 |
| "Brazen Claws"? There's an app for that... |
Is there a "duh" in "digital"? Maybe we should ask GW. Like many gamers, I receive regular GW emails about products etc., and the latest breathless missive informed me that GW is "
going digital". I was excited for half a second to think that GW had finally come up with some kind of useful app that would be helpful for gaming. Considering the iPad had been on the market since April of 2010, and tablet products are common accessories these days (I'm a notorious curmudgeon about Apple and I was still blown away by it - my cynicism was completely pwned by the design skills of Apple) I thought it was about time that GW got on the bandwagon.
My iPad has been quite handy for gaming (Conscript Cam will no doubt savour this admission on my part, as well he should). While I enjoy "Angry Birds" and any number of other time wasting games, it was not long before I was cramming every gaming PDF I could on to my iPad, so I could have them handy while gaming. I'm not here to proclaim the death of books, etc. etc. I quite enjoy paper books, and enjoy well-produced rule books and hope they continue for a long time. But it has been very useful to have charts, stats lists etc. available for quick and easy reference. My copy of the "Tomorrow's War" rules is a digital one, just to name an example, and it is very useful to have it in electronic format on the tablet reader.
Places like the
Wargames Vault are offering more and more rules for download. Even just having the rules in an electronic format is quite handy, and game companies have yet to start to explore the tools that a digital app for gaming might provide.
 |
| "Um, do you have your paper rulebook, because this actually says nothing about the 12 special rules that apply in this situation..." |
GW had a great opportunity here, particularly 40k, with its points-driven "armies", scenarios that are functionally the same and separated only by small details, and endless byzantine layers of special rules in its various game products should be a prime candidate to exploit the opportunity presented by tablets like the iPad. You could have an army builder app. You could have an app with a handy list of all the tiresome special rules in 40k to help smooth over the games. Just imagine all the cool stuff. You could even have a dice app or something for iPhones - just give it a shake! Like I said, I was excited for half a second...
But it didn't take long to lose the excitement - in fact, it was gone by the time I was halfway through the marketing email. Out of all of the initial "offerings", just one is a Codex. The other is a painting book (handy, but again, is that really what is needed up front?), and then some "scrolls". A distinctly underwhelming initial offer of product. The digital "opportunity" as a GW player would be to have to carry fewer books, not need books AND my iPad just so I can try and "legally" use some scroll or whatever in a Warhammer game.
 |
| Watch out "Plants vs. Zombies" - here comes the Great Cave Squig! |
Of all the initial products, the only interesting one (and of any use for gaming) might be the codex. So I looked it up on the iBook store. The Codex is for sale for the light sum of $49.99 US. This is actually more than a paper codex - a small amount more, but still more. A bold attempt to deny the actual economics of how digital publishing actually "works". If any company would expect you to pay the same or more for a file over a print equivalent, it would be GW, right?
The other GW files are much less expensive than the codex - the "scrolls" are only 99 cents. That is still 99 cents more than they are worth, as they ad very little to the gaming experience. What do you need a scroll for???
No doubt the Space Marine i-Codex has some sort of alleged interactive benefit, which GW could allegedly claim would justify it being more expensive than the paper book. This is hilarious. If GW thinks I am going to pay MORE for an electronic codex, they have another thing coming. I'm not saying it should be free, or just 99 cents, but charging the same price as the print book, never mind slightly more, points to a rather fundamental misunderstanding of digital economics. Like every other business which has tried to tame the digital medium with this type of denial/defiance, this approach will serve only to drive more business toward the "waters off Tortuga", where GW has actually been "digital" for years.
GW is
hardly the only business to have seen its commercial assumptions blow-torched when applied to the reality of digital mediums. And I can imagine Apple must be a challenging company to deal with - after all, has anyone else managed to
push a company like AT&T around? Charging almost $20 for
individual figures is one thing - that debate is a spirited one, and who knows how it will play out in the long run. But if GW really thinks that "going digital" means another chance to toss off overpriced stuff, then it is another troubling sign that the geniuses behind "
145" are calling too many shots.
