Comments on: Nerd Watching: Books Are Lying to You!

By: Yax

Yax — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:06:36 +0000

I don’t like the whole piracy thing. There’s always going to be a free version available somewhere. Personally I buy my music on iTunes instead of downloading it just because it’s less of a hassle. Same thing for PDF books. There’s always going to be piracy. Why penalize good customers because of a few pirates? Bleh.

By: Neuroglyph

Neuroglyph — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:28:29 +0000

Quinn – I’d prefer a downloadable pdf too – but after the recent piracy that WotC experienced, I wonder if they are going to be gun shy about making their products portable.

Kindle would work too, but I’m to cheap to go out and buy one yet :P

By: Quinn

Quinn — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:09:52 +0000

@Neuroglyph For me i would prefer to have a downloadabul pdf or even something formatted for an ereader, i would much rather be able to carryall my books around in a kindle or a nook then to have to hall 50 lbs of hardcovers with me when i go out to game.

The other problem with browse only is what if you like a rule for your game and then they change it you would have no record of the revision history. On a related note i think they would still need to issue an errata report like a change notice on a updated software program.

By: Neuroglyph

Neuroglyph — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:04:58 +0000

I think this is a clear sign that WotC should consider publishing books electronically as PDFs – say something you can’t download but can browse – and then WotC can update them as much as they want – then you don’t have to fuss with errata ever.

I do most of my DM prep and character gen on my laptop anyways, so it’d be really natural to puruse an online book.

Frankly, it’d be worth more to me to pay a monthly subscription to the “D&D Online Library” than to buy book after book that is so “erratified” that its about useless within 6 months.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:05:05 +0000

But just think – Munchkin has a new card: “Updated Rulebook”. Adds +2 to any item by permanently updating the item! (If the item goes to the graveyard, so does the update)

steve

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:29:00 +0000

Scott makes some good points, and I agree. =)

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:07:42 +0000

I’m a hoarder, if i buy one of something i usually try and buy all of that something. Since 4e came out i have purchased every single book they have released. That being said i haven’t used a single one as intended, i use each book as a large stockpile of information and inspiration and make my own adjustments to anything before placing it in my game.

I’ll personally continue buying the books and using them this way. I believe that WotC are trying to cater for my style of gamer that is focused more on fun, casual gaming where rules are more guidelines as well as the hardcore min-maxing gamers where the rules are everything and beating the rules whilst still using the rules.

Scott

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:26:42 +0000

I still buy the books, because the Compendium and the Character Builder don’t include the fluff, and I enjoy the fluff. This is especially true for the DM focused books like Open Grave and Draconomicon that are more fluff than crunch.

And I’m not worried about these things disappearing in the ether if there is no hardcover book. That’s like fearing the disappearance of music because I no longer have a cassette player. It’s just a medium, if the content is worthwhile, it will out-live the medium.

By: Swordgleam

Swordgleam — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:18:19 +0000

I’m a big fan of the “if it doesn’t work for you, don’t use it” school of thought. I think the only thing from the errata that has made it to my game is the updated DC for one of the diseases, since I experienced first hand that the original was way too high and the fix was appropriate.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:13:59 +0000

Does Errata/Updates really matter? It’s a role playing game, not a competitive gaming environment. You play with a few other players, and have fun. I’m not competing with the DM, nor am I trying to outplay the rogue.

I’m a DDI subscriber myself, but I still buy the books.