Lone Wolf Development Forums  

Go Back   Lone Wolf Development Forums > Army Builder Forums > Army Builder

Notices

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
rob
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232

Old April 27th, 2009, 11:04 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eugee View Post
But from the way the FAQ reads, if I don't renew my license, then in two years I won't even be able to INSTALL the software I paid for! (As my license will be closed on the server, doesn't this mean I can't install the program to a new machine anymore?) That's different than my license working *forever* and so I'd like some clarification.
Basically, that language represents a guarantee that we aren't going to just go away and leave people hanging. In our early years, some people were worried that we might just fold up shop and disappear one day. So that language was added about 10 years ago as a reassurance that we would keep the servers going for at least two years, even if we closed up shop. I never dreamed that someone would look at it as a liability, but I guess it could be viewed that way in hindsight.

If Microsoft were to close up shop tomorrow, then anyone who relies on the internet activation of copies of Office or Windows would be unable to do so from that point forward. The same applies to smaller companies, such as us. We put the two-year guarantee in there to eliminate concerns that we could just disappear one day.

Licenses are not automatically yanked on the server. The language includes the word "may" - it does not say anything absolute. In fact, to this day, no license has ever been closed on the server due to not being extended.

To put it into perspective, we've kept the everything going for all the old V2.x licenses for five years now (i.e. since V3.0 was released). We obligated ourselves to keep them going for at least two years, but we never turned off support, even though we could have easily done so three years ago. At some point, it will become more difficult to keep that stuff going, but we won't pull the plug until we reach that point. In the meantime, all the old V2.x licenses can be managed smoothly by those who still use them.

I hope this explanation proves helpful. If you still have questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.
rob is offline   #11
Viperion
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 4

Old May 2nd, 2009, 12:00 AM
(Many apologies for what is probably considered a necro, haven't been on here for a long time)
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob View Post
Let's look at the auto industry for a moment, since we modeled our approach to be similar.
Really? Let's examine that a little further:
Quote:
When you go to buy a car, do they give you the keys and tell you to drive it as much as you want and then bring it back when you feel like it? No, they don't. They let you drive the car a few miles to get a feel for what it can do, and that's it. They point out all the cool features so you can imagine what the car can do, but you don't get to actually experience it until you buy the car. Our model works much the same way.
No, it doesn't. Your model works like a car that can't select Reverse gear. Or turn left. Or turn on the aircon. When you test drive a car, you are limited by the amount of TIME you have to test it, but you have FULL access to all of that car's features.

Now, I DO understand how hard it is to create a non-crackable time-limited demo. I do. I have worked as a computer programmer in the past. And I also understand that a LOT of people have found the demo system you use to be more than adequate, have purchased the license, and have never looked back. However, I find that the version I am able to use doesn't let me use the features I need to enable to test the software adequately, in my opinion. I thought it might be of value to you to know why you have lost a potential sale, as there are probably people like me out there (not too many hopefully ) who won't post anywhere to say why they didn't buy your package.

Quote:
You can preview what printouts will look like all you want to assess the usefulness of the printouts. The only reason someone would actually *need* to physically print the output is to use AB at the game table. At that point, it's no longer a demo, is it?
Of course it is. Printing out a 300 point limited force (or whatever the limit is, I have already uninstalled the demo) is not playing a full game!

Quote:
Besides, if someone needs to use AB on a protracted basis, then they probably aren't assessing it's usefulness anymore and are actually try to fully *use* it - which goes beyond what the demo is intended for.
Understood - but when did I say I wanted protracted use? I simply want to test more functionality than your demo allows me to. Something I could easily achieve in a single execution of the program.

(snip post on why it has been so limited)
Understood again; I am simply stating that you have over limited the demo, in my opinion, and have lost a potential sale (I can't say whether I definitely would have bought it) because of it.

But as is obvious, plenty of other people find it fine to use, so I guess you are pleasing most of the people most of the time, which is about as good as you can get.

Viperion
Viperion is offline   #12
Ghaz
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Florence, KY
Posts: 213

Old May 2nd, 2009, 03:36 PM
So exactly what 'features' don't you have access to? You do have access to all of the features except for a physical printout, but you still get to see what it would look like via the 'print preview' option. Is a car dealer going to let you go on a 3,000 mile test drive on a cross-country road trip? No. Yet that's what you're wanting from Army Builder. The demo shows you all of the basic features that the program has, which is exactly what a demo is for. You're asking for more than a demo, you want the program for free, even if only for a limited time.
Ghaz is offline   #13
Viperion
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 4

Old May 2nd, 2009, 05:36 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghaz View Post
You're asking for more than a demo, you want the program for free, even if only for a limited time.
Like when you test drive a car?

Viperion
Viperion is offline   #14
rob
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232

Old May 2nd, 2009, 07:44 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Viperion View Post
Like when you test drive a car?
*Every* time that I have taken a new car for a test-drive, I have had a salesman in the passenger seat with me. As part of the test-drive, I was allowed to drive the car only a few miles, under reasonably controlled conditions. I was *not* allowed to see how it handles at high speeds, nor was I allowed to do anything special to really push the car and discover how it performs. Based on that limited amount of exposure to the vehicle, I was expected to make a buy/no-buy decision.

Now, it's distinctly possible that you live in an area where car dealers are much more lax about their rules for test-driving vehicles. Maybe they just hand you the keys for a day or so and let you do whatever you want with the car. However, I based my analogy to test-driving a car on my personal experience with the process. What we provide in the demo version of AB is very similar to my experience in test-driving cars.

At this point, this topic is merely becoming a difference of opinion, with there really being nothing useful left to say. So I'm going to close this thread. We'll simply have to agree to disagree on how much capability should be included in the demo version of AB. It works for the vast majority of our potential customer base, and there's no way we'll ever be able to make everybody happy, so I'm happy with what we've got.
rob is offline   #15
Closed Thread

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 11:06 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® - Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
wolflair.com copyright ©1998-2016 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. View our Privacy Policy here.