Quote:sweno wrote:This is contrary to actual reality. As an roleplaying gamer I can tell you this simply isn't the case when you get right down to it. Many of the game books I purchase are in dead tree format and they are, in fact, more expensive than the e-book versions I can purchase of these works. As mentioned in this very thread Viz is offering some of their manga online for free right this very second. People claming the industry will never change are speaking out of their ass.
Electronic versions of books and comics (and manga) will never be offered at a substantially different/lower price. This is because the value of a book is not in the medium it is printed on, but the words/pictures that make it up. The paper is often seen as disposable, or close too it (if this were not the case consumers would be demanding higher quality books, and outside of a very small market this doesn't happen). To offer an electronic version of a story, at a significantly lower price, would decrease the perceived value of the printed works. Because, after all, it's the same content.
And all you people claiming that free scanlations got you into the product, great. But let me ask you this:
If all the free scanlations of Negima (or whatever) dried up tomorrow would you stop purchasing the official releases?
And claiming that its "scanlations or nothing" for some series is being misleading. There are other options you just don't want to pay for them. Last I checked, purchasing a copy of a tankouban and having it shappied overseas to you was still legal. Heck, there are places you can do it online. I know its possible because Ayiekie has an entire collection of Ranma 1/2 Tankouban and many other series in the original Japanese besides. You could learn Japanese to read them, or grab a purely text translation and so on and so forth.
Getting access to these products legally is possible. Not as convenient as going to a single site and downloading hundreds of series for free but hey...
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Epsilon