How should gaming "eBooks" be priced?

Buy the Hard copy get the e book free

The price of a physical copy minus the cost of the book being printed and delivered.

Whatever the market will bare. As for me, I'd pay no more then $2 for a digital book, especially from amazon. I'm not keen on the idea that they can literally remove copies of books from your devices. It's for this reason I still prefer physical media for books and games.

A fraction of the price of the physical copy. I like having physical copies because I can hold it and sell it to whoever when I don't want it anymore. For gameplay purposes I can have it on the table, pass it around, can leaf through it quickly, and can not worry about my battery or a lock screen. On the other hand I just have less rights to a digital copy that I own. An extreme example would be Amazon remotely deleting books for the Kindles of their customers.

I wouldn't personally pay more than half of what I'd pay pay for a hardback.

This.

No.

Pretty much this.

First thing I did with any new MP3 player I got was put Metallica on it. I don't even like them.

About 2/3s as much as the hardcopy because digital copies don't cost shit to produce except the time and labor that goes into making the original copy. They can literally make an infinite amount of ebooks for all practical purposes, so the price shouldn't be the same as the hardcopy because those cost additional resources and labor to produce, as in paper, ink, and people to work the printing presses.

You can download the actual eBook file from amazon's website and do whatever you wish with it. It's the only major retailer that I've found that still provides such an option.

>GW.jpg

>It's the only major retailer that I've found that still provides such an option
Irrelevant, the fact that the technology exists that allows for the removal against the purchasers will is the point.

With a physical book, the publisher, author, nor the outlet that sold the book can legally remove it from my possession once I have paid for it.

Games are a whole other can of worms that I won't get into right now, but I'm not fond of games/consoles that have online updates either.

(Annual cost to store electronically + annual cost to upload to buyer + cost to produce original copy)/number of copies sold per year + profit margin

Less than ten bucks if you want to actually sell it, and always less than the physical book.

They can be priced however much those producing them and those selling them think they're worth.

But torrenting will always be around.

>the fact that the technology exists that allows for the removal against the purchasers will is the point.

What technology are you speaking of? Got any links for me? I'm interested.

>If you buy the Hardback, you get a free e-book copy.
>If you buy the e-book, it shouldn't cost more than the production cost of an individual hardback - not factoring in profit margins on top.

Done.

1/4 the price
people are fucking crazy if they think it's worth the same

Not a penny. Pirate all your ebooks and pdfs

If you pirated the book and don't like what you see, you'll never run a game with it, so no harm has been done.
If you pirated the book and you do like what you see, then you're probably gonna buy the hardback anyway.
If you bought the ebook and like what you see, then it's wrong that you had to pay for both the ebook and the hardback.
If you bought the ebook and don't like what you see, then you've wasted your money on something you can't return, and that's a travesty.

They should be cheaper than physical for obvious reasons, but I also think they're the kind of product that can be turned into an impulse buy product which benefits from a lower price.

>paying money for digital information
I sure hope you guys don't do this.

If it is worth having it is worth sharing freely.
If the creators made something valuable they should care more for it's adoption than for their profiteering.
If something can be shared freely, then to halt that sharing in the name of "muh shekels" is evil.
If your business model depends on you halting others from sharing digital information, you deserve bankruptcy. Get a New Business Model (donation, commission, etc.)

Fuck you. Tossing a couple of bucks to someone who made a game you like and getting a PDF isn't a bad thing.

I agree with you. Once you received it freely, donate some money as thanks.
But if one MUST toss those bucks, when they could be receiving it freely from a friend, well then Fuck You.

>If the creators made something valuable they should care more for it's adoption than for their profiteering.

I imagine you would feel differently if you were a content creator.

If your job is content creator, you deserve bankruptcy.
Grow and sell food, clothes, shelter, or something else Real and Valuable, and spend your free time content creating and sharing it freely for the benefit of all.

Alternatively, they could use business models that let them create more good content in future rather than going bankrupt because people aren't generous if they can get shit for free. It sucks, but it's reality.

Ohh, you're just an idiot who doesn't understand the digital economy at all. Okay then.

more like the digital ponzi scheme :P

Yes the internet and its content has capital and maintenance costs, but the digital marginal costs are zero (see torrenting), so to profiteer off artificial scarcity is, like, really not cool maan

Hahah eat shit, if consumer economics is so infallible and such a good idea, then somebody will find a way to make me pay for it, or make me want to pay for it. Until then, praise be to the Scanons doing God's work.

What are you even talking about?

If a creator makes content you enjoy, and you have disposable income, why not send some their way? I'm not against piracy, but I also think selling PDFs is completely legitimate, and I do tend to buy the books for any game I play or run.

Like I said, nothing against piracy. I get most of my shit that way first, but if I have the cash and I appreciate the work I know that by sending some money their way, I'm supporting the creation of more content I'll enjoy.

When you download a book from an app store like say nook or the amazon fire thing, you don't actually receive the file on your device. You get some cloud file the app can control and that you have no access to. It's basically DRM. The intention isn't to one day seize your archive, just to keep you from copying and sharing it, like what normal people did with books for thousands of years. But they do reserve the right to take it all away for whatever reason. If the app/company simply closes down you'll lose it all too.

There was a point these retailers had no problem giving you your actual book in digital format, but copyright laws always win out with these things and now they do this to "protect their interests" or some shit. Really the current state of things feels like retailers are at war with their own consumers.

Actually amazon is one of the last remaining ebook sellers that still let you download a complete file. Scrubbing off the DRM is a built in feature of most third party ebook managers.

Not sure about "invariable," but yeah you've got to be damn careful about it.

If shit's gotta be regulated, it's gotta be regulated. But it's a rare situation where someone really MUST step in.

Yeah, but you have to download it off their website. Through the app you don't get the file

Yes, that is exactly one of those "big government" regulations

Better yet, create content and don't share it.

Double points if you brag online about the games you created you're playing with your friends.

Because its not worth the electronic criticism from Anonymous because you cannot professionally produce it with art from artists who also require payment.

By need

"By each according to their level, to each according to their low stats"

Profit margin = as much as we can get away with, now what bearer of trips?

If you download the file, they can't remove the file from you. Or else, piracy wouldn't work.

You know whats even more convenient? Pirating it for free and without jumping extra hoops.

>or something else Real and Valuable
I wonder why you spend so much time on a board like this.

As a printing press technician and editorial designer. A book (say, the average novel) costs $6 to manufacture. An artbook goes up to $9-13.

So that's as much as you can cut off from the price for not receiving a physical object, everything else they're charging is accounting for creative, gd, marketing and the dunce tax.

I fucking hate this .99 bullshit, like no one is falling for this shit anymore it's not 2008

>donate some money as thanks
This doesn't happen, ever. And you know it so don't be a faggot.
Humans don't give away money unless they're virtue signalling as they do. That's why shit has prices. If you could "pay whatever you feel like as thanks" nobody would ever give anyone a dime.

This. Creative endeavors should be kept intimate. The masses don't desserve the enlightment of artistic pleasrue.

Patreon disagrees

This. If I'm buying the hardcopy, I'm probably pirating the PDF.

Patreon hold a paywall between you and the goodies. If there was no wall there'd be no donations.

You're just as wrong as the person saying it's the only way.

People are perfectly capable of making sincerely altruistic and selfless contributions to things. Contrary to what you may believe, not everyone is as jaded as you are.

Profit margin = 15 + (10*(number of fans/world population)

Wrong.

Patreon is literally supporting a creator because you want to.

Creators don't have to reward their patrons, it's entirely optional to do so. Creators do because they appreciate their patrons and want to reward those who are generous enough to support them.

I'll never pay a single penny for an ebook. If I can't buy a physical copy I won't play the system.