I find it really absurd that to use the online manuals you have to buy them again, already having the physical copies, I'm not saying that I want to play illegally, but why, can't I have the right to pay a subscription anyway, and having the paper copies, to use manuals that are in my possession??? really a bad choice, if you wanted to make the community understand that you don't care much about the game, but you only aim at our wallets, well, you succeeded greatly, congratulations, a and for the record, the link cancels the subscription, it doesn't work, strange, greetings

Tony

I do hate it when I fall through portals to 2017. On the up side, I can now buy some Amazon stock. 

I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who buy novels and apparently get the kindle edition and the audio book included in the price. Where do you buy them? Only when I buy something I have to pay extra for the totally different versions of the same thing

Out of the three game systems I play, only D&D doesn't offer free digital copies and character creators for what I buy. That's WotC's prerogative, but it really shouldn't be surprising why people find it confusing that WotC doesn't offer what other companies do.

Quote from CunningSmile >>

I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who buy novels and apparently get the kindle edition and the audio book included in the price. Where do you buy them? Only when I buy something I have to pay extra for the totally different versions of the same thing

I remember when I used to buy CDs, and they'd come bundled with the cassette, the vinyl and the 8-track

Quote from Linklite >>

Out of the three game systems I play, only D&D doesn't offer free digital copies and character creators for what I buy. That's WotC's prerogative, but it really shouldn't be surprising why people find it confusing that WotC doesn't offer what other companies do.

Granted, offering PDFs is rather different from the significantly more comprehensive service Beyond provides.

Well, they could just charge more for the book and digital combined.  But then players would be mad that they are paying for something they aren’t using.  It’s always something I guess.

Quote from ArmorStorm >>

Well, they could just charge more for the book and digital combined.  But then players would be mad that they are paying for something they aren’t using.  It’s always something I guess.

 If you went through buy from them direct they’ve started doing that, you get the digital and physical for about ten dollars more than just the physical and you’re right, people were mad the first time it came up 

D&D is free, even on Beyond. Ask the local D&D community (library or game store), or go online to their social media of choice (Reddit, Facebook, etc.), to borrow physical books and/or access digital tools. This is completely legal and free. While it is appreciated, it is not the players' burden to bear to provide the materials for D&D. While it is the GM's burden to provide their players with D&D materials, it is not the GM's burden to pay for it; logistics is part of a GM's job, but paying out of pocket is not. D&D communities exist for a reason, and sharing content and receiving free lunch is one good reason.

If anyone has any hesitation in paying for D&D, then they should not pay at all. It is not their obligation to feed the printing press, website developers, and all other employees. Workers deserve to be paid fairly for their jobs, and expecting them to do work for free is unreasonable. D&D is also a luxury, not a necessity, so Wizards has every right to monetize their IP however they want. Wizards already got rid of à la carte, so they clearly do not want our chump change. Since they still allow Content Sharing, they obviously do not care if we use their stuff for free (within reason), because someone else has already paid for it. Ask people who have paid for it for help.

Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

D&D is free, even on Beyond. Ask the local D&D community (library or game store), or go online to their social media of choice (Reddit, Facebook, etc.), to borrow physical books and/or access digital tools. This is completely legal and free. While it is appreciated, it is not the players' burden to bear to provide the materials for D&D. While it is the GM's burden to provide their players with D&D materials, it is not the GM's burden to pay for it; logistics is part of a GM's job, but paying out of pocket is not. D&D communities exist for a reason, and sharing content and receiving free lunch is one good reason.

If anyone has any hesitation in paying for D&D, then they should not pay at all. It is not their obligation to feed the printing press, website developers, and all other employees. Workers deserve to be paid fairly for their jobs, and expecting them to do work for free is unreasonable. D&D is also a luxury, not a necessity, so Wizards has every right to monetize their IP however they want. Wizards already got rid of à la carte, so they clearly do not want our chump change. Since they still allow Content Sharing, they obviously do not care if we use their stuff for free (within reason), because someone else has already paid for it. Ask people who have paid for it for help.

 Honestly, if I could do it all over again I would still be playing on my original set of rules from 1977.  While the rules have changed multiple times (and I have purchased each set except the Fourth Ed.) the GAME remains the same.

You can still play the original rules from 1977.

Quote from Zoradain >>

You can still play the original rules from 1977.

 I would have saved a couple thousand dollars if my group had just done that.  I've bought a lot of rules, but the game remains the same.  

Quote from ArmorStorm >>

Quote from Zoradain >>

You can still play the original rules from 1977.

 I would have saved a couple thousand dollars if my group had just done that.  I've bought a lot of rules, but the game remains the same.  

 Convincing your group to stay in the past with you isn't their job though, it's yours. WotC has upheld their end of the deal by giving you a legal and convenient means to purchase those older rules (see here.)

Moreover, while I agree with you that the core gameplay loop/pillars are the same across every edition, the rules engine does create key differences in how we experience that loop, drastic ones even. If your goal is to persuade fans of one edition to follow you to another, papering over those differences with "it's the same game underneath" might be an overly simplistic/unconvincing take.

A movie is $12 for an hour and a half of entertainment. God forbid we pay $30 for hours and hours of rich gaming experiences.

I know money is tight for a lot of people, but this market is still very underpriced compared to other forms of entertainment. The overall value is huge. This is why the Hasbro folks are working overtime trying to figure out how to further monetize it. And as mentioned above, you can play for free. So I don't tend to have a lot of sympathy for these kind of complaints.

sorry, maybe my comment was misinterpreted, I don't mean that digital content should be free, I simply said that it's absurd for me to have spent 150 euros for the paper manuals, and have to spend another 150 euros to have the digital ones, when it would be enough to charge a supplement, something I have nothing to say about, it's to preclude without any possibility to those who have already purchased on paper, the possibility of also using the PC, given that many of us DMs use it to create adventures anyway

Quote from tonycerchieri >>

sorry, maybe my comment was misinterpreted, I don't mean that digital content should be free, I simply said that it's absurd for me to have spent 150 euros for the paper manuals, and have to spend another 150 euros to have the digital ones, when it would be enough to charge a supplement, something I have nothing to say about, it's to preclude without any possibility to those who have already purchased on paper, the possibility of also using the PC, given that many of us DMs use it to create adventures anyway

 But you can do that right now. They sell bundles here where you get print and digital together in one go. It’s cheaper than buying them individually. 

To me, the biggest down side is you don’t get alternate covers that way— those are reserved for game stores. 

And, you can always homebrew in anything you purchased in print, for free, so long as you don’t try to publish it.

Quote from tonycerchieri >>

 I simply said that it's absurd for me to have spent 150 euros for the paper manuals, and have to spend another 150 euros to have the digital ones

The print version is 49.99 USD, the digital is 29.99 USD. I would assume the Euro prices are similar in variable for each.  So your numbers don't match up. buying both individual doesn't double the price.  So you aren't being honest there. 

Also, they literally have an addition discount for buying them bundled so it is even cheaper than my listed amounts. 

I'll write it again, I have already purchased the paper manuals, I said that I find it absurd, having to buy them back in digital format, when it would be enough to simply charge a supplement for the service, the manuals cost around 50 euros each, so the price I wrote is correct for master, player, and monsters, the digital and physical format costs 179 while if I want to buy the 3 digital copies again I have to spend around 90 euros, is it clearer now???

So, to be clear, you are unhappy that you cannot simply pay the remainder of the bundle price when you didn't buy the bundle? I guess you could make that argument, but it's not much better than complaining about not getting the digital books when you purchased the physical ones.

The point of a discounted bundle for the consumer is so that you spend more money upfront but less money overall. If all anyone ever paid for the products is the "bundle price", then there's no real "bundle", is there?

Quote from tonycerchieri >>

I'll write it again, I have already purchased the paper manuals, I said that I find it absurd, having to buy them back in digital format, when it would be enough to simply charge a supplement for the service, the manuals cost around 50 euros each, so the price I wrote is correct for master, player, and monsters, the digital and physical format costs 179 while if I want to buy the 3 digital copies again I have to spend around 90 euros, is it clearer now???

As I have said previously, if you do not want to pay for it, then do not pay for it. You literally can have access to all the digital stuff for free legally by asking the D&D community. Have you bothered to check your local game store, library, or university? Even if you are in the middle of nowhere, you still clearly have internet access, and it is not hard to ask online D&D communities for help, like Reddit and Facebook.

Servers require maintenance. Website developers need to be paid. Utilities are not free either. Paying another 90 Euros for digital tools to make things easier honestly is not that bad of a deal. If you do not want to pay for the convenience, then that is fine too, as not everyone can afford 90 Euros willy nilly. However, at the same time, Wizards allows Content Sharing, and the online D&D community is pretty generous with sharing access to digital content.

Complaining about a luxury product costing too much when the luxury product can be enjoyed for free is not a good look. D&D is already as free as it can be. People who makes D&D got bills to pay and families to feed too. If you have financial difficulties, it is not your burden to feed the employees. At the same time, it is not your place to demand them to work for less either.