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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scribble" data-source="post: 5535130" data-attributes="member: 23977">More easily updated then the offline CB- nothing for the user to download each time. I turned on the CB after Mudbunny's announcement and the changes were there for one thing.Easier to integrate together eventually since everything is running on WoTC's servers.I can use it on any computer I log onto not just those I am able to install a program on (well anyone that has silverlight, but I haven't found one that doesn't yet...)It's just letters and numbers... Enworld let's us create/store the same thing everyday- Storage is cheap. My guess is the real reason they turned off house rules in the CB is because they want to move them over to the DM's side.I'm betting they ultimately want you to be able to log on, see a game on the VTT, join the session, open your character builder and all the house rules for that campaign will be there waiting for you.Take a look at for instance Amazon's new Cloud music scheme. I buy music from amazon and it's instantly there ready to go, anything I upload is there as well I build a playlist- all on my computer, walk out the door and listen to it on my phone, or my wife's phone. No wires, no downloading, no time lost prepping my phone to go. Take a look at gmail, or yahoo mail or any of the other web based messaging systems- another instance of the cloud benefiting the consumer. BEfore web mail I had to have an email program on any computer I wanted to check my mail on, set up to access my account.The cloud has become much more then asset sharing within data centers.  Same sort of thing I envision here. I set everything up on my desktop computer, walk out the door with my laptop and game on. I can make changes on my side and my players see it pretty much real time. No need to download/install my updates. We're all on the same page about the campaign at all times.Eventually when they re-instate houserules (and I have absolutely 0 doubt they will) I'll be able to set up my campaign, then my players can log on, open up the CB and everything is ready to go as mentioned above/That's the type of advantage I see a cloud based CB having over a desktop one. Ok- now this is a little dissengenuos don't you think? You're really saying downloading a free application is the same as buying setting up and running emulation software? Sure- it was possible for MAC users to use the old CB but no where near what most would consider sufficient. I don't think that (missing features aside) switching to the current form was anything but a boon to the average mac user. Database structure wasn't really what I was talking about. The front end also being on WoTC's side allows them to more easily integrate everything together without having to worry about everyone downloading patches and accounting for umpteen billion system differences. It also ensures that everyone is always on the same page when things do integrate. (IE they don't have to worry about Joe Gamer trying to use the new table system and then flipping out because it doesn't work with his version of the CB that he hasn't updated for the past 3 updates...)Less time spent solving various problems for various setups means more time to work on new features and abilities which ultimately benefits everyone involved.See above for what I think it gains. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I understand your perspective- I just don't jump to as harsh picture as you do.I don't think it's possible for instance to "strong arm" someone into buying a luxury item. You can tempt them sure- but strong arm is not an adjective I'd use. (And I kind of think it somewhat cheapens the word when it comes time to use it in regard to companies that really CAN strong arm their clients.)Did they seem to rush the release in order to capitalize on their next big release? Sure, but still it's a luxury item, I'm not forced to buy it if I think it's crap.  In fact they offered refunds to people who felt the new system was not in line with what they'd already paid for.You can also argue that perhaps they felt that not protecting their next big release would harm them more then they could take. In which case what choice do you make? Suffer some bad will for a rushed release, or go under and offer no future releases? Which is better or worse in the long run?Having never seen the code I'll take your word for it, but- then it kind of sounds like 6 of one half a dozen of the other. Either way they went they would need to do some code manipulating. I know this wasn't directed at me, but this I think is an example of the revenue bleed I was talking about earlier.If it wasn't a case of just some people only occasionally buying stuff while a strong base of core users brought in your main revenue stream that's not a big deal. But if your business model unintentionally made it more desirable to do this causing your main revenue stream to slowly erode away? NOW you have a problem.Add to this that it's not as 0 cost as you think... Those people still utilize things like customer service, and put some extra strain on the servers as they download updates when they do. (And who knows if it also put uneven burden on the servers as occasionally people logged on and started downloading large chunks of zip files and what not...)</blockquote>

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