Author Topic: So, about book piracy.  (Read 35181 times)

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Kuroimaken

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #140 on: August 25, 2011, 12:05:48 PM »
And that's not to say anything of when the companies release a bugged product that the community itself fixes.

In Ar Tonelico 2, there was a bug that froze the game when you faced a certain story boss. The community actually fixed that. And gave it a full undub to boot.

Gendou Ikari is basically Gregory House in Kaminashades. This is FACT.

For proof, look here:

http://www.layoutjelly.com/image_27/gendo_ikari/

[SPOILER]
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Katana of Enlightenment.
Get yours.[/SPOILER]

I HAVE BROKEN THE 69 INTERNETS BARRIER!


Kethrian

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #141 on: October 07, 2011, 02:46:10 AM »
I prefer to have the physical copy of the book, myself.  There's just something satisfying in flipping through pages and perusing them until you find what you're looking for.  But, that said, pdfs are sometimes quite handy, because it is far easier to carry a laptop vs a stack of books.  And I don't believe it's piracy if you're DLing a pdf of a book you already own in hardcopy.

DLing books you don't already own, I personally don't have a problem with it.  Everyone has their reasons for doing it, whether they're good reasons or not, and if they aren't used, no harm done.  If they are being used, then hopefully someone they play with does go out and buy a copy, which will in turn indirectly help the game developer.

This thread reminded me of one conversation I had about all the game books I buy.  Someone had asked me how I can justify spending $40 on average per book.  I looked at her and said, "I buy one to two books per month, plus other gaming stuff, and I don't smoke, drink, or do drugs.  I probably spend an average of $100 per month on it.  But a year from now, I'll still have them and still likely be using them.  You smoke a half a pack a day.  That costs about $5 a day (we live in Canada).  So you spend about $150 a month on cigarettes, and don't have anything to show for it.  Who has to do the justifying here?"

She never bugged me about my gaming habits again.

SorO_Lost

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #142 on: October 07, 2011, 03:55:49 AM »
Am I in this thread promoting piracy yet? If not, it's amazing.

People do have morals, like the mere existence of Netflix's 8 bucks of month for legalized torrents cut illegal torrent traffic by a third. And so most of the stuff that gets pirated is the who gives a shit stuff. Like I paid more in shipping for two books than I did for ALL the books in my MTG collection, and I have nearly every printed book in paper back so why not just ebook the next line of old series onto my kindle? Yeah, I paid for a Kindle, see what I mean?

Some pirating is bad and some of it is good too. Srsly, just have much money has been thrown at the devas behind Batman Arkham City just to call dibs on first though reservations? There is a reason why, and why pawnshops are using NFL Game #5,804,253,904,890 to correct the tilt in the display counter. I'm buying it and several other games coming out this fall and they in turn get showered with money for their accomplishment. Those other losers? Fuck em, try harder next year. But don't go stealing the Batman or I'll be kicking your ass. It's called voting with your wallet, we want good stuff to keep coming out.
Tiers explained in 8 sentences. With examples!
[spoiler]Tiers break down into who has spellcasting more than anything else due to spells being better than anything else in the game.
6: Skill based. Commoner, Expert, Samurai.
5: Mundane warrior. Barbarian, Fighter, Monk.
4: Partial casters. Adapt, Hexblade, Paladin, Ranger, Spelltheif.
3: Focused casters. Bard, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Martial Adapts, Warmage.
2: Full casters. Favored Soul, Psion, Sorcerer, Wu Jen.
1: Elitists. Artificer, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
0: Gods. StP Erudite, Illthid Savant, Pun-Pun, Rocks fall & you die.
[/spoiler]

Kuroimaken

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #143 on: October 07, 2011, 10:23:19 AM »
I prefer to have the physical copy of the book, myself.  There's just something satisfying in flipping through pages and perusing them until you find what you're looking for.  But, that said, pdfs are sometimes quite handy, because it is far easier to carry a laptop vs a stack of books.  And I don't believe it's piracy if you're DLing a pdf of a book you already own in hardcopy.

DLing books you don't already own, I personally don't have a problem with it.  Everyone has their reasons for doing it, whether they're good reasons or not, and if they aren't used, no harm done.  If they are being used, then hopefully someone they play with does go out and buy a copy, which will in turn indirectly help the game developer.

This thread reminded me of one conversation I had about all the game books I buy.  Someone had asked me how I can justify spending $40 on average per book.  I looked at her and said, "I buy one to two books per month, plus other gaming stuff, and I don't smoke, drink, or do drugs.  I probably spend an average of $100 per month on it.  But a year from now, I'll still have them and still likely be using them.  You smoke a half a pack a day.  That costs about $5 a day (we live in Canada).  So you spend about $150 a month on cigarettes, and don't have anything to show for it.  Who has to do the justifying here?"

She never bugged me about my gaming habits again.

Arr, so it be a she-devil, eh?

I actually like having the physical books as well. Unfortunately, between my meager income and the fact that the majority of the books I like ARE NOT EVEN POSSIBLE TO IMPORT around here (tried getting a hold of the Dark Heresy core rulebook. No luck with any of the local import bookstores), that's simply not possible.
Gendou Ikari is basically Gregory House in Kaminashades. This is FACT.

For proof, look here:

http://www.layoutjelly.com/image_27/gendo_ikari/

[SPOILER]
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Katana of Enlightenment.
Get yours.[/SPOILER]

I HAVE BROKEN THE 69 INTERNETS BARRIER!


Sinfire Titan

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #144 on: October 08, 2011, 01:04:26 AM »
In actuality, their prices are forcing WoTC out of business.

Two things:

  • Publishing is expensive as fuck. 40 pages, front and back in B&W, paperback, costs upwards of $70 (USD) if you do just 1 copy of the book. It gets cheaper if you do it on a large scale, but the profit margin is still tiny. I can't give you an exact number, but there is a reason that even Complete Psionics sold for $28 if you got it from some place like BAM or B&N.
  • WotC is making a killing off of MtG; more than they ever have thanks to Richard Garfield returning. WotC may be losing the RPG race to Paizo, but the difference is not enough for them to discontinue 4E, and certainly not enough for them to consider WW Publications a threat.

Barring a major dip in the economy (further than current), WotC going out of business would require every single MtG player to up and quit for a period of 5 years. Right now, the only major product related to 4E that's at risk of going under is Minis.



WotC is still the #1 name when it comes to PnP RPGs. Paizo, Games Workshop, and White Wolf Publications are the next biggest. The former is full of idiots, the middle is more dedicated to minis than WotC can keep up with, and the latter is struggling by comparison.


[spoiler][/spoiler]

veekie

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #145 on: October 08, 2011, 01:33:49 PM »
I think if White Wolf put ANY effort at all into editing(seriously, those books are an adventure to read, nothing is where you'd expect anything to be, and some of the rules are pretty inherently messed up) they could probably do better. They have a fairly rabid fanbase and last I heard, probably dominate the LARP community.

Paizo is going after 3.5 grognards(we're technically them too!), and like many of them, have an irrational fear of munchkins. Their goldmine was never the rulebooks to begin with, it's the adventure paths and their campaign setting(and lets face it, you can squeeze a hell lot more money out of adventures than new rules.)
Their flaw is an unwillingness to actually fix things, not when these things are proven saleables.
Besides, its hardly any worse than 3.5 at the same point of evolution.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2011, 01:36:10 PM by veekie »
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[spoiler]
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[/spoiler]

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oslecamo

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #146 on: October 08, 2011, 01:51:26 PM »
Paizo is going after 3.5 grognards(we're technically them too!), and like many of them, have an irrational fear of munchkins.
There's nothing irrational about being wary of people who twist every word to try to get their way, such that it would make even big corporation lawyers disgusted.

Their flaw is an unwillingness to actually fix things, not when these things are proven saleables.
Did those ideas ever sold anything? Not really as far as I see in the gaming market.
Did Pathfinder sell? Hell yeah!

Can't argue with direct proof.

SorO_Lost

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #147 on: October 10, 2011, 12:42:47 AM »
WotC is making a killing off of MtG; more than they ever have thanks to Richard Garfield returning.
+1

Hasbro (the real owners of wizards of the coast) made a little over 4 billion last year. Compare that to Mattel, the makers of virtually every toy sold in Wal-Mart (fisherprice, hotwheels/matchbox, barbie, nearly all disney & sesame street merchandise, etc.), whom only made 5.8bil. Hasbro has a hell of a lot less gaming products yet are totally turning in a fair share of profits. Exactly how much is based on WotC's MtG product idk, but 6mil players and seventy countries with world wide tournaments suggests Monopoly sure the hell isn't the biggest seller they have (I bet it's pokemon right?).

Edit - Blizzard made 4.4bil last year. Hasbro is comparable to the people that bring you World of Warcraft, Starcraft, & Diablo.
*Source for most of my finical knowledge is yahoo finance & bad memories.


« Last Edit: October 10, 2011, 12:48:02 AM by SorO_Lost »
Tiers explained in 8 sentences. With examples!
[spoiler]Tiers break down into who has spellcasting more than anything else due to spells being better than anything else in the game.
6: Skill based. Commoner, Expert, Samurai.
5: Mundane warrior. Barbarian, Fighter, Monk.
4: Partial casters. Adapt, Hexblade, Paladin, Ranger, Spelltheif.
3: Focused casters. Bard, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Martial Adapts, Warmage.
2: Full casters. Favored Soul, Psion, Sorcerer, Wu Jen.
1: Elitists. Artificer, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
0: Gods. StP Erudite, Illthid Savant, Pun-Pun, Rocks fall & you die.
[/spoiler]

Sinfire Titan

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #148 on: October 11, 2011, 08:04:46 PM »
Edit - Blizzard made 4.4bil last year. Hasbro is comparable to the people that bring you World of Warcraft, Starcraft, & Diablo.
*Source for most of my finical knowledge is yahoo finance & bad memories.

Which means WotC makes more than a company that owns about half of South Korea.


[spoiler][/spoiler]

zook1shoe

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Re: So, about book piracy.
« Reply #149 on: October 13, 2011, 03:52:50 AM »
No where near Wal-Mart's $400+ billion last year ;)

I used to play MtG, and that game is not going anywhere!