I won’t comment much on Wizards’ decision to pull PDF from 3rd party vendors, many others, more apt at ranting or having a better perspective than me, have already done so. I’ve stopped trying to understand WotC’s business practices and I do like any prudent customer’s does, if it’s a good product, I’ll buy it, otherwise I won’t.
What I will comment on though is the speed at which news gets spread, digested, dissected, misinterpreted and spewed back in this age of the “I want to know NOW”. This is unbelievable and dangerous at the same time.
Hell, in the space of one day, WotC’s been accused of trying to squelch the old school movement, cutting the middle men in the PDF business and planning to make TSR/WotC PDFs available to DDI subscribers… all of this with absolutely no proof whatsoever.
Like my new friend Chgowiz said on Twitter today (a huge culprit in pushing un-News at the speed of gossip), the whole PDFgate (I love you Americans, you created a suffix for scandals) is mostly a huge storm in a teacup.
You gotta give WotC this, they sure managed to get a very vocal, very militant, very passionate clientele.
The events of the last two days have reminded me just how far from classic journalism Blogging and Tweeting are.
In the space of one short afternoon, scores of RPG bloggers jumped on their keyboard to mourn the death of Dave Arneson only to retract it a few hours later… (and I’m not even sure if those who did the retraction checked their sources for either the first the second piece of un-news).
So yeah, don’t go believing everything you read. it might be a cliché, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
That’s why I don’t do news. I’ll stick to discussing RPGs from a DM’s point of view and I’ll watch the crazyness from my comfy writer’s chair, chuckling at the rat race!
Have a great evening guys, I’m off to be a guest at The Tome Show.
Post publication Edit:
I’ve said in the past that a blogger must sometimes resist the urge to write something easy and inflaming to get responses. While that wasn’t my conscious intention as I wrote this while waiting for a Podcast to start, this post ended up being a needless comment bait whose purposes could have been better served if I didn’t mix and match issues people feel strongly about and then use words like ‘Culprit’ ‘un-news’ and other such words.
I stand by what I wrote, as I always do, and I’ll leave it here, keeping the comments open. However, this is a clear example of what not to do in a blog, at least not too often.
Sorry if I bruised some egos, it wasn’t the intention.
In other news WotC is suing the Children’s Televison Workshop. Seasame Street will no longer be brought to you by the letter D. According to WotC’s legal staff when Sesame Street concludes the show with brought to you by the letter D & the #3, The D& is 2/3 of their copyrighted name. As such Sesame Street has been issued a cease and desist.
Also WotC announced today that the 5th edition of their intellectual property will have a name change to DunD. DunD will be the primary sponsor of the new SyFy channel.
Vulcan Stevs last blog post..31DtaBBC Day 2: 10 Theories About WotC’s Boneheaded Decision
What I do have proof of, Chatty, is that all the WotC/TSR downloads I’d bought at RPGNow were yanked yesterday without any notice whatsoever, without any chance to download and back up something I may have needed. There was absolutely zero consideration there for me as a paying customer, and it pissed me off majorly. That’s not how you treat customers.
Agree on the Arneson business, though. Plenty of us are red-faced over it, myself definitely included.
Zacharys last blog post..In the Wake of PDFGate, Bargains Abound
Weak sauce, Chatty.
There are valid criticisms out there, both about WotC’s treatment of their customers and their business strategy going forward. If you support WotC’s actions, then say so and explain why. If you disagree with those who are criticizing Wizards then say so and explain why. But dismissing it all with a wave of the hand and obliquely suggesting it is based on misinformation is intellectually dishonest. Comparing it to the embarrassing (and very regretful) mistake about Dave Arneson (made honestly by people who are really concerned) is even worse.
I appreciate that you don’t like to get involved in conflict and there is nothing wrong with that. However, the approach you used in this post is beneath you.
@walkerp: The things Chatty specifically mentions (getting rid of the old school, getting rid of the middle man, legacy DDI stuff) are all things I’ve heard tossed about with no basis, and in that respect he’s absolutely right.
There are plenty of reasons to be mad at WotC’s behavior, there’s no need to make up new ones.
Asmors last blog post..An Open Letter to Wizards of the Coast
Whoa Whoa Whoa people.
Wizards fumbled big time and pulled a fast one on loyal clients that probably purchased both the hardcopy and the PDF… of that I make no arguments. There’s no way I’m going to play apologist to WotC’s business decisions here.
In that Zach’s anger is completely valid.
I was just making an observation about how things get distorted and blown so much bigger so much faster than before.
However Walkerp, I’m really sorry if the whole post came out as dismissive and trite. I did write that post really fast and I might have missed my mark. If that’s the case I sincerely apologize.
In regards to the OP – Right. On.
The Last Rogues last blog post..A Racial Limitation
@Walkerp: Dude, calm down and read the guy’s post. All he said is that people are making this PDF shit into a bigger deal than it is. Talk all you want about it being blunderous and undiplomatic, but conjuring up the image of evil suits trying to destroy the “Old School” on such an attenuated basis is total BS. Lots of Old School Grognards hate WotC so much that everytime WotC farts they cry that its aimed in their general direction. Chatty’s decision to compare this to a false death report are RIGHT ON, because in both situations there were NO FACTS to support the claims made by the Bloggerati.
@Chatty: Nothing in your post was dismissive so don’t apologize b/c one dude doesn’t like to read.
TheMainEvents last blog post..Inq. of the Week: Summer Movies ‘09
Star Frontiers. WotC has not pulled them down. They have been up there, with their knowledge for a long time.
Gotta say Phil – probably not your best post 😀
A lot of folks are indignant about this move, and especially the way Wizards delivered it. Sebastian Dietz suggested a much better tack they could have taken in the comments on my post. Seriously, PR isn’t rocket science. If it was, Wizards would have blown themselves up years ago.
Unfortunately, the gamers who have lost the most in this decision are the lovers of old school who purchased and downloaded classic TSR systems and modules from RPGNow. I’ve got a fair few myself. Now, their chance to grab anything else legally is gone, and so is their ability to re-download what they’ve already bought. So yeh, I’d say they’ve a good reason to be narked.
Of course, this is all temporary. Give it 4 months and Wizards’ own store will be up and running containing all of the pdfs they’ve just pulled at exactly the same price, only with a discount for DDI subscribers. Piracy was _A_ reason why this happened, but I doubt it was _THE_ reason.
Just my humble prediction, of course 😀
greywulfs last blog post..Other games still available as PDF shocker
But I don’t see the problem of WotC pulling it down. I own a ton of 3.5 books in PDF form, and I got them long before WotC released them on the interwebs. I’m not saying that anyone should ever do this… But if you still want the PDFs, they will continue to exist out there.
Besides, I own all the 4e books. I would simply be getting the PDF forms for convenience, and why would I want to pay for the book twice?
IF I were to do that, that is…
Dice Monkeys last blog post..The Ancient Guardians: Turon, The Hammer
“Of course, this is all temporary. Give it 4 months and Wizards’ own store will be up and running containing all of the pdfs they’ve just pulled at exactly the same price, only with a discount for DDI subscribers.”
This. There are a lot of _really_ weird theories about pulling the PDFs, and the ones who seriously think that WOTC is trying to kill the old-school editions need a reality check. OD&D is a decent system, but it’s no threat to the 800 pound gorilla, and WOTC must realize that. (One assumes they even have actual sales statistics.)
(Coincidentially, my latest blog post is “RIP Dave Arneson, Dave Arneson Still Alive”, so no Commentluv for me.)
(Also, today’s CAPTCHA is “bacon”. Hooray for bacon.)
Phil,
The whole mess about David Arneson was personally embarrassing and I made sure that whomever I had contacted, or whatever venue I had posted the news saw the update from the family. The sources that I had seen are 99% of the time impeccable – and many of us have been on a “watch” of sorts regarding David and were extremely upset at the news. It’s not an excuse, just a statement of the state of mind many of us are in. I made sure to check before I retracted the news, especially since the family had communicated on several fronts.
So as far as being a “culprit”, I accept responsibility and I’m very sorry. I was astonished at how this was passed so quickly (which in a strange way is a testament to how Arneson has received well deserved recognition over the past year)
I can only express my sadness for what the family is going thru at the moment and pray for their comfort. That’s what is really important.
@Chgowiz – I didn’t read that Chatty was naming you as a culprit so much as Twitter.
@Chatty – The article did come of a little dismissive, hence the tougne-in-cheek nature of my first reply.
Vulcan Stevs last blog post..Role Playing: where my hobbies meet
I’m not quite sure how my reaction is in anyway connected to the irrelevant old school vs. net school argument. I’m just pointing out that when a company who dominates a market makes a move like this, it is entirely reasonable that it’s customers critique and question such a move. I also point out that people are speculating and aware of it. Nobody is spreading rumours or claiming actual facts. There is reasonable speculation and I guarantee we will be hearing more from WotC that validates a lot of the speculation.
I think you’ll find, for instance, this analysis by one Ryan Dancey not uninteresting:
http://rpgpundit.xanga.com/698172157/item/
It’s the first comment to this blog post.
Alarmist? probably. Speculative? Certainly. A valid analysis in response to a poorly communicated and puzzling move? Absolutely.
I think Phil is right.
I work for a major newsnetwork in Canada and I constantly see people (like at Foxnews) gives opinions like its reliable news.
Thats just wrong. If you people think Phil was saying you’re not entitled to your opinion on this subject, you need to get your eyes checked. You have a problem reading right.
I have no problem when people speculate on why a company make a shaddy move. But say it clearly that YOU ARE speculating.
I know also that sometime people read something that was clearly stated that is was a speculation, but are so happy to find someone who thinks like them that they spin this like fact to others after that. Those who do that, I’m sorry to say it, but you are just morons… or George W. Bush.
Oups… are you mad?
(D_luck roll a reflex save and barely dodge a thrown tomato attack)
All right. I don’t like the direction this discussion is going and I really don’t want a needless flamewar when we should probably focus on the better things of the hobby than the bad. Please let’s all take it down a few notch, I just had the place painted.
@The Main Event: Thanks for the support, but I wanted to make sure that the post wasn’t meant to be read as dissmissive or insulting. In that, I take responsibility because I wrote the damn thing.
@Greywulf: We all post stinkers once in a while. No permanent harm done.
@Dice Monkey: I so don’t want to get into a pro/anti-piracy argument here. I know that the PDFs are available rather easily, which I think is why many people are saying that WotC is using the argument as an excuse for whatever they are doing.
However, I have been a Magic player long enough to know that Wizards takes the protection of its IP extremely seriously and it saddens me that the lawsuits while possibly justified, will do nothing to help their already struggling PR image.
@Anders: I really hope that Wizards will announce what alternative they’ll propose. The longer this thing stays in the speculative bucket that is the D&D fandom, the worse it will get and no matter the alternative, it will likely be badly received.
@Chgowiz: While what happened yesterday was sad and embarrassing for many, I’m happy to see just how much people care about the man. Like you say, I’m sure the family appreciated how rapidly and how classy the retractions were. You rule man.
@Vulcan Stev: All good man!
@Walkerep: Yup the reactions are valid for sure. I really am curious to see where this will go. And Dancey’s analysis, while speculative, is worrisome for sure. I hope he’s wrong, or if he’s right, I hope that the online fandom will be there to support their favorite version of the game.
One thing’s for sure, Pathfinder seems to be doing well enough through all this.
@D_Luck: Please don’t add to a fire that needn’t be there. 🙂
If you ever feel the need to write something controversial again, you could always outsource it to me!
However, I agree with the original post’s intent – when I went on yesterday to see nothing but posts about PDFs I sighed. This network always produces great content that does not disappoint me…save for the day when everyone talks about how they’re all angry about the same thing for the same reasons.
This is why I don’t cover news except for making fun of how others cover news.
Wyatts last blog post..Hard-Hitting Article on Wizard’s PDF Move
Sorry!
@Wyatt: Sometimes, there,s no dodging the Echo chamber effect
@ D_Luck: Its all good mon ami.
Good words, Phil! Now, back to our scheduled programming………
😀 😀 😀
greywulfs last blog post..This just in from RPGNow Central
Hi Phil,
Being relatively new to the RPG Blogger scene, this was my first controversy. I’m probably to blame for more than one or two Twitters linking articles on the PDF thing (even stooping so low as to grab onto the PDF-Gate term).
I agree with you that we could all do well to quit worrying about the business and focus on making our games better – unless, of course, the business is your business.
I spent a few years on a blog covering gaming news surrounding the MMO, Everquest, and that ended up always focusing on the developers and the business rather than the game itself. I don’t plan to do the same thing with SlyFlourish.com. For that, I plan to focus on making our games, the games we run, better.
Anyway, I see your post as it was intended and like others, I’ll be happy to move on.
Mike Sheas last blog post..D&D Dungeon Tile Tips
Hey Mike, I wish you the best of luck with Sly Flourish and I’m glad that you agree that focusing on our games is the thing. Hell, my new campaign I just started today has blasted off with such a bang that I’m already excited about next week’s game!