Quote:
Originally Posted by meek75
In my opinion $40 a year just for backing up my data and sharing is outrageous. <snip> RPG Now stores all my purchases in their cloud for free! <snip>
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You are comparing apples and oranges.
RW lets you create content (potentially gigabytes and gigabytes if not terabytes of data) and store it on their servers to possibly share with others that you invite to see your realm.
RPG Now has a single master copy of the PDF's and other download material and if your account says you purchased it then they let you download a copy of that single item, even if they let you download it over and over again. RPG Now basically has your account information with a list of the products you've purchased from them that links to their master copy of the file. So RPG Now may have a few Kilobytes of information of you and a single master copy of everything they sell. The amount of raw storage they need is significantly less then Realm Works will use. They aren't charging you a cloud service fee because the only thing of yours they are keeping is account information.
Also, if you share your PDF (presumably watermarked) and it is traced back to you then your account would probably end up being banned by RPG now. Realm Works on the other hand is based around sharing your campaign with the people playing in your campaign. So, not exactly the same.
Oh, lets not forget what happens when Realm Works lets you start copying pristine realms so you can run multiple campaigns with different groups and different outcomes. The amount of cloud storage you will need will increase dramatically, especially if the actions of the characters cause radically different changes to the campaign world. Such as one group kills a major NPC early on creating an enemy in said NPC's family and friends, while another group saves the same NPC and his family earning an ally.
Throw in the marketplace for RW. Although LWD will initially maintain a master copy (i.e. pristine copy) of each realm they sell to us, we will be able to make changes to it once we get it downloaded. The minute you sync a modified realm purchased through the marketplace it will have to create a bunch of new entries and save it to their servers. So, again RW will require a more data storage.
Anyway, you are comparing Kilobytes of storage versus Gigabytes or Terabytes of storage per user. Not exactly the same thing in my opinion.
Finally, the fee for cloud storage isn't my problem. Although I wouldn't have minded the start of the free 6 month trial starting at a later date. My real problem is a lack of features that were promised and aren't available. So, I'm going to let my free 6 month cloud service expire and I won't renew or sign up for more cloud service until the features I want are finally available.