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Old 10-17-2024, 12:00 AM   #1
RoboAdmin
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Default October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

Read this article on the Illuminator.
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Old 10-17-2024, 07:44 AM   #2
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Default Re: October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

Fear of this has kept me from buying some games. I'm wondering how many "lost" games there are out there now.
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Old 10-17-2024, 11:16 AM   #3
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Default Re: October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

Wait wait wait. How old and out of touch am I that I didn't know there were board games that needed some kind of online service or app functionality? I mean, things like the Dark Tower remake needing a substitute for the old electronic components make sense, but the idea that any other board game isn't already fully offline by design just freaks me out.

This is a problem with video games, as I'm sure everybody knows. Once video games stopped being primarily narrative experiences (like a film) and started making more money in multiplayer experiences (like pickup basketball) it became necessary to have the online spaces to gather. Even that started off more public in that people could connect their computers or game systems directly together, rather than being clients talking to an online service that could go away at any time.

What are these lost board games that don't work anymore? Are we in a state to be able to duplicate the online functions ourselves with less software, or no electronics at all? Any chance that those games had open-source components that could be forked off and maintained by the players?
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Old 10-17-2024, 02:56 PM   #4
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Default Re: October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

After much fanfare and hype, it is rather sad the the world of 'Connected Things' is turning out to be a rather dystopian place. It is turning out that the only winning move is not to play in the Internet of Things(IOT) world unless you have a strong pain tolerance. Board Games are a new addition to the list that includes home appliances, smart TVs, connected cars, health monitors, automated cat boxes and home automation as things that have been rendered useless or less functional when the required remote server dies.

As always, buyer beware and do your research. And if a game app dies, maybe the physical parts can be repurposed.
GM - "You open the door and the room is huge. On the floor are these strange markings. Large squares with odd writing and weird symbols..."
Player 1 - "I step into the room."
GM (rolls 2 dice) "You move 7 squares along the outside wall and ...."
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Old 10-18-2024, 09:17 AM   #5
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Default Re: October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

I remember watching a YouTube video of a board game playthrough with an online app needed to play it. (Maybe an XCom board game?)

and wondered just how popular the inclusion of an app necessary to play it was in board games.

Googled and quickly found some ranking lists of some board games that looked very good that need an app to play. (some it appeared the app just managed inventory and or turn phases, some were the Choose you Adventure type games where choices led you down a different path.)

I think it would be incredible frustrating to have a game I could no longer play because the companion app necessary to play had stopped working or the company that made it stopped supporting it.

I tried looking for an examples, but my Google-fu is poor and could not find any.

Can you list what game(s) you discovered you could not play any more cause the app went poof.

Thanks,
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Old 10-22-2024, 10:43 AM   #6
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Default Re: October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

Another consideration of app-required games is that you can't tweak them. If the computer (and/or an online service) is needed for play, you are restricted to playing the game exactly as the publisher wants you to play it, or using the bits for an entirely different game.

I don't track this stuff in any detail because I don't buy those games in the first place; if I wanted to play a computer game, I'd play a computer game. One of the reasons I play board games (and RPGs) is to take a break from the very online rest of my life.
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Old 10-22-2024, 11:53 AM   #7
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Default Re: October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

Quote:
Originally Posted by kkc View Post
Wait wait wait. How old and out of touch am I that I didn't know there were board games that needed some kind of online service or app functionality?
As a relevant comparison, I am so old and out of touch that I have a flip-phone, with buttons, that is able to make and receive calls. It might also have SMS functionality, I haven't checked, because I don't anticipate needing that.

I yell at clouds sometimes, not to tell them to get out off my yard, but just to do their damn jobs and block the evil rays of the blazing nuclear reactor out there burning out skin and making us feel way too warm, especially as you get too near the equatorial region, with 'too near', at least in the summertime, defined, increasingly, as 'anywhere not near the North or South Pole'.

I have no social media and this is the only forum I can remember using. The only reason my username is not my actual name is that the system wouldn't allow it, with the length and Icelandic characters.

All years that start with the number 20- sound made up, because we're living through dates that the science-fiction writers of my youth decided sounded 'future-y' enough for their purposes.

As I was writing this list, I thought of Bull Durham and that great speech given by Kevin Costner's character in that movie. I want to say that his character is named 'Bull Durham', but he probably wasn't. Tim Robbins was the young hotshot they called 'Nuke'.

Anyway, that was a great speech. It's been longer since I saw that movie than the length of time some people have been alive and those people think they are adults now. I think of that sometimes, when people praise the virtues of democracy.

I think about a lot of things, actually, but democracy isn't all that great. It's just that we haven't found an alternative yet and while a Council of Elders sounds good in theory, they'd run out of steam pretty quickly and whoever picked new Elders would actually be ruling, just on a slight time delay, while they wait until another Elder dies. Huh, that actually sounds like the Supreme Court. Somebody is going to have to go yell at clouds some more.

Mickey Mouse has a best friend, Goofy, who is an anthropomorphic dog. The House of Mouse can call him an anthropomorphic 'canine' all they like, but that dog won't hunt, if you'll pardon the pun. Goofy is not a wolf, coyote or dingo. That's an anthropomorphic dog and you know it. So what the ever-loving-____ is going on with Pluto?

You got two dogs and one of them gets to wear clothes and be your best friend, but the other one wears a leash and sleeps outside? Mickey Mouse is in a polyamorous BDSM relationship, and while we should be happy to see Disney break free of their heteronormative chains, we should also get to see Pluto's informed consent to be treated like a pet instead of a person, because it looks to me like that is an abusive relationship and it doesn't matter how many people are in it, abuse is not cool, Mickey Mouse.

And the other Pluto, you know what I'm talking about, that Pluto is a planet. You already granted it planet status. It was already living like someone on a planet salary. You can't just unilaterally revoke a thing like that. The Plutos of the world need justice.

Sometimes when young people talk, I think they're making up nonsense words just to aggravate and confuse listeners over some arbitrary age? Thirty? Forty? How young do you have to be to understand what the youngs are saying?

You could tell me that the iPhone is in the Fifth Generation or the Fiftieth and I'd honestly believe either one, because I wouldn't recognize one if I saw it. All smartphones honestly look the same to me. A smudged screen, a battery too small to power a whole day of use, and an overall size too big to actually work very well as a cell phone.

I don't celebrate my birthdate, because, out of all my accomplishments, something someone else did doesn't really feel like it's worth it. Just lift a glass to me and nod companionably. Not, like, on any specific date or anything, but occasionally. That way, I can imagine you're celebrating something I actually did.

I think my body is out of warranty, because more or less every system crashed at the same time. Clearly, I was a prototype of some sort, as that wiring definitely didn't pass any safety inspection. Maybe a shop model, modified to look like Hagrid's scruffy older brother.

With all that in mind, you are older and more out of touch than I am. Not only did I know about board games that require computers, but I've played them. Several of them, in fact. I think Mansions and Madness is one. We've played that more times than I can remember.
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Old 10-22-2024, 12:47 PM   #8
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Default Re: October 17, 2024: Offline Gaming Is Good!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
With all that in mind, you are older and more out of touch than I am. Not only did I know about board games that require computers, but I've played them. Several of them, in fact. I think Mansions and Madness is one. We've played that more times than I can remember.
It genuinely eludes me. I remember observing that the random number generation of Quest for the Rings (the board game you played on the Magnavox Odyssey 2 game system) was essentially just functioning as a GM or referee and that the function could easily be replaced by a human being. And we've always had small handheld electronics as substitutes for dice or paper records, but in general we've always been able to fall back to non-electronic methods when the power is out or when the machine stops working.

It might make a difference too that my preferences have always skewed towards the historical wargames, which means that a lot of what I play (and buy) are games from thirty years ago that would never have been designed with an app as a required component. So in addition to being elderly I've also got some severe sampling bias going on too.
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