Non Hero Designer software?

[Super Squirrel]

The bottom line is that only a moron spends money on durable, non-consumable product -- including software -- without trying it first

I call total bull. You can buy simply on reputation alone. I bought Dungeon Siege 2 without trying a demo first. Why? Because I liked Dungeon Siege. I bought Civ IV having never played Civ III or Civ IV prior to the purchase. Why? Because it came packs with a great reputation and I had liked the much older version of the Civilization games I had played. I bought Starcraft without ever playing a demo. Same with Campaign Cartographer II and two expansion programs (though a demo was available for CCII).

Buying software without playing a demo is common. It requires either a good reputation or lots of detailed information on the features.

[archermoo]

I go to buffets all the time, all over town, and I have never even heard of that practice.

More to the point, it is irrelevant. There is no end of examples of consumable goods you pay for before, or after, using them. The bottom line is that only a moron spends money on durable, non-consumable product -- including software -- without trying it first, and that in the case of Hero Designer, evaluating a full, unrestricted installation of the software is easily accomplished, so much so that it makes the restrictions on the "demo" version merely insulting, unnecessary, and pointless. People who will buy the software will buy the software. People who won't, won't.

Woohoo, already on to the gratuitous personal insult portion of the show. Allow me to paraphrase: Anyone who doesn't agree with my opinion is a moron.

[Curufea]

I'm proud to be a moron!
I frequently buy software, especially games, merely from reading the packaging or an online review.

And it isn't like the software is anywhere near as expensive as other commercial packages.

[bblackmoor]

I bought Dungeon Siege 2 without trying a demo first. Why? Because I liked Dungeon Siege.

Fair enough. Sequels, upgrades, and such are a common exception, even for me. I'll buy Hero Designer 3 without trying it first, for example.

[bblackmoor]

Ok....durable items you don't usually get to test before you buy, guns, stoves, washing machines, most types of battery powered gadgets ...

I do. Any sensible consumer does.

...most software, video, and music type things, even when on CD/DVD ... are non-returnable unless you happen to purchase a defective product.

Which just means that one has to try a little harder to exercise one's due diligence before buying one of these products. As any sensible consumer does.

But there's little point in discussing this further. I live in a country where the vast majority of people are in debt up to their eyeballs and have no significant savings. I live in a country where one of the largest media conglomerates intentionally infected hundreds of thousands of their customers' computers with a trojan, and no one has been arrested for this crime (and it was a crime -- if you or I had done it, we would be serving time in prison by now). On the subjects of fiscal responsibility and the proper behavior of software & media publishers, there will be no shortage of people who disagree with me.

[ghost-angel]

You're telling my Sears will let you do a load of laundry while waiting for a batch of cookies to bake before they let you buy those appliances? BULL.
You're tellimg me Home Depot will let you take a crap in a toilet and then a nice long hot bath in a tub before letting you buy them? BULL.
You're telling me KMart will let you pop off a few rounds from that 12-gauge before letting you buy it? BULL.

and I take serious offense to you calling anyone ANYONE a "moron" because they don't follow your personal practices. You're being an @$$, stop it.

[Simon]

bblackmoor -- we tried this the nice way (I told you to stop posting your _opinions_ as statements of fact).

Now we'll go the official route:

1. Change your posting style. Consider my comments above for starters and try to figure out what it is about your style that annoys others.

2. Apologize (in this thread) to those who you have offended.

Part of my job is to keep these forums a nice, happy place where people can enjoy themselves. You are currently preventing people from enjoying themselves due to your style of communication. This is the final warning you will get on this matter (since we've talked about it in the past).

[incrdbil]

The bottom line is that only a moron spends money on durable, non-consumable product -- including software -- without trying it first,

I'd love to do a documentary of your shopping for sex toys.

[ChaosDrgn]

for some reason I see this thread coming to an end and being locked any time now.

[Curufea]

Probably because with each post it gets proven to be more pointless.
(including this one)

[Killer Shrike]

The sad thing is that bblackmoor has useful things to contribute, but he suffers from "my-opinion-is-fact" syndrome, and feels like he has the right to tell other people what they should be doing with their time and resources. God complex maybe?

I've had altercations with him in the past over similar obnoxiousness. I just wish he could have been brought to curb his tendencies before he dug himself into a banned pit. When he's not being a megalomaniac he's got some good ideas.


Back on topic:


My opinion of the HERO Designer demo is this: it's amazing to me that any one with any degree of maturity or real world experience could see fit to complain about a free demo that allows them to sample the core functionality of a product that amounts to one of the worlds most hideously complex and gigantic calculators.

The goal of the demo is to demonstrate that the utility accurately handles the application of the hundreds of pages of business rules and validations relevant to the production of a HERO System character in a fashion that is intuitive and consistent with a typical users general computing experience.

The demo does indeed accomplish this and to a relatively high degree. I would say that it at least meets this goal, and in fact exceeds it.


I would tend to expect that those complaining that the demo does not allow them to do some key function or another are frequently those who don't plan to buy the application in the first place and are looking for a free ride. Some people don't seem to understand that while huge companies can absorb the loss of some pilfering of their stock here and there, a small company like DOJ or Dan Simon most definitely cannot. Every sale counts, every moved unit contributes to the bottom line.

Excuse me while I wax melodramatic.....By trying to enrich yourself by essentially robbing DOJ / Dan's product digitally to save a few bucks, you are putting a nail in the coffin of the collective that brings us all of the fine product we've enjoyed the last several years.

Am I the only one that remembers what it was like all those long years with poor to no support for the HERO System?


But enough soap -- on to my testimonial:

HERO Designer is fantastic. It's not perfect, but what is? It has a plethora of features that make character design so straightforward that you can spend much less time doing math and looking up rules and much more time focusing on your character concept.

It's export functionality is open ended and if you dont find an export template you like among the dozens provided both bundled and by people like RP Miller and myself, you can design your own in just about any open text oriented format you care to. The ability to not only save characters, but character packages, and templates provide powerful options for the storing and organization of you characters. And character is a loose term -- weapons / powers / gear lists, minion templates, vehicles, computers, AIs, etc are all easily handled by the software.

I've been using HD since early in version 1, I used (and made templates for) Creation Workshop, and I used HERO Maker before that. While I miss a couple of features from CW, HERO Designer is by far the best character design software there has ever been for the HERO System (IMO), and in the running for best character design software for any system (also IMO).

If I were to be trapped on a barren isle with a group of gamers for eternity and I could only take two gaming products one would be HERO System 5th Revised and the other would be HERO Designer (on a solar powered lap top or something).


You want to see example characters exported from HD? Check out my website, I've got literally dozens of characters all created and exported from HERO Designer. You want to check out what a saved HD file looks like? Same thing -- I provide the HDC files for many of the posted characters. Don't like HTML based character sheets? No problem -- talk to RPMiller. He's produced a veritable flood of RTF sheets. Don't like those either? Other people have done special purpose exports for other formats. Still can't find what you want? Either figure out how to make one for yourself if you are even slightly technical, or post a request to the HERO Designer forum and see if anyone is willing / able to help you out.


The product is worth the money. In the unlikely event it's breaking your wallet, take up a collection among your gaming group and get a copy for the GM to use. You get a great product with a ridiculous number of man hours poured into it by someone that loves this game as much as you do and has put a lot of blood sweat and tears into the continued development and support of this product, and you support the company that has produced all the fantastic supplements that have enriched our lives since rescuing the HERO System literally from the brink.

Im beggining to feel like Jerry Lewis, so Ill stop now, but seriously -- the demo does its job, the software is great, you should buy a copy.



PS -- All of the above is, of course, "IN MY OPINION" and should not be taken as an attack, insult, or other attempt at confrontation either now or in the past or future, or the past present or future of this world in a slightly divergent alternate reality, or even the past present or future of whatever odd dimension one happens to be from. Thank you and that is all.

[incrdbil]

One giant "Me too" to KS.

It comes down to a simple analysis: given HD's cost, if there was a fully functional version that simply had a time expiration, does anyone really believe it would simply find its way onto many machines and simply be installed over, and over, and over..

Even if you say 'thats unlikely, only 1 person in 5 would do that' that is a potential 20 percent sales loss. I don't think a failure to gain sales by a only having a limited, not full functioning demo comes close to equalling what would be lost by the existance of a full functioning time limited demo. BB may have disagreed..but he didnt have a product to sell either.

/shrugs, moves along.

[ghost-angel]

The sad thing is that bblackmoor has useful things to contribute, but he suffers from "my-opinion-is-fact" syndrome, and feels like he has the right to tell other people what they should be doing with their time and resources. God complex maybe?

I've had altercations with him in the past over similar obnoxiousness. I just wish he could have been brought to curb his tendencies before he dug himself into a banned pit. When he's not being a megalomaniac he's got some good ideas.

We lose more good posters this way.

Everything else you said just mimics my own sentiments posted ealier in this thread.

[Enforcer84]

But I'm Still here!