RW software without cloud service?

[Enturk]

Can you purchase the software without the cloud service (the only option I see on the website is bundle of six months of cloud service and the software for $50)?

[zarlor]

LWD has stated that the 6 months of cloud service is free. Hence RealmWorks is $50 and you just happen to get 6 months of cloud service when it becomes fully available. Without the cloud service it's still $50.

[rob]

We included the cloud service for free because we felt that a lot of users would otherwise probably opt to forgo it, and then they wouldn't have a chance to experiment with it. By including it for free, users can play with it and then make an informed assessment after six months. There is no requirement to actually USE the cloud services if you are certain you'll never want to try them out.

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by rob

We included the cloud service for free because we felt that a lot of users would otherwise probably opt to forgo it, and then they wouldn't have a chance to experiment with it. By including it for free, users can play with it and then make an informed assessment after six months. There is no requirement to actually USE the cloud services if you are certain you'll never want to try them out.

First one is always free . . .

[mirtos]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

First one is always free . . .

Its a proven sales model

[Roadie]

In my case, it gives me some anxiety about buying, because I'm not running a game now and I'm unlikely to do so in the next sixth months (though I may at some point after that).

The possibility of just "wasting" that time, particularly when the pricing is so high ($40 for a year for something that can "manage realms comparable in size to a complete, six-installment Pathfinder Adventure Path" - compare to Dropbox's $100 a year for 100 GB of space, which I'm pretty sure could handle a lot more than that), is a strong motivator to avoid it completely until I'm actually running a game and I'm absolutely sure that the players will actually take advantage of it.

[rob]

@Roadie: The free six months of cloud service is an introductory offer we're doing right now, so it's unlikely to remain available for a long time. As such, if you end up not using it, you haven't actually lost anything compared to picking up the product at some point in the future. On the plus side, you'll also have an opportunity to play around with the cloud services a little bit and then be able to make an informed assessment of its value to you at the end of the six months instead of having to decide without being able to give it a try.

As for your comparison of Realm Works to Dropbox, the two are not even remotely similar to each other. I recommend that you read our detailed description of the cloud services on our website, as it should provide some clear examples of how the Realm Works cloud is radically different from Dropbox. Here's a direct link to the information:
http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/f...-of-the-cloud/

Hope this helps!

[Roadie]

Originally Posted by rob

@Roadie: The free six months of cloud service is an introductory offer we're doing right now, so it's unlikely to remain available for a long time. As such, if you end up not using it, you haven't actually lost anything compared to picking up the product at some point in the future. On the plus side, you'll also have an opportunity to play around with the cloud services a little bit and then be able to make an informed assessment of its value to you at the end of the six months instead of having to decide without being able to give it a try.

To be honest, that just kind of leaves me doubly anxious about it - if I do decide to get RW, I'll feel dumb if I purchase too early and waste the six months, and I'll feel dumb if I purchase too late and don't get the six months.

Originally Posted by rob

As for your comparison of Realm Works to Dropbox, the two are not even remotely similar to each other. I recommend that you read our detailed description of the cloud services on our website, as it should provide some clear examples of how the Realm Works cloud is radically different from Dropbox. Here's a direct link to the information:
http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/f...-of-the-cloud/

Dropbox doesn't match to the specific sort of implementation you're using, but it does supply the functionality that's most important to me with existing apps - (a) syncing my own content across my computers, and (b) web-based sharing with GMs/players.

It probably doesn't do so in as convenient a way as Realm Works does... but "set up some symlinks, export to HTML and share public links" is convenient enough that I'm not sure how interested I am in paying almost half again as much as I already am for cloud storage to get from 90% to 100% (or possibly more, since the language seems to suggest relatively limited capacity for the "Standard Tier").

It also doesn't help that much that the bit that I can't easily duplicate that interests me the most, the ability to purchase publisher content, seems to be framed in a "pay to get access to things you can pay more for" sort of way. That may be unintended, though.

[The One]

I'm not a fan of cloud based services, as it effectively requires that you give up both control over the files, and often surrender the intellectual rights to the file content, and additionally makes you entirely dependant on having an active internet connection any time you wish to make use of your product.

Originally Posted by The Power of the Cloud

"In order to ensure that users CAN change their minds, a few basic operations (e.g. realm creation) require coordination with our server during creation. That way, content created today can be put into the cloud a year from now without any problems."

Is the above actually true? That without internet access, you can't use the product? Being able to create a new realm is a pretty fundamental step to make reliant on internet access and should be entirely unnecessary.

If it is true, it smacks of the same high-handed thinking that EA got itself into trouble with over the latest copy of SimCity, that in wanting to offer an online service, it was made mandatory for all participants to be online to make use of the software.

It should be a simple enough task to have had the realms generate a unique ID, from a combination of the user licence and a standard guid to allow the servers to be notified at any time of a new realm wanting to be uploaded to the cloud.

[Mmurphy]

Originally Posted by Roadie

To be honest, that just kind of leaves me doubly anxious about it - if I do decide to get RW, I'll feel dumb if I purchase too early and waste the six months, and I'll feel dumb if I purchase too late and don't get the six months.

I received an e-mail from Lone Wolf that basically said the 6 months will not start until the player version is out (sometime in May). According to the e-mail they decided to do this because the player version is an extremity important feature to be able to do with the cloud and they want to show you how the cloud service is useful.