I've heard that going forward Wizards will be publishing less hardcovers or print material to focus mostly on digital releases. I wonder if this is in fact true?
I've heard this from a couple sources now but wanted to know if anyone had heard more about this?
Same model as anything else these days; if a corporation can convince you to "rent it form them" instead of own it, they retain full control over it... and can nickel and dime you into the ground over it.
What is it the Corporate overlords say... "You will own nothing and be happy"?
I've heard that going forward Wizards will be publishing less hardcovers or print material to focus mostly on digital releases. I wonder if this is in fact true?
I've heard this from a couple sources now but wanted to know if anyone had heard more about this?
Nothing from anyone who has anything more than the usual fact-free speculation by people who are treated as 100% reliable despite how regularly their rumor mongering turns out to be wrong.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been stockpiling physical releases of WotC content and third party publisher content for Dungeons and Dragons in preparation of OneD&D going into the gutter like 4e.
I want to have enough material to last me for at least five years, which is about how long 4e lasted before WotC realized that they had to rebuild Dungeons and Dragons from scratch.
I have turned into the people who buy all of the bread, milk, and toilet paper before a snowstorm but for Dungeons and Dragons.
I still have all the AD&D1 books just not all the modules. Everything after that was just garbage. 5e is not very good but its what my new groups play.
All anyone really needs to play any game is the 3 core rules books PHB DMG and MM. After that pretty much everything else can be third party content.
And as soon as a game system quits physically publishing their core rules books is when I quit playing it. Can you imagine your half way through a campaign and a digital rule is altered that throws out the main structure of your campaign? Now you have to go back and reread the whole of all the books in digital format to see what changed and then alter your campaign world to suit the new changes.
And NEVER buy a first printing. Too many mistakes that later get corrected. The third printing is normally the best.
Funny thing is, if for whatever reason a person can not access their digital media, without a physical backup they are as they say $hit outta luck.
By making physical 'collectable', the ability to years later reprint monetarily valuable editions as 'highly demanded' in an effort to increase sales is something the community as seen before.
Same model as anything else these days; if a corporation can convince you to "rent it form them" instead of own it, they retain full control over it... and can nickel and dime you into the ground over it.
What is it the Corporate overlords say... "You will own nothing and be happy"?
Yep, between that and the fact that full color printing has gone way up in the last few years. Way back when I graduated college, several children's book publishers went from publishing about 15-20 new children's books ever year to only reprinting prior successes, like caldecott winners and classics that basically never go outof print, and maybe 2-5 new books. The children's illustration market basically dried up overnight for mainstream - I've seen a little growth here and there but it's nothing like it used to be. From what I've heard it's largely due to the cost of printing in china going way up, then you have to factor in shipping, distribution, it adds a lot of expenses as things change in the world...
Compare that to sending someone a digital PDF that took nothing to make and it's easy to see what's more advantageous - the issue is that companies are going to try and rent it to us rather than just giving us digital copies of the files.
Remember when you could get a CD and download and save the .mp3's from the CD and you'd just HAVE it on your computer? I don't think we'll get that kind of freedom again, everything saw that happen and decided to be proprietary. Now nothing works with anything, everything has it's own unique file type, and they want you to subscribe to everything else for a monthly fee - forget that it used to be a one and done cost that was minimal by contrast to the new model.
I've heard that going forward Wizards will be publishing less hardcovers or print material to focus mostly on digital releases. I wonder if this is in fact true?
I've heard this from a couple sources now but wanted to know if anyone had heard more about this?
Same model as anything else these days; if a corporation can convince you to "rent it form them" instead of own it, they retain full control over it... and can nickel and dime you into the ground over it.
What is it the Corporate overlords say... "You will own nothing and be happy"?
Nothing from anyone who has anything more than the usual fact-free speculation by people who are treated as 100% reliable despite how regularly their rumor mongering turns out to be wrong.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been stockpiling physical releases of WotC content and third party publisher content for Dungeons and Dragons in preparation of OneD&D going into the gutter like 4e.
I want to have enough material to last me for at least five years, which is about how long 4e lasted before WotC realized that they had to rebuild Dungeons and Dragons from scratch.
I have turned into the people who buy all of the bread, milk, and toilet paper before a snowstorm but for Dungeons and Dragons.
Too bad physical books expire... wait, no they don't.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I still have all the AD&D1 books just not all the modules. Everything after that was just garbage. 5e is not very good but its what my new groups play.
All anyone really needs to play any game is the 3 core rules books PHB DMG and MM. After that pretty much everything else can be third party content.
And as soon as a game system quits physically publishing their core rules books is when I quit playing it. Can you imagine your half way through a campaign and a digital rule is altered that throws out the main structure of your campaign? Now you have to go back and reread the whole of all the books in digital format to see what changed and then alter your campaign world to suit the new changes.
And NEVER buy a first printing. Too many mistakes that later get corrected. The third printing is normally the best.
Funny thing is, if for whatever reason a person can not access their digital media, without a physical backup they are as they say $hit outta luck.
By making physical 'collectable', the ability to years later reprint monetarily valuable editions as 'highly demanded' in an effort to increase sales is something the community as seen before.
I doubt they will stop printing books.. but it also would not suprise me if they did. (Or make them limited issue runs and thus collector items.)
Yep, between that and the fact that full color printing has gone way up in the last few years. Way back when I graduated college, several children's book publishers went from publishing about 15-20 new children's books ever year to only reprinting prior successes, like caldecott winners and classics that basically never go outof print, and maybe 2-5 new books. The children's illustration market basically dried up overnight for mainstream - I've seen a little growth here and there but it's nothing like it used to be. From what I've heard it's largely due to the cost of printing in china going way up, then you have to factor in shipping, distribution, it adds a lot of expenses as things change in the world...
Compare that to sending someone a digital PDF that took nothing to make and it's easy to see what's more advantageous - the issue is that companies are going to try and rent it to us rather than just giving us digital copies of the files.
Remember when you could get a CD and download and save the .mp3's from the CD and you'd just HAVE it on your computer? I don't think we'll get that kind of freedom again, everything saw that happen and decided to be proprietary. Now nothing works with anything, everything has it's own unique file type, and they want you to subscribe to everything else for a monthly fee - forget that it used to be a one and done cost that was minimal by contrast to the new model.
True, if your take care of them, also digital books can expire, if you forget your login or lose the account or something potentially.
(I know there is a restore purchases button) but the restore purchases wouldn’t work if your forgot your account and made a new one I don’t think.
The server for the files could die off and not be replaced. The company basically going out of business.
Take care of your things and don’t lose them.😌
Young people are finally learning that stuff on the internet might not be permanent. Twitter anyone?
Yes we are. I’ve always preferred tangible things anyway.