Giving up on Ream Works

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by Bidmaron

Zortek, it is always a joy to be able to speak civilly about an issue where they may be disagreement.

Thanks for keeping it that way.

@Bid & Zortek... Totally Agree
And in general to keep the thread on track, like others ...IMO it seems if you have already made the investment in RW why not weather the storm? I could see abandonment if the cost would be an annual fee or if/when the cloud services kick in and you don't see a value added there, but (as others could probably attest) I don't defend LWD lightly, but they have been supportive even in those elements.
Extending the Cloud, even saying as much as if you no longer want the cloud, thats cool, just update on occassion in case you change your mind as some later date and wish to come back... thats pretty flexible IMO.

Originally Posted by Bidmaron

I do have a little trouble understanding why folks are upset with player edition. It is missing key features currently, but at its launch there was never any attempt to disguise that it was missing those features. Now if the rage is because there was anticipation that those missing features would be available in a more timely way, I can somewhat understand that. However, no one should buy a product that clearly is missing what they consider essential features.

I can clarify, at least from the feedback of my own players....
not saying they are right or wrong just how it was received and perceived.

When first launched, the Players version stumbled right out of the block. There were several crashes and I had several players lose game logs. Most data, fortunately was transferred from other docs such as word or handwritten, but some gaming sessions were lost. But this still started the mistrust of secure info.
Part of the advertised features at release were:

• [1]It’s never been easier to find an important tidbit that your character deduced many sessions ago
  [2]Review information that has been shared in previous games,
  [3]Keep track of ideas for the evolution of your character

Just to name a few.
Now at the time, these were interpreted differently due to the vagueness of how they were portrayed. We have since come to know what the intent of the meaning was, but that was not apparent at the release.

• [1]Was interpreted that each character could know and search for info that only that character knew. Reality, not there yet. Reveals are an all or none currently.
  
  [2]Kind of a subset of the first, with a dash of missing in game calendaring (our campaign is very time line driven and without a good calendar, determining where what group was was difficult) utilizing no calendar and a extremely basic storyboard concept. Granted this is compounded due to the complexities of our campaign that may not be like others and that our campaign alternates between two different groups which also exacerbates the situation. My players had hope of being able to time line each of their groups in game time relative to the other. The failure of RW on the DM end cascaded into the Players addition here as this could not be shared or revealed because it didn't exist in the DM side to do so.
  
  [3]This is a compound problem, again due to en-mass reveal, character driven goals could not be shared (imagine if the group knew one among them was a spy?) and those thoughts, plans could not be conveyed to just the DM since this was a one way street of information. Forcing those things to be noted and discussed outside the record of RW, which is why it was purchased to begin with.

I have always been (sorry Chemlak) the biggest banner waver for the Calendar. It is integral to our campaign to have multiple calendars based on Races, moons, and geo-politicals. BUT I have also gone on record that I can continue (and have) with my access program and excel to manage that, just as I have for the 20 years in the past. Only if that is further supporting the Player versioning to what it should be. As for now, unless you simply use it as a sudoskype gaming session its DOA.

Again that is just perception of players who have purchased it and tried to use in in a campaign that has 30 years of real world back history built into the game. I assume part of the blame for their purchase, as I had championed it as a good tool to manage the elements (and others) above based on what I thought I knew about RW at the time and how that would work with the Player version. Some of those assumptions were misled on LW part others my eagerness to actually have a tool we all had hoped for...

It is what is is... My players have casted it aside and I use it as an electronic filecabinet with the waning hope that someday "soon" will come.