UNTIL price?

[Sociotard]

I'm confused. why does an actual book, made of paper and everything, of the UNTIL superpowers database cost $24.99, while the download costs $30? I was looking at buying the Hero Designer, and was just curious about that. It's not even the biggest downloadable file available.

Oh, yeah, before I check out, does anybody know what payment options they take? checks? maybe? hopefully?

[Simon]

Primarily because, unlike the other character packs, the USPD character pack has, essentially, the entirety of the book in it. The USPD is basically just a large collection of Powers and Power concepts....all of which are included in the character pack. Because of this, the character pack is priced slightly higher than the book to (1) help sales of the book, which is the main revenue-generating line for the company and (2) because the character pack contains all the info in the book in an easy-to-use format.

As for what types of payment they take, the online store will take most major credit cards, or you can mail a check or money order into HG for your order and they'll ship out the product upon receipt.

[Killer Shrike]

I bought the USPDB "Character" Pack and I dont regret it -- its a godsend when making new characters, spells, etc.

Huge timesaver.....

[Negaduck]

Originally posted by Simon
the character pack is priced slightly higher than the book to (1) help sales of the book, which is the main revenue-generating line for the company and (2) because the character pack contains all the info in the book in an easy-to-use format.

First, I purchased the book and like it. I would like to get the character pack BUT at that price($30) feel it is gouging. I work in the computer field/web environment and do data conversion for a living along with massive programming. I KNOW that the cost to convert your original documents to XML is really trivial(you should and can generate the XML as you go) and do not justify the cost for this. There are many ways to get this pack to those who have bought the book without this sort of price. I fully support HERO Games and greatly enjoy the full product line but this is just wrong. The recovery of the cost of the product is or should be the book not the pack. If you want it to be covered by both at least make provisions for those who bought the book.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Negaduck
First, I purchased the book and like it. I would like to get the character pack BUT at that price($30) feel it is gouging. I work in the computer field/web environment and do data conversion for a living along with massive programming. I KNOW that the cost to convert your original documents to XML is really trivial(you should and can generate the XML as you go) and do not justify the cost for this. There are many ways to get this pack to those who have bought the book without this sort of price. I fully support HERO Games and greatly enjoy the full product line but this is just wrong. The recovery of the cost of the product is or should be the book not the pack. If you want it to be covered by both at least make provisions for those who bought the book.
First and foremost: if you feel that the price is too high, then <i>don't buy it</i>. No one is holding a gun to your head and telling you to "buy it or else". Many people find that the utility of having the entire USPD in HeroDesigner format is well worth the price....so they buy the character pack. Others don't see the value in it, so they don't. That's easy.

Secondly, your statement about XML shows a sincere LACK of understanding of what it is that the character packs (and HD files) are about. Saying that "...the cost to convert your original documents to XML is trivial (you should and can generate the XML as you go)..." indicates that you neither understand what XML is or what the XML generated by HD is about. Converting the Hero System rules into coherent XML documents is a large part of what HD does. There is nothing "trivial" about it. Insinuating that a company should convert all of their published materials into XML "as they go" shows a lack of understanding of what goes into converting a printed document into XML.

Is it reasonably easy to take a book like USPD and turn it into a series of Hero Designer character files and prefabs (using Hero Designer)? Yes....but it is time consuming. That is why the character packs are a good utility for folks: all the work has been done for you.

Is the price of the USPD character pack based on the relative difficulty of converting it to HD format? No. As stated in my initial response, my understanding is that HG set the price of the character pack to be slightly greater than the book because the character pack for USPD <b>IS<</b> the book. Pretty much everything in the book is in that character pack. It's slightly higher than the cost of the book because the character pack is (arguably) more useful than the book (assuming that you have HD).

If you have the book and feel that paying $30 is too high of a price to get all of that information replicated in HD format, then <i>don't buy it</i>. It's really an easy decision....

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Negaduck
There are many ways to get this pack to those who have bought the book without this sort of price. I fully support HERO Games and greatly enjoy the full product line but this is just wrong. The recovery of the cost of the product is or should be the book not the pack. If you want it to be covered by both at least make provisions for those who bought the book.
The problem is that if you have the character pack you do not actually need the book. USPD is nothing but pages and pages of power combinations. So DOJ cannot really sell a character pack which has 99.5% of all the information in the book for less money than the book itself. DOJ wants gamers to buy the books. By buying books you support DOJ, distributors, and retail outlets. You should think of the character packs as perks, not as necessities. The character packs are designed to make your life easier. But as with any convience product it comes with a price.

DOJ wants you to buy books. They are offering character packs if you are looking for a quick assist. If you are not interested then don't buy them. Afterall, if you have a couple of hundred free hours you can always make your own USPD character pack from the book.

[Lord Liaden]

I know it hasn't happened yet, but this topic has the potential to become nasty. I hope we can all remember to remain respectful and constructive in our comments. This isn't Non-Gaming Discussions after all. ;)

I can completely understand DoJ's financial priorities as Dan Simon and Monolith have described them. Some type of rebate or discount on the software pack for people who have already bought the book would be nice, but I could see that becoming a bookkeeping headache for Hero Games which wouldn't be justified by the relatively small number of people likely to purchase both products.

[Simon]

It's also pretty much logistically impossible to do.

While it would be possible to see if someone had purchased the USPD in the online store, the bulk of the book purchases are through FLGS. There is no real way for a given person to prove to HG that they have bought the book and (therefore) qualify for some sort of "discounted price" on the character pack.....apart from having them cut off, say, the bar-code from the back of the book and mail it in -- which is something no one wants.

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Simon
It's also pretty much logistically impossible to do.

While it would be possible to see if someone had purchased the USPD in the online store, the bulk of the book purchases are through FLGS. There is no real way for a given person to prove to HG that they have bought the book and (therefore) qualify for some sort of "discounted price" on the character pack.....apart from having them cut off, say, the bar-code from the back of the book and mail it in -- which is something no one wants. Or a 1-per-copy insert on watermarked paper, but that introduces a logistical issue as well.

I bought both the printed and the character pack version of the book and will do the same for the Grimoire (if its is turned into a character pack -- and I hope that it is).

The price is a bit steep, but really if it comes down to it just buy the character pack instead if thats the format you prefer. You really dont NEED both per se, and HG gets paid either way.