thats fine good for you but thats not universally true for everyone
I remember what happened with 4e where everyone essentially refused to play it and kept on playing 3.5. At that point in time it was print only if those events happened again there is no doubt in my mind they would cut us off from everything we "bought" digitally. All of my friends pretty much exclusively use books which btw doesn't mean you pnp everything. There are plenty of free online tools to use your books with.
I also keep a binder of UAs so I am not limited to the ones DDB decides to support.
Sure but it comes down to how much you value DDB's interface. Is it worth buying everything all over again? To some it is and to others it isn't. Neither one is right or wrong and to say otherwise is just wrong.
And to be totally fair DDB doesn't sell anything they only lease you a license. That is an important distinction. If someone can only afford DDB or print I will always recommend print since you actually own the book. The problem with DDB is there is no telling how long you will have access to the material as well as when a new edition comes out will we get to keep the content we paid for or will be forced to buy the new edition.
You have discovered that utility and value are personal things, the very first lesson in economics class. That you value print over digital does not mean anyone owes you a digital copy any more than anyone owes you anything at any given price.
And the very fact you are here arguing that you should be getting a free digital copy clearly demonstrates that you do indeed place value on a digital copy.
thats fine good for you but thats not universally true for everyone
I remember what happened with 4e where everyone essentially refused to play it and kept on playing 3.5. At that point in time it was print only if those events happened again there is no doubt in my mind they would cut us off from everything we "bought" digitally. All of my friends pretty much exclusively use books which btw doesn't mean you pnp everything. There are plenty of free online tools to use your books with.
I also keep a binder of UAs so I am not limited to the ones DDB decides to support.
At what point were either 3.5e or 4e ever officially available in online copies?
When did I ever say I was entitled to a free copy if you actually read my posts you would see I was saying cross promotion should be a thing in 5e/DDB. That doesn't mean free that means some sort of discount. What I was saying originally that people seem to take exception to is that since DDB/WOTC haven't done any real cross promotion between digital and print they are against it since they haven't done it in the 5 yrs the game has been on the market.
you missed my point completely my example was 4e is to show that if there was a digital model players would have been forced to play an inferior edition. Digital gives you convenience at the expense of control on how you want to play. That is fact DDB can yank everything you paid for tomorrow if they wanted to. They can't do that with a book you bought.
4e was the first edition that was available online and was included with the books
I own many physical D&D 5e books (8-10) and thanks to DDB having the Homebrew tool on their website it is easy for people to just homebrew many different Races, Subclasses, Spells, etc from each book. Sure it will take a couple of hours but that won't matter once you have homebrewed all the things you need. It doesn't take much effort and the reward will be great. Yes, I know it is a shame that you can't get a digital key but that's the situation, and the answer is no you can't get a key, so it is best just to move on.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
REMEMBER: Wizards Of The Coast does not own DDB, they are two different companies. When you buy a physical book, WotC receives the money you bought it for, not DDB and vice versa. If you want a digital key to get an online book for free because you have the hardcopy book then DDB makes no money because you don't buy off DDB you buy off WotC, so please stop making threads about this issue. DDB needs money to continue helping people and servers aren't cheap.
At this point the process of putting a new book up is probably extremely minor since everything is already templated from prior releases.
While we do continually invest time and money in tools, to improve our process and procedure for building new releases, the Game Content team still have plenty of work to do, so in this case your expectations/assumptions are quite some way off. 😊
It's worth noting that our partner, Wizards of the Coast, also innovate and improve, introducing new mechanics and formatting with new sourcebooks.
This is not the place to discuss the process of taking the source material and reproducing it on D&D Beyond, but I can say that it is significantly more involved than just clicking a button to save in a different format.
Honestly, I didn't know that WotC and DDB where different entities. Knowing that, I am slightly less annoyed that the $49.99 that I paid for a hard copy of each book does not also get me a digital copy. This probably should be a thing and WotC and DDB should have some agreement to ensure they are both compensated. But I am capable of seeing it both ways and I suppose I do not think it is unfair.
My only issue with any of this is that I am an avid supporter of local hobby shops and will 100% buy products through local vendors instead of buying it from a national source. This helps to ensure that these hobby shops will still be here for years and years and these places have always been my favorite places to visit! Even if products are more expensive and will take me longer to get I will still patronize my local shops so eveyone I care about in the process gets a piece of the support!
Has DDB ever considered selling their digital products through local shops? Maybe this is already a thing and I don't know about, but if it's not, it should be! There is plenty of precedent for this, a point of sale activated product key that we can use to unlock digital products on your site. Maybe with a discount if both the physical and digital copy are purchased that way WotC, DDB and my local shop owner all gets some love? Sounds like a win, win, win, win (4th win being the consumer!)
Honestly, I didn't know that WotC and DDB where different entities. Knowing that, I am slightly less annoyed that the $49.99 that I paid for a hard copy of each book does not also get me a digital copy. This probably should be a thing and WotC and DDB should have some agreement to ensure they are both compensated. But I am capable of seeing it both ways and I suppose I do not think it is unfair.
My only issue with any of this is that I am an avid supporter of local hobby shops and will 100% buy products through local vendors instead of buying it from a national source. This helps to ensure that these hobby shops will still be here for years and years and these places have always been my favorite places to visit! Even if products are more expensive and will take me longer to get I will still patronize my local shops so eveyone I care about in the process gets a piece of the support!
Has DDB ever considered selling their digital products through local shops? Maybe this is already a thing and I don't know about, but if it's not, it should be! There is plenty of precedent for this, a point of sale activated product key that we can use to unlock digital products on your site. Maybe with a discount if both the physical and digital copy are purchased that way WotC, DDB and my local shop owner all gets some love? Sounds like a win, win, win, win (4th win being the consumer!)
Another great reason to buy print to support the LGS. DDB could have their licenses sold by the LGS as well. They could do something similar to redemption codes for digital games like gamestop does. However, I am just unsure if it would make enough money to warrant the hassle. It would probably be more profitable for DDB to work with WOTC to include something like a 20% off code with the books. There are alot of players who have never used DDB and it might swing them to atleast use DDB on some level. Use the normal WPN promo process and have the codes held at the counter and distributed at POS instead of physically inside the book. Just like they do for the Duels of the Planeswalker promo cards.
I do not foresee Fandom and Hasbro partnering on the task of codes shared across methods of sales. My guess (as an outside viewer) is that it would fall more on Hasbro to manage it and take a big chunk of supporting income from DDB sales using the same codes as compensation. It is just a guess and only a guess and nothing more than a guess and can easily be wrong.
I can see a temporary promotion campaign, but there was already one such a thing. I do not know if they feel it is necessary to do another given DDB's existing popularity and revenue stream to Hasbro. Would it really be enough of a boost? This is likely something (out of many) that the Hasbro and Fandom number crunchers consider.
There are lots of moving parts behind the scenes, and we should not be so quick to be armchair CEOs when we have no clear view of all the goings-ons behind the curtain.
There are currently no means of getting discounts on DDB digital copies of the physical books. There is probably a good reason - many possibilities I can see. I could be wrong, but I have faith that there is at least one good reason.
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.
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thats fine good for you but thats not universally true for everyone
I remember what happened with 4e where everyone essentially refused to play it and kept on playing 3.5. At that point in time it was print only if those events happened again there is no doubt in my mind they would cut us off from everything we "bought" digitally. All of my friends pretty much exclusively use books which btw doesn't mean you pnp everything. There are plenty of free online tools to use your books with.
I also keep a binder of UAs so I am not limited to the ones DDB decides to support.
When did I ever say I was entitled to a free copy if you actually read my posts you would see I was saying cross promotion should be a thing in 5e/DDB. That doesn't mean free that means some sort of discount. What I was saying originally that people seem to take exception to is that since DDB/WOTC haven't done any real cross promotion between digital and print they are against it since they haven't done it in the 5 yrs the game has been on the market.
you missed my point completely my example was 4e is to show that if there was a digital model players would have been forced to play an inferior edition. Digital gives you convenience at the expense of control on how you want to play. That is fact DDB can yank everything you paid for tomorrow if they wanted to. They can't do that with a book you bought.
4e was the first edition that was available online and was included with the books
I own many physical D&D 5e books (8-10) and thanks to DDB having the Homebrew tool on their website it is easy for people to just homebrew many different Races, Subclasses, Spells, etc from each book. Sure it will take a couple of hours but that won't matter once you have homebrewed all the things you need. It doesn't take much effort and the reward will be great. Yes, I know it is a shame that you can't get a digital key but that's the situation, and the answer is no you can't get a key, so it is best just to move on.
REMEMBER: Wizards Of The Coast does not own DDB, they are two different companies. When you buy a physical book, WotC receives the money you bought it for, not DDB and vice versa. If you want a digital key to get an online book for free because you have the hardcopy book then DDB makes no money because you don't buy off DDB you buy off WotC, so please stop making threads about this issue. DDB needs money to continue helping people and servers aren't cheap.
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D&D Beyond FoundersWhile we do continually invest time and money in tools, to improve our process and procedure for building new releases, the Game Content team still have plenty of work to do, so in this case your expectations/assumptions are quite some way off. 😊
It's worth noting that our partner, Wizards of the Coast, also innovate and improve, introducing new mechanics and formatting with new sourcebooks.
This is not the place to discuss the process of taking the source material and reproducing it on D&D Beyond, but I can say that it is significantly more involved than just clicking a button to save in a different format.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Honestly, I didn't know that WotC and DDB where different entities. Knowing that, I am slightly less annoyed that the $49.99 that I paid for a hard copy of each book does not also get me a digital copy. This probably should be a thing and WotC and DDB should have some agreement to ensure they are both compensated. But I am capable of seeing it both ways and I suppose I do not think it is unfair.
My only issue with any of this is that I am an avid supporter of local hobby shops and will 100% buy products through local vendors instead of buying it from a national source. This helps to ensure that these hobby shops will still be here for years and years and these places have always been my favorite places to visit! Even if products are more expensive and will take me longer to get I will still patronize my local shops so eveyone I care about in the process gets a piece of the support!
Has DDB ever considered selling their digital products through local shops? Maybe this is already a thing and I don't know about, but if it's not, it should be! There is plenty of precedent for this, a point of sale activated product key that we can use to unlock digital products on your site. Maybe with a discount if both the physical and digital copy are purchased that way WotC, DDB and my local shop owner all gets some love? Sounds like a win, win, win, win (4th win being the consumer!)
DDB does not own any offline sellable product. That is all under the IP of WotC.
Another great reason to buy print to support the LGS. DDB could have their licenses sold by the LGS as well. They could do something similar to redemption codes for digital games like gamestop does. However, I am just unsure if it would make enough money to warrant the hassle. It would probably be more profitable for DDB to work with WOTC to include something like a 20% off code with the books. There are alot of players who have never used DDB and it might swing them to atleast use DDB on some level. Use the normal WPN promo process and have the codes held at the counter and distributed at POS instead of physically inside the book. Just like they do for the Duels of the Planeswalker promo cards.
I do not foresee Fandom and Hasbro partnering on the task of codes shared across methods of sales. My guess (as an outside viewer) is that it would fall more on Hasbro to manage it and take a big chunk of supporting income from DDB sales using the same codes as compensation. It is just a guess and only a guess and nothing more than a guess and can easily be wrong.
I can see a temporary promotion campaign, but there was already one such a thing. I do not know if they feel it is necessary to do another given DDB's existing popularity and revenue stream to Hasbro. Would it really be enough of a boost? This is likely something (out of many) that the Hasbro and Fandom number crunchers consider.
There are lots of moving parts behind the scenes, and we should not be so quick to be armchair CEOs when we have no clear view of all the goings-ons behind the curtain.
There are currently no means of getting discounts on DDB digital copies of the physical books. There is probably a good reason - many possibilities I can see. I could be wrong, but I have faith that there is at least one good reason.
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.