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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eric Tolle" data-source="post: 5639952" data-attributes="member: 53859">So...I can choose to spend money to get the game materials in a format that is not as easily searchable, and that is nearly impossible to read on my smartphone? One which requires me to lug an expensive computer around? Is this a religious thing? :')I suppose that's a valid reason. After all, sports teams make their money off of selling symbolic to display team loyalty. I simply don't like relying on fan charity as a business model, since rpg fans are notoriously fickle and tightfisted.Welcome to 2011. Any download is full of spyware or malware until proven safe, and that goes doubly so for executables. Maybe PCGen's creators are trustworthy, and maybe not. Maybe they're trustworthy and they got hacked somewhere in the process. The bottom line is I'm not going to install 200 megabytes of  executable programs on any system anywhere near any sensitive data. Maybe if I had an off-network dedicated game computer that would be different, but as it is, i'm not being paid to take the risk.Anyway, this leads to another issue, something I was going to mention as part of my wishlist. 200 megabytes is still a fair chunk of memory, especially for the devices I use. You wouldn't want to operate off a smartphone, for instance, and from my perspective, that's where we should be going.Ideally, I want a cloud-based rpg system where I can access all character and gm functions from an android or iphone, combined with smart search and communications functions. So if I'm playing at a tournament or convention, I don't need a pile of heavy books, or even an expensive laptop; I can access the online game system, and send my character to    the gm. With the right functionality, changes made in the game could be updated for all players automatically.Well, this IS a business model we're talking about. Now bear on mind, gamers are notoriously stingy, but even that is subject to price points. The bottom line is that gamers and people in general are willing to pay  something like 5 dollars a month continually, where they complain about spending 40 dollars in one lump. In addition, charges can be as narrowly focused as desired; say, 15 cents to have access to a single class' advanced features,  rather then spending the money for a full sourcebook.As for when people don't want to spend the money for an account, we can base that on what DDI and mmorpgs already do in that situation. The account and data is kept in memory for whenever the player wants to resubscribeThe idea l is to make everything as simple and easy for the the gamer as possible. One locaation for everything, no having to muck around various sites or having to do massive downloads, no worrying about PDFs. Ideally  almost everything accessible from a smartphone. DDI should be playing Pandora to Pathfinder's Napster.</blockquote>

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