I see FFG and Amodee have announced the formation of Fantasy Flight Interactive .

This could mean we see some interesting digital developments for the likes of Legion in the future?

Expect cease an desist orders on vassal and the legion fan made sim in short order....

Quite!

5 hours ago, Ralgon said:

Expect cease an desist orders on vassal and the legion fan made sim in short order....

Table Top Simulator as well.

Legion as a Star Wars game is in a strange space for digital because of the way digital content has been seen in the past.

That said, hypothetically what digital media could Legion benefit from? Army building will see several web sites and apps in a few months, dice rolling will probably be included in the dice app. About the only Legion thing I could think of is a campaign system, which could be great fun as the internal workings can be kept as a mystery from players.

I also like X-Com and World of Yo-Ho as two digital games that have physical components, not because World of Yo-Ho is a good game, but because of the concepts potential. But digital re-prints of existing board games don't explore that potential, yes I enjoy these games when I don't have an opponent handy but when I do pass and play isn't going to cut it.

Wish the dice app was the first thing to be fixed but now I am comparing apples to oranges

15 hours ago, Ralgon said:

Expect cease an desist orders on vassal and the legion fan made sim in short order....

I am honestly surprised that they haven't done so already. But the question is do the existing platforms hurt or help sales?

I hope to see an official program, but it will probably have monetized ships and upgrade cards. Maybe you get some for free, then "unlock" others by playing or just buy them out right. It would be nice to have cross platform support for PCs and tablets with AI and PvP options. Include the missions that have come with ships as well.

Just now, HaranHaste said:

I am honestly surprised that they haven't done so already. But the question is do the existing platforms hurt or help sales?

I hope to see an official program, but it will probably have monetized ships and upgrade cards. Maybe you get some for free, then "unlock" others by playing or just buy them out right. It would be nice to have cross platform support for PCs and tablets with AI and PvP options. Include the missions that have come with ships as well.

up until now it has helped, but now they are moving into competing space they have no choice. If they allow it to continue they risk allowing for profit clones of any software they create legally arguable space to operate.

Such is the nature of ip law.

On 10/24/2017 at 3:37 PM, Ralgon said:

Expect cease an desist orders on vassal and the legion fan made sim in short order....

Assuming it matters. FFG may not be allowed to make Star Wars video games, at least that's always been the case before. The license is for table top games, and the 1980s wording of the license is weird that even things like a PDF of an RPG rulebook is classified as an electronic game, not a table top game. Suspect it's the same deal here...

1 hour ago, Ghostofman said:

Assuming it matters. FFG may not be allowed to make Star Wars video games, at least that's always been the case before. The license is for table top games, and the 1980s wording of the license is weird that even things like a PDF of an RPG rulebook is classified as an electronic game, not a table top game. Suspect it's the same deal here...

Show me the text of the existing license please to support your statement.

This has been stated over and over again and yet no one can prove it.

They're making an IA app forcryinoutloud.

44 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

Show me the text of the existing license please to support your statement.

This has been stated over and over again and yet no one can prove it.

They're making an IA app forcryinoutloud.

EA has exclusive rights for star wars video games. This is widely known and you have google. There are rumors the AI app is in legal limbo right now and that is the reason it isn't out yet. We don't know what kind of deal has been made/needs to be made to get the AI app out as nothing is publicly known about this. We do know that app isn't out. As with all software - vaporware until release.

With that said, there is always a deal to be made and it will be made if Disney says the deal is going to be made. SW is a cash cow for EA and they won't do anything to upset that relationship. However there is nothing that says this digital company will produce star wars games. FFG has many other games to translate into the digital realm and they may use this to augment their board games rather than replace them.

5 hours ago, Mep said:

There are rumors the AI app is in legal limbo right now and that is the reason it isn't out yet. We don't know what kind of deal has been made/needs to be made to get the AI app out as nothing is publicly known about this.

See, a key word here is 'rumors', not facts. People continue to quote and regurgitate rumors from folks who have no idea and discuss them in such a way to seem like the truth. As far as facts and official words, FF has said at GenCon '17 in August the app is in play-testing and definitely being released.

They went on to say that coding and testing have proved more challenging then expected, leading to delays. This statement leads me to believe the app is significantly different from the Road to Legend App for Descent. If it was a 'copy/paste' of the functionality, probably would've been much faster. I still believe it will rely heavily on TT componets, like RtL.

In terms of the EA exclusivity, frankly, no one outside of the company knows the specifics and how it applies to companion apps. The dice app is on sale and hasn't been removed, so it clearly isn't 'all Star Wars electronic applications'. And to claim that "Road to Legend" (assuming IA has similar reliance on TT components), is an electronic game is stretching the definition of game.

FF has proven to be more reliable than other game companies (especially video game companies) in details of upcoming releases. They are tight-lipped, but I cannot recall them ever being outright dishonest. If they say it's coming, it's coming. I'd bet my salary on that, if'n I was a bettin' man.

What gibby290 said.

Rumors =/= facts.

Unless you've got a copy of the FFG license agreement you can point to or some sort of cease and desist from EA or Disney then please repeating this nonsense.

8 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

Show me the text of the existing license please to support your statement.

WotC did an explanation of the license restrictions on the O66 podcast.

FFG has been following the same guidance, but has also been pushing it further. More free PDFs (which WotC explained counted as"promotional materials" and got a pass) dice apps, so on. But we still haven't gotten anything suggesting the license agreement has actually changed, just that FFG has taken the time to really deep dive into it and see how far they can go before EA complains.

Which leads to...

8 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

They're making an IA app forcryinoutloud.

Making it doesn't matter as much as what it does and how much it'll cost. You seem to be proposing the app will be an electronic version of IA, which I doubt.

"Electronic Promotional Materials" are allowed, so if it's free and doesn't offset the game, we know that's allowed, WotC plain out said so in the interview.

The dice roller is also going fine, so apps that support, but don't replace a full physical product are apparently ok.

And X-wing and Armada have their rules in PDF format, but the RPG doesn't. So PDF of rulebooks to games that require significant additional physical products seems ok, but not PDFs of rulebooks that only require dice are still forbidden. (And the X-wing and Armada PDFs are free, so promotional materials)

So trying to say the license agreement changed because there's a rumored app coming is premature.

If the app is a digital form of IA and doesn't have EA branding on the splash screen... Yeah things have changed, and that's big news.

If it is IA in digital form, and has EA branding, then nothing changed, but FFG cut a deal.

If the app is just a play support tool, and you still need almost everything else they already require to play, then nothing has changed and FFG is just being more aggressive about pushing the limits of the license agreement. In which case, good on them for doing so, but not big news.

They don't do PDFs of the RPG because then people wouldn't buy the books.

I know this because I've played other RPGs with PDF versions and half of the people at the table didn't buy a book, they just got a pdf off a file sharing site or from someone else at the table. That's just FFG playing smart. Seriously, this is just the absolute easiest and most logical explanation of why the RPG doesn't have official .pdf versions. File sharing is rampant, digital media theft is a huge problem in entertainment publishing and players will do everything they can to pay less or not pay at all for game resources.

I'm saying that people keep talking about a licensing agreement that they haven't seen and don't actual know the details of. WotC had their own licensing agreement. FFG has theirs.

I'm also quite comfortable predicting that the app will be free and that they will release DLC missions in the future at a price, just like they've done for Mansions of Madness and Descent.

I'm also not implying that FFG is going to release a video game in the future. I am saying that there's a lot of armchair lawyers that have relied on an explanation of why they can't get a pdf of a book that doesn't make them think "yeah, I'd probably steal that too" and have then projected a lot of implied meaning onto that explanation with no basis in fact.

But FFG did do pdfs of all of their end of the world rpgs

2 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

They don't do PDFs of the RPG because then people wouldn't buy the books.

So ask. Send an email to the FFG public relations/ customer service line and ask if it's true they are light on digital Star Wars content because of the license agreement.

If you learn something new you'll have something to share. If you find out the license agreement was never updated and just recycled when LFL put it up for bid, you'll know for sure.

Arguing about it on the forums isn't going to get you anywhere because we've been down this rabbit hole so many times...

30 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

Arguing about it on the forums isn't going to get you anywhere because we've been down this rabbit hole so many times...

A man who speaks sense.