Someone on BGG posted about wanting to put all their SotM cards into Cardwarden, an iOS app that purports to let you play card games on your iPad. It looks pretty full-featured, and seems like it could be a good option for solo play or when you want to play but don't have the room (in the car on a long trip with friends, for example), although it seems to be just fiddly enough that I can't imagine preferring to play using the app instead of physical cards if I have the space.
I see the potential for possible pirating of SotM if scans of all the cards were to make their way online (something which I know has already happened). It'd be a lot of work to get the many, many SotM cards into the app, but for $1.99 instead of over a hundred to buy all the sets, some might decide it's worth it.
Has anyone tried this app out?
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Where did you see this? Was it pirated 1st or 2nd Edition? Were Expansions included?
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
I don't want to say more than I should, but the fact that the >G guys are in possession of a photomosaic made up of scans of all (?) the cards in the game is evidence that these scans exist. If an unscrupulous soul were to come into possession of those scans, Cardwarden, an iPad, and a large amount of patience, it seems like they could play the game without paying >G for the privelege.
I think >G has said that at some point they plan on releasing an online catalog of every card in the game similar to what M:tG does. They've said that they think that wouldn't cause problems because it would cost more to print the cards yourself than to just purchase the game. But perhaps a digital solution like Cardwarden changes the calculus.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Ah. That could be from the playtesting board. >G put up sheets of proofs so that the playtesters could proofread and confirm any last minute updates. I doubt that they'll be used for evil anytime soon.
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
If scans of every card in the game were available, would that change your opinion?
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
What do you mean by available? As far as I know most, if not all, of the cards were put up at one point or another for playtesters to proofread.
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
You're just reiterating what I'm saying, that digital images of every card in the game exist online. And anything that exists online is possible/likely to be shared online (that's why you never want to text a nekkid picture of yourself, kids, even if your boyfriend swears he won't show it to anyone), which means that someone who cared enough could possibly get the files and use them to play the game using this app. I agree that the probability of this causing problems is low. I'm just pointing out that the possibility of it happening is non-zero, which means that someone, somewhere is going to try it.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Wait, you're saying I shouldn't have texted those nekkid pictures? Oh boy
Ok. NOW I understand what you're saying. I thought you were referring to someone who already posted up scans of every card for people to download.
Yes, it is possible. Will it happen? I hope not, but there is no guarantee. We just need one disinterested, careless, or opportunistic person to take advantage of their playtesting priveledges. I was just wanting to make sure that if there were scans up already for people to torrent that Greater Than Games would be alerted so they could attempt to remove them.
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
Do the playtesters get images though? You could get the whole game in terms of mechanics if not, but not the art... Still not great, but better.
(For the record, I'm the one who cropped all the images for the mosaic so I have access to the scans in question, but they're a private Dropbox thing, not online.)
“You gotta have blue hair."
-Reckless
So we've got the person who made the scans, and the person who cropped the images for the mosaic, and the people at the photomosaic shop, and perhaps even someone else who has access to quite a bit of SotM art (cough), maybe others, all of whom are paragons of virtue and who would never let the files go to anyone not completely trustworthy. So we're good...
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
We get the proofs, which are the images of what the sheets of cards look like before they're sent off to the printer. It's meant to proofread and make sure that everything is in its place for the final product. They aren't just text, but the actual cards as they will appear with art and everything.
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
For what it is worth, i did consider a lot fo this before, during, and even after I sent in the scans. After I got the preview, the only way to let other people see it was to make it public, which I didn't do without asking a moderator first. I have since disabled it, but this was a huge concern throughout the entire process.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
I can't speak for GTG, but my sense is that even if all the scans were somehow put into an electronic version of the game and that game was put online somewhere, it wouldn't eat either into sales of the physical game or even, were such a thing to be made, into sales of the electronic game.
Rather, I expect that it would be more likely to act as something of a loss-leader, letting more people know about the game than would otherwise and galvanizing (see what I did there?) more sales than it loses.
Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel
If that were true, why was the vassal module released only a partial copy?
EDIT: To be clear, I'm not really looking for an answer, merely pointing out an action that seems inconsistant with your reasoning.
I myself played SotM via vassal first, and doing so did not contribute to me buying it, that was always going to happen, but it did allow me to play a few games while waiting for my copy to arrive.
I have made a copy of the vassal game with all the cards for when I want to play but am traveling, I'm not going to distribute it so it's a not really a factor in this discussion, but it does mean there's at least one copy of the game out there that is completely electronic.
Stop lurking, it makes you look like a villain target
When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all
*cough* there has also been planned discussion by >G at cons and on the boards of them putting up an electronic database of all the cards available online. Print and Play would be a very likely possiblity at that point but I don't think they are concerened with it.
Lynkfox.
http://sentinelswiki.com/ The Sentinels of the Multiverse Wiki
http://mindwanderer.net/sotm/ - SoTM Statistics! Updated DAILY!
PM me if you're interested in playing with the Statistics Data!
Given that the cost of printer ink is as it is, it's cheaper to actually buy the game than try printing it out. And you get it on better stock, too.
G+ games: I am part of the 100%
Agreed.
What about an electronic version, though? As Matchstickman suggests, there is evidence of concern from GTG.
Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel
Now the hate i'm going to get from this ... but
Does anyone know if there is a version of this for android.... I'm flying over to gencon and the concept of being able to play sentinels all the while is a pretty good thought ...
(p.s. I own a copy of sentinels so it shouldn't hurt there bottom line if i get more excited about playing sentinels right?)