What is Arcane Wonders attitude towards Octgn?

[Charmyna]

The topic says it all. Is Arcane Wonders fine with us playing via Octgn?

Since there are a couple of posts mentioning Octgn for quite some time and they didnt intervene, I guess its tolerated. Octgn helps promoting Mage Wars and I met many players who tried MW via Octgn first and then decided to buy it since its more fun in real life.

[jacksmack]

Tbh i think they are hestitant to make an official stand point on this matter.

I believe they are somehow monitoring this and are probaly running ongoing evaluation on the impact they feel OCTGN has on their product.

[Stormmaster]

I would think (hope) that it would actually increase their sales.  As people try it out online that will make them want to buy the board game.  The board game version feels so much more "real" and maybe because I'm tactile I like hovering over that board and feeling like I'm part of the action in the arena.  Online is cool too though from the standpoint it gives you more people to play with, but it is a different feel.

If AW was wanting to get into the digital gaming and make their own server like MTGonline has now I could see that being an issue though for sure.

[reddawn]

Yeah OCTGN is ok and good for connecting with a spread-out community, but tabletop is more enjoyable and especially functional.  Navigating fanned cards gets on my nerves..

One of the most recent OCTGN updates basically made us "agree" that its consumers actually own the products they play, so there's that, but since there is no real way to enforce such a policy it's neither here nor there.

The other thing is that while I appreciate AW's PR optimistic stance on organized play, it's not the reality they make it out to be.  At this early point in MW, it's more a case of "any publicity is good publicity." Challenging a social resource that allows a relatively sparce, yet dedicated community to connect with each other (all of whom seem to own the real game and prefer IRL play anyway) wouldn't be the best move.

[Fentum]

I might actually prefer OCTGN as it is MUCH quicker.

No, no I was dreaming.

But it is still excellent.

There is no love from AW in the UK as yet, as far as I can see, so OCTGN is very useful for fidnong opponents.

[sIKE]

I might actually prefer OCTGN as it is MUCH quicker.

I played a 4 hour grind game on Sunday on Octgn. Walls and Traps oh my!

[Fentum]

I might actually prefer OCTGN as it is MUCH quicker.

I played a 4 hour grind game on Sunday on Octgn. Walls and Traps oh my!

Woulda been 6 IRL.

Just easier to set up and tear down really.

[calisk]

IMO they should have an official app anyway.

off-line play and online player are experiences a game like this should have, and could help grow the product.

octgn is just filling the void of their not being an official method to get it done.

[ringkichard]

The ease with which you say that assures me that you are not a programmer, nor in business.

[Fentum]

The ease with which you say that assures me that you are not a programmer, nor in business.

It IS easy to criticise from a position of inexpert laziness, such as my own (!), BUT as far as I am aware, a lone guy sorted out Mage Wars on OCTGN. Lone guys also create excellent boardgame modules for Vassal. I would think that AW could sort something really good out fairly easily in terms of resources. I can understand it if they have a strategic aversion to on line at the start of the game's life and are focussing on FTF.

I can't really get my head around the lack of any on line book building or game playing from AW. I play all my MW games on OCTGN, and it has / will encourage me to buy all the physical stuff.

[calisk]

The ease with which you say that assures me that you are not a programmer, nor in business.

I've been a professional programmer for 9 years, and a game designer for 6.

I'm not really sure what you think would be difficult about designing and developing a project like this. It seems like it would be any other project I've worked on before.

the only issue that would arrive with a mage wars online app honestly would be the low player count and small fan base resulting in either no return or a slow return, but that would be up for market research to decide on, really, thankfully octgn serves that purpose if enough people are playing it that it is an issue then their is indeed a market for it.

[wolf88]

The ease with which you say that assures me that you are not a programmer, nor in business.

I've been a professional programmer for 9 years, and a game designer for 6.

I'm not really sure what you think would be difficult about designing and developing a project like this. It seems like it would be any other project I've worked on before.

the only issue that would arrive with a mage wars online app honestly would be the low player count and small fan base resulting in either no return or a slow return, but that would be up for market research to decide on, really, thankfully octgn serves that purpose if enough people are playing it that it is an issue then their is indeed a market for it.

What kingrichard was snarkily trying to convey is that it's very probable that Arcane Wonders doesn't have the means to finance such a project and a partnership with an existing studio is probably difficult because of the high difficulty barrier of this game for average players.

I have to say that personally i would love to see Playdek work on this game.

[Fentum]

The ease with which you say that assures me that you are not a programmer, nor in business.

I've been a professional programmer for 9 years, and a game designer for 6.

I'm not really sure what you think would be difficult about designing and developing a project like this. It seems like it would be any other project I've worked on before.

the only issue that would arrive with a mage wars online app honestly would be the low player count and small fan base resulting in either no return or a slow return, but that would be up for market research to decide on, really, thankfully octgn serves that purpose if enough people are playing it that it is an issue then their is indeed a market for it.

What kingrichard was snarkily trying to convey is that it's very probable that Arcane Wonders doesn't have the means to finance such a project and a partnership with an existing studio is probably difficult because of the high difficulty barrier of this game for average players.

I have to say that personally i would love to see Playdek work on this game.

That's ringkichard and he ain't no snark, generally.

[ringkichard]

I'm reminded of the fiasco that was the release of Privateer Press's army calculator for Warmachine. They managed to do real harm to their brand with that, and they're far larger and better established than Arcane Wonders.
Just pushing a poor quality something out through a contractor is one option, but getting it right is an investment. If 6 hobiests crank out six independent solutions, and one of them is good, all everyone remembers is that a hobiest solved the problem in his or her free time. If a company with established IP tries to cheap out and hire a bedroom programmer to put out a quick product, all they'll get is a 1/6 chance of success.

Magic the Gathering Online (for example) is a big undertaking by a serious group of professionals,  and while Mage Wars would likely be simpler, it would still be significant labor to get right. I don't know if Alex has the rules nailed down so tightly that a program could handle all card interactions procedurally, but I do know that's a moving target anyway, that gets more difficult with each released set. Wizards of the Coast employs a full time rules manager and the full MtG rulebook is 192 pages long. That's the kind of specificity required to automate a game.

Rules are hard, is what I'm saying, and Arcane Wonders isn't a software company.

 Software's hard too. Even simple seeming software is hard. Professionally project managed software is so routinely late and overbudget that the accepted method of setting the schedule for a project would be to plan out the time required for each part of the task and then to double it... except that when managers do that it still takes twice what they planned. In-house software development is no place for amateurs. I can think of few things more potentially ruinous to a small game business than independent software development.

I don't mean that the task would be impossible: there are some games coming from small studios of comparable complexity: Tyrant comes to mind. But possible and trivial are very, very, different things. It would be a major business undertaking, and I'm astonished a professional programmer would think otherwise. Even something as bare bones as OCTGN is passing the hat trying to get their network code rewritten.

[jacksmack]

AFAIK Octgn automated two things... Channeling and Change of initiative.

Both very simple - though its nice that they programmed harmonize on Spawnpoints and Familiars and the total Outpost count for Barracks.