Quote:
Originally Posted by Fifth Element
My point was in response to "They expect us to PAY for a preview?" attitudes that pop up in any discussion about this book. As if the very idea in abhorrent and unprecedented.
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Referring to any discussions on this preview in particular? This is the only local discussion that I've found, so while it might be a sore subject to you, it's quite possibly new to everyone else here.
But, judging from the price tag on something that's not not a usable game product, the idea may not be unprecedented, but it could easily be abhorrent. It may be in line with Wizards' price guidelines for page count, but I think they forgot that they weren't selling a game product. It's not the most expensive preview product, page for page, I've ever seen (that was Battlestar Galactica's preview, at $10 for less than thirty pages, I think), but you could at least
play that particular product. I don't see that happening here.
Plus, most of the previews I've run across, right up until the last two years, were
free. Nobody's thoughts are golden, even on the printed page. Sometimes you must give away a little money to make a lot of money later. Giving away something like this might've generated a lot of positive publicity for Wizards. Selling it invites criticism, particularly after that terrible 30th Anniversary book for D&D (which left out much of the product's history, including the several times it, and TSR, almost died, and the people and products that pulled them out time and again).
For anyone who is interested in the actual game's success (I'm not, personally), I rather hope this pricey publicity move doesn't constitute pissing in the punchbowl. After all, the party for 4E hasn't even started yet. There's still half a year before the release. Hopefully that's enough time for the irritation to die down.