Earlier today I was browsing through shelves at a toy store to look for a last gift for one of my daughters. That’s when I hear an excited voice ask one of the store employees ‘do you have dungeons and dragons?’. I listen in and learn that they do not have any DnD material at all and also can’t order it. I walk a bit closer and see 3 12 year old ish boys and a girl with disappointed faces. The employee also can’t help them where to find dungeons and dragons products.
Now I live in Germany where you can’t find dnd boxes at the likes of Target like in the US for example. In fact I know of 2 stores in the whole city which carry DnD books and material.
I step in and ask if I may help out with the question. I tell them that there are 2 stores which carry the books, dice and more on the other side of the city. They said that’s far away but they’ll try to go there in Saturday.
We get talking and they tell me about how they are looking to start a dnd club at school and also play at home. They got a set of dice and saved around 70 euros for a book and maybe some more dice and such. I tell them that’ll buy them the players handbook which is a good starting point and maybe some extra dice.
They ask me if I played as a kid and I said yes, in fact I still do and I’ll be playing tonight. That’s when I made a weird decision in my head. I had all my stuff already with me so I don’t have to go back home between work and game night. I opened my backpack and gave them my copies of the PHB and Monster Manual. They were super excited and actually insisted to pay me but I’d have felt bad taking money from them.
I didn’t want to post this as virtue signaling stuff or anything. It was just kind of a crazy decision I made that I think was kinda cool. They just reminded me so much of me when I started out. We were lucky to get our first dnd books gifted by an older brother of one of our group’s members. So I wanted to pay it forward. Now I just have to figure out how to run tonight’s game without my books.
Academically, how does this genuinely lovely act of kindness & compassion differ in essence to, say, sharing PDFs of the same already-purchased book with strangers simply wanting to play the game?
edit: please, be civil and don’t dogpile, this is simply to spark a deeper understanding of intentional labeling and how we, as a society, often take that for granted (ie. assume it’s in good faith).
I’m confused where this question comes from and why you asked it, but will provide my own opinion on it.
In the OP’s case, the book he had already purchased is a physical copy; by giving it to the kids, he transferred complete ownership and now has to purchase another book in order to have the same product for himself, providing the company with more money. With PDFs, you can just email the file and then both you and the person you gave it to have copies of the book, effectively getting 2 books for books for the price of 1.
Legally, this is piracy/theft. Morally, both are totally acceptable in my opinion. Of course, if you like something, you should support the creators whenever possible.
In essence, it doesn’t. In a practical sense, however, one is taking something that’s been paid for and passing it on while the other is stealing. You can try to justify it morally all you want but those kids clearly didn’t have any qualms with giving WotC their money so you stealing on their behalf is simply an excuse.
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Yeah, but as a creator, I have to be principled. If you want more things that you like, you have to pay for them. I don’t like the system and I fight to change it at every turn but it’s the system we have.
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Thank you. Seconded.
Odd… I thought the whole question was meant to start a discussion but it seems like no one is willing to discuss it…
Your insinuation of guilt to support your argument is not helpful.
I’m not insinuating guilt, I’m outright stating it. Someone created those books. Whether it was one person in their basement or a company like WotC, you’re depriving the creators of income that they would have otherwise gotten when the normal social contract is observed. If you want more of a creator’s work, you need to pay them.
In your initial reply, you asked how it differs academically. It doesn’t. Sharing is sharing, from a purely academic perspective. From a non-academic perspective, which would include economic, financial, and contractual perspectives as well, it matters very much to the people creating the things being shared.
I gather that you’ve a personal investment to the point of blinding bias, but your self-righteous ire is misplaced and unappreciated. Thanks for letting me know I don’t have to spend time watching you put in that work, though. I hope you find ways to be a better person.
I’m confused. Explain to me how it’s self-righteous to expect people to pay for things that people create as opposed to stealing them? The only “personal investment” that I have is that I create things for a living and need to get paid for those creations in order to survive and support my family… If only one person bought it and then freely shared it with everyone else, I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills.