Should FFG give the people who purchased a copy of the DW CE edition a free pdf of DW so we don't have to spoil our collectors editions when we run a game?

By Walker0001, in Deathwatch

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Artemesia said:

I would support this. I bought the CE and want to get into playing the game as soon as possible, but don't have the money for a normal copy on top of the $200 I already spent on the CE, which is two months away from arriving. It seems almost unfair in a sense that I payed more money yet don't get the opportunity to enjoy my product until after everybody else.

I feel no sympathy for you. I didnt get anything free when I bought my Rogue Trader CE which is why when I saw this was $200 I quickly said "hells no!"

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ItsUncertainWho said:

No

Free stuff is great but you made the choice to purchase a CE. You knew going into the purchase what was in the package. If you choose to put your CE on a shelf and never open it, that is your CHOICE. My advice would be to stop whining about a decision you made to purchase something. No one twisted your arm and forced you to spend $200 on the CE. Your choice to not use it is your problem.

I use my RT CE and I plan to use my DW CE. I feel that FFG owes me nothing except to fulfill the order I placed. FFG even went to the length of sending out messages to everyone after the order explaining the time delay and giving you a no questions asked chance to cancel your order.

I have nothing but respect for FFG after they way they handled the RT CE box damage. They spent a large amount of money to reprint, assemble and reship the RT CE boxes that were damaged at no cost to the consumer. That is a huge show of customer support for any company and they had no real responsibility to go that far for their customers, but they did.

The issue isn't so much whether they should do now, that's obviously not the case, the issue is if they shouldn't have offered a pdf copy when it comes out at a bargain. Again, I'm not a CE buyer but to me it seems as if that would have made sense from a gamer's perspective.

Alex

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I have no compassion for fools who blow $200 dollars on a book they don't want to ever use, and are then too broke to buy a second copy. That's just an epic level of dumb.

Don't buy a luxury item if you can't afford it geniuses.

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Atheosis said:

I have no compassion for fools who blow $200 dollars on a book they don't want to ever use, and are then too broke to buy a second copy. That's just an epic level of dumb.

Don't buy a luxury item if you can't afford it geniuses.

Now if I ever saw an anti-ad for Deathwatch CE, that would be it.

Alex

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@Eddie

I agree that whilst having the pdf including with the CE would have been nice, they never said they would do it and thus buyers of the CE edition shouldn't expect one. But they should simply state that it wasn't included and don't intend to give it away for free instead of saying they can't due to DriveThru.

Now I'm certainly not privy to the exact contract DriveThru and FFG have, but from what little I know of the smaller parts of the corporate world (and let's face it: compared to certain giants, the RPG market is ridiculously small), it's often a matter of connections, of tradition and familiarity with the business partner - things that one company may have while another lacks them.

I could easily imagine that FFG and DriveThru cooperated on creating the PDF while FFG is the sole instance on selling the CE. Thus, any deal that in any way touches the PDF would have to be approved by DriveThru. Guess what they'll say when FFG comes along and asks for a price reduction for people who bought the CE (which benefited only FFG)...
Cubicle's deal might simply have been made beforehand, granting DriveThru a share of any CE sold. Unless FFG wants to fork over a share of their CE sales now (which they may or may not be able to afford), they probably really can't grant a price reduction anymore.

@ak

Now if I ever saw an anti-ad for Deathwatch CE, that would be it.

While worded rather harshly, it fits precisely though.

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I ordered the CE, and I just got my copy of the regular rulebook yesterday from overnight delivery.

I intend to remove the CE book from the ammo case and place it somewhere safe, then place the regular version inside the ammo crate and take that to gaming.

Still have the awesome looking case with little to no qualms about what happens to the book inside.

Also, since FFG didn't mention anything about a free PDF, I didn't assume that would be the case and so ordered a regular version for gaming use. I'll also probably end up whipping out the CE version, only when gaming at home, since I know that I can place it somewhere where a cursory glance at the pages will tell me what I want to know without the need to rifle through it.

Just my 2 cents... or in this case, $260.00

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H.B.M.C. said:

I think the collector's edition coming bundled with a key for a copy of the PDF would have been a good idea.

I totally agree and i am of the opinion that a PDF should be given. But it is a fact that we bought it without a deal for a PDF so we traded speedy delivery and the chance to use it (for all those who won't use the CE in a day-to-day basis) for the complete awesomeness of overall product. FFG will keep its end of the bargain upon delivery. That's simple commerce. But a free key to download or something of a 40+% discount is, in my opinion a good marketing move to customers who wiil undoubtely support the Deathwatch endeavour in the future. They already have the digital form, so it's an investment with very low cost that will make 2000 loyal customers very happy...

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While I wouldn't mind a price break for customer loyalty, I once again question the intent of buying a CE in the first place. Seems like it's the same issue as buying antique furniture. You do it because it is one of the few things that appreciates in value and there is a tacit concept of resale value...

Kage

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This is amazing. The people who paid $140 more for their Collector's Edition are now asking for a digital copy of the product they purchased, because they can't afford to pay for it.

I think Alanis wrote a song about this...

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First off lets not blanket label CE people as whining for a PDF format of the book. I for one did order a CE book and fully intend on using it but then again I take care of my books and I will be the only one using that particular copy. Secondly, I see no reason for them to just give us a PDF format of the book especially when it was not part of the original stated purchase. Would it be generous of them to retroactively give us a discount of some sort? Sure but I wouldn't hold my breath for something like that. I will be happy with my CE book and will continue to support FFG b/c they continue to support me with RPG goodness and have superb customer service.

Just my 2 cents take it as you will.

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I believe the FFG bods also regularly walk on water and molten lava... ;)

Kage

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Hah...they just may. Screenshot or it didn't happen!

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Cifer said:

Now I'm certainly not privy to the exact contract DriveThru and FFG have, but from what little I know of the smaller parts of the corporate world (and let's face it: compared to certain giants, the RPG market is ridiculously small), it's often a matter of connections, of tradition and familiarity with the business partner - things that one company may have while another lacks them.

I could easily imagine that FFG and DriveThru cooperated on creating the PDF while FFG is the sole instance on selling the CE. Thus, any deal that in any way touches the PDF would have to be approved by DriveThru. Guess what they'll say when FFG comes along and asks for a price reduction for people who bought the CE (which benefited only FFG)...
Cubicle's deal might simply have been made beforehand, granting DriveThru a share of any CE sold. Unless FFG wants to fork over a share of their CE sales now (which they may or may not be able to afford), they probably really can't grant a price reduction anymore.

I know all that. But that is a commercial reason. FFG implied a technical reason so I made the cubicle example to show there can't be a technical one.

Also, I just stated it would have been nice because the CE version will take another 6-8 weeks and I wanted to start reading. It's not that I don't have any money left after buying the CE. Hell, I'll probably buy a regular version just cause it will fit between my other FFG rpg books on the shelve. And I can use the CE at home and the regular one when playing somewhere else.

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I know all that. But that is a commercial reason. FFG implied a technical reason so I made the cubicle example to show there can't be a technical one.

Um... based on your quote ("can't be done because of DriveThru's involvement") it is exactly the reason implied - at the point where you asked, FFG was unable to make that offer to you because they didn't have DT's approval to do so.

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Cifer said:

I know all that. But that is a commercial reason. FFG implied a technical reason so I made the cubicle example to show there can't be a technical one.

Um... based on your quote ("can't be done because of DriveThru's involvement") it is exactly the reason implied - at the point where you asked, FFG was unable to make that offer to you because they didn't have DT's approval to do so.

But nothing would have prevented them to buy 2000 copies (at reduced price) from DT and pass some of the costs onto the customers? Or to negotiate a bargain from DT?

All I have been saying that it could have been done, it hasn't been done so it won't happen. And I have been saying this because if they ever bring out a CE for some game, they might consider finding a way to get CE buyers at least a cheaper copy of the pdf.

Alex

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All I have been saying that it could have been done, it hasn't been done so it won't happen.

Which is what Eddie, who I directed my post at, didn't say.

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Cifer said:

All I have been saying that it could have been done, it hasn't been done so it won't happen.

Which is what Eddie, who I directed my post at, didn't say.

Let me just follow that up with the remark that now that many people here have a copy I hope to see topics of a different nature pop-up into the near too distant future. I'd rather talk about the game than about all kinds of things surrounding the game and what might have been.

Alex