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<blockquote data-quote="heruca" data-source="post: 7650804" data-attributes="member: 39068"><p>Hmmm. It hardly seems fair to single out Battlegrounds for this licensing model. Have a look at the <a href="http://rpgvirtualtabletop.wikidot.com/the-vts" target="_blank">licensing on the other commercial VTTs</a> in comparison to Battlegrounds. See a pattern?</p><p></p><p>The vast majority of tech support requests comes from GMs; players hardly ever need it. Tech support requires time, and time equals money. It's only logical that a GM, who will require more of your time, be charged more money (i.e., one doesn't just pay more for the software itself, they pay more for a service). Not to mention that, at least in the case of Battlegrounds, the GM Client software is WAY more full-featured than the Player Client (it can even be used to host & play boardgames, wargames, card games, and dice games).</p><p></p><p>All that aside, I think you also missed out on the fact that with BRPG, the GM Client actually includes not one but <em>two</em> licenses, since some GMs like to prepare their games on, say, a desktop PC, but run their games on a different computer (say, a laptop).</p><p></p><p>The only other common licensing for commercial VTTs is to make it subscription-based, and RPGers in particular seem to be pretty dead-set against subscription schemes. SceneGrinder tried it, and Ghost Orb before that. Both quickly went out of business. iTabletop <em>used to be</em> subscription-based, but they (wisely) switched to a one-time fee lest they suffer the same fate. Heck, even WotC took a lot of flack for requiring a subscription to DDI in order to have access to their VTT.</p><p></p><p>Out of curiosity, does it also bother you that with most RPG systems, the DM's Guide costs more than the Player's Handbook (which is typically half as thick)? Does that seem unfair to you, given that the GM is the one "doing all the hard work"?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="heruca, post: 7650804, member: 39068"] Hmmm. It hardly seems fair to single out Battlegrounds for this licensing model. Have a look at the [url=http://rpgvirtualtabletop.wikidot.com/the-vts]licensing on the other commercial VTTs[/url] in comparison to Battlegrounds. See a pattern? The vast majority of tech support requests comes from GMs; players hardly ever need it. Tech support requires time, and time equals money. It's only logical that a GM, who will require more of your time, be charged more money (i.e., one doesn't just pay more for the software itself, they pay more for a service). Not to mention that, at least in the case of Battlegrounds, the GM Client software is WAY more full-featured than the Player Client (it can even be used to host & play boardgames, wargames, card games, and dice games). All that aside, I think you also missed out on the fact that with BRPG, the GM Client actually includes not one but [i]two[/i] licenses, since some GMs like to prepare their games on, say, a desktop PC, but run their games on a different computer (say, a laptop). The only other common licensing for commercial VTTs is to make it subscription-based, and RPGers in particular seem to be pretty dead-set against subscription schemes. SceneGrinder tried it, and Ghost Orb before that. Both quickly went out of business. iTabletop [i]used to be[/i] subscription-based, but they (wisely) switched to a one-time fee lest they suffer the same fate. Heck, even WotC took a lot of flack for requiring a subscription to DDI in order to have access to their VTT. Out of curiosity, does it also bother you that with most RPG systems, the DM's Guide costs more than the Player's Handbook (which is typically half as thick)? Does that seem unfair to you, given that the GM is the one "doing all the hard work"? [/QUOTE]
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