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<blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 4669369" data-attributes="member: 1003">If that were my complaint you might have a point. But it's not. So you don't.What I want is the knowledge that when Wizards (inevitably) moves on I will still be able to fully use the software I have paid for in whatever state Wizards leaves it in. Whether that means frozen in today's form or with another five years of updates is less important than certainty that I can keep however much I have bought and paid for. My subscription fees pay for updates, but once that work is done by Wizards I want to know that the data can be safely backed up and reinstalled as necessary - just like I have all my Civ IV patches saved to my external SAN.&nbsp; On that basis I would buy the annual today.As for whether WotC will &quot;screw&quot; us, it could happen. I don't believe that Mike Mearls or Keith Baker (as people) would do that, but corporations can make really weird, inhuman decisions occassionally.By the way, the comparisons to MMORPGs is really off. As many people have noted, you can use the CB and read the magazines without internet access. There are no central servers that need to be maintained or any other costs of any kind (labor, bandwidth, etc.) that accrue to WotC when you do this. A better comparison would be a &quot;subscription&quot; to a standalone game like Civ IV or Age of Empires where you keep getting new units, maps and missions as long as you subscribe. But would you want the game to stop working on your home PC when you stop subscribing? There's just no technical or economic reason for that.Further, the comparisons to anti-virus is also off. Anti-virus programs are constantly responding to evolving ecosystem of threats. D&amp;D isn't like that since you can &quot;freeze&quot; your D&amp;D game at any point in the rule evolution. If I'm happy with 4E Core Sets 1 and 2 and never want to go beyond that the rational response would be to stop my subscription for updates. That doesn't mean the software I had up to that point should stop. Again, there's no technical or economic reason; it's just a business decision by Wotc and therefore something I can reasonably complain about.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Irda Ranger, post: 4669369, member: 1003"] If that were my complaint you might have a point. But it's not. So you don't. What I want is the knowledge that when Wizards (inevitably) moves on I will still be able to fully use the software I have paid for in whatever state Wizards leaves it in. Whether that means frozen in today's form or with another five years of updates is less important than certainty that I can keep however much I have bought and paid for. My subscription fees pay for updates, but once that work is done by Wizards I want to know that the data can be safely backed up and reinstalled as necessary - just like I have all my Civ IV patches saved to my external SAN. On that basis I would buy the annual today. As for whether WotC will "screw" us, it could happen. I don't believe that Mike Mearls or Keith Baker (as people) would do that, but corporations can make really weird, inhuman decisions occassionally. By the way, the comparisons to MMORPGs is really off. As many people have noted, you can use the CB and read the magazines without internet access. There are no central servers that need to be maintained or any other costs of any kind (labor, bandwidth, etc.) that accrue to WotC when you do this. A better comparison would be a "subscription" to a standalone game like Civ IV or Age of Empires where you keep getting new units, maps and missions as long as you subscribe. But would you want the game to stop working on your home PC when you stop subscribing? There's just no technical or economic reason for that. Further, the comparisons to anti-virus is also off. Anti-virus programs are constantly responding to evolving ecosystem of threats. D&D isn't like that since you can "freeze" your D&D game at any point in the rule evolution. If I'm happy with 4E Core Sets 1 and 2 and never want to go beyond that the rational response would be to stop my subscription for updates. That doesn't mean the software I had up to that point should stop. Again, there's no technical or economic reason; it's just a business decision by Wotc and therefore something I can reasonably complain about. [/QUOTE]

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