What I’m suggesting is that people should be more rational and express more level-headed concerns rather than wild ideas.

Abulia, this has proven itself to be true. Your position is sound, even if not irrefutable. Responses, on any side of a discussion, should address the point, not make it seem unreasonable to hold the position being discussed.

If one decides to identify flaws in someone’s position, one ought to support the statement during the ‘correction’. This allows the point to be discussed and, possibly, errors to be revealed. Errors on either side. It also invites others to join the conversation, rather than turning them away if they don’t like the tone of the discourse.

For example, allow me to disagree with a statement in the previous comment. People do complain about price changes. For example, the increase in movie prices is still something that folks commonly complain about. Gas price complaints sound familiar to anyone? Incidentally, both of those products have caused widespread discussion across the nation. How about the rising cost of cable TV? (This is how satelite TV was able to gain a foothold, and now the competition helps the consumer by applying downward pressure on prices.) There have even been legislatures that have responded to local pressure by enacting requested legislation. (Eg. capping local revenue from tax on gasoline.)

In any event, civil discourse should be our goal here. Not ‘winning’ an argument by silencing the other side.

No one is forcing DRM on anybody. Some publishers won’t sell PDFs without it – they use it. Mostly everyone else is fine with watermarking or nothing at all.

Price increases, while likely, have been a long time coming. Someone made a comment elsewhere about how people don’t complain when the jeans they buy go up a buck. If prices go up by 50 cents will you even notice? Everyone is talking like $5 PDFs will suddenly sell for $20 or $10 ones for $30.

And while I like Phil Reed and have a good working relationship with him, don’t mistake his success for growing the market single-handedly. Lots of folks helped do that, especially the under-appreciated freelancers who contribute a great deal. One of those contributors was also RPGNow, who spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertising to find those customers.

I’m not for or against rpgnow/DTRPG, but facts are facts.

Bill: Yeah, the quotes page thing is a bit weird. Hopefully a misstep, not a sign of things to come.

Nellisir: Thanks for the feedback. My sense is that your POV is shared by quite a lot of folks.

The first reason I am excited is a personal (even selfish) reason – I’m the one that does most of the uploading of products for Tabletop Adventures, and now I only have to do it once to cover RPGNow, DTRPG and EN World. Before the merger and affiliate site, I had to do it three times, in three different formats, which was frustrating and sometimes time-consuming. That change alone is enough to give me a favorable first impression of the merger.

We also think that the marketing efforts of RPGNow and DTRPG combined can do a lot to increase the visibility of the PDF market in general, more than when separate and sometimes at odds with each other. We encounter many people who are either completely unaware of the availability of gaming material in PDF, or think it’s just old products from WotC. There is a lot of room to increase the market share of PDFs in general, and we believe Tabletop Adventures will ultimately benefit from that.

Most of our products are specifically written to be of use as impulse purchases – our motto of “Buy It Today, Play It Tonight” isn’t just hyperbole. Although we are starting to move into print products, the electronic delivery model is a good one for TTA, and so the more people who become PDF customers in general, the better off we will be.

This is clearly a touchy subject, which is precisely why I think OBS could have handled it better.

As a point of contention with some publishers, a few found their products up on DriveThruRPG a day (or two) after the announcement without being asked if they wished their products sold through that vendor.

At RPGNow (http://www.rpgnow.com/why_publish.php) they’ve done a search-and-replace of “RPGNow” in publisher comments and inserted “OBS.” I think you’ll find that not one person on that page has made a single quote listed on that page attributed to OBS. It’s disingenuous at best, I feel. So there’s misinformation going on both sides it would seem.

Martin also brings up an excellent point: I think Phil Reed — perhaps the most influential person in the PDF market who nearly single-handedly grew it to where it is today (Monte being the other) — has good reason to be asking questions. He was most certainly one who has seen a 15% rate hike. Using his own numbers, he generated RPGNow $12K of revenue against his $60K of sales. In the next year if his sales remain flat he’ll instead contribute $21K and gain what exactly for his additional $9K?

Would you rather keep $9K or give it to someone else in fees?

Oh, and I’ve read the contracts so I think my argument stand pretty strong on its own.

and the contract comment wasn’t directed at you, martin, but at abulia. arguments are stronger if made from a position of knowledge. http://www.onebookshelf.com/join.html

i’m sorry if i’ve come off as ultra-defensive, i was shooting for just mega-defensive. but there’s a fair number of people repeating a lot of invalid information or speculation as fact. not out of malicious intent by anyone, its just the telephone game played out on the internet. but it’s not a good basis for discussion.

it is not 24 hour notice, the new rates will not be in place for a month still. this meets RPGNow’s contractural obligation to us, its vendors.

– – – – -

there are many vendors now looking into selling through their own websites, whether in addition to through OBS or not. there is also some thought being put into smaller organized co-op storefronts or collectives. i hope that they succeed, it would be as significant an improvement in the market as anything else which comes about because of the merger.

– – – – -

all that aside, why am i happy about the merger? personally, because i can now reach a larger audience without having to deal with multiple separate storefronts. a larger audience means more room for growth, it means more viability for fun niche products. one storefront means efficiency and concentration of my own marketing effort.

i’m happy because my rates aren’t increasing. yes, my cold blackened selfish soul is happy.

OBS, as a single greater entity, has more resources to throw at further building the marketplace, of improving their storefront, of advertising to the very wide audience of gamers who don’t know about PDF gaming materials yet, of being a serious and significant presence. and there’s so much room for growth.

steve wieck and james mathe, of DTRPG and RPGNow respectively, both have a significant track record of interest in the health of the market and work in improving it. i do not believe that the increase in rates is arbitrary or for their personal enrichment. gawds, they are SO in the wrong industry if they’re in this just for the money. simply, i trust them. i’m willing to wait and see what their plans are, and wish them the best.

anyway, apologies where warranted, and i think that’s my final 2 bits.

If you don’t mind, what aspects of the OBS merger are you excited about as a publisher? I’m especially interested in your perspective, since TTA publishes exclusively GMing material.

(Abulia) You may want to take a step back and a deep breath before posting ultra-defensive again.

I already reminded drow of this, there’s no need for a second reminder. Civil discourse is always the goal here on TT.

Reading your comment made me think about what Phil “Ronin Arts” Reed said on EN World — he thought he was a partner in the PDF industry, and he didn’t feel like one when he saw this news (paraphrasing, of course).

I don’t think the PDF industry would look the way it looks now without Phil, who has been hugely successful (on the PDF scale) with what started as essentially a one-man show. It’s definitely a surprise to hear that big fish like Phil apparently weren’t given any advance notice about the merger or the rate hike.

Yes, rate hikes happen. Are they built into the contract? In exchange for a lower processing fee and signing an “exclusive deal” is my rate guaranteed to be locked in place for a year or more? These — and other considerations — are the types of things that a publisher should be looking for.

Also in regards to rate hikes, as competition dwindles so does a publisher’s protection. Already publishers are abandoning OBS for smaller competitors, unwilling to work with a company that raises rates with only 24 hours notice. That doesn’t strike me as a good business practice on the part of OBS or a way to engender a good faith working relationship in a time of transition. Also, many publisher’s business models do not account for an unplanned hike of 15% without notice.

Could you afford an across the board 15% hike in utilities, rent, and cost of goods with 24 hours notice?

So what does a company do? Ride it out and hope for the best? Civil disobedience? Try the grass on the other side (e23)? It will be very interesting to watch these events unfold.

A number of people (gives Cassandra a friendly wave!) have stated they’re happy/pleased/hopeful about the merger, yet they never seen to articulate *why*. Whereas those who have concerns do articulate why and are berated for it.

A successful business model is not built entirely upon hope, IMO.