FG2 pricing and "But it costs too much!"

[madman]

I used Skype and fantasy grounds for years. That being said I switched to Teamspeak 3 because of bandwidth issues. Skype is great for two people talking, but is bad with 6-7 people rustling chip bags and downing sodas. Teamspeak 3 uses like 1/20th of what skype uses.

Chris

[Doswelk]

That is good to know, however my players all use skype while gaming which also eats up bandwidth. If we can't do both, it is of no use to us. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE FG2 and have bought a full license, but convincing my players is fruitless unless I can prove that all persons connected can sustain both skype and the virtual environment. My own bandwidth is not the sole factor in how well this will work.
On the upside, if I did purchase the unlimited license, it looks like I'd have no trouble getting new players for my games

Again that 10 player game was using VOIP (Mumble) at the same time

[damned]

I have up to 6 players using FG and Voice (Ventrillo) on a 800k upload link. Youtr players probably need 200k download - thats all. You have to be smart too - use 50-500k pictures and not 500k-3MB. Try to get players each to connect and get synced up before the campaigns first session - that will drastically reduce download delays on the night. Even when you are having some delays getting going at start of evening if you have uploaded a lot of stuff - we use that time to say hello, see how people are doing and to recap what happened last session. The downloads have finished a long time before we stop talking...

[Griogre]

I use VOIP too, I'd say the majority of games do use some form of it. If you are not using a remote server to host your VOIP then get a player to run the VOIP server for you so it doesn't run off the GM's up bandwidth.

I'd second using something other than Skype. I've used a hosted Teamspeak server in the past but there are a lot of free options like Mumble. I'm currently using RaidCall which is also free.

[Magnatude]

I'm primarily using Skype, but we had also used "Google+" voice one one occasion where Skype was just buggin out. That was ok too.
But so far skype is reasonably stable, and we only have problems with people on laptops using the hotel wireless while they are on the road.

[Callum]

I use VOIP too, I'd say the majority of games do use some form of it. If you are not using a remote server to host your VOIP then get a player to run the VOIP server for you so it doesn't run off the GM's up bandwidth.

I'd second using something other than Skype. I've used a hosted Teamspeak server in the past but there are a lot of free options like Mumble. I'm currently using RaidCall which is also free.

I'd like to second Griogre's advice. We used Ventrilo for quite a while, with one of the players (not the GM) hosting it. We've switched to Teamspeak now, but Ventrilo was fine.

[JohnD]

As a potential purchaser in the coming days, I look at this cost several ways;

1. People put in time/effort/funding to this product and that deserves to get rewarded. No payback means no future product which I think most people here would see as a bad thing.
2. Nobody is forcing a purchase; if FG2 (or any product) isn't going to give you value at least at the level of the price you're paying, don't buy (vote with your wallet).
3. $150 really isn't a huge amount compared to all the $ you spend on the PHB, DMG, MM, MM2, MM3, associated supplements, etc....

[wbcreighton]

3. $150 really isn't a huge amount compared to all the $ you spend on the PHB, DMG, MM, MM2, MM3, associated supplements, etc....

And as an option you can buy a Full License and then upgrade to an Ultimate license later on if you think it will be better.