Rembert Parker of Reader Copies in Anderson, Indiana read Marcus King's recent column (see "View from the Game Store--The Changing Industry") and comments on the potential threat of PDF game products.

Marcus King stated, "Today I'm starting to see a new trend, but maybe it will turn out to be a fad.  It’s that of RPG publishers offering PDF versions of their printed books to go along with the book."

Perhaps Marcus King missed another paradigm shift, one that occurred when Napster appeared.  We face a generation of consumers who expect content to be available free.  Originally this expectation was for web content on computers, but it has extended to cell phones and iPads and who knows what.  No matter what codes publishers put into the PDFs, it is easy to simply copy the text (using PDF editor clones, available free online) and restore the text without the codes in a new file... and in no time at all the PDF version will be available online for free without the purchase of the hardcopy that retailers are attempting to sell (so hide your codes in the images).  If anything, I expect PDF availability to reduce sales at our store, not increase it.

We may soon discover that hard copy RPG modules and rulebooks were simply a fad.

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