Is Hero Lab worth buying

[beltaur]

I'm new to the forums and for the last few weeks have been busy reading posts.
I just picked up Mutants and Masterminds 3 and just finished reading the books.
I was wondering if Hero Lab is worth getting. I read about the licensing issues and other stuff and I'm not sure if I should purchase it.

I would be installing on a lap top that doesn't get window updated (Windows 7 64 bit), and rarely is on the net. It is used for gaming at my house, but I'd also want to install at my friends because that is where we would be playing M&M 3. Problem with the machines at his house is we play lots of games and he upgrades hardware often, so not sure if it would have licensing issues.

Any comments would greatly be accepted.

[chiefweasel]

Thats a tough one. the product is great in what it offer in the way of character creation, tracking, and use. as for an license issues. once you have installed it, its stable. there are updates from time to time, but you could just do an update just before you play your game and you would be fine.

as for installing it on a friends system, that would violate the license agreement, as it would for just about any software you buy. my suggestion would be to have them buy a license as well. as for swaping hardware alot, that could be a problem, but no more then with any software. if HL has to be re-installed, you can just shot LW an email and explain the hardware problem and they can help you out.

[beltaur]

Originally Posted by chiefweasel

as for installing it on a friends system, that would violate the license agreement, as it would for just about any software you buy.

The system at my friends house is mine. I keep it there for playing lan based games. Plus when you buy Hero Lab you get a secondary license to install on a second machine I thought..

[EberronKnight]

Originally Posted by beltaur

The system at my friends house is mine. I keep it there for playing lan based games. Plus when you buy Hero Lab you get a secondary license to install on a second machine I thought..

Correct you get a secondary license.

EK

[Lawful_g]

I think that'd be fine beltaur, the intent is to keep people from spreading it to all their friends, not to keep you form having it on your laptop and a desktop.

For what it's worth, Hero Lab has my endorsement, I'd encourage you to buy it.

[chiefweasel]

Ditto.

[Duggan]

I think that it's well worth buying. And your situation seems like it could work. You'll have to log on and update it periodically, and I would not recommend giving your password to your friend (necessary for license assignment/reassignment/etc) since it gives direct access to the ability to use your credit card to purchase more modules.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Duggan

I would not recommend giving your password to your friend (necessary for license assignment/reassignment/etc) since it gives direct access to the ability to use your credit card to purchase more modules.

This is 100% WRONG information.

We do NOT preserve credit card information on our server that is tied to user accounts. In fact, we only have enough credit card information on our server to process refunds for orders. Even if our server was hacked, there would not be enough data for the hacker to place any new purchases. We do this as an extra safeguard against hackers.

Once someone logs in with your license info, the only thing they have access to is your license. If they want to purchase anything, they will have to enter all the credit card information from scratch. So unless you separately give them your credit card information, they sure won't be getting it from us.

[Duggan]

Originally Posted by rob

This is 100% WRONG information.

We do NOT preserve credit card information on our server that is tied to user accounts. In fact, we only have enough credit card information on our server to process refunds for orders. Even if our server was hacked, there would not be enough data for the hacker to place any new purchases. We do this as an extra safeguard against hackers.

Once someone logs in with your license info, the only thing they have access to is your license. If they want to purchase anything, they will have to enter all the credit card information from scratch. So unless you separately give them your credit card information, they sure won't be getting it from us.

I may have misphrased myself. My understanding is that, with user name and password, one could purchase additional data packages for Hero Lab using that account, which has a credit card associated with it. That was my intention to indicate that additional data packages could be bought without additional input, not that the credit card information itself would be accessible. *wry grin* I could also be wrong. The last data package I bought was some years ago.

My apologies if I am indeed incorrect.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Duggan

My understanding is that, with user name and password, one could purchase additional data packages for Hero Lab using that account, which has a credit card associated with it.

With the license information, someone could purchase additional packages for that account. However, there is no way for anyone to get access to credit card data from past purchases through the account. All credit card info needs to be re-entered from scratch with every order. So there is no way to compromise someone's credit card data by getting access to their license information.