"Are we discriminating?" Topic

We only publish in PDF. This keeps the cost down for thr buyer and our pathological hate of coffee table rules books with excessive irrelevet photos is well known so no need for over expensive printing at home.

I guess as this is a computor board eveybody has a computer board but are there keen souls that play but do not have access to a computer or a printer?

One of our best "game putter onners" is completely off the grid. He uses … BOOKS for his research! 😱
He also sees no need to chase the latest Big New Thing. He runs great games with 20+ year old games like AK-47 1st edition and Age of Reason.

Who really "needs" a computer or the Internet anyway? I put on some fine games in the early 80s.

Sorry for what may be a base and vile ignorance, but who is/are 'we?'

On topic, I am currently, and for some time, stuck with using a phone and occasional trips to the library. A document that I can print legibly in a few pages, even if a page here, a page there, can work fine for me.

Obviously, I have to really care to go to that extra effort and expense.

Doug

These days, pof is my preferred format for all the rules I buy and use. I can load them on my tablet (or phone in a pinch) and refer to them on the tablet with the advantage of being able to use the capability to search the rules as well. I already have too many books and overflowing shelves so being able to add rules without having to find space to store them or remember where I put them is an added bonus to pdf format.

I buy the majority of my games these days in pdf format.

I will print out reference sheets or select pages of rules, but very seldom the whole manual.

You are not discriminating….you may be cutting into you profits though.

I guess you need to ask who you target audience is. Older gamers (like me) may want a hard copy. Younger players (not me) may want .pdfs. There are of course exceptions to my statement. Given the situation and the rules, I'll take a hard copy every time…. But if the rules are "living", I won't bother with a hard copy due to forseen changes.

Dave

I'm a fan of both.

I love hard copies, yes and even the inspiration pictures.

That said, I would love a PDF copy for tabletop use.

Back on the day, I would photocopy and highlight the copy for tabletop use. I would never mark any hard copy.

Nowadays, I make up a text file of major rules and add my own notes.

Doc McB's opinion of my status might differ from my own. But I don't think there are a lot of literate English-speakers these days who couldn't find someone to download and print off a set of rules if they were so inclined.

For myself, I try to keep suitable rules in computers or on thumb drives, the better to correct typos, clarify things I certainly thought were clear and change distances depending on scale and board size. But everyone gets a printed-out copy for the game.

But you use "discriminating" as though this were somehow a moral failing. Irrational discrimination, depriving someone of something they've a right to is just that. But discrimination as such just means recognizing that two things are not the same, and Heaven help the wargamer who doesn't. We should all discriminate between well-written and complete rules which are suitable to our armies and those which are not, between well-painted castings and a quick spray-paint job, and between sturdy good-looking terrain and whatever cardboard box was handy.