A New Newsletter! Yay!

[daplunk]

I asked BJ about that. She couldn't talk about private commercial contracts.

So there we have it. Pathfinder will be the primary launch product because there is an assumed commercial agreement between the two companies to do so. It makes sense for them to have an arrangement in place with Paizo.

[Mystic Lemur]

Originally Posted by kbs666

The point that seems to be escaping you guys and is so exasperating is that your core users would be fine with a CM that launches without Paizo products as long as we had some hope that you guys were moving on to the features that have been on hold for something like 2 years.

A thousand times this. If you have no products other than Paizo products, then work on something besides the market. The last thing we need is a clunky, unfriendly "workaround" to buy stuff when the same effort could go into improving the existing product.

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by Mystic Lemur

A thousand times this. If you have no products other than Paizo products, then work on something besides the market. The last thing we need is a clunky, unfriendly "workaround" to buy stuff when the same effort could go into improving the existing product.

I think the problem here is that RW needs to start paying its way, the kickstarter raised enough money to pay 1 developer for a year. They have sold to non kickstarter backers (like me), but the problem is that RW is for GM's so it has a smaller group of purchasers. The CM is the way to start making money so doing a workaround is a way to start earning some money.

Personally I am waiting on Paizo, unlike others here I barely use Realm Works and mostly use it as a VTT, I have no desire to sit and enter lots of content, I want to pay someone to do that for me.

[joepacelli]

The part I do not understand is that the CM has been a center piece of RW for over 2-3 years now. With videos showing off this feature and it being present at GenCon 2015. So why all of sudden 3 years later is the excuse being pushed to Paizo Developers.
It took 3 years to realize they needed to integrate with Paizo?
All it sounds like is they are pass the buck/blame now for CM not releasing to Paizo.

Just my 2 cents on this

[ErinRigh]

Hey joe,

I think that what is going on here is something like Paizo agreed to have their products on RW with the agreement that their products wold be available at CM Market launch. Now Paizo is having issues with security and site integration that they do not find satisfactory with LWD to insure that their products are both protected and available and THAT is clogging up the gears.

LWD is a VERY small company with less than a handful of developers working on this project.

If RW doesn't start paying for itself soon, it is highly likely to wind up as abandonware, so those 3-4 developers are struggling hard to meet Paizo's security and integration demands, because of contractual obligations with Paizo. If they can satisfy Paizo and launch the CM, RW will start to pay for itself in the latecomers, like me, forwarding their bucks to the project, and THEN they will havethe freedom to develop the software in the new and interesting ways that we want them to.

However, the this is obviated by the need to get the CM off the ground, as RW is no longer paying for itself, and this requires they fulfill their contractual promises to Paizo with this program.

So the problem is not in the fact that they need to integrate with Paizo, but rather in Paizo considering the integration to be Satisfactory.

My 2 cp

[Acenoid]

I still think that the better model for LWD would be paid updates for major upgrades. I don't know what has been promised initially and what would warrant a major upgrade, that is up to the company, but this way you reel in the funds to continue development.

Obviously the price tag on those updates will decide for many ppl on this....

Anyways looking forward to the next newsletter

[joepacelli]

ErinRigh,
I totally understand they are a small company. While I'm not one of the Kickstarter backers, I purchased RW in May 2017. But I was following it for over 1 year on here and totally believe the CM was going to be released shortly around that time. But it's been excuse after excuse for the delay, and promise after promise.
Right after PaizoCon
Then hopefully before GenCon
Then before the end of the year.
Now it's CM is ready, but Paizo is the blocker.

My point is RW was 3 years into development when the Kickstarter was launched in 2013, and if you watch the video the main point of the Kickstarter were 2 things.
enchance cloud server and community site (CM)

While RW has greatly improved from this version which is featured within this KS video, it's going on 5 years since the KS, 8 years if you count the initial 3 years they mention that RW was being developed.

From the KickStarter page:
"As we indicated above, initial Realm Works development is nearly complete, with release slated for July, 2013. This Kickstarter will allow us to accelerate our current development efforts and pack more features into the product for its public release. "

So my main point is within these 5 years if the main purpose of the KS was to enhance cloud server and community site, I can only say they have truely delivered on 1 of these features. The cloud server since we can sync our realms.

[Acenoid]

@joepacelli, great comment. But what should be done about it. We already have several of those "lets summarize the history from the birth of RW till now". Not much has changed at the moment, check several of the older comments on it. They are working on it, the failed to deliver in time, it will not go faster asking the same questions all over again.

I hope you'll find RW still useful and let's all hope together we hear something worth noting in 2018

[joepacelli]

@Acenoid - I want to see RW successful and to succeed. I was hoping that CM was launched soon because I'm starting the Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign in April. But I can't hold my breath that it will and have started the tedious task of entering the data manually into RW. This is my first thing and time that I will be using RW to run a campaign. Prior to RW I ran Rise of the RuneLods but I was not using RW since I purchased it at the end of the campaign and it wasn't worth entering any of this information into RW.
And we've been playing Shadowrun and Cthulhu since then while I been waiting for CM. But I can't wait any longer so like I said, I started to enter everything manually. Hoping that the CM will launch before mid 2018 and I can benefit from purchasing CotCT if it's one of the adventures made readily available.

I guess we all just get frustrated because we want to see a successful product and hope things work out soon. Because the last thing any of us want to see is the end of RW. I may not have entered much into RW for my campaign, but I know there are plenty of other folks on here who have spent plenty of hours enter their campaign information into it and don't want all their efforts to go to waste.

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by Acenoid

@Exmortis though it's funny to read stuff like that because Iam always full of humor and like to laugh, I think big distortion of what is happening. There have been at least some replies here in the forum and if there is nothing to report there is nothing to report.

If you send out "marketing material" you want to get to the point and not waste ppls time Better nothing than an empty message...

True, and it was meant as a bit of a tongue in cheek, and a bit not.

We sit here fourish years in and we are led to believe that now Paizo is to blame for the CM not being ready. Really. You would think this would have been better planned so all of those LWD side delays would have given them time to be ready. First thing I do is ensure delays on one of my projects by one team is utilized by the others to ensure they are not the cause of the next delay. Efficiency is the buzz word cliché of the day, but man it sure is a useful tactic.

Yes I know it does not always work this way.

However this had to have been foreseen, thus why not release other great features, I mean we were given this survey back in the day, like when T-Rex was still roaming the office parking lot looking for his next slow moving snack.

But it all seems to be a perfect fit, with a darling new project and suddenly RW development comes to a halt. Hell we have not even had a bug fix recently. And the Paizo/CM isn't holding up bug fixes is it?

I have been a huge supporter of RW for a long time, but its been so long, I just have nothing left to justify the status. One can only be held in awe of "soon" before one realizes that is just marketing talk for "maybe".