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.

[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.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Roadie

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").

For syncing content across computers, Realm Works only syncs the records that are new or have changed instead of having to sync everything. More importantly, the cloud will allow you to share ONLY the material you've revealed with your players. That's not something you can ever accomplish using Dropbox or another similar tool. The list is much longer, and we've attempted to outline it on the page I linked to, but I guess we didn't do a good enough job explaining it to have it make sense. Sorry for that, but I don't know how else to try and explain it.

Originally Posted by Roadie

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.

Realm Works is incredibly useful without purchasing any content. Think of an iPhone. You buy it and have an extremely useful tool. Many people have no need for any apps, while others purchases dozens of apps. That doesn't mean the iPhone should be free. It's the same basic thing with Realm Works. Many users will leverage the tool extensively without buying any content. Others will happily pay for that content. Every user gets to make up their own mind based on their own desires.