Umbran said:I think the whole map-projection thing is, as we'd say in my business, "technically sweet", but the sales pitches aren't working for me.
What is your time worth? We're talking about on the order of an $800 setup. Even if you say your time is worth $10/hour, you have to get to saving 80 hours of time before this comes up a win. And, of course, the setup is useless if you're a DM who likes to "wing it". If you aren't going to put in hours ahead of time making up maps (which is also cutting into your time saved), this is not a win.
Umbran said:What is your time worth? We're talking about on the order of an $800 setup. Even if you say your time is worth $10/hour, you have to get to saving 80 hours of time before this comes up a win.
We spotted palm-sized projectors from the likes of Mitsubishi (shown in photo, InFocus, BenQ, Samsung and LG Electronics. All appear to be based upon using a 0.55-inch SVGA DLP chip set and have light output in the 10 to 30 lumens range. The InFocus, Samsung and BenQ units were concept products. Mitsubishi plans to sell its pocket projector for $599, and $699 with an optional battery. This seems like a very low price to us. The unit is very small and weighs only 400 grams. Brightness may be good enough for a 10 to15-inch image, but it is unclear if consumers will use such a product yet
Umbran said:And, of course, the setup is useless if you're a DM who likes to "wing it". If you aren't going to put in hours ahead of time making up maps (which is also cutting into your time saved), this is not a win.
We are also looking at enjoyment. If a setup like this improves your gaming experience, it's not just about time saved.Boredflak said:$10/hour is pretty low. That's only about 20k per year. We're all family men in my game. I'd say our average income is at least double that, but let's still use $10/hour.
Don't forget that for a "standard" party of four, you have five people sitting at the table. That's $50/hour (at $10/each). Now we're talking 16 hours of game-time savings to "come up a win". That's about three game sessions for us.
With all of the demands on my time, it's well worth it to me.