DnD on Microsoft Surface Update

[Dausuul]

Eh... My parent back in the day paid over 10k for their plasma TV... Expensive it is, but not too far outside the realm of early adopter price.

What I think is the thing needs to find its niche before it really catches on though.

At its current price level, the niche is business; executives using it for boardroom meetings. I imagine it could also see use in the military, for planning strategy and running wargames (the kind that simulate actual modern war).

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

The die roller sucks and should be taken out or sped up and/or replaced with real dice. There is something about rolling real dice that is far more gratifying than virtual dice. Just having the numbers show up is anti-climactic.

Indeed. Even people who don't like board games often like throwing dice.

And some optional flashiness is needed to reinforce how those rolls impact the game. Roll a real die across the table, with the sides ID'd the same way the tokens and miniatures are. Table reads die and immediately displays the relevant number in a large font. Larger and flashing with triumphant sound effects if it's max value, darker and with "uh oh!" noises or something if you roll a 1. Immediate audio-visual feedback on whether or not you even hit is a nice feature for reeling in newbies.

Yes, I know, half the people reading this are rolling their eyes at the cheese. Here's a free secret: People Love Cheese. It's delicious.

Turn off the sound effects a couple sessions in when everyone is bored with them. New people will like the immediate gratification (or dis-gratification, as the case may be).

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

At its current price level, its niche is early adopters. It is no more or less ridiculous than Plasma TVs were when they were new. Those were in living rooms, not board rooms.

EDIT: Also, it is NOT 10 years out. There are development kits out for people to make software already. Therefore, this is closer than the next generation of video game consoles, which would be expected around 2012 or so if recent trends continue.

 

[Derren]

At its current price level, its niche is early adopters. It is no more or less ridiculous than Plasma TVs were when they were new. Those were in living rooms, not board rooms.

Numer of early adopters willing to spend lots of money who watch TV >>>>> Numer of early adopters willing to spend lots of money who play D&D

And you only need one table per gaming group, so even less customers.

And 10 years would be quick. LCDs and Plasma TVs needed longer from prototypes to reaching a significant market share. And they didn't need special software written for them like surface.

 

[Treebore]

The things throws spells, with sound effects! I will be buying one as soon as it gets to a price I am willing to pay, and assuming the software isn't game specific.

I am far from being a one system elitist, I would want to be able to play any RPG on it, without having to buy software specific to doing that particular game. So I won't be buying it until I can play Shadowrun, L5R, Traveller, Starblazers, Castles and Crusades, AD&D, Basic D&D, Mutants and Masterminds, True 20, Pathfinder, 3E, 4E, Heroes 6th, Paranoia, Runequest 2, etc... on it without needing to buy 100's or thousands of dollars worth of additional software to do so. If that is needed my table, vinyl maps, Paizo maps, and WOTC tile maps work just fine. Plus the price is just right, already bought.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I reckon surface could be consumer ready in 5 years or less if there is an application that would appeal to consumers that would really fly under the MS Surface UI.

Only thing I could see would be a MMO wargame. Star Trek or Star Wars. With Surface and Multitouch you could have the bridge of the Enterprise and all stations represented and not all the users need be in the same room. Though I have no idea of the market size, it might just be me


RPG, RTS all in one. It would also work for D&D, here the advantage would be not all players need be physically present at the gametable but the ones that are do not need a pc each. Is it worth it for WoTC to put money into it. I have no idea on that one.

Still I expect more use initially for touch screens before the average dude is using something like surface.

 

[Nymrohd]

Numer of early adopters willing to spend lots of money who watch TV >>>>> Numer of early adopters willing to spend lots of money who play D&D

And you only need one table per gaming group, so even less customers.

And 10 years would be quick. LCDs and Plasma TVs needed longer from prototypes to reaching a significant market share. And they didn't need special software written for them like surface.

Bad comparison really. The early adopter price applies to Microsoft Surface, not whatever software would run D&D on it. And Microsoft Surface has a far broader potential than serving as a battlemat as you yourself said. You should be comparing people who watch TV with people who may be interested in any application that can be run on Microsoft Surface. I suspect TV would still win, but the margin would not be as wide.

 

[mudbunny]

his is a tech demo. The MS Surface guys pretty much said to the design team "Make some3thing cool" and, being geeks, they did D&D on it. Now, keeping in mind that the target audience of this is other geeks, this is a nice little viral marketing that they are doing. Somewhere out there is a geek who will see that and go ":this will enable me to do XXXX so much faster".

 

[Derren]

RPG, RTS all in one. It would also work for D&D, here the advantage would be not all players need be physically present at the gametable but the ones that are do not need a pc each. Is it worth it for WoTC to put money into it. I have no idea on that one.

Still I expect more use initially for touch screens before the average dude is using something like surface.

Actually, surface wouldn't be that ideal for gaming purposes. RTS and RPGs, yes. But that are rather niche markets. Most other genres would work rather badly on surface. Its the same problem with the Wii. Big Hype about its new controller, but hardly any games for it as motion controll doesn't work well with most of them.

If surface gains a significant market share, WotC will likely try to make software for it (But considering that they didn't manage to do the VTT, its open if they will succeed). But before that nothing will happen.
And imo, surface does not enhance the functionality of computers so much for the common user as that this is certain. Imo it will stay a niche product and thus unatractive for WotC. But maybe someone will create a free PnP programm for it like maptools.

 

[Scribble]

At its current price level, its niche is early adopters. It is no more or less ridiculous than Plasma TVs were when they were new. Those were in living rooms, not board rooms.

EDIT: Also, it is NOT 10 years out. There are development kits out for people to make software already. Therefore, this is closer than the next generation of video game consoles, which would be expected around 2012 or so if recent trends continue.

Plasma TVs were an easy early adopter trend:

They were something people already knew a lot about: TV, and they offered an added benefit: lighter then the standard TV of the same size, better able to fit in more places, and they offered the ability to view HD.

The trouble with this thing is it's sort of like a computer, with not that much software right now, has a new interface that despite claims of "more intuitive" will still need to be learned, and it's gigantic.

What does it really offer the common guy (not the techie) that makes life easier? What does it have over existing tech that's already "good enough?"

I think the concept is awesome, and has the potential to be a very prevalent piece of equipment... I just think the current incarnation is, well less then desirable, and as such while it very well might catch on, it's going to be much slower then say the plasma TV.