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I was reading about the new electronic reader on Amazon and immediately thought of GW rule books. minis are weighty enough without adding rule books, codexi and so on. Would this make sense for GW to do? I remember hearing that they lose money on their print products and make it up on margins on their minis. Would this change the equasion?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/ref=amb_link_5873612_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=19K3BNE2R6V2CFZNJYNM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=329252801&pf_rd_i=507846

Most of their games are distributed electronically already. All of the good ones are, that's for sure!

Good subject.

For years Ebooks have been trying to make headway with personal organizers, laptops, etc. but to very little success.

After watching the Kindle vid, I am convinced that amazon is on the right track taking care of many of the previous flaws in the Ebook area such as eye strain, etc.

The only drawback is the black and white screen. This is actually a huge drawback, but I am sure within a year a color kindle type of ebook will be released.

I am pretty sure with tech combining everything into one package as it occurs nowadays that a large format screen cellphone (using bluetooth headsets)/camera/mp3 player/web browser that resembles a Kindle is quite imminent.

That said, something like this will revolutionize books as we know it today if the price is right on not only the hardware but the licensed downloads as well. Its just too good for this to not become a common thing in 20years time to see everyone toting around their own personal Big Brother.

Because this is more or less an eventuality for published works, this will obviously have an impact on the gaming world as well.

Of course, the success of such is based on prices, but there are places like Paizo.com and RPGnow.com that have a large plethora of downloadable games, rules and aides that seem to be doing quite well.

I see this tech and rules being accessible electronically to be an unavoidable and imminent eventuality.

I would be astonished to see it confirmed that GW lose money on their rulebooks. Most codexes are 64 pages which is about the same size as a small magazine costing £3.99 but GW charges £12. Whilst there are no advert sales most rulebooks are distributed and retailed through their own channels, saving substantial middleman costs.

The kindle looks good but I think there's a real flaw in the product available. We do not want or need best sellers on it, they are available on paper in many places.

Buyers need textbooks, journals, things that have tiny little print runs (like RPG suppliments and miniature game rules) that are not cost effective to buy on paper.

Hence my first though was GW.

D&D is trying an electronic service debuting this summer for 4e of that game.

GW may sit back and watch to see how successful that is. If it takes off, I wouldn't be surprised to see them follow.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:The kindle looks good but I think there's a real flaw in the product available. We do not want or need best sellers on it, they are available on paper in many places.

Buyers need textbooks, journals, things that have tiny little print runs (like RPG suppliments and miniature game rules) that are not cost effective to buy on paper.

Hence my first though was GW.

The other advantage of digital format is searching, which is great for looking up rules.

The downside of the Kindle is that you cannot convert your own material to eBook format. You have to send it to their conversion service to be piped back to you. There might be a problem converting copyright material.

BTW the Sony Librie has the same type of screen as the Kindle and had been available for several years without much success.

The problem with eBook readers isn't the core screen technology, it is the availability of content and ability for readers to put their own content on the machine.

I don't agree. I think that the fundamental barrier is psychological on the part of the reader. I can usually find a rule in a paper rulebook faster than I could to open up a searching dialog-box, enter the search term, and wait for the computer to find the right instance of the term. This is because I have memorized the placement of what I'm looking for on the page, and the placement of the page within the book. Even though Specialist Games are available for PDF download, I still use my real books when gaming. If GW went to all-digital, I would print and bind the files into books to use at the table.

It's a brilliant idea. At the very least they should give us PDFs of the summary sheets and templates.

But wholly-PDF books? Even if they do charge for them, still far easier than rooting through a bookshelf for it. Sure, searching a book is faster than filesearch, but you've gotta FIND the book, first. And it's an electronic backup.

They should sell CDs of the non-copyrighted summary pages, though. I'd definetly buy one.

If we proceed with the assumptions that:

1. Electronic distribution would improve access/ease of access to rules
2. Reading the books leads to creative ideas of lists to be built
3. This leads to more sales (basically the we make rules to sell miniatures argument)

then we can be sure that electronic rules distribution will appear when GW finds itself in pressing need of a new way to grow sales.

And yes they should do it anyway: electronic distribution would make it easier to puruse the opposition's special rules at leisure, and better knowledge in that regard would probably kill 1/2 of 40k's rule stretching & rules debates.

Downside: You can't have 3 books open at the same time, all visible. You have to flip back and forth between them.

A lot of smaller gaming companies have already gone .pdf semi-exclusively. Even with downloading a .pdf of 5150 or All Things Zombie and having it printed and bound out of Staples, it still came out pretty cheap, and I can print more copies as needed, or just look things up on the computer. Believe me, I'd LOVE to have a .pdf of various codicies on my laptop or desktop at work, or on my flash drive; look things up on the spot etc. No reason for gaming stores to be left out, either. Set up a print station with a half-decent laser printer and offer to print people copies of whatever they need...for a fee.

The only downside of a Kindle or similar ebook is the cost of the device itself, but it's only a matter of time before those prices come down even further, with full color monitors, perhaps even in a more portable form (they've been talking about making a roll-up monitor for years, for example. Plug into your mobile device and go).

Smart paper is already in or just past the prototyping phase; give it five years and you'll have thin books with everything you'd ever want in them. Provided you paid for the content, of course.

I would say no to official eCodeces.

For a start we get them anyway, orks anyone.

Second the game itself is firmly offline, making every codex a hardcopy makes sense for sales and also portaility (with armies). The game itself has volume enough that books are not a problem.

The hobby is also a collection; you buy an army, you buy the book for it.

Having some codexes as photocopies of Codexers mweans everyone will want a photocopy, if you want a game you have to bring rules, no laptops on the gaming table please. So it someone can get away with a printout, everyone will want to, and many of those will not have bought a codex at all.

Not everyone will print everything, some might only copy relevant sections. However as they will not be dated rulebooks could outdated but not updated.

Its simpler and neater to have one system.

Skorpion wrote:It's a brilliant idea. At the very least they should give us PDFs of the summary sheets and templates.

Like these?

Orlanth wrote:I would say no to official eCodeces.

Luddite.