Hero Lab Online and Starfinder Q&A

[ShadowChemosh]

The monthly access fee is the same for many different services. I pay for a encrypted cloud backup service that has a monthly fee. If I stop paying the service fee I no longer have access to my data.

I still play World of Warcraft and it has a monthly fee. If I stop paying the monthly fee I lose access to my characters and ability to play.

In both the above cases I have the opportunity to restart the service fee later and gain access to my data/characters. WoW is like 10 years before they delete your stuff. The backup service is like 3 months.

I am pretty sure HLO will be more like WoW in that you start paying again and all your licenses are still present and working even many years later. Plus you have the opportunity to print your character before you cancel the service. I also assume you can export the .por file. Either way making it fairly painless to restart the service at a later date.

No one is holding a gun to your head to start or pay the HLO service fee. If you don't like how HLO works then please vote with your wallet and don't subscribe.

[talsharien]

Originally Posted by Winterfyre

Nope, I looked it up again.

"the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats."

If you don't pay the extortion fee, you lose access to your stuff in any real usable format. You lose access to all of the data packages you've bought and paid for.

Loss of access and the money you've sunk into data packages is the threat.

I do not like the lose everything part of the arrangement. If I pay for the starfinder data package I should always be able to make a simple character / ships and update them as they level using the data packs I've bought without paying an extortion fee. If they want to charge extra for advanced features to make gameplay easier over and above character creation / leveling, god bless, that's fair.

Don't buy it then...... Simples!

[LazarX]

Originally Posted by Winterfyre

Nope, I looked it up again.

"the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats."

If you don't pay the extortion fee, you lose access to your stuff in any real usable format. You lose access to all of the data packages you've bought and paid for.

Loss of access and the money you've sunk into data packages is the threat.

I do not like the lose everything part of the arrangement. If I pay for the starfinder data package I should always be able to make a simple character / ships and update them as they level using the data packs I've bought without paying an extortion fee. If they want to charge extra for advanced features to make gameplay easier over and above character creation / leveling, god bless, that's fair.

It's only extortion if someone put a gun at your head to start using the service in the first place. Using the service is a voluntary action just as starting rent on your apartment. The consequences of losing access are a result of you deciding to stop renting the service. You are not forced to use Online unless you want access to Starfinder. You'll otherwise still have all of the capabilities you had with Herolab up to this point.

[vardeman]

They could avoid the whole issue if they'd just make Starfinder character creation available thru HLC.

[talsharien]

Originally Posted by vardeman

They could avoid the whole issue if they'd just make Starfinder character creation available thru HLC.

Perhaps, but we as customers have to accept that this is not the model they have chosen and move on (whether we like it or not).

[vardeman]

Originally Posted by talsharien

Perhaps, but we as customers have to accept that this is not the model they have chosen and move on (whether we like it or not).

And move on I shall. I know personally 10 people who will not pay a subscription fee in order to use HLO and each of them is in multiple groups. Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Sure, it's only a $2/month charge... But when they decide, hey, $2 isn't enough to keep the servers running, lets make it $5... or $10... or $50?

I'm sorry, you can't have what you paid for until you keep coughing up more moola.

[daplunk]

I know a good 20 that would never use HLC because it doesn't support Android. And yes, I suspect word of mouth is going to work really well in this situation.

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by vardeman

And move on I shall. I know personally 10 people who will not pay a subscription fee in order to use HLO and each of them is in multiple groups. Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Sure, it's only a $2/month charge... But when they decide, hey, $2 isn't enough to keep the servers running, lets make it $5... or $10... or $50?

I'm sorry, you can't have what you paid for until you keep coughing up more moola.

[jimthegray]

personally i cannot wait to get herolab online but maybe thats just me

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by jimthegray

personally i cannot wait to get herolab online but maybe thats just me

Same! I am so looking forward to a new interface, Hero lab is a nice program, but the interface is dated. Web based/connected interface has a lot of potential. I think the nay-sayers are just afraid of change.