I have spent 100's of dollars on books!!!! Now you want me to do it again? How do you find that to be ok and why do you do it? I would really would love to know your out look on this.
You did not buy them from D&D Beyond who are separate from WotC.
You can also use homebrew tools to recreate what you need for free. Or pay D&D Beyond by buying the specific options you want for free to save you the time.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I you find the platform helpful but don't want to buy the books you can just create what you want to use in the homebrew area...honestly, I think that is very generous of them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Founding Member of the High Roller Society.(Currently trying to roll max on 4d6)
I have spent 100's of dollars on books!!!! Now you want me to do it again? How do you find that to be ok and why do you do it? I would really would love to know your out look on this.
Buying a regular copy of the Player's Handbook from The Wizards Staff gaming store does not entitle you to a copy of the special edition cover from The Dice Saloon gaming store, even though it's an almost exact same product. They're different stores and your purchase of one product entitles you to just that; one instance of that product.
The copies of your books you bought from whatever store or site does not entitle you to anything from any other store or site, including D&D Beyond, which is not owned by WotC. They license the content from WotC (which costs them money), hosts it (which again costs them money), hires devs (costs money) to implement and manage new features and tools (costs money) and provide a service (costs money). You want the benefits of that service, benefits in addition to your physical copy, then you need to pay for it.
Let me put it this way; if DDB wasn't providing something unique that your books don't, why do you want to use the service? If they are providing something unique that your books don't, why do you think you wouldn't need to pay for that?
I do agree with you to a degree. I feel as if they should include a code in new products that would allow you to purchase the digital content for something like 25% off. This would then of course lead to all the books now being sealed, adding a cost to manufacturing which would probably raise each book's cost by $5 further leading to the death of printed material. So, it is a little frustrating yes. I am now in a position of either purchasing physical books because I love them and they are more useful for certain things than waiting for loading pages and/or needing internet connection plus a device that has charge to use my digital content.... It is pretty frustrating.
I do agree with you to a degree. I feel as if they should include a code in new products that would allow you to purchase the digital content for something like 25% off. This would then of course lead to all the books now being sealed, adding a cost to manufacturing which would probably raise each book's cost by $5 further leading to the death of printed material. So, it is a little frustrating yes. I am now in a position of either purchasing physical books because I love them and they are more useful for certain things than waiting for loading pages and/or needing internet connection plus a device that has charge to use my digital content.... It is pretty frustrating.
A digital product is different to a physical one. If a physical one serves you better, buy physical, if a digital product serves you better, get digital.
People often say "just add a code" but it's a lot more complicated than it appears. It means somebody loses money, deals have to be made to even out the loss so it is not worse for one person, but has to ensure all parties get something in the profit margin - if all you do is "break even" you cannot expand or grow or protect against future increases in costs so both parties must make profit. For something as dynamic like this with more complicated licensing/access rights - it's difficult. It's one thing to make a co-operated joint-owned product like Essentials kit - D&D Beyond gets a share of the physical purchase, which is what allows them to give unlock codes and discounts, but source books and stuff is very different.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I think a lot of people believe that D&D Beyond is made by Wizards of the Coast. I think D&D Beyond likes that people think that, as it seems more legitimate.
Unfortunately, it's not. It's a completely different company.
D&D Beyond is owned/run by Curse (And Curse was formerly owned by Twitch, and now is owned by Fandom Games), which is entirely separate from Wizards of the Coast. Curse licenses the content from Wizards, and then sells you access to it. Wizards has literally nothing to do with this website.
If you buy a physical book from your local bookseller, you don't get access to it on Amazon's e-reader. That is analogous to this situation.
You buy a video from Wallyworld (Wal-Mart), you get access to it on Vudu only because Vudu is owned by Wallyworld.
DDB is not owned by nor owns WotC or Hasbro. You're more likely to get a code for a physical D&D sourcebook from a D&D-themed Monopoly game than a code for DDB from a sourcebook.
There was a special a while back regarding the buying the physical essentials and unlocking digital versions of the same via DDB, though. There were a number of issues, and I don't think they're keen to try again.
Apparently, it's really not so simple as one might think after that business.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Hopefully WoC, could make some kind of unique purchase code for physical books, or online versions, that have PARTIAL DISCOUNT eligibilities, for DDB accounts ,
as in,
step 1 You've bought WoC physical books, or online versions,
step 2, You open a DDB account
step 3, You provide proof-of-purchase , a current receipt, along with your code that came with the books-purchase, and get a big discount on DDB
step 3-4 You never make the mistake of selling your books to anyone.
It's not even remotely fair, that a person having-PARTIALLY already paid, for the creative-content that WoC has published, should have to pay for it again, in the digital-versions of the sourcebooks that DO still have, value-FROM, a single creative-process.
It's not a question of whether or not we should, it's a question of HOW MUCH.
When setting their prices, and looking at how much the books cost in reality,
someone has obviously guessed that ppl would see the ONLY-MARGINALLY-lower price and maybe go belly-up and buy it, thinking they're somehow saving money,
that's just marketing exploitation and oportunism,
it's not like DDB releases it's COSTS SHEETS, for the company, so we can SEE,
how much is being made in profit withOUT reasonable costs, to justify the NEAR-SIMILAR price, for the physical books, or non-functional plain digital versions.
It's hypothetically possible, that a (initially) cheaper version of something, that then gets additional costs for some reason, ends-up SEEMING like it's a suspicious price, like the sourcebooks might be, if say,
hypothetical physical copy 20$
(plain) digital copy 5$
digital copy INTEGRATED into website with special functions ... 5$ + 12 = 17
and then, 17, SEEMS, like, it's hiding-behind the 'normal' 20,
so yeah, OK, *hand up* you're not talking about the same product,
BUT ;
lying about whether or not things could be done more cheaply,
is hardly the same COMMUNITY that D&D players should be entitled to,
considering how much has been added to the game over the years, at-times, completely without ANY promise of royalties, dividens, or anything financial whatsoever.
Ppl used to send things into Dragon, just for the chance of being noticed by a publisher, in case they might be good at doing a novel, or maybe a series of commercial modules, if their freebie was any good,
never-before, was D&D some kind of constant, indignant, self-promotional corporate whinge-parade, where absurdly paranoid & aggresive pro-business knobs have already hijacked the company/process, and tried to pretend that they're now responsible for just 'another' entertainment product, subject to only entertainment product laws.
D&D was always-MORE, than only an entertainment product,
it is a shame that someone ... USA courts?.. have failed to recognise that.
Hypothetically, micro-transactions, for the things you DO want, compared to all the stuff you don't ... that one gets in even the players manual,
could be a hypothetical way out,
but there is so little oversight, regulation, etc, OVER it,
that it would be even more of an insane-gamble, than commercialisation was back in the 90s.
IF... there was enough COMPETITION, from a similar site,
where you could buy only what you're interested in,
instead of entire sourcebooks having to be,
then maybe that would allow competition to make sure if we're not buying something, if it's over-priced,
that then,
'the other guy' , could lower their price, and ppl would start buying something again.
Stagnation from inflexibility, is NOT healthy.
The commercialisation of the game has ALREADY ruined it,
if that doesn't reverse, its not going to get any better.
Okay so now that WOTC has bought DDB can we get a subscription that includes all of the content or some way of validating our physical purchases as digital?
c'mon now, stop being greedy.
[REDACTED]
Notes: All users are expected to be civil and constructive when posting
Let me ask you something; If you bought something from Walmart, would you expect Target to give it to you for free? If you bought a book from Amazon, would you expect your local game store to give it to you for free? If you bought a phone from Apple, would you expect Verison to give you a phone for free?
That is basically what you are saying when you ask for stuff for free on dndbeyond because you bought it elsewhere. "Well I bought a product from someone else, so you should give me a related product for free."
On Dndbeyond you are paying for the Integrated tools to use on the character sheet, as well as access to the book (which if you bought separate cost less than buying a physical book btw) There are positives and negatives to both buying physical and buying digital. Even if they did start implementing something to give discounts, it would require that each book be unique in some way which would almost certainly increase the price and also definitely not apply to purchases you've already made.
Now that WotC owns Beyond, they could print their source books with single use codes for Beyond. Video games have done it it the past with DLC extras with single-use codes on slips of paper inside the game disc cases. I wouldn't expect them to validate a book purchased years ago, but having single-use codes in new books printed would encourage new people to subscribe, who would otherwise stick to pencil and paper. Good marketing idea.
We (the community) have discussed this idea before. The problem being that the books are not usually sealed so people can flip through the pages. Games are sealed and often locked up so they can't be stolen, let alone have just the code stolen.
Now that WotC owns Beyond, they could print their source books with single use codes for Beyond. Video games have done it it the past with DLC extras with single-use codes on slips of paper inside the game disc cases. I wouldn't expect them to validate a book purchased years ago, but having single-use codes in new books printed would encourage new people to subscribe, who would otherwise stick to pencil and paper. Good marketing idea.
Whatever business idea a lay person think is good, they often fail to consider the cost of that idea. Often times, it is not worth it to cater to customers.
nice little passive agressive jab there, very cool
I was not being passive aggressive, but I am annoyed because this thread was necro'd for no good reason and it was clearly explained already in the first several posts, and there is a stickied thread at the top of this subforum that talks about price. You will know it when I am being passive aggresive, because I would not even bother explaining why.
We get these ideas every single week. And people do NOT stop. Imagine running a physical store and consumers constantly haggle you for discounts despite price being NON-NEGOTIABLE, and then they try to tell you how to run your business and then ask for a discount AGAIN, and then they tell you the business down street is cheaper and ask for the discount AGAIN, and then finally insults you for not giving a discount before leaving.
And you thought that was over? The next person in line is asking for the same damn discount AGAIN despite just seeing you tell the previous person NO.
Do you hound your local grocery store, restaurant, or gas station for discounts or tell them how to run their business? No? Then why do it here?
If you bought something from Walmart, would you expect Target to give it to you for free?
Except it's the same company, and most companies do in fact provide digital copies with physical products.
No. Most companies do not. Amazon does not do it. Barnes and Noble does not do it. Walmart does not do it. Target does not do it. Nintendo does not do it. Maybe there will be a physical and digital bundle from time to time, but that is not the default.
And just because it is the same company does not mean it does not cost them anything to implement digital products. They still have to pay people to make the digital products.
We (the community) have discussed this idea before. The problem being that the books are not usually sealed so people can flip through the pages.
You've already bought in, so i'm doubtful that you have our interests at heart.
I am pretty sure he does, but do you have our community at heart? D&D can already be played for free, and Beyond can be used for free too. Why you feel the need to keep demanding lower prices and devalue the work that goes into digital products?
We (the community) have discussed this idea before. The problem being that the books are not usually sealed so people can flip through the pages.
You've already bought in, so i'm doubtful that you have our interests at heart.
In what way does having already bought something mean I am not interested in buying more new stuff at lower cost?
I buy all the books. I will buy more books. I would love to get both physical and digital for the price of just the physical (I'd even pay a little more).
We have the same interests and I very much have MY interests at heart. I just don't think with my heart, and my brain can think of a lot of reasons for them to not bundle physical and digital.
I have spent 100's of dollars on books!!!! Now you want me to do it again? How do you find that to be ok and why do you do it? I would really would love to know your out look on this.
You did not buy them from D&D Beyond who are separate from WotC.
You can also use homebrew tools to recreate what you need for free. Or pay D&D Beyond by buying the specific options you want for free to save you the time.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
The same reason you have to repurchase anything that's on a different medium: You. Don't. Own. It.
You can either decide this platform is beneficial and make the purchase or not, but complaining about it will accomplish absolutely nothing.
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 you find the platform helpful but don't want to buy the books you can just create what you want to use in the homebrew area...honestly, I think that is very generous of them.
Founding Member of the High Roller Society. (Currently trying to roll max on 4d6)
Buying a regular copy of the Player's Handbook from The Wizards Staff gaming store does not entitle you to a copy of the special edition cover from The Dice Saloon gaming store, even though it's an almost exact same product. They're different stores and your purchase of one product entitles you to just that; one instance of that product.
The copies of your books you bought from whatever store or site does not entitle you to anything from any other store or site, including D&D Beyond, which is not owned by WotC. They license the content from WotC (which costs them money), hosts it (which again costs them money), hires devs (costs money) to implement and manage new features and tools (costs money) and provide a service (costs money). You want the benefits of that service, benefits in addition to your physical copy, then you need to pay for it.
Let me put it this way; if DDB wasn't providing something unique that your books don't, why do you want to use the service? If they are providing something unique that your books don't, why do you think you wouldn't need to pay for that?
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I do agree with you to a degree. I feel as if they should include a code in new products that would allow you to purchase the digital content for something like 25% off. This would then of course lead to all the books now being sealed, adding a cost to manufacturing which would probably raise each book's cost by $5 further leading to the death of printed material. So, it is a little frustrating yes. I am now in a position of either purchasing physical books because I love them and they are more useful for certain things than waiting for loading pages and/or needing internet connection plus a device that has charge to use my digital content.... It is pretty frustrating.
A digital product is different to a physical one. If a physical one serves you better, buy physical, if a digital product serves you better, get digital.
People often say "just add a code" but it's a lot more complicated than it appears. It means somebody loses money, deals have to be made to even out the loss so it is not worse for one person, but has to ensure all parties get something in the profit margin - if all you do is "break even" you cannot expand or grow or protect against future increases in costs so both parties must make profit. For something as dynamic like this with more complicated licensing/access rights - it's difficult. It's one thing to make a co-operated joint-owned product like Essentials kit - D&D Beyond gets a share of the physical purchase, which is what allows them to give unlock codes and discounts, but source books and stuff is very different.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I think a lot of people believe that D&D Beyond is made by Wizards of the Coast. I think D&D Beyond likes that people think that, as it seems more legitimate.
Unfortunately, it's not. It's a completely different company.
D&D Beyond is owned/run by Curse (And Curse was formerly owned by Twitch, and now is owned by Fandom Games), which is entirely separate from Wizards of the Coast. Curse licenses the content from Wizards, and then sells you access to it. Wizards has literally nothing to do with this website.
If you buy a physical book from your local bookseller, you don't get access to it on Amazon's e-reader. That is analogous to this situation.
You buy a video from Wallyworld (Wal-Mart), you get access to it on Vudu only because Vudu is owned by Wallyworld.
DDB is not owned by nor owns WotC or Hasbro. You're more likely to get a code for a physical D&D sourcebook from a D&D-themed Monopoly game than a code for DDB from a sourcebook.
There was a special a while back regarding the buying the physical essentials and unlocking digital versions of the same via DDB, though. There were a number of issues, and I don't think they're keen to try again.
Apparently, it's really not so simple as one might think after that business.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Hopefully WoC, could make some kind of unique purchase code for physical books, or online versions, that have PARTIAL DISCOUNT eligibilities, for DDB accounts ,
as in,
step 1 You've bought WoC physical books, or online versions,
step 2, You open a DDB account
step 3, You provide proof-of-purchase , a current receipt, along with your code that came with the books-purchase, and get a big discount on DDB
step 3-4 You never make the mistake of selling your books to anyone.
It's not even remotely fair, that a person having-PARTIALLY already paid, for the creative-content that WoC has published, should have to pay for it again, in the digital-versions of the sourcebooks that DO still have, value-FROM, a single creative-process.
It's not a question of whether or not we should, it's a question of HOW MUCH.
When setting their prices, and looking at how much the books cost in reality,
someone has obviously guessed that ppl would see the ONLY-MARGINALLY-lower price and maybe go belly-up and buy it, thinking they're somehow saving money,
that's just marketing exploitation and oportunism,
it's not like DDB releases it's COSTS SHEETS, for the company, so we can SEE,
how much is being made in profit withOUT reasonable costs, to justify the NEAR-SIMILAR price, for the physical books, or non-functional plain digital versions.
It's hypothetically possible, that a (initially) cheaper version of something, that then gets additional costs for some reason, ends-up SEEMING like it's a suspicious price, like the sourcebooks might be, if say,
hypothetical physical copy 20$
(plain) digital copy 5$
digital copy INTEGRATED into website with special functions ... 5$ + 12 = 17
and then, 17, SEEMS, like, it's hiding-behind the 'normal' 20,
so yeah, OK, *hand up* you're not talking about the same product,
BUT ;
lying about whether or not things could be done more cheaply,
is hardly the same COMMUNITY that D&D players should be entitled to,
considering how much has been added to the game over the years, at-times, completely without ANY promise of royalties, dividens, or anything financial whatsoever.
Ppl used to send things into Dragon, just for the chance of being noticed by a publisher, in case they might be good at doing a novel, or maybe a series of commercial modules, if their freebie was any good,
never-before, was D&D some kind of constant, indignant, self-promotional corporate whinge-parade, where absurdly paranoid & aggresive pro-business knobs have already hijacked the company/process, and tried to pretend that they're now responsible for just 'another' entertainment product, subject to only entertainment product laws.
D&D was always-MORE, than only an entertainment product,
it is a shame that someone ... USA courts?.. have failed to recognise that.
Hypothetically, micro-transactions, for the things you DO want, compared to all the stuff you don't ... that one gets in even the players manual,
could be a hypothetical way out,
but there is so little oversight, regulation, etc, OVER it,
that it would be even more of an insane-gamble, than commercialisation was back in the 90s.
IF... there was enough COMPETITION, from a similar site,
where you could buy only what you're interested in,
instead of entire sourcebooks having to be,
then maybe that would allow competition to make sure if we're not buying something, if it's over-priced,
that then,
'the other guy' , could lower their price, and ppl would start buying something again.
Stagnation from inflexibility, is NOT healthy.
The commercialisation of the game has ALREADY ruined it,
if that doesn't reverse, its not going to get any better.
Okay so now that WOTC has bought DDB can we get a subscription that includes all of the content or some way of validating our physical purchases as digital?
c'mon now, stop being greedy.
[REDACTED]
Let me ask you something; If you bought something from Walmart, would you expect Target to give it to you for free? If you bought a book from Amazon, would you expect your local game store to give it to you for free? If you bought a phone from Apple, would you expect Verison to give you a phone for free?
That is basically what you are saying when you ask for stuff for free on dndbeyond because you bought it elsewhere. "Well I bought a product from someone else, so you should give me a related product for free."
On Dndbeyond you are paying for the Integrated tools to use on the character sheet, as well as access to the book (which if you bought separate cost less than buying a physical book btw) There are positives and negatives to both buying physical and buying digital. Even if they did start implementing something to give discounts, it would require that each book be unique in some way which would almost certainly increase the price and also definitely not apply to purchases you've already made.
Buyers Guide for D&D Beyond - Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You - How/What is Toggled Content?
Everything you need to know about Homebrew - Homebrew FAQ - Digital Book on D&D Beyond Vs Physical Books
Can't find the content you are supposed to have access to? Read this FAQ.
"Play the game however you want to play the game. After all, your fun doesn't threaten my fun."
We (the community) have discussed this idea before. The problem being that the books are not usually sealed so people can flip through the pages. Games are sealed and often locked up so they can't be stolen, let alone have just the code stolen.
Whatever business idea a lay person think is good, they often fail to consider the cost of that idea. Often times, it is not worth it to cater to customers.
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 >
Except it's the same company, and most companies do in fact provide digital copies with physical products.
You've already bought in, so i'm doubtful that you have our interests at heart.
nice little passive agressive jab there, very cool
I was not being passive aggressive, but I am annoyed because this thread was necro'd for no good reason and it was clearly explained already in the first several posts, and there is a stickied thread at the top of this subforum that talks about price. You will know it when I am being passive aggresive, because I would not even bother explaining why.
We get these ideas every single week. And people do NOT stop. Imagine running a physical store and consumers constantly haggle you for discounts despite price being NON-NEGOTIABLE, and then they try to tell you how to run your business and then ask for a discount AGAIN, and then they tell you the business down street is cheaper and ask for the discount AGAIN, and then finally insults you for not giving a discount before leaving.
And you thought that was over? The next person in line is asking for the same damn discount AGAIN despite just seeing you tell the previous person NO.
Do you hound your local grocery store, restaurant, or gas station for discounts or tell them how to run their business? No? Then why do it here?
No. Most companies do not. Amazon does not do it. Barnes and Noble does not do it. Walmart does not do it. Target does not do it. Nintendo does not do it. Maybe there will be a physical and digital bundle from time to time, but that is not the default.
And just because it is the same company does not mean it does not cost them anything to implement digital products. They still have to pay people to make the digital products.
I am pretty sure he does, but do you have our community at heart? D&D can already be played for free, and Beyond can be used for free too. Why you feel the need to keep demanding lower prices and devalue the work that goes into digital products?
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 >
In what way does having already bought something mean I am not interested in buying more new stuff at lower cost?
I buy all the books. I will buy more books. I would love to get both physical and digital for the price of just the physical (I'd even pay a little more).
We have the same interests and I very much have MY interests at heart. I just don't think with my heart, and my brain can think of a lot of reasons for them to not bundle physical and digital.
If you don’t want to buy the books again then don’t, just stop complaining about it.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
since D&D beyond is now part or Wotc, are books going to become redeemable anytime soon?
Nope
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting