Hm. Well, the problem is that if you wait to long your download gets erased again and you need to start over. You cannot click the link to personalize and then come back to retrieve it the other day.
Got my first download from the humble bundle just now. Seemed to take about 10 minutes before the file was ready for the actual download.
Is it inconvenient to have to wait? Sure. But considering the price and the fact that most of the money I paid is going to support children's hospitals, it's just not a problem to me.
I'm 50% sure this will get lost somewhere along the line, but I wanted to praise Paizo for:
A: The Humble Bundle itself, great offer, thank you.B: Working so hard to fix the server issue. Given the file processing going on here I think it's amazing it's even working at all!
C: Being so good natured in the face of some quite unnecessary comments and blatant trolling.
Looking forward to introducing Pathfinder to my group in the near future.
If there was to be any kind of criticism, it's the physical copy Beginner's Box. It would have been nice for an indication of the shipping costs (domestic and international estimates). I haven't claimed mine because the shipping is double the cost of the box and I literally can't afford that right now. It's a minor criticism, I've got the digital copy now so that's all good.
Thanks again Paizo and thanks to the community.
If you open up the details of the physical beginner box on the humble store it indicates shipping costs if I am not mistaken
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Paizo should have offered them DRM-free via Humble Bundle if they weren't capable of handling it themselves.
The system at fault here is the DRM.
Despite those attempting to defend and excuse it, this has very much put me off ever purchasing anything from Paizo in the future.Accepting some level of DRM in exchange for good deals is a sacrifice I choose to make with the likes of Steam.
An exchange which takes place instantly; I make the purchase, I have access to the download.
That is the contract that a customer makes with a merchant. The services are paid for, the services are provided.
Lack of service warrants compensation, in whatever form that takes, as has been mentioned previously by others.Step up, Paizo.
As has been stated, watermarking is not the same as DRM.
And has also been stated, you make the purchase, you have access to the download. As does the 20-30,000 other people who have bought it and are trying to download it at the same time as you.
Thirdly, there's been absolutely no lack of service, you could donate to charity, and if you did Paizo would give you gifts.
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Let's try it this way:
To have a hoard of shoppers burst through and squeeze through a physical shop's door to the point that they break and then go and demand compensation because you want to buy the thing that everyone else wants to but can't because there's physically no way to get through everyone shopping is just obscene and asinine amount of entitlement.
The issue I'm having is I click on it the one I want to download, wait....and the site kicks me out after a few minutes and I have to log in and start the process all over again.
The issue I'm having is I click on it the one I want to download, wait....and the site kicks me out after a few minutes and I have to log in and start the process all over again.
Click slightly more often. Every minute or two if you can. It should prevent you being kicked back
Click slightly more often. Every minute or two if you can. It should prevent you being kicked backThe issue I'm having is I click on it the one I want to download, wait....and the site kicks me out after a few minutes and I have to log in and start the process all over again.
I was hitting refresh and would go back and click on the download to see if it was ready.
Ah well, I'm at work and it's hard baby sitting a download queue when you have other things going on.
I'll try later form home.
Thanks.
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Let's try it this way:
To have a hoard of shoppers burst through and squeeze through a physical shop's door to the point that they break and then go and demand compensation because you want to buy the thing that everyone else wants to but can't because there's physically no way to get through everyone shopping is just obscene and asinine amount of entitlement.
Hello, welcome to the 21st Century, where 10% of the world have this expectation, while 80% of the world would quite like enough water to drink and 30% of the world would like the some of the other 10% to stop bombing their home flat.
(My statistics are made up, but the point is: you are right: everything's relative and having to wait for a game resource is nothing compared to waiting to be fed/ housed/ clothed/ killed.)
The actual correct response should to this whole download situation should be: oh dear, I'll pop back later then.
Eh, sounds about right.
Maybe Paizo should increase the cache where they store the personalized PDF's, so that we don't have to init a new personalization request every couple of hours as long as we try to get the file. Or they should just remove the personalization at least from the core rulebook, so that new buyers already have something to read while we wait till the dust settles.
I'd say they should consider booking and external cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web Services, to deliver the actual, personalized documents and keep them there once created.
Well, maybe they have considered it; maybe that's exactly what they're doing, or maybe the idea has been dismissed for whatever reason, it's not like I had any insight at what's going on there. But given the recent development it sounds like a good idea to find solution that increases scalability upward and downward; otherwise you end up with hugely extended network that does hardly anything than consume power and cost money after the tide abades.
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OK, so I withdraw that criticism but return with: you need to physically ship them before giving them the PDF? I now have 0 faith in Paizo technical support.
No, that has nothing to do with technical support.
It has to do with money. The subscription options allow you to receive new books at a discount as they are released along with a free PDF copy. However, they don't charge you until your physical copy actually ships... and don't provide the PDF until it has been paid for.
If you buy a PDF & physical copy bundle (or just a PDF) outside of the subscription options then yes the PDF is immediately available rather than delayed until the physical copy ships.
So, they have the technical ability to provide PDFs prior to shipment.
In theory, they could charge before the shipment goes out and make the PDFs available early, but then if there were a problem with one item in a subscription package being delayed they'd potentially have charged for a physical book that might not be available for some time. So instead each month there is a period where some people have gotten their PDFs and others have not and everyone is posting on the boards saying, 'what is in it? how does the new XYZ work? et cetera'
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So instead each month there is a period where some people have gotten their PDFs and others have not and everyone is posting on the boards saying, 'what is in it? how does the new XYZ work? et cetera'
which is actually a pretty healthy thing for the community, it generates a good deal of discussion, interest and excitement.
I know the slow download issue is well documented here so I'm not going to labour the point.
However, I do have an issue when trying to log on to the download section of the Paizo site from my Android device, it simply gives an error message saying 'cannot establish a secure connection' when I try to access it, either using mobile data or a wi-fi connection...
Any clues as to why and how to rectify it?
Thanks.
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I know the slow download issue is well documented here so I'm not going to labour the point.
However, I do have an issue when trying to log on to the download section of the Paizo site from my Android device, it simply gives an error message saying 'cannot establish a secure connection' when I try to access it, either using mobile data or a wi-fi connection...
Any clues as to why and how to rectify it?
Thanks.
Was doing the same thing to me (iPhone though). Usually the "cannot establish secure connection" happens when the site or part of it goes down for maintenance. It is just your Android though or have you tried any other devices?
We have a con next week and due to Paizo policy, the GMs get their downloads today. Many were planning on downloading today and prepping this weekend. I don't see this happening. The bundle is a great deal and I obviously support Paizo but I'm amazed at how frequently companies underestimate server demands. I hope this is fixed soon but number of bundles keeps going up (hurray for funds for charity), so I'm not holding my breath.
*HEADDESK* If I had actually had any problem understanding what either of you two were trying to say (rather than just disagree with you) then maybe you'd have a point. But since it is literally the opposite situation, I don't know where you get off on acting that smug.Zelda, I don't think dtreth work in or understands retail or the Tech field... It seems like trying to explain 'Purple' to a blind man. He seems to lack a point of reference.
Any of use who have ACTUALLY dealt with Paizo know that are doing what they can, that the Tech team is going above and beyond to fix things, and yes the game is, and I'll quote...
... JUST SO COOL ...Instant Gratification this isn't, but anything worth having is worth being patient for.
There's a certain personality type that insists on smugly virtue-signaling in threads like this and making fun of the people with completely legitimate complaints. I'm sure they'd happily wait 5 hours for food in a restaurant too, while constantly chiding all the other hungry customers with other places to be that the food will taste so much better with their name etched into every bit of it, even if it takes much longer than just cooking it, and why won't all these impatient complaining crybabies just be quiet?
How many of you people complaining about the issues with their servers have done anything through the Humble Bundle ever before??? Anything that is popular WRECKS the serves of the providers.
Well all book stuff I've bought from Humble Bundle before came from their servers, and they were never wrecked by demand.
It's all good, they have top people working on it, I've been a customer on this site for 5 years, and I've never had it this bad, they'll get it worked out. :-)
How many of you people complaining about the issues with their servers have done anything through the Humble Bundle ever before??? Anything that is popular WRECKS the serves of the providers.
As it is, you should be happy for 2 major points: 1) Paizo is basically giving away their digital books for practically nothing, 2) Extra Life is a Children's Miracle Network partner and the money they raise go to the local children's hospitals.
So grow up and stop feeling that everything needs to be handed to you on a platter...
What about all the non-Humble Bundle customers, who paid full price for their digital media and are now stuck unable to acquire it due to Paizo's obvious lack of preparation for the level of traffic the Bundle would generate? Do they need to grow up, too, or would you care to admit that they just might have a legitimate complaint?
Was doing the same thing to me (iPhone though). Usually the "cannot establish secure connection" happens when the site or part of it goes down for maintenance. It is just your Android though or have you tried any other devices?
I'm at work currently, so only tried my phone. When I get home I have a Hudl2 Android tablet and will try on that..
Often the problem seems (for me at least) to be a slow/busy connection with mobile data, it usually is fine when I'm using wi-fi, but today neither works.
As much as I hate to see all the complaining that exists in this thread I must admit that I understand it completely from both sides of the spectrum. On one hand its completely infuriating that I have been trying to download the same file for over 3 days now, but on the other hand I understand the fact that Paizo clearly did not expect the response they have received from the humble bundle that the posted.
Where as many companies that sell Watermarked PDF's have their systems automatically queue the generation of PDF's at the time of order and email you when they are available for download Paizo has chosen to go the route of Watermark on demand and this has thus led to the influx in complaining that we are all witnessing in this thread. It dawns on me that the humble bundle promotion still has some 12 days remaining so I would assume that for the majority of us that the increase in traffic which is making it so difficult to download will probably not dissipate until sometime around the third week of march. Perhaps the answer for Paizo at this point would be to suspend the watermark on demand process and instead go to the queue based system based upon date of redemption.
That could be a very good idea, but to watermark and store all the bundles they would need over 20 TB of storage.
To deal with the scalability issue, a few people have mentioned how Paizo run their own server. This is apparently to protect their IP, and so that they can control it. It makes sense. But it also causes issues like this. They are upgrading their servers with new hardware and generally trying to fix the issue.
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Is anybody literally going to die if they have to wait a few days to download a game book, regardless of how much they paid?
Did you not see Gorbacz's post above, NO ONE could prepare for the level of traffic they're getting, NO ONE.
My wife worked in customer service and tech at Mattel. :-)
Patience good people, patience.
I am new to the site (due to the Humble sale, thanks so much for putting this together Paizo) and was wondering what normally happens during non-stress situations with the downloads. Does the text "Personalizing... Click link again in 10 seconds to download" change when the download is ready? Also, when I clicked on the download after giving it ~15 min to personalize I was taken back to the homepage for Paizo. Any idea why this happens? Finally, what is supposed to happen when a download goes through? Does it immediately show as a file download in progress or is there another page that opens after the personalization is done? Thanks in advance for any answers, and sorry to dump questions like this.
I too purchased the "HumbleBundle" pack. I am surprised that Paizo did not forsee the demand that something like this was going to put on your servers. I understand the "personalization" process (which actually means "applying DRM") has to happen from a business perspective. However, I really hope Paizo is actively in the process of adding additional resources to cope with demand, as this issue is going to get worse and worse as more people purchase the pack and put additional demand on your servers. And we are not going away until we all manage to download our purchased products.
I noticed that downloading the free resources doesn't seem to be affected since there is no "personalization" involved. That's one possible solution. Either modify or turn off "personalization" and just let us download the files. Another option is to immediately engage with Rackspace or Amazon Web Services to temporarily add additional processing power until the demand is met.
Either way, you need to do something soon before someone decides to go all litigation-happy on you. It's America. It's what some people (not me) do. Also, this is obviously bad PR and does nothing to win the support of the masses.
Just getting my two cents worth of complaining off my chest. Now back to the long wait....
-Pete
What happens usually is, after ten seconds a red box will appear announcing your download will begin in five seconds.
Is anybody literally going to die if they have to wait a few days to download a game book, regardless of how much they paid?
A better question might be, is this going to sour a new customers experience with both humble bundle and Paizo? I have to say, my opinion of how great this deal is has shaped by my experience on the download end. They aren't going to lose me as a customer over this one issue, but I'm not going to be as eager to participate in any other humble bundles, or even use social media to help promote this one.
Also, what about this situation leads you to expect an impact of only a couple of days? I would be pleased if ta was the case, but my worst case scenario sees this impacting downloads as late as April, as people slowly pick at the various adventures one by one.
I am new to the site (due to the Humble sale, thanks so much for putting this together Paizo) and was wondering what normally happens during non-stress situations with the downloads. Does the text "Personalizing... Click link again in 10 seconds to download" change when the download is ready? Also, when I clicked on the download after giving it ~15 min to personalize I was taken back to the homepage for Paizo. Any idea why this happens? Finally, what is supposed to happen when a download goes through? Does it immediately show as a file download in progress or is there another page that opens after the personalization is done? Thanks in advance for any answers, and sorry to dump questions like this.
IT guy here. Yes, it is perfectly possible to prepare for this kind of workload. For example, companies like EA Sports does it every time they get ready to release a new game. They outsource and get enough temporary processing power (in the cloud) to handle the predicted workload.
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New customers: please be patient, the staff is incredibly helpful, but they are on the west coast.
To regular customers: chill out, don't get mad at the new people for getting frustrated. There is a lot of uncertainty with getting a new product, and when it doesn't work as it should or there's a bit of uncertainty, that can ramp up the anxiety. Be patient with the new people, and don't tell them they're overreacting, no one wants to hear that when they're anxious over money spent.
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Dear Paizo IT people:
I've been in the IT industry for 30 years and an RPGer for longer. There's something called Scalability. It's possible to bridge your infrastructure with something like Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure, so when you start a major promotion that is going to cause tremendous load to your servers, you can simply spool up more servers temporarily and handle the load. This has been done for decades, there's no reason why you can't do this. IT WOULD BE WORTH THE INVESTMENT BECAUSE YOU WOULD IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.
I've been trying to download my HB purchases for three days. I have a narrow window in the morning during my breakfast when I can do it, then I'm off to work. When I get home in the evening, I'm not really inclined to give myself the added frustration of fighting an inadequate server infrastructure. As it stands now, I am rapidly losing interest in checking out your game, for which I've paid money, which makes it less likely to get a good review on my blog and twitter feed. I can see the post now: "Buy it before the Humble Bundle offer expires, but don't expect to be able to download it for a week or two after the offer goes away, unless you're in a position to attempt downloads all day long."
#1 - Your length of time in IT does not make you an expert when it comes to how Paizo does business or how their web solution is set up. Remember, they are doing this FOR CHARITY. Does it make sense for them to spend tons of money ramping up their online services for something that they are making very little actual revenue on? No. I've been in IT for 26 years and I know I'm out of my element when it comes to how someone like Paizo handles their web presence. IT does not make you an expert. You could have spent 30 years changing printer toner for all we know. :)
#2 - If you have actually been in IT for 30 years, and are currently employed as IT, then I find it hard to believe that you do not have access to check the website while you are at work. Personally, I've been in IT for nearly the same length of time and can tell you first hand that I have all the time in the world during the day to check the site and download as needed. That is one of the many benefits of being in IT! Duh!
#3 - Being in IT for 30 years means you are 48+, and should have a little more patience by now. If not, shame on you. And if you have an actual blog and twitter feed that anyone follows and are just not getting around to checking out Pathfinder, well sir, I question the impact of your negative tweets, because you are obviously not in touch with the RPG community as a whole.
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IT guy here. Yes, it is perfectly possible to prepare for this kind of workload. For example, companies like EA Sports does it every time they get ready to release a new game. They outsource and get enough temporary processing power (in the cloud) to handle the predicted workload.
I imagine companies like EA Sports have more than 50 staff across their IT department, never mind the whole company and a few $billion to throw at outsourcing IT.