Poll: VTT Users - Do you prefer self-hosted or cloud-based VTTs?

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, that's probably true. I do think many people have a preferred category, but it's probably not fixed "once and for all".

Its not hard edged by nature, I think. As I said, I find a lot of desire for automation overkill (I handled this stuff manually face to face, what makes it suddenly harder over the Net)?), but then, that doesn't answer the question whether it wouldn't be desirable having some things automated if I wasn't running remotely? I've run off my laptop for years before I was playing remotely, wouldn't it have been nice to have digital initiative tracking for many of the games I was running?

So you can question whether its sometimes "Now that we're running via computer anyway, why not automate some more of this?"

 

[LordEntrails]

Let's hope Fantasy Grounds stays afloat forever, otherwise I hope you love your current OS and its version! (I say that as someone who was on Windows back in the day and moved to Mac OS where Fantasy Ground wasn't).

You're not thinking very openly.

First, if FG shuts down, I still have all my content. Sure I'll have to decrypt some of it, but that's not hard, and not illegal. And if they shutdown it won't be unethical either.
Then, given how you can get free virtual machine software and Windows O/S, you will always be able to have a VM or container of an old version of FG to use. Not much of a challenge. The only thing lost is cloud brokered connections, which a lot of VTTS don't even have.

Finally, that's attitude is about as useful as saying I hope your house doesn't burn down, or flood or get hit by a tornado. Because then you are going to lose all your printed books. Sure, we all hope that, but it's pretty much beyond our control. You can mitigate it though, by not living in areas known to be at high risk for disasters. And you can pick a VTT like FG that has decades long track record of being in business and supporting past data.

 

[Heilemann]

You're not thinking very openly.

First, if FG shuts down, I still have all my content. Sure I'll have to decrypt some of it, but that's not hard, and not illegal. And if they shutdown it won't be unethical either.
Then, given how you can get free virtual machine software and Windows O/S, you will always be able to have a VM or container of an old version of FG to use. Not much of a challenge. The only thing lost is cloud brokered connections, which a lot of VTTS don't even have.

Finally, that's attitude is about as useful as saying I hope your house doesn't burn down, or flood or get hit by a tornado. Because then you are going to lose all your printed books. Sure, we all hope that, but it's pretty much beyond our control. You can mitigate it though, by not living in areas known to be at high risk for disasters. And you can pick a VTT like FG that has decades long track record of being in business and supporting past data.

You found something that works for you, and that's great. I had to roll for SAN on reading it, but that's me!

 

[aramis erak]

Not if it is self hosted, because now all the files are on my computer. So they can never be taken away from me. And if the company goes out of business, I still have everything I bought, and more importantly, everything I've created.

Maybe. The thing is, the VTT may need to be reinstalled at some point, and if you can't authenticate your copy...

I'll note that the authorization for Foundary is at install.

The other nicety of self-hosting? I can set up a lan if I want.

 

[tetrasodium]

even better than a vtt that I need to"host" as a GM & former unix SA of a webhosting company is a VTT that comes with a nice & simple .exe I can just launch

 

[LordEntrails]

Maybe. The thing is, the VTT may need to be reinstalled at some point, and if you can't authenticate your copy...

I'll note that the authorization for Foundary is at install.

SmiteWorks has stated publicly that if they ever go out of business their last act will be to remove the need for authentication. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. But they've been a pretty honest company to date.

The other nicety of self-hosting? I can set up a lan if I want.

Agreed!