Re: (TFT) Surfacescapes (demo)

[Richard Walters <rick.walters@yahoo.com>]

It's undoubtedly very cool, and truly represents a lot of effort to design and create.  However, I think that the concept of a tabletop computer game is fundamentally flawed.  If you have everyone together in one room it seems kinda nutty to me to spend what must be loads of cash on a tabletop computer/touch-screen when you could very inexpensively achieve the same thing with a piece of paper, figures and dice.  Just seems they're missing the appeal of miniatures and dice.  Miniatures are personal possessions which quite a few people take great care to paint and display.  And holding a die in your hand somehow conveys a sense that you're in control.  If you just flip your hand backwards this time with a snap.. then bingo, big damage.

So in short, I think it just goes too far toward the world of video gaming.  And, in that arena, it's actually slow and outdated.  Why roll dice at all when everyone could have a joystick and the action could be real time.  

If I were to design an interface for roleplay gaming, I'd start with a webapp that allowed people to take turns from wherever around the world.  And, if the app did nothing more than provide a shared hexmap, turn notification, icons, dice and GM control; then I think it would be a big smash hit.  The allure to roleplay games is total creative control by the GM and players. The opposite of this is a world where people react to an environment that is almost entirely computer controlled.  

I think that people making these games need to concentrate on enabling GM's to tell better stories.  So, in the demo, the thing I found the most compelling was the ability to insert a slideshow.  

All this said, I bet someone will buy it.  It has a high cool factor.

Good Fortune,
Richard


----- Original Message ----
From: Cris Fuhrman <fuhrmanator@gmail.com>
To: tft@brainiac.com
Sent: Tue, October 20, 2009 3:01:12 PM
Subject: (TFT) Surfacescapes (demo)

Ok, this is for another game (whose acronym shall remain nameless) using a
Microsoft technology, but it's cool nonetheless:

http://vimeo.com/7132858

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