An interesting situation is developing (or about to develop) for the NZ Gaming scene. Games Workshop is flooding the market with a whole lot of downloadable content.
This content includes new riles for both Fantasy and more prevalently 40k through the Battle Scroll and Data Slate mediums. These rules are fully official and released for inclusion in your GW games.
There is only one problem. In a lot of cases the only release mechanism is digital which means you can't walk into your local store and buy it. In fact you may not even be aware that new rules have been released. Some material eventually finds it's way to a physical release but not all. Also with automatic update available it may be that some download updates while others don't potentially creating problems where people are playing with different versions.
To complicate matters further no GW DLC is available for Apple devices here in New Zealand. Therefore a dichotomy exists between owners of various electronic devices. This arises due to Apple /GW take on NZ copyright law.
Now none of this is insurmountable, however it is something for TOs to be aware of when they are looking at what is "legal" at their events. In the past it has always been 30 days after physical release but such "conventions" may need to be revisited for DLC.
How is FoB-Lite comp going to handle the scrolls? Particularly Mr Be'Lakor?
ReplyDeleteUgh DLC, a term i thought would have stayed with video gaming. Most video game companies are bad at pricing DLC correctly, so i shudder to think what GW's pricing will be for its DLC after the current spate is over
ReplyDeleteDon't know James. I don't think his rules are two bad and I think he might offer variety in a DoC list. My concern is accessibility for people to his rules.
ReplyDeleteThis is GW trailing micro-transactions. In every other instance where micro-transactions have been sucessfull, it has devolved into either "pay full price for a partially finished product, now pay more to complete it" or "pay to win". Unless they radically break from the pattern and don't follow suite, the hobby is in for a rocky future.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing anyone can do right now is buy these dataslates/scrolls and show support for the notion. Urrrgghh.
Curious to hear your thoughts on D weapons and super heavies showing up in normal games?
DeleteI tend to agree. As much as I like the idea of mid cycle updates (eg the Terrorgiest) or fun hobby-orientated expansions, it does paint an awkward future for major addition updates.
DeleteThe last thing I want is a "basic" rules pack followed by "advanced rules" that are essential to the operation of the game...
Warhammer has never been a tournament game in design so it will be interesting to see how the tournament scene internationally adopts to a micro-transaction release schedule (assuming this is the case of course).
Joel v
trialling even, damn it.
ReplyDelete