v.2 this..... v.2 that...... well its simple or is it!
1st thing I want to get one thing straight before I start
This is not a criticism of Ian, JD or Slitherine, they are in business and have to protect their copyright. If I mention "Piracy" it is not because I advocate it, as it destroys intellectual property and that is wrong morally and legally.
1. Digital vs Paper
lets get this straight at the start, I am old fashioned I prefer books (their feel and their smell), but I can see how in the case of the "FoG" rules that a living technical document is useful to correct errors. I however disagree with the idea that "DRM" can save the game system from piracy, it can't - look at Sony and what happened to Blu-ray, it was supposed to be unbreakable, but it isn't (see point 2).
Also what I and seemingly a number of other people object to is that we have to now lump a Laptop PC to competitions to play the game (because we refuse to get ripped off buying an iPad off Apple and its overpriced control freakery sales policy). Are organisers going to supply power for this? No is my answer.
The response from JD has been that a paper version will wend it's way along at some point, with no hint of a time scale for this what happens in the mean time...we end up with a mini schism, where some who can afford to be "ripped off by Apple" will want v2, and those who don't will want to play v1. Consequence is the competition experience is poorer as the player pools will be smaller, and the whole thing may put off the more casual players.
JD can we have a printing timescale please! and Ian please find a single platform solution that does not rely on having to leave an "Apple" for teacher
2. I said DRM was a waste of time, so what is my solution....
DRM is as you can no doubt tell is a pet hate of mine, it's control freakery at its worst level, and as I said even when millions if not billions of $ were thrown at the problem it still failed due to a nerd in a flat in Norway.
look at Sony and what happened to Blu-ray, it was supposed to be unbreakable, but it isn't
So what can Slitherine or any company do you may ask.....
Software companies seem to be now using internet access to control piracy of their games, systems like "Steam" I'm familiar with, but you cant do this with a real book.
However the advantage of a book is that a copy always looks like a copy, unless you spend a lot of money on it , so unless you are forging a Shakespeare 1st folio (I don't advocate forgery either btw), you may as well buy it off Amazon at their huge discounts (FoG was originally £25 but you could get it on Amazon for £17.50, which is where I bought mine) as it will save you money.
So what about the living document....I could offer a solution but some (most) won't like it and all 13 FoG-AM lists would need refreshing.
Give the rules away free as a living PDF, and get the costs of developing the rules back on the price of the lists.....At least that is an idea.
3. My favorite army list or troop type has been nerfed!!! (for those who's 1st language is not English- so this is for the Americans out there
that means "my army or troops has been negatively effected by some change") Get over it, it was done to keep things interesting and freshen up the system and on the whole make things a bit more even. Teleporting and slippery light troops have always been issues since the v.1 playtests, they had to go, may be some changes are over zelous and harm battle troops more than they should, but overall the changes are positive in my opinion.
That's it rant off
Spike
