The Future of PDFs in the Roleplaying Industry
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Let me first start by saying there is a huge difference between music piracy, movie piracy, software piracy, and PDF piracy. At their base, they are the same thing. Overall though, there are different nuances for each industry. Digital piracy is someone acquiring a product in such a way that they do not pay the creator of the content for it. For the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on PDF piracy and the roleplaying industry.
The Pyramid of Internet Piracy
Suppliers – In the old days, these were the people who actually took the time to scan the actual book into a digital format. Today, many books are created in both physical and digital formats, so often the publisher of the book is also the supplier of the digital format.
Release Groups / Top Sites – These are individuals who obtain pirated content from suppliers and are the first source of piracy on the internet. They place the PDFs onto computers known as “Topsites.” This is generally where the avalanche of piracy begins. With PDFs, sometimes Release Groups will also bundle PDFs together with other similar PDFs, making it even easier for the end-user to find more illegal copies of what they want.
Facilitators – Facilitators act as internet directories, or search engines, to coordinate the mass downloading and exchange of pirated content between downloaders. Popular examples of the facilitating websites are ThePirateBay.org and Demonoid.com.
Fire Sharers / Downloads – This is the category where the bulk of ‘users’ fall into. Fire sharers and downloaders typically obtain PDFs via peer-to-peer services, like BitTorrent. This software enables users to download and instantly share what they just downloaded with other users, greatly accelerating the spread of pirated PDFs.
What You Probably Know About PDF Piracy
• Wizards of the Coast recently planned to stop illegal downloads of their products by stopping the sale of all PDF products. Their solution to stopping illegal downloads was to make it impossible to buy legal downloads.
• Most people illegally downloading PDFs would never have bought them in the first place if that was their only option.What You Probably Don’t Know About PDF Piracy
• Piracy is the lowest in North America, Western Europe, and the European Union. Piracy is highest in Central / Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East / Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
• Major corporations already realize that potential solutions like DRM (Digital Rights Management) are not effective in combating piracy for any media form (audio, video, or written).
• Draconian DRM was previously seen as a logical alternatively. Essentially, it is technology embedded ubiquitously at key points in the content distribution chain, most notably in rendering devices, so that content cannot be used unless it has an associated license. This solves the problem since dissociated content will not be played. However, how would the system handle published content? There are two solutions: (A) Create two infrastructures, one that handles managed content and one that handles all other content, (B) Require that all content, whether managed or not, come with a license. Even if the Draconian DRM idea could be implemented, it still holds a host of problems and seems, in the grand scheme of things, unreasonable to employ.Believe it or not, from a historical perspective something like this has happened to the book industry before. The growth of libraries and of book publishing in England and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries is somewhat analogous to what is happening now.
The real problem with piracy is that it takes only a small fraction of users who are capable of dissociating licenses from content to make managed content available to a significant fraction of users in unmanaged form. Most major companies, like Wizards of the Coast, are realizing that they, as content producers, must regard themselves as being in competition with the pirates. The important thing is to maximize the value of your intellectual property, not to protect it for the sake of protection.
There are several different ways in which the content industries might extend their offerings to compete with piracy.
Content Management
• Tools that can manage and organize PDF content for users, like a more advanced version of the Amazon Kindle, would provide an additional service for legitimate customers with legitimate copies of PDFs.Content Delivery
• Legitimate businesses often have higher quality distribution services. In addition, users have less to fear from downloading a product that may be infected with a virus, spam, or may not even be the product the user wants.Business Models
• Producers can profit by introducing alternate methods or charging access for their content, visa subscriptions, bundling techniques, or price-discrimination schemes. They could also link their digital content to other services such as tickets to events, clothing, or club memberships, which would add value to the user.Overall, most companies have figured out that they cannot stop PDF piracy (or other types of piracy for that matter). As stated earlier, roleplaying companies that produce digital versions of their products need to regard themselves as being in competition with the pirates. It is important for them to increase the value of their product in ways that the pirates cannot. They need to create more value for the product that you pay for than the pirate who gives you the product for free can. This extra value must be enough for most people to decide to actually purchase the product. There is no easy solution out there. And there is definitely no solution that will work for every company on every person. This is where roleplaying companies will have to start becoming inventive in their creation and distribution processes to succeed in the age of digital piracy.
Source: Some information for this article came from another article entitled, “If Piracy is the Problem, Is DRM the Answer?”
Leave a Comment
June 29, 2009 at 11:00 am
I think that something that hasn’t been discussed is WHY someone would want a PDF.
Speaking for me and my immediate friends, we seek out a PDF for a few reasons:
1. Can’t afford to buy hardcover immediately upon release
2. To have quick access to the material from a computer (at work, on laptop, etc.)
I would say that 90% of the time, when we get a PDF it’s of a book we either have already bought or intend to buy very soon. Why would someone buy the book of something they already have in PDF? Because no matter how good a PDF is, it’s a billion times easier to use the book itself in a role-playing context. If you want to look something up, that’s what the Compendium is for.
I think PDF’s increase interest in some books. My friends and I swore that someone at Wizards was behind the leak of 4th ed Core books before they were released. We felt this way because:
1. The PDFs went a long way to quell the uncertainty 3.5 players had about the new format. Hell, I’d say it sold many who were absolutely resistant.
2. It allowed us to see what we were getting into before making the financial commitment. Many 3.5 players had entire libraries of books, so having to make the commitment to switch over needed that kind of handholding.
In the end, my request would be for an owner of the hardcopy of a book be allowed a FREE download of the PDF. You’ll spread the love of the game much faster that way, IMHO.
June 29, 2009 at 11:36 am
As someone who commercially sold (and wrote) software, I can say this about piracy.
Don’t fight it, embrace it. The problem isn’t piracy, its in not realising its just part of the business, its fighting against it like it is something you can stop. You cannot promote artificial scarcity with electronic products forever, it will collapse.
The solution that companies need to adopt is (unfortunately) a pay per subscription model, its a helluva lot more effective. You see alot of business software following this model (CRM, accounting suites, HR databases) and more and more games following this (every MMORPG). Not only is it continuing income its pretty much proof against piracy. The old commerce model involved selling THINGS, there is an automatic scarcity in that method. Now you are in effect selling ideas to people who are not then going to resell them.
So I would expect to see more products like D&D insider, not less.
That is just my 2c, I’ve been out of that business for a few years now, things may have changed.
Zzarchov’s last blog post..Everybody Vance Now! ..Give me the magic!
June 29, 2009 at 1:19 pm
@ David – Also, for my friends, if we have a PDF of a book we can share it at the gaming table easier. Most of us have laptops and use PDFs that way. Are you supposed to? Probably not. Do we? Yes.
I definitely do not own a hardcover of ever PDF I have, but of the ones I actually use I do own both for most of them.
@ Zzarchov – Fighting against internet piracy to me is like fighting terrorism, or homelessness. You can’t win. You can fight certain battles and win those, but you can never win the war. So they need to figure other ways around internet piracy to deal with it.
June 29, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I’ll take a hardcopy over a PDF any day. I MUCH prefer being able to flip through a book. I simply like the feel and ease.
This reason may make it easier for me to castigate anyone who downloads pirated PDF. I see it as them simply making the wrong moral decision, taking the wrong option.
Is it cheaper than the legal thing?
Yes.
Would I feel guilty if I did it?
Yes.
Have I done it?
Yes.
In the end, you have to count on people doing… what people are going to do. You simply have to say, “There’s no way to stop this PDF piracy. I know that if I put my hard work out there for people to buy, some will buy it, others will steal it. There’s no changing that. As long as I know this from the beginning, I can’t really complain, because it was my decision to put it out there in the first place.”
Do I do it anyore?
No, but I’m tempted to.
June 29, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Whoops! I just did. Come and get me Wizards!
June 30, 2009 at 2:01 am
Pdf files will always be shared. If companies decide not to publish PDFs then people who share files will just make pdfs out of the hardcover books anyways. I have seen MANY home made PDFs that look just as good as the real thing.
PDFs can only serve to draw more attention to the printed books in my opinion.
I have bought several books after reading PDFs or PDF previews on line.
I would hope WOTC and others would realize this and not cut off this avenue for making more profit for the company.
Everyone knows that PDFs have a very high profit margin vs. books and sense file sharing isn’t going away why not make as much as you can and hope to draw in people who do really want the hardcover book?
June 30, 2009 at 6:07 am
I’ll take a PDF over a hard-copy any day. I’ve pretty much stopped buying new hard-copy RPGs, but I still buy one or two things a month from RPGNow, such as the Zorceror of Zo.
Joshua’s last blog post..The Problem With Murder Isn’t The XP Awards
June 30, 2009 at 9:55 am
Nice article and discussion.
I feel PDFs are just a transition period between past business models and what we’ll get in the future. So, this is just a short term discussion.
PDFs are the final result of your business processes. If your profits are dependent on PDFs then that’s a sign you should look at the aspects of your business behind the PDFs and revitalise those first.
Johnn Four’s last blog post..Shadow Levels: A way to roleplay the acquisition of Prestige Classes in D&D 3.x
June 30, 2009 at 10:52 am
Every media format has its pros and cons. Print can be pirated by the ordinary office photocopier. It produces a bound, higher-quality product, but incurs shipping and distribution costs that are much higher than those of PDF products. Electronic media permit those overheads to be reduced or eliminated, and permit digital interaction with the product – searches, indexing, etc, but they render the product liable for piracy, and digital copies (ignoring the potential inclusion of viruses and other nasties) are always perfect duplicates of the original, which is not the case when we’re talking printed material.
Still, printed books have one great virtue: you can have two, or three, or four, or more, of them open side-by-side without compromising the legibility of any. That permits synthesis of knowledge and incorporation of ideas from multiple sources.
The public at large won’t stand for heavy-handed DRM, so that’s not a solution, but the advantages of the PDF format mean that they won’t go away until something better comes along, so another solution is necessary. Which brings me to the point of this reply, after persuing a rather roundabout course: there is one strategy for combating piracy that you’ve overlooked and that fits perfectly with your theme proposal: Content Creation.
Simply put, if the material is provided in digital form, it can constantly evolve and grow through interaction between content creators and audiance. The consequence is that a pirate may be able to capture and distribute a snapshot of the product, as it was on a certain date, but the pirated copy is always out-of-date. This eliminates the need for many other forms of protection. It also provides a paradygm shift in the product marketplace, altering the product itself from a static phenomenon restricted to generational updates to a dynamic one.
The advantages of the PDF format are (1)its portability; and (2) its all-in-one distribution. I can’t see it being replaced until something comes along that offers clear advantages to both users and content creators. The most likely such product would break a product up into sections, like wiki pages, but enable on-demand the various sections to be streamed together to create a unique PDF for the end-user. The content can contain options: perhaps there are three or more systems for achieving “X” within the material (three different variations on a spell, or a feat, or whatever); select one and the relevant materials are automatically placed within the appropriate locations of the streamed PDF, without the others (or perhaps mentioning them in a sidebar within the product, a form of marketing). The number of unique variations on the product rises exponentially with the number of decisions that get placed in the hands of the users. Anyone that wanted to could incorporate a new house rule into the product, wiki-style, which then becomes just another option for the paying customers to consider. This creates a core system (the equivalent of non-OGL material) that can’t be changed, and a non-core surround (the equivalent of OGL material) that can be customised. The result (if there are enough options provided) would be that each campaign would have its own unique set of rules. The resulting PDF could even be routed to a print-on-demand service!
This distributed model of content creation kills piracy dead, relegates the existing media options to the role of delivery mechanisms, and would represent a fundamental shift in the nature of the hobby.
The basic tools are already in existance, all that’s needed is to unify them in the right way. I don’t see it happening in the next 5 years – the RPG market isn’t big enough for the R&D needed – but eventually, I think it will happen. Let’s see, I’ll have combat system number one, magic system number two, skills system four(a), and…
Mike Bourke’s last blog post..Shadow Levels: A way to roleplay the acquisition of Prestige Classes in D&D 3.x
July 7, 2009 at 7:29 am
I find the best advantage that PDF publications can bring to the RPG industry is the ability to continuously offer new product. A core rule book and major supplements take months if not a year or more to develop, create and print. A five or ten page PDF, perhaps introducing a new race, class, spells, weapons, vehicles, etc. can be put together and released to the public in little under a month. And they’re cheap. If popularity demands it, these electronic releases can be included in later print publications. But at the end of the day it keeps the buying public engrossed.
July 7, 2009 at 10:22 am
Moral and ethical issues have already been mentioned but I would also add that for me it is also a matter of respect. Respect for the material, the authors, the publishers, and the gaming companies.
Various people and organizations put a lot of work into their products and if I would like to enjoy the fruit of their efforts I am obligated to compensate them. I have several gaming PDFs, all paid for.
It’s unfortunate that many well-meaning, honest people don’t think twice about downloading music, movies, or PDF’s that they didn’t pay for. But quite simply it is stealing, it’s that simple. I wouldn’t walk out of Barnes & Noble without paying for a book, nor would I download a “free” PDF from a buddy.
John Lewis’s last blog post..Back Behind the Screen, and in Front of the Computer
July 7, 2009 at 10:40 am
Oddly enough in these contexts “it’s quite simple” always means “it’s quite complicated, but I want you to stop pointing that out.” I pay for PDFs because I want to reward the authors for producing them and give them an incentive to produce more, but that doesn’t mean I accept that making a copy of some information is identical to taking a physical object from someone and depriving them of its use.
Joshua’s last blog post..Reducing Dice Rolls for Random Encounters
July 7, 2009 at 3:09 pm
“Making a copy of some information”
Sure, if all your doing is taking say a photo-copy from a page of a book you own and using it during your game, fine. That would be “making a copy of some information”. But downloading and entire PDF without paying for it is the same as taking a physical product.
You have either legally acquired the use of a product or you have not. And even if you have leagally acquired it you are still responsible for using the product in a legal manner. You couldn’t copy it all and sell it, you cannot copy it and claim you are the author, likewise copying it and making it accessable to thousands of others who havn’t paid for it is wrong.
John Lewis’s last blog post..Back Behind the Screen, and in Front of the Computer
July 7, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Information is fundamentally different than physical objects. If you duplicate information, nothing is lost and nobody is deprived of anything they have. Saying it’s “the same as taking a physical product” is an attempt to disguise or ignore this so as to induce people to misapply their moral intuitions about theft. The problem is that everybody in the world sees right through that, so you’re starting off your attempt to convince them not to do something that they want to do and which obviously directly harms nobody with a blatant falsehood and an insult to their intelligence. I think it’s safe to say that this strategy has proved to be a failure.
IMO, it’s much better to tell the truth: copying files harms nobody, but if somebody doesn’t pay people to create these things, you’ll get a lot less of them. If you want new ones to continue to become available, you should contribute to their creation by voluntarily giving money to the authors.
Joshua’s last blog post..Reducing Dice Rolls for Random Encounters
August 5, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I know I’m a bit late to the party, but I only recently found this blog. Since I always use my laptop, I decided to switch to PDF’s for most of my game books. But WoTC has an interesting answer to this that they don’t talk about. D&D insider.
If you get D&D Insider, you have access to the majority of the crunch of their gaming books. Between the character builder and the compendium, you get it all. The only thing that’s missing is some of the expository text. For example, in Arcane Power, there was one page about how familiars worked that you wouldn’t get without the book.
The character builder adds this conveniently to one application. You can even update five computers per subscription. That can equip a small group for one monthly fee. What’s more, you keep the updates you have once you stop subscribing. So if you were to subscribe for January and July, you’d be able to download the latest updates and get access to everything published in those six months.
I would prefer to buy legal PDF’s, but since I had already subscribed to insider, I don’t mind not getting the books.
August 5, 2009 at 10:03 pm
@ Philo Pharynx: Welcome aboard. You are absolutely right about DDI. Fantastic resource and worth every penny.
Even though I’m a book collector at heart and will still buy each book that comes along I find myself only reading them once. After that they sit on my shelf looking pretty becuase all of the referencing I’ll ever need to do is going to happen on my computer through DDI.
Just today I started using the Monster Builder app, even though it is still in beta, in was awesome. Check it out.
August 5, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Bah. John, I have to disagree a little bit. I’ve tried the Monster Builder app a few times and I have yet to finish a creature with it.
Maybe it’s because I might be way not smart.
I don’t know – I’m just not impressed… yet.
Instead, I use a table template I created in Microsoft Word. It looks almost exactly like the regular monster stat card (so it functions just as well), but I do all the number crunching when I create the monster. So far it’s worked great. I’ll have to try DDI’s Monster Builder again soon. Hopefully I’ll have better luck.
August 6, 2009 at 6:00 am
One way to get around the sharing of PDFs legally would be to purchase multiple licenses to distribute the PDF which are limited, similar to how businesses buy multiple copies of the same software. Though I wouldn’t put it past people to try to find a way to crack this either.
As much as I am a fan of the printed book, I like PDFs for several reasons. Firstly, I have the misfortune to live in an area without a gaming store. Any books that I want I have to pre-order, often without a quick look-through to see if they are worth the $50AU+ I am paying for them and often I have to wait at least a month and badger the stores employees before I get them. Secondly, it’s kinda a hard ask to ask players to fork out $80 for the Core Rulebook in order to learn how to play the game properly (serious, you D&D guys have it easy with the Player’s Handbook). Finally, it’s so much simpler to get screengrabs for your campaign notes so I don’t have to break my back bringing the books to the table, or waste time flipping through them.
There is a sort of compromise with PDFs that Wizards have allowed, and while it’s not officially endorsed it’s right under their nose at the message boards at their website. It’s nothing speccy, but a compendium of all the rules which is what we really want, anyway (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1055542)
August 6, 2009 at 8:21 am
@ Chris Stevens: Are you sure you ar using the right Monster Builder? There is a Flash tool on Wizards web site that has been there for a while and you are right, it isn’t that good. But I’m talking about the one you have to download that is set up just like the Character Builder. It’s only been available for about 4 days and is still in Beta. That tool kiks ass.
@ Katana Geldar: Just curious, do you buy much from Amazon? I’ve noticed that most of the roleplaying stuff is discounted anywhere from 5% to 33% and that more than covers the cost of 2-3 day shipping. Where I live I order the “standard” shipping (a couple of bucks) and still get the product in no more than 3 days. As a D&D player though I’m lucky, with Amazon’s huge discount on D&D I essentially get every fourth book free.
August 6, 2009 at 3:32 pm
@John Lewis: I’ve only used the flash one, not the new one. But monster building in 4e is so easy compared to 3e that I usually do this manually.
@Katana Geldar: I have some online friends spread over the globe who have the same problem with finding a game store. Even though I’m lucky enough to live with a game store nearby (it used to be several), I rarely visit it. PDF’s are just too convenient.
August 6, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I do use Amazon sometimes, but with the exchange rate the way it is and shipping from the US it turns out to be the same.
Now, why didn’t I get into gaming last year before the financial crisis?
Also, on Amazon you don’t always have the luxury of flipping through the book before you decide to buy it.
August 6, 2009 at 5:14 pm
@Philo: Your right. Monster adjusting and creating is easy. What I like about the new monster creator is being able to look a list of all the individual powers monsters have in 4e. I can drag and drop any power into my new monster or existing monster and it automatically does all of the number crunching for me. Good stuff.
@Katana: Overseas shipping must kill any discount and I’m sure it must take a while to get delivery. In these circumstances I certainly see where PDF’s are the way to go.