The Future of the VTT?

[Aeolius]

SCOPE Augmented Reality System

Envision putting on a Head-Mounted Display, looking down at your mini on a battlemat, and seeing spell/weapon ranges, vision/lighting effects, obscurement/fog of war, and more. In addition to an "augmented mini" superimposed over your actual mini, there could be "virtual minis" for players gaming over the internet.

 

[Aeolius]

and now: Vuzix Wrap 920AR video eyewear at CES

 

[Felon]

Envision putting on a Head-Mounted Display, looking down at your mini on a battlemat, and seeing spell/weapon ranges, vision/lighting effects, obscurement/fog of war, and more. In addition to an "augmented mini" superimposed over your actual mini, there could be "virtual minis" for players gaming over the internet.

I get eyestrain just thinking about it.

In my current group, people want to drop physical terrain on the map just our wargaming host happens to have it. "Why draw trees on the mat when we just plop a couple dozen of these plastic ones on the table?" Inevitably, they cause hassles because the map really doesn't need to be that busy with character-obscuring elements. Terrain features should be kept simple so combatants can be kept track of easily.

 

[Nytmare]

People are still planning on a "future" for the VTT?

No one's gotten around to admitting that it's never going to happen?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

People are still planning on a "future" for the VTT?

No one's gotten around to admitting that it's never going to happen?

Huh? What's with GameTable, Fantasy Grounds and all those software I always hear about (and even use)?

Or are you talking about WotC offering that indeed doesn't exist?

 

[Felon]

People are still planning on a "future" for the VTT?

No one's gotten around to admitting that it's never going to happen?

Oh, it'll never happen. Nothing to be done about that.

But, what the diehad defenders can do is engage in some revisionism and act all like "What's the big deal? It's not like WotC ever promised it would actually happen. It's not like they made the VTT the centerpiece of their 4e presentation." Can't prove it now. All the video evidence gone.

 

[Merkuri]

I think some clarification is necessary here.

WotC's VTT is probably never going to happen. I don't think anybody in this thread is arguing about that.

WotC is not the first manufacturer to try to put out a VTT. There are plenty of other virtual tabletops out there, ones that actually exist and are in use. I play a game on one every week using MapTool.

 

[Nytmare]

For some ungodly reason, I've spent the last couple years thinking that the Virtual Tabletop was specifically what WOTC was calling their product. I don't know why my brain never clued into the fact that it was also used as the broad term for all the different online clients out there.