Is the Cloud service required?

[Parody]

FWIW: my guess for the two most popular usage patterns for Realm Works are:

GM develops and runs completely from one machine.

GM develops primarily on one machine, syncs to second machine, runs from second machine (making limited amounts and types of changes), syncs back to first machine.

It'd be easy for LWD to see (based on syncs from different machine IDs to a cloud account). I'm just going from "how many computers do most folks use" and "how many campaigns do most folks run". :)

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by rob

I believe you're grossly simplifying things with your final conclusion above. Everything you said up to that point was sound, but that conclusion is NOT what users should walk away thinking. Since at least some already have, I need to clarify here, as the assertion will be misleading to others who don't have all the technical background and understanding that you've got.

My apologies. This reminds me that you've requested in the past for us to refrain from technical explanations for this very reason. I'll try to remember that from now on.

[MNBlockHead]

Even given what Rob says, I would still recommend having a copy of your Realm backed-up externally. I've got a 1 TB backup plan with SpiderOak, so all my *.realm files, both the active one and the auto-backups are backed up to the cloud. I also perform manual backups of my Realm before upgrades or any attempts at major reorganization.

Even with all that, I loose time/data now and then by making some changes I later regret, followed by changes I want to keep. Bad planning and workflow can mess with the best back-up strategies. :-)