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rob
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232

Old August 12th, 2018, 10:38 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyteach View Post
#7. Your wording tells me that you don't have and don't want to know actual numbers of people who don't have internet access. You don't want to argue about it. You just state as a fact that everyone will eventually have it, but you're unwilling or unable to back it up with proof.
There's an old adage about "lies, damn lies, and statistics" (popularized by Mark Twain). There are different statistics on how pervasive the internet is today, and there are even more diverse statistical projections on how the internet's reach will grow over time. If I picked one projection to "prove" our position, I'm sure someone else could readily dig up a different projection to counter it. So any attempt to “prove” our position would likely devolve into a counter-productive debate that neither side would ever "win".

At the end of the day, we have to pick a path forward. Every company on the planet makes its best guess based on the data that it has available, and we’re no different. We use whatever hard data is available, anecdotal evidence, and anything else we can get a hold of. In the end, it all comes down to a gut check. Sometimes, those guesses are wrong. We've done our homework, we’ve chosen our path, and we're banking that our "educated guess" is right. Only time will tell.

Quote:
Originally Posted by flyteach View Post
#8. There was a 3 hour or so outage during Gencon. It was reported to the forums. Part of the problem with this model is one can't report issues directly when the server is down.
When the server went down on Saturday, we knew about it within about 1 minute. We have various mechanisms in place to automatically detect and notify us when something goes sideways. Unfortunately, our messaging to users in those situations is poor. That's something that was sidelined in the push to get PF2 into place for GenCon, and it’s near the top of the pile to address now that we're back. We were just discussing it on Thursday.

The problem that hit us on Sunday was the epitome of Murphy's Law. There had been a subtle issue lurking for a while that we had not properly identified. The issue could have just as easily struck a week earlier or three weeks from now, but it chose Saturday afternoon at GenCon to rear its ugly head. To compound things, the developers who needed to identify and fix the problem were both in the booth at GenCon when everything went down, meaning we had to scramble to rearrange schedules and get people back from breaks so the developers could go tackle the problem. Then those developers only had their laptops from hotel rooms to operate from. The net result was that it took us significantly longer to sort things out than if we’d all been at home in front of our development machines.

There are days I'd like to strangle Murphy for that stupid law!

Quote:
Originally Posted by flyteach View Post
#1. What it boils down to with this is that the rest of your customers get taxed to support Android instead of creating and supporting a tool for that user group. It seems like the licensing cost should go down since your customer base has increased dramatically. But my cost goes up and I get no benefit......I'm not an Android user (anymore).
On this point, we may just have to agree to disagree. But allow me to ask a couple questions first. Do you intend to only ever use a desktop or laptop for your gaming from now into the indeterminate future? Do you have no desire for a more connected and streamlined experience with the other members of your gaming group during games? If your answers are both yes, then what we're doing with HLOnline doesn't match your personal requirements, and that’s unfortunate.

Just about everyone I see at Cons, the FLGS, and in local games is abandoning bulky equipment in favor of tablets and even their phones. The HLOnline model allows us to readily support all of these devices with a responsive UI design. On top of that, the HLOnline model fundamentally connects all players and the GM, which lets us streamline the overall experience. For example, a fireball damages multiple participants in an encounter, or a Cleric's Bless buffs the entire party, etc. Those are things that would never be achieved with HLClassic but that we'll be able to make available soon within HLOnline. And those are things that every gamer I've ever spoken to has been excited about. So that's where we're headed with HLOnine.

Quote:
Originally Posted by flyteach View Post
Bottom line: I can create anywhere with Classic. I'm limited with Online. And, for that, I have increased cost.
As above, we may have to agree to disagree here…

You can create anywhere with HLClassic, provided you utilize devices (desktops/laptops) that are cumbersome to transport and that are used less and less by the overall gaming population when playing. For the vast majority of gamers, HLOnline is undeniably more accessible, as they can use just about any device they want to use.

You are limited with HLOnline to areas with internet access, and we believe that limitation will diminish greatly and in relatively short order in the years ahead. For a large number of gamers, we believe it’s already a non-concern.

You have increased cost, but only once we start actively charging for the hosting service, which we have not yet done (#4). When we begin charging, users should start seeing added value to the product in terms of nifty new features, which add value beyond just the device accessibility offered today. And that added value should continue to increase from there. So the increased cost of roughly $2/month should, from our perspective, be offset by increased utility provided by the product. At that point, users will be able to make their own informed assessment of whether the added cost is worth it. We believe they’ll feel it is.

Thanks!
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