Web Access Video

[rob]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

1- So are we hearing that the player version of RW is worthless? I mean from what I see here, your not going to need it, so why would we buy it? As GMs buying tools is part of the game, however sometimes it can get difficult to have our cheaper players invest in tools we want them to use. If web replaces the player edition, then why do we even have it?

Just the opposite. As I indicated in my reply to @mirtos, there will be two levels of player access. Anyone with a Player Edition license will have access to many more web features than someone without. So there will be lots of value in Player Edition.

Originally Posted by Exmortis

Tablets, Yes we all know IoS followed by Droid rule the tablet space currently. However that's changing and will continue to change at a greater pace, it may be prudent to stop omitting the windows tablets from you MAC infomercials. You may want to buy a windows tablet for testing.

We have Windows tablets. We will be testing there. However, anyone with a new Windows tablet will be running essentially the same browser on the tablet as the desktop. And we expect that the majority of users on Windows tablets will prefer running the (more powerful) desktop version instead of the web version of the product.

So we didn't consider it a crucial point to mention Windows tablets in the 2-minute preview video. We focused on the platforms that users will be most keenly interested in. Please don't read anything into this that isn't there.

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by rob

Just the opposite. As I indicated in my reply to @mirtos, there will be two levels of player access. Anyone with a Player Edition license will have access to many more web features than someone without. So there will be lots of value in Player Edition.



We have Windows tablets. We will be testing there. However, anyone with a new Windows tablet will be running essentially the same browser on the tablet as the desktop. And we expect that the majority of users on Windows tablets will prefer running the (more powerful) desktop version instead of the web version of the product.

So we didn't consider it a crucial point to mention Windows tablets in the 2-minute preview video. We focused on the platforms that users will be most keenly interested in. Please don't read anything into this that isn't there.

On part one, great! That clears it up. Thanks Rob.

On part two, I would advise to mention windows as well as IoS/Android, the reason I stated that is you do not know how many non-techie will actualy believe you do not support windows tablets. I am in the IT engineering group for my enterprise and it was my presentation that got the SP3 our desktop standard now, and even in that presentation I had to explain those ideals, to people who should know.

Everyday non-techie need to have it all spelled out, I am just saying it woudl be a good idea to mention it, you may find people will move along not wanting to buy a new product and OS for a tablet.

Right now most people think Tablet=Apple.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

Right now most people think Tablet=Apple.

Spot on FACT

[mirtos]

My numbers might be a bit off, as these are about 1 year old.

The reality is microsoft tablets are less than 5% of the tablet marketshare. Android tablets are more than 60% of the market share, but pretty splintered. iOS tablets are just shy of 40%, but cohesive.

Im an android person, by the way, so im not an apple fan boy.

EDIT: The tablet market has also been changing significantly for the last couple of years, so who really knows what it will be like in 2 years.

[Parody]

I did a small bit of poking around for numbers and didn't have much luck finding anything newer. What I did find is that it's hard to find numbers that account for everything that could be a Windows tablet (so including convertible laptops, whether folding or separating) but not Windows RT devices (which can't run the Realm Works native client).

If you have to make a distinction, I'd focus on how well RW's native and web interfaces work with touch rather than if a Windows device is a tablet or not.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by mirtos

My numbers might be a bit off, as these are about 1 year old.

The reality is microsoft tablets are less than 5% of the tablet marketshare. Android tablets are more than 60% of the market share, but pretty splintered. iOS tablets are just shy of 40%, but cohesive.

Im an android person, by the way, so im not an apple fan boy.

EDIT: The tablet market has also been changing significantly for the last couple of years, so who really knows what it will be like in 2 years.

I agree Mirtos... to clarify the supporting statement above... I meant most people "think" Ipad when you say tablet...
When we were considering utilizing tablets at our table I to found that there were nearly none that supported a full operating system for windows use (since we needed MS Office products, Herolab, and Battlegrounds at the time)

At that point (4 years ago) I went with the Fujitsu 4220 that was run in XP.

Originally Posted by Parody

I did a small bit of poking around for numbers and didn't have much luck finding anything newer. What I did find is that it's hard to find numbers that account for everything that could be a Windows tablet (so including convertible laptops, whether folding or separating) but not Windows RT devices (which can't run the Realm Works native client).

If you have to make a distinction, I'd focus on how well RW's native and web interfaces work with touch rather than if a Windows device is a tablet or not.

As parody points out, RW wont work on RT devices and without a basis in the web accessing market, your choices are limited..

We (My table this past January) have been converting over to the Asus T100 with an SSD drive and Windows 8... mainly because as noted before it is a full version of windows & at the time they offered a free upgrade to the MS office products we already had...

[Exmortis]

At our table we have:

GM: laptop, Win 7.
P1(me): Surface Pro 3 Win 10
P2: Surface Pro 2 Win 8.1
P3: Laptop Win 7
P4: Laptop Win 7
P5: Ipad / Laptop Win 7
P6: Ipad

When I GM the current GM will switch to an Ipad, and I will bring laptop and SP3(SP4 or SP5?) both running Windows 10.

Two of the laptop users both have and bring Ipads, but they are not used at the table for the game. I have a droid Tablet but its sits collecting dust, most worthless money I have spent in some time.

I am not saying Rob needs to market windows over Ipads over Droid, what I am saying when they speak of tablets then say "Ipads/Droid" also state Windows to ensure possible buyers do not think they need to replace their hybrid/convertables that sell well.

As far as tablet market, it's sinking because all those who thought Ipads were going to save the world, are now realizing they need their PC and are upgrading/buying a new one. Hence the big rise in PC sales.

No market numbers do Windows tablets justice, they all consider the products differently, and fair enough, they are. However in 2014 Microsoft saw a 24% increase in sales due to the SP3 release, and its gaining steam. The SP4 is coming with Windows 10, which may mean one of my group members will likely buy my SP3 as I upgrade.

I am just stating prudence, it is in LWDs best interest to make all perspective buyers aware they support as many platforms as possible. And I get tired of then having to explain that they mean Windows tablets as well, because the software supports windows natively.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Well put.

Our table:
4 Asus T100 w/windows 8.1
2 Fujitsu T4220 w/windows 7
2 Fujitsu T4220 w/ XP
1 HP pro book w/windows 8.1
1 Lenovo yoga w/windows 8.1

DM station is abit different > a small form factor in room running windows 8.1 tied to a server

Our table is very influenced by not only the use of OS platforms, but those programs that are supported by soley (or mostly) utilized via them. In our case Microsoft. Even before we utilized these to make printed copies to work from. We used excel, word for tens of years, and now, we progress toward electronic "character sheets" with hero lab, realm works and others leading that progression.
As to prudence, you are correct, LW should be aware and clear on the detail of that path.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

As far as tablet market, it's sinking because all those who thought Ipads were going to save the world, are now realizing they need their PC and are upgrading/buying a new one. Hence the big rise in PC sales.

I constantly use my iPad at home and work. When I run to a meeting I don't want to disconnect my laptop and shut down the 15 software tools I have running. So much easier to bring the iPad. I easily take hand written notes, take text notes in Evernote. And we often have white board designs that I then take a picture of and put into Evernote. Hell several different apps let me log into the servers from my iPad. For the few that doesn't work on I use splashtop to log into my laptop and view it from there.

Now if I need the notes for the meeting I have them on my iPad, my laptop, and my iPhone. Same with the pictures that are auto-synced between my i devices. Plus more and more people on my job site are using text messages or google hangouts to talk to each other. And now "yammer"... ug facebook for work... Those are all have very nice apps that work on i devices and they sync between my devices. So if all I have is my phone I have a copy of all the conversations.

I see those that that bring laptops but just as many people on my job sites have an iPad in the meeting. Lighter, easier to use, and does everything my laptop can do. Ok it can't run an eclipse IDE but I don't need that for 90% of what I do during the day.

Even cooler is one of our conference rooms has a new Apple TV instead of dumb plasmas. So I can now easily display my iPad info (word documents, excel document, design documents) to the Apple TV using AirPlay.

[Parody]

Our table:

1 Transformer T100TA (older)
1 iPad (3 or 4) + Desktop (though often neither is in use)
1 Nexus 7 (2012)
1 Windows Laptop (pretty old)

And me with a T100TA (newer) and Nexus 5, though normally I don't dig out the Transformer.

We're currently playing Shadowrun 2nd, so the devices aren't used nearly as much as they were for Pathfinder.

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

I constantly use my iPad at home and work....

At my last job most people brought a notepad and pencil/pen to meetings. Only rarely did anyone bring their laptop assuming they had one; many people had a desktop as their main computer. (You had a choice between a few limited models when it was upgrade time.) Files needed for a meeting were kept on the file servers. Nobody had tablets or convertibles, external devices weren't allowed on the network, and while they had WiFi for customers it was highly restricted and not on the internal network.