Hey everyone, we are back, with our good friend and total Grognard, Chris Ruggerio. This one went long, so we broke it up into two parts. A super special shout-out to David Steiger for doing these fine liner notes you see here!
Enjoy the show!
0:58 Hosts Chris Hanrahan and Brian Isikoff welcome non-Chris-Bennet guest Chris Ruggerio
1:33 The guys discuss Wizards of the Coast’s controversial halting of all PDF sales of all of their products.
2:47 Brian’s diplomatic and tactful opinion as a consumer.
4:00 Chris’ theory
5:39 Evil Hat’s PDF philosophy
6:49 Discussion on how PDFs aren’t lost retail opportunities, they are potential marketing opportunities.
17:03 GAMA Trade Show
17:13 Chris didn’t hear much news from the show aside from…
17:44 Arcane Legions, a semi-collectible miniatures game from Wells Expeditions, the founders of WizKids.
20:05 The guys discuss the lack of GAMA reporting or news.
21:52 But it’s all Brians’s fault, somehow.
22:45 GAMA news on Flames of War by Battlefront: a new prototype-tank supplement called Mid War Monsters.
25:48 Brian goes grognard over Lock and Load Publishing’s products, particularly the World at War series.
42:55 Brian and Chris R return to Flames of War products with an in-depth discussion.
LINKS IN ORDER OF REFERENCE
Evil Hat’s PDF guarantee
Arcane Legions
Catalyst Game Labs
Ogrecave’s coverage of the GAMA
Boots and Saddles
Flames of War:
— Mid War Monsters
— Afrika book
— River of Heroes
— Partisans and Polizei
— Wargames Illustrated
Lock and Load Publishing:
— Blood and Bridges
— Eisenbach Gap
— Death of the 1st Panzer
— Operation Garbo
— Untold Stories
— Gamers Guide
— Line of Fire magazine
— Corps Command: Totensonntag
— White Star Rising
— Forgotten Heroes Viet Nam
— All Things Zombie
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree completely on the pdf discussion. My group tends to use pdfs for any books we don’t feel we need at the table, and just get physical copies of adventures. Much easier on the wallet.
OgreCave did have some short interviews, but not a lot of coverage of the trade show.
PDFs – Let me count the ways in which this pisses me off. I’m bringing back The Digital Front *just* so I can rant about this. What bothers me the most? Greg Leeds assuming we’re all a bunch of idiots by saying “it was all about the piracy.” Give me a break.
GTS – To their defense, last year they gave me a free Press badge and offered it this year as well. They gave one to a blogger, too. So they will give out free Press badges if requested (I don’t know to what extent, but they do have a precedent now). Problem is the timing: GTS was in the middle of Passover (this year and next as well), so as much as I wanted to, I had to pass. Maybe in 2011 I’ll be able to go, but we’ll see. I continue to say we need an industry punditry podcast, and as much as I love the Sugarbaker boys and their show, it just doesn’t cut it.
Just got done listening to this episode. It was another good one, and I’m eagerly awaiting part 2.
The only coverage of GTS that I know about was over at the Living Dice blog.
http://www.livingdice.com/1776/gama-trade-show-report-2009-part-4/
You didn’t mention it in the podcast so I’m not sure if you saw it. He did a pretty good job of trying to hit every booth and write up a small blurb on each one.
Keep up the good work, and have a good day!
Great discourse on PDFs guys. I think you really hit the nail on the head when it come to PDF media increasing the consumers appetite rather than sealing sales.
Also, thanks for doing the show notes again, they’re great.
So, I went to a con over the Memorial Day Weekend. The RPGA did a good job of convincing me to invest time, money and gray matter in D&D4e. Kudos to the RPGA! The very next weekend I spend all Friday morning trying to find a PDF of the D&D PHB. I listen to your podcast as I’m getting lunch and find out that they’ve stopped selling them. Kudos to you for covering the story. No Kudos to Wizards for taking away the ability to buy a pdf legally. Now if I want a legal copy, I have to buy a used book, chop off the spine and scan it in myself. Stupid. *sigh* As a fan of pdf’s I now need to decide whether I’d rather keep playing 4e, or deny my dollars to the company that made such a huge screwup.
I completely agree with Brian’s one word assessment of the situation.
In regards to the PDF part of your podcast. Baen books has released CD’s with some books that contained full books from their library. They also offer free books on their website as well.
http://www.baen.com/