're getting our misconception from. My apologies. Good luck in the future. Hope you enjoy the tools you do have and the rules in the format you want to enjoy.
I do appreciate the frustration that comes with having to "pay twice". The way I like to look at it is, you can freely homebrew all the stuff if you have the time to do it yourself. Alternatively you pay the site to do it for you - similar to how you would pay someone to paint a mini for you because you don't have the time/skills to paint it.
Essentially you're paying for convenience of having everything accessible on a Digital Platform.
As someone who has both Hardcover and Digital, it has been a very good investment. Sure, not everything works (cough-life-cleric) but the majority of the features work very well indeed. And that's the thing that has value for me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Both you guys don’t seem to understand the pint I’m trying to make. Your focusing on the mistake that I think D&DB publishes hard copies. I’m very well aware who publishes what and in what media. It’s not my responsibility to ensure any company can make payroll (what they really focus on is profit margin, not payroll), it’s the company’s responsibility to figure how to pay expenses and make a profit by providing goods and services while remaining competitive. If they can’t, then they’ll go the way of KMart, Borders Books and ACE Hardware. As far as “I’m tired of hearing”......stop reading and replying to posts.
I think there is a fundamental misconception of who a business ultimately serves, and it is most definitely not customers. Generally, the ultimate goal of a publicly traded company is to increase the wealth of its shareholders, usually through dividends and/or appreciation of its stock price. Depending on the company and industry, customers are the last group of people certain business cares about, and are seen to be worth even less than its employees and suppliers. Customers are as expendable and exploitable as anyone else, and businesses owe customers nothing. A business has no duty to lower the price of its products for the benefit of the customer. In fact, a business is wholly justified to jack up the price of its products as much as the market can bear to maximize profit.
Hasbro has been profitable for at least the last five years, and quite frankly, I see no need for Wizards to bundle their physical and digital products together. Wizards has no duty to provide a service to customers who cannot afford Wizards' products and services. There are enough customers like me out there who see the value in both physical and digital products to pay for both separately, and we as a group of customers are profitable enough for Wizards and its affiliates to do business with. To put it bluntly, customers who complain about price will simply be ignored because they are not profitable and are not worth being catered much to, and if those customers want to be heard and serviced, they need to pay up like every other customer.
It’s not my responsibility to ensure any company can make payroll (what they really focus on is profit margin, not payroll), it’s the company’s responsibility to figure how to pay expenses and make a profit by providing goods and services while remaining competitive.
Yet you think it's their responsibility to give you something for free because you spent money in some other store.
Both you guys don’t seem to understand the pint I’m trying to make. Your focusing on the mistake that I think D&DB publishes hard copies. I’m very well aware who publishes what and in what media. It’s not my responsibility to ensure any company can make payroll (what they really focus on is profit margin, not payroll), it’s the company’s responsibility to figure how to pay expenses and make a profit by providing goods and services while remaining competitive. If they can’t, then they’ll go the way of KMart, Borders Books and ACE Hardware. As far as “I’m tired of hearing”......stop reading and replying to posts.
You will never get what you want. Ever. So perhaps take your own advice and stop wasting everyone's time with your repeated point that we've all responded to over and over again.
This is a digital bookstore with an online tool to use your purchases. Just because it's the official online tool of Dungeons and Dragons doesn't suddenly mean everything is supposed to be free.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Lightning Strike - A rebranded Fire Bolt for Wizards & Sorcerers.
Spirit Bomb - A holy fireball for Clerics, Paladins, & Divine Soul Sorcerers!
Sword Dancer - A Cleric subclass specifically for the Drow goddess Eilistraee.
I regularly shop at ACE Hardware. I should really see if they'll give me some digital paint to go with the real paint I purchased for my place.
You have the books, you can play the game. D&D Beyond has created some tools and has bundled those tools into its digital editions of the game. You don't need them. I'll tell you what, there are two other licensed providers of D&D Beyond digitally, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, why don't you try to get headway with them.
Also good luck with DriveThruRPG, 5e isn't available in their PDF store.
I'm sorry you're angry, but the only way you would have gotten your way would have entailed a much more expensive product at Retail, akin to your aforementioned College Text Books. DDB is not like reading an electronic copy on Tor, it's tools to enhance your playing if pencil and paper and arithmetic is too burdensome to game prep. That's all. You can continue to refuse to understand or accept reality. But reality is, well, reality, so it sort of has an advantage in this contest. Honestly you could have probably home-brewed whatever your character needed beyond the basics in the time you've spent waging your campaign.
Another idea, there is this company Beedle and Grimm that publish editions of D&D Adventures in a format that sometimes include a code to D&D Beyond (but not always), but also have battle maps taken from the book and printed out in durable format for miniature play, and a bunch of other formatting options. If you buy an adventure, why not go to then and ask for a free Silver or Platinum edition of their product because you feel they owe it to you.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Both you guys don’t seem to understand the pint I’m trying to make. Your focusing on the mistake that I think D&DB publishes hard copies. I’m very well aware who publishes what and in what media. It’s not my responsibility to ensure any company can make payroll (what they really focus on is profit margin, not payroll), it’s the company’s responsibility to figure how to pay expenses and make a profit by providing goods and services while remaining competitive. If they can’t, then they’ll go the way of KMart, Borders Books and ACE Hardware. As far as “I’m tired of hearing”......stop reading and replying to posts.
We understand your point very well. What we are trying to explain is that your point is invalid. You just argued that DDB should give you free shit and if they go bankrupt because of it that it’s their problem, not yours. Let’s break that down together.
You wine and ***** and moan and complain and throw a tantrum and yell “GIMMEGIMMEGIMME!”
DDB gives you free shit.
DDB goes bankrupt and the website dies.
You lose your free shit and are now stuck with the hardback books you originally purchased anyway.
Thousands of people like me all lose access to the hundreds of dollars worth of digital books we did purchase from this website too, all because of you making DDB go bankrupt.
You don’t give a shit about our losses any more than you give a shit about DDB going bankrupt and all of those nice people loosing their jobs.
You eventually die and (depending on who you ask) either go to hell for being an awful person, or get reincarnated as a cockroach.
Is that really what you want? Can’t you just buy what you want like normal people? Like, srsly....
This all comes down to the fact that what makes sense for a customer doesn't necessarily also make sense for a business.
Fandom Games and WotC are two different businesses. Both have their own P&L to consider. Let's put ourselves into the shoes of WotC -
Could we put a code in our books to unlock DNDB content? Sure, of course it's possible. Fandom Games would ask for a cut of the sale price, of course. Do we take the hit, or do we increase the price for everyone? Either we get a smaller cut of the same sales, or we increase the price and get the same cut of fewer sales. Not sounding too good for us. How many of our customers actually want this, and how many will stop buying the books if we don't provide it? Do we really want to annoy 100% of our customer base by raising prices, when only a small percentage actually see value in what we'd be providing? Nah.
OK, so maybe we can negotiate something with Fandom Games whereby we only pass through revenue for the specific books that are activated? Theoretically possible. But now we have a liability on our books because the digital content could be activated anytime after purchase. If only a small %age of our customers are activating, these liabilities could stick around for *years*. No business would accept that. Can we limit how long the codes are active? Only if we track the date each and every book is sold, through every channel. Could we limit it from date of production? Sure, but what happens when someone buys the book after the limit has passed? How do we make sure a book is only activated once? Now we have to maintain a database tracking the codes. This is just not worth it.
How else could we make it work? Well, in theory, Fandom Games could become retailers of the hard copy books, and charge an uplift for the digital content. But let's put ourselves in FG's shoes - DNDB is a digital platform, and it's where our core competence lies. Do we really want to become an online retailer of physical goods? Do we want to manage inventory and shipping costs? Nah, that is a big hassle. As a digital business, we are mostly insulated from a lot of historically volatile costs like shipping. Why would we take on those costs now?
If I was a decision maker at WotC or Fandom Games, and if (a really, really big if) enough of my customers wanted this that not providing it became an existential threat, here's how I would propose handling it. WotC continues to sell books at the exact same price. In the front cover, a code is published for discounted digital content from DNDB. Scan the code, get the discount on the digital content (as WotC I'd make a deal of this in the marketing to try to goose book sales). Even this involves both businesses accepting some exposure, and deciding if they'll come out winner or loser. WotC has to accept that it may lose future book sales to a customer who decides to go full digital. DNDB has to accept selling its digital content at a discount, in the hopes that the customer purchases full price in the future. I don't know what their licensing agreement looks like with WotC, but I'm guessing it ain't cheap. It would probably need to be renegotiated, with both sides arguing that the discount code means they deserve more. WotC will argue they are driving business to DNDB so licensing charge must increase, FG will argue that discounted DNDB content is adding value to the books so licensing charge should decrease. It's gonna be a tense relationship, with either side ready to pull the plug at any moment if things aren't swinging their way.
The thing to realize is that you aren't really paying twice - you're paying for two different things. If they were truly the same thing, you wouldn't care. But you quite obviously see value in the service DNDB are providing over and above the value of the physical book. Otherwise you wouldn't want access to it, right? Overall, the status quo is better for everyone, even if it doesn't feel that way. DNDB effectively exists at the pleasure of WotC, and anything that causes a fractious relationship between the companies will put them at existential risk. If DNDB goes away, Dungeons and Dragons books will continue to sell just fine thankyouverymuch, but without licensed content from WotC, DNDB is a shell of what it was.
I know it's been answered before, but no one has given a good reason why the decision was made (other than possibly plain old greed).
I bought hard copy 5th Ed books when they came out, but I can't access the D&D Beyond information unless I buy the electronic versions through the D&D Beyond website. Even if I bought electronic versions through RPGNow or other on-line vendors I can't access them here.
Why has Fandom preventing the import of my electronic copies or doesn't have a QR reader that can grant access by scanning hard copy proof of purchase?
I shouldn't have to pay twice to use my player's handbook on an "Official D&D 5e" site.
Maybe they'll get the hint if enough threads get posted. They're still making money off the subscriptions and add-ons (dice, etc...), limiting use of source books to those that are only purchased on their website is a little short sighted. There are several apps coming out that have cheap subscriptions (or free content) that don't have these restrictions. I like the D&D Beyond architecture, and prefer it. But should I have to drop $100s for material I already paid WotC for? Sure, keep selling on the site here....make some money that way. I might even buy new stuff here rather than RPGNow, but let me use what I've already spent money on so it will make financial sense for me invest in future purchases through this site.
I get electronic copies of hard copies with every textbook I purchase. I also get them through Tor for free downloads with a hard copy purchase, not to mention DVD movie purchases have free downloads.
Any app or site offering published material for free is doing so illegally, period. If you deem the digital tools here not worth your money then don't invest in them, but nothing you say will change the way business is done here.
Lightning Strike - A rebranded Fire Bolt for Wizards & Sorcerers.
Spirit Bomb - A holy fireball for Clerics, Paladins, & Divine Soul Sorcerers!
Sword Dancer - A Cleric subclass specifically for the Drow goddess Eilistraee.
Quicksilver & The Scarlet Witch - A pair of magical firearms for your Gunslinger or Artificer.
Kinda my point. I've already purchased the source materials, this website could easily authorize use of those materials electronically similar to how many publishing houses and entertainment industry is offering free streaming for physical products. This would make using this website more attractive to users garnering a larger market share for D&DB. If they wanted to, they could add functionality to the system that allows users to register physical products under their DCI to prevent bootlegging. D&DB is already allowing content sharing between players for Master level subscriptions. Just an extension of that concept.
And prices for physical product would increase to absorb that cost. Not to mention you would still get nothing as that would be a new feature with sealed books, so you'd still be making an additional purchase.
Lightning Strike - A rebranded Fire Bolt for Wizards & Sorcerers.
Spirit Bomb - A holy fireball for Clerics, Paladins, & Divine Soul Sorcerers!
Sword Dancer - A Cleric subclass specifically for the Drow goddess Eilistraee.
Quicksilver & The Scarlet Witch - A pair of magical firearms for your Gunslinger or Artificer.
You've made some bad assumptions here.
"Easily authorize use of those materials" is hand waving away the complete lack of any way to guarantee D&D Beyond users have actually purchased the physical books.
And what's the value of "larger market share" if those customers aren't actually paying for anything? They provide no revenue, but still incur an expense. By that metric, huge success leads to bankruptcy.
If you're not happy with what D&D Beyond offers for the money, don't spend the money. It's that simple.
I'm waiting for the day somebody in Starbucks demands a lifetime of free coffee because they paid for an entire cup yesterday! Or in the bookstore, demanding an additional copy of their favorite book because they bought a copy in another bookstore 10 years ago!
Thanks. It was a good read on what's been done.
Sorry Terry, I wasn't making assumptions I was short cutting my thought process for the sake of posting brevity. To answer you questions:
1- Hand waving. Physical products are computer controlled printing and can easily have a random number generator print a code on the inside of the covers that link to the DCI website to add your products to your inventory. This is how we do it for manufacturing registration based on serial numbers. The individual serial numbers are printed in the warranty manual or instructions book. Once this serial number is registered it can't be registered to another account until a transfer action is processed. Datadwarf posed a t link to a thread that talked about the issues involved with protecting those codes form premature "browsing" in the stores.
2- Larger Market Sher. Sorry, an example of my short cutting. By Larger Market Share I was referring to the on-line PDF purchase market. If D&DB allowed pdf inclusion based on DCI authorization to their players app while charging the same price for pdfs that RPGNow charges, they would start to see more purchases of their pdf products as gamers use D&DB as their go-to D&D pdfs. It's just easier to go to your player app and purchase the product than use a web browser to get to RPGNow, filter search D&D, purchase, download, and then go register the serial number with DCI. Never underestimate the power of simplification when attracting customers.
3- Don't spend the money if not happy. This is my point in 2. I haven't spent any money in D&DB because it won't let me use the physical products I've already spent money on. I'll use the free apps until something better comes along.
4- Starbucks and Book stores. Starbucks are a consumable, not applicable comparison to refence materials (apples and oranges). Book store is a closer and more applicable comparison. Yes, there are "book stores" that allow you to get more copies of the same book you purchased years ago. Apple Books, Amazon Books, Tor Books and Disney allow you to download "digital copies" as well as download multiple copies of their product that you've purchased. Even RPGNow lets me re-download copies of pdfs I purchased back in 2002.
Thanks. I hope this clarifies my previous post.
I find these repeated arguments disheartening. So many people are demanding faster service, quicker bug fixes, more functionality, plus free!
How is a company supposed to pay its staff to do all these things without charging money?
And the answer to that is _ads_. Every complaint pushes us closer to _ads_. Ads on every page. Ads on your character sheet. Ads in the rules. Ads in your encounters.
Who wants that?
You seem to make the assumption that DNDBeyond is making the source material and choosing to sell digital copies along with the physical copy. This would be a valid argument if we were on the Wizards of the Coast site (the publisher of D&D) and they were selling both physical and digital copies and providing a digital toolset. DNDBeyond is not affiliated in any way with WOTC. They pay a licensing agreement fee and built a digital toolset. Your argument is being placed on the wrong website and should solely exist on the WOTC site... except they don't do any of the digital books or digital toolsets, which is why you are here because they are both useful. But the maker of a useful product doesn't mean it is the owner of the copyright and can make changes to distribution policy.
Both you guys don’t seem to understand the pint I’m trying to make. Your focusing on the mistake that I think D&DB publishes hard copies. I’m very well aware who publishes what and in what media. It’s not my responsibility to ensure any company can make payroll (what they really focus on is profit margin, not payroll), it’s the company’s responsibility to figure how to pay expenses and make a profit by providing goods and services while remaining competitive. If they can’t, then they’ll go the way of KMart, Borders Books and ACE Hardware. As far as “I’m tired of hearing”......stop reading and replying to posts.
I guess this is where we're getting our misconception from. My apologies. Good luck in the future. Hope you enjoy the tools you do have and the rules in the format you want to enjoy.
I do appreciate the frustration that comes with having to "pay twice". The way I like to look at it is, you can freely homebrew all the stuff if you have the time to do it yourself. Alternatively you pay the site to do it for you - similar to how you would pay someone to paint a mini for you because you don't have the time/skills to paint it.
Essentially you're paying for convenience of having everything accessible on a Digital Platform.
As someone who has both Hardcover and Digital, it has been a very good investment. Sure, not everything works (cough-life-cleric) but the majority of the features work very well indeed. And that's the thing that has value for me.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
I think there is a fundamental misconception of who a business ultimately serves, and it is most definitely not customers. Generally, the ultimate goal of a publicly traded company is to increase the wealth of its shareholders, usually through dividends and/or appreciation of its stock price. Depending on the company and industry, customers are the last group of people certain business cares about, and are seen to be worth even less than its employees and suppliers. Customers are as expendable and exploitable as anyone else, and businesses owe customers nothing. A business has no duty to lower the price of its products for the benefit of the customer. In fact, a business is wholly justified to jack up the price of its products as much as the market can bear to maximize profit.
Hasbro has been profitable for at least the last five years, and quite frankly, I see no need for Wizards to bundle their physical and digital products together. Wizards has no duty to provide a service to customers who cannot afford Wizards' products and services. There are enough customers like me out there who see the value in both physical and digital products to pay for both separately, and we as a group of customers are profitable enough for Wizards and its affiliates to do business with. To put it bluntly, customers who complain about price will simply be ignored because they are not profitable and are not worth being catered much to, and if those customers want to be heard and serviced, they need to pay up like every other customer.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Yet you think it's their responsibility to give you something for free because you spent money in some other store.
It's not.
You will never get what you want. Ever. So perhaps take your own advice and stop wasting everyone's time with your repeated point that we've all responded to over and over again.
This is a digital bookstore with an online tool to use your purchases. Just because it's the official online tool of Dungeons and Dragons doesn't suddenly mean everything is supposed to be free.
Lightning Strike - A rebranded Fire Bolt for Wizards & Sorcerers.
Spirit Bomb - A holy fireball for Clerics, Paladins, & Divine Soul Sorcerers!
Sword Dancer - A Cleric subclass specifically for the Drow goddess Eilistraee.
Quicksilver & The Scarlet Witch - A pair of magical firearms for your Gunslinger or Artificer.
I regularly shop at ACE Hardware. I should really see if they'll give me some digital paint to go with the real paint I purchased for my place.
You have the books, you can play the game. D&D Beyond has created some tools and has bundled those tools into its digital editions of the game. You don't need them. I'll tell you what, there are two other licensed providers of D&D Beyond digitally, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, why don't you try to get headway with them.
Also good luck with DriveThruRPG, 5e isn't available in their PDF store.
I'm sorry you're angry, but the only way you would have gotten your way would have entailed a much more expensive product at Retail, akin to your aforementioned College Text Books. DDB is not like reading an electronic copy on Tor, it's tools to enhance your playing if pencil and paper and arithmetic is too burdensome to game prep. That's all. You can continue to refuse to understand or accept reality. But reality is, well, reality, so it sort of has an advantage in this contest. Honestly you could have probably home-brewed whatever your character needed beyond the basics in the time you've spent waging your campaign.
Another idea, there is this company Beedle and Grimm that publish editions of D&D Adventures in a format that sometimes include a code to D&D Beyond (but not always), but also have battle maps taken from the book and printed out in durable format for miniature play, and a bunch of other formatting options. If you buy an adventure, why not go to then and ask for a free Silver or Platinum edition of their product because you feel they owe it to you.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
We understand your point very well. What we are trying to explain is that your point is invalid. You just argued that DDB should give you free shit and if they go bankrupt because of it that it’s their problem, not yours. Let’s break that down together.
Is that really what you want? Can’t you just buy what you want like normal people? Like, srsly....
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
This all comes down to the fact that what makes sense for a customer doesn't necessarily also make sense for a business.
Fandom Games and WotC are two different businesses. Both have their own P&L to consider. Let's put ourselves into the shoes of WotC -
Could we put a code in our books to unlock DNDB content? Sure, of course it's possible. Fandom Games would ask for a cut of the sale price, of course. Do we take the hit, or do we increase the price for everyone? Either we get a smaller cut of the same sales, or we increase the price and get the same cut of fewer sales. Not sounding too good for us. How many of our customers actually want this, and how many will stop buying the books if we don't provide it? Do we really want to annoy 100% of our customer base by raising prices, when only a small percentage actually see value in what we'd be providing? Nah.
OK, so maybe we can negotiate something with Fandom Games whereby we only pass through revenue for the specific books that are activated? Theoretically possible. But now we have a liability on our books because the digital content could be activated anytime after purchase. If only a small %age of our customers are activating, these liabilities could stick around for *years*. No business would accept that. Can we limit how long the codes are active? Only if we track the date each and every book is sold, through every channel. Could we limit it from date of production? Sure, but what happens when someone buys the book after the limit has passed? How do we make sure a book is only activated once? Now we have to maintain a database tracking the codes. This is just not worth it.
How else could we make it work? Well, in theory, Fandom Games could become retailers of the hard copy books, and charge an uplift for the digital content. But let's put ourselves in FG's shoes - DNDB is a digital platform, and it's where our core competence lies. Do we really want to become an online retailer of physical goods? Do we want to manage inventory and shipping costs? Nah, that is a big hassle. As a digital business, we are mostly insulated from a lot of historically volatile costs like shipping. Why would we take on those costs now?
If I was a decision maker at WotC or Fandom Games, and if (a really, really big if) enough of my customers wanted this that not providing it became an existential threat, here's how I would propose handling it. WotC continues to sell books at the exact same price. In the front cover, a code is published for discounted digital content from DNDB. Scan the code, get the discount on the digital content (as WotC I'd make a deal of this in the marketing to try to goose book sales). Even this involves both businesses accepting some exposure, and deciding if they'll come out winner or loser. WotC has to accept that it may lose future book sales to a customer who decides to go full digital. DNDB has to accept selling its digital content at a discount, in the hopes that the customer purchases full price in the future. I don't know what their licensing agreement looks like with WotC, but I'm guessing it ain't cheap. It would probably need to be renegotiated, with both sides arguing that the discount code means they deserve more. WotC will argue they are driving business to DNDB so licensing charge must increase, FG will argue that discounted DNDB content is adding value to the books so licensing charge should decrease. It's gonna be a tense relationship, with either side ready to pull the plug at any moment if things aren't swinging their way.
The thing to realize is that you aren't really paying twice - you're paying for two different things. If they were truly the same thing, you wouldn't care. But you quite obviously see value in the service DNDB are providing over and above the value of the physical book. Otherwise you wouldn't want access to it, right? Overall, the status quo is better for everyone, even if it doesn't feel that way. DNDB effectively exists at the pleasure of WotC, and anything that causes a fractious relationship between the companies will put them at existential risk. If DNDB goes away, Dungeons and Dragons books will continue to sell just fine thankyouverymuch, but without licensed content from WotC, DNDB is a shell of what it was.