Quote from: Ghost Whistler;309379why don't wotc just drop the 3-book act and make their game more affordable and accesible. it's more expensive than a video game and there's nowhere it needs to be.

This is a common fallacy or misunderstanding about computer games.

With the videogame your initial ponyout is with the game, and the upfront charge is less. However, once you consider the hardware (PC, graphics card, comms/network card and lan/wan config), the videogame costs much more.

Then, if you add in the monthly charges (Either in cash for a subscription, or your time in, exchange for advertisements) for online multiplayer interaction in the MMO style games or at match play sites, then that puts the computer games at the top cost point where thier revenue streams are proving they are earning (and thus charging) far more, than tabletop rpg's, traditional pen & paper, are even capable of. Pen & Paper has been bypassed by the much larger CRPG market. WoW has Eleven Million subscribing players with two or three million logging in to play Every Day. Eve Online, Fifty-Five thousand. I won't even go into the other MMO CRPG's. How many players login to Steam (Valve's gaming website network) every day? Disney has a large player base for the Pirates of the Caribbean Online game as well...

You can find out more here:
http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm

and here:
http://www.mmocrunch.com/

http://www.gemidea.com/

http://www.virginworlds.com/home.php

http://www.freemmorpg.us/

http://mmohub.org/news/

http://www.mmorpg-x.com/

http://vault.ign.com/

http://mmofury.com/

http://www.karashur.net/

http://www.freegamecam.com/mmo-news.php

http://www.mmodig.com/

http://www.rpgnews.com/mmorpg-news/

http://www.everyjoe.com/mmotaku/topic/mmorpg-news/

http://www.massmog.com/

http://www.totalmmorpg.com/

Facebook has Two Hundred Million registered users... They have games too:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4009/the_social_network_game_boom.php

Online games are a Multibillion Dollar Industry...
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23003

With Piracy, WOTC is the target of many unhappy poor (and not very smart) players. The Pen & Paper crowd is not the primary revenue earning demographic of WOTC, and hasn't been for awhile. Their Magic booth and gaming areas was EIGHT TIMES (8x) the size of the D&D gaming area at GenCon last year. And they aren't even at Origins anymore. WOTC makes more with Magic Online, and off the licenses to Bioware and other CRPG game design companies, than they ever will with the D&D line and the Magic card games print lines.

It's not the D&D game design team at WOTC that wants or is making this happen, but D&D is inconsequential in comparison to the many other games that are currently being played.

P.S. That train has left the station. It isn't coming back.

none of that addresses the point that D&D has an archaic product model that is equally unnecessary. People are more into video games these days and it's cheaper to spend that £60 on a game and come back with change than buy the three corebooks.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;309412How can it be acceptable to chase people who can't afford to pay down for money they don't have?

So we should only punish criminals who can afford such punishment? Really? Are you really taking such a ridiculous stance?

Seanchai

Quote from: Seanchai;309533So we should only punish criminals who can afford such punishment? Really? Are you really taking such a ridiculous stance?

Seanchai

They are not being punished as criminals. They are being slapped with civil violations for criminal acts.

To be honest, they should be facing jail terms, not "repayment of losses"... especially since the mode of calculation of losses on electronic properties is somewhat questionable.

Quote from: Seanchai;309533So we should only punish criminals who can afford such punishment? Really? Are you really taking such a ridiculous stance?

Seanchai

the above answer makes the point for me.

please don't put words in my mouth though.

funny though, how media industries bust their nut trying to bring prosecutions against filesharers yet do nothing when the shops they supply (and have thus already been paid for, so they've made their money) have stuff physically stolen. That is real theft.