Question about future of Realm Works

[ShadowChemosh]

Thanks Acenoid and Parody for the info. I was really curious as it just seemed so very different from how I see people I know use the net. Appreciate it.

[ibecker]

I understand why RW is architected the way it is now, and I appreciate the cloud features - I currently sync my realm and access it from multiple computers, and I look forward to the rest of the promised capabilities.

However, it would be in the users' best interest to have a *completely* offline option, because without that, we are dependent on LWD forever, which leaves us vulnerable in at least two ways:
1) There are times when the LWD server is unavailable temporarily (rebooting for update, crashed, targeted by a DDoS, etc.)
2) The sad fact is that there might come a day when the LWD server will become permanently unavailable:

a) (heaven forbid) LWD goes out of business or is acquired by an unfriendly company

b) LWD simply decides to stop supporting Realm Works (no product is current forever)

To reiterate, I think that the cloud features, both current and promised, are a great value, and I intend to subscribe for as long as I use RW. However, from a user perspective, it is just good sense in the long run to want a way to use the non-cloud-specific features of RW without having to contact the cloud, ever.

-Ian

[Mystic Lemur]

The only time you must access the server is to create a new realm. If you absolutely have to create a new realm right then, then yeah. You might be out of luck. No reason you couldn't have an empty realm pre-created for such an "emergency."

As for LWD going out of business or no longer supporting RW, I'm sure they would give us a way to create realms off-line in such an extreme circumstance. I mean, if the server is going to go down for good, they wouldn't exactly have to worry about data-duplication any more...

[liz]

Originally Posted by ibecker

I understand why RW is architected the way it is now, and I appreciate the cloud features - I currently sync my realm and access it from multiple computers, and I look forward to the rest of the promised capabilities.

However, it would be in the users' best interest to have a *completely* offline option, because without that, we are dependent on LWD forever, which leaves us vulnerable in at least two ways:
1) There are times when the LWD server is unavailable temporarily (rebooting for update, crashed, targeted by a DDoS, etc.)
2) The sad fact is that there might come a day when the LWD server will become permanently unavailable:

a) (heaven forbid) LWD goes out of business or is acquired by an unfriendly company

b) LWD simply decides to stop supporting Realm Works (no product is current forever)

To reiterate, I think that the cloud features, both current and promised, are a great value, and I intend to subscribe for as long as I use RW. However, from a user perspective, it is just good sense in the long run to want a way to use the non-cloud-specific features of RW without having to contact the cloud, ever.

-Ian

Ian, I can definitely understand your concern. There are a lot of shady companies out there with questionable ethics, which have a penchant for leaving customers out to dry. There also may be the perception that we're a very young business, which also has its risks. Let me try to address your concerns, especially since they may be shared by others. I also encourage you take a look at Rob's (the company owner's) response to a similar concern.

1. A server outage would only affect users activating the product or creating a new realm, not working on previously created content. We try to keep our planned server outage to a minimum, but if you're concerned about the possibility of wanting to create a realm and finding the server is down (whether for planned or unplanned reasons), you can use the simple work-around that we outlined in our FAQ. You can create some realms right away, and they can be used at any point in the future without accessing the server. After that, they exist and you can allocate them for your own use at any time. So if our server is down when you wanted to create a realm, you can still do so without the server.

2. This is a two-parter, so let me split up my answers:

a. I can definitely understand why you'd be concerned about the possibility of a company going out of business, especially a small one that may be perceived as a start-up of some sort. Fun fact: Did you know that 40% of small businesses fail within a year. And for those that survive the first year, 80% fail within 5 years. Well, Lone Wolf has made it through those statistical hurdles, and has actually been in business for 20 years this September. The likelihood of us going out of business now is pretty low. Additionally, Lone Wolf is controlled by one owner (Rob), so he doesn't have to answer to a board of directors, which helps with matters.

b. As Rob mentioned in the thread I linked you to above, we've continued to support products long after most other companies do. For example, we've even maintained support for Army Builder V2 for the past 10 years after superseding it with V3 in 2004.

This all being said, thank you for your feedback. Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by liz

Well, Lone Wolf has made it through those statistical hurdles, and has actually been in business for 20 years this September. The likelihood of us going out of business now is pretty low.

Congrats! Or is that happy anniversary.

Another good sign of a company is when they take on new people. In the last two years LW has hired more developers for both their lines of RW and HL. They also have more marketing and community interaction people now also.

[Geronimo82]

Originally Posted by rob

Also, Army Builder definitely still has full licensing. We reached a point where we weren't adding lots of new features regularly, which was the whole point of having the license renewals, since the revenue from the renewals paid for the new features. Once we stopped adding significant features, we stopped the renewals.

Rob, the emphasis is mine, because thats the core of the question I asked originally: "This is kinda aimed down the road, say year and a half to two years (or later), but is there a possibility that RW will get a version that is stand alone from the cloud server? Is there a possibility you would relook at the idea down the road?

How often are new realms created? Under normal use, realms will be created and then used for months or years. This makes your assertion rather specious IMO.

When said like that, of course it sounds specious. The point I was making is it wouldn't matter if I make one a year or one every hour: if I am required to have an internet connection to make a realm, then the program is not stand alone. Yes, I understand it can be used offline. I also understand I could make a bunch of them at the start and never again. I was just pointing out that offline use doesn't equal stand alone.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Geronimo82

Rob, the emphasis is mine, because thats the core of the question I asked originally: "This is kinda aimed down the road, say year and a half to two years (or later), but is there a possibility that RW will get a version that is stand alone from the cloud server? Is there a possibility you would relook at the idea down the road?

Given the way that the internet is becoming ubiquitous and a more integral part of everyone's usage of software products in general, I anticipate that there will be a progressively declining interest in a truly standalone version of any product across the software industry. However, I may be completely wrong.

Everything we do is re-assessed on a regular basis, so there is absolutely the possibility that we'll re-visit the way Realm Works operates in the years ahead. A significant driving force in what features we add to all our products is user requests. There's a separate forum explicitly for that purpose, which you'll find over here: http://forums.wolflair.com/forumdisplay.php?f=84. If there is enough demand for a 100% standalone version, it will be something we'll need to seriously consider.

[MaxSupernova]

Originally Posted by rob

Given the way that the internet is becoming ubiquitous and a more integral part of everyone's usage of software products in general, I anticipate that there will be a progressively declining interest in a truly standalone version of any product across the software industry. However, I may be completely wrong.

Everything we do is re-assessed on a regular basis, so there is absolutely the possibility that we'll re-visit the way Realm Works operates in the years ahead. A significant driving force in what features we add to all our products is user requests. There's a separate forum explicitly for that purpose, which you'll find over here: http://forums.wolflair.com/forumdisplay.php?f=84. If there is enough demand for a 100% standalone version, it will be something we'll need to seriously consider.

I think the fears come from the "sundowning" of game servers and things like that. I believe the concerns about this are "This is a great product and gamers as a group are very resistant to change, so we want to make sure that once we put our data here and start using it we will not get forced to do something else later when you close the servers."

We hate change. Heck, I know people who use old emulated ms-dos command line programs to calculate things...

I'm thoroughly satisfied with your responses, and the general attitude of the company, but I can see the reluctance in others about it.

Thanks for your openness.

[AEIOU]

MaxSupernova nails the issue I think is at least in part driving this request. And I agree with him that I'm totally satisfied with the current situation. For now.

*** sarcastic rant ahead ***

There is no way LoneWolf will ever fold -- they've been in business for 20 years! I mean, longstanding online service providers like GameSpy have been going strong for 18 years now and will be here forever. Heck, there is no way that a program like RealmWorks will ever be in danger of shutting down with the corporate structure it has backing it. The eventual death and inability to recover documents created with VisiCalc, WordPerfect and Lotus 123 were anomolies. There was no improvement that could be made on altavista. OS/2 was obviously inferior to Windows and people still shake their heads about Betamax. For good/bad/indifferent, AOL is still running (though admittedly it has had some minor setbacks in subscriptions). Pathfinder was quite literally built on the ruins of a previous empire. And gamers are a notoriously fickle lot....

*** end annoying rant ***

Right now, standalone is irrelevant to the vast majority. But it would be really good to implement an option to cut the cord...just in case. This is the reason I want printing and data import/export implemented as well. All the marketing assurances in the world do not support the reality of the internet, software development or gaming.

[Geronimo82]

Originally Posted by rob

Everything we do is re-assessed on a regular basis, so there is absolutely the possibility that we'll re-visit the way Realm Works operates in the years ahead. A significant driving force in what features we add to all our products is user requests. There's a separate forum explicitly for that purpose, which you'll find over here: http://forums.wolflair.com/forumdisplay.php?f=84. If there is enough demand for a 100% standalone version, it will be something we'll need to seriously consider.

Sounds like a plan. Thank you