Ward Batty: Hot for the Entertaible

The Entertaible system that Philips rolled out at the CES has generated a lot of media buzz as well as discussions online from the boardgame community. Many seem skeptical. Not me. Here’s why.

I see lots of advantages of this system. The chance to try new games inexpensively, for starters. How many games do you buy and play maybe 5 times or less and then trade away? For me (especially since I like to try and have the new), this is often the case.

One comment I’ve seen from gamers is that gamers love bits and playing a game with generic bits isn’t the same. This may be true, although most games already have “generic” bits, basic pawns, cubes, etc. Maybe you would try the game with your generic bits and then if you like it, buy the official bits from the publisher. There would also be a market for generic bits that would certainly lead some folks to want high-end, customized bits they can use. If the system gains acceptance, someone will be happy to provide nice bits, if there is a market. I know some game stores make more selling dice to Role-Playing Games players than the RPGs.

I imagine the Entertaible will (eventually?) have the ability to communicate with other units, probably via the internet. This might create opportunities for something of an online/in-person hybrid. As other technology improves, it might be possible to have four people in four locations sit down and all play a game “together” using the game unit and videophones.  Not as good for in person, but you could play with folks with whom you couldn’t otherwise.

Depending on how the software is distributed, this could do for game designers what podcasting does; create an effective method to distribute a game directly.

In terms of the 3-tier business structure of the game industry, I think it will change everything in the long-term. A lot will depend on how the game software is marketed. Maybe you get a disc with the game along with a rule-book (although the game should come with a demo that would teach the game using the board) and maybe some bits. I assume you’ll be able to download games as well, at some point.

Also, I think this is just the beginning of this technology. Having an electronic board/screen that you could fold up and take with you isn’t a whole decade away. Why carry 50 games when you can carry a boardgame system that can play any of 50 games?

Designers will expand the games they create to make full use of the system. There was (I can’t find it now) an online game called Sumo that was En Garde, but had a more elegant system for determining how far you got pushed. However, the he formula used to determine the pushing in Sumo it wouldn’t work without a computer to do it. Think of how smoothly something like Breaking Away would play on something like this. No more counting, now you can see your choices (this board will have the ability to show individual players information just for them) your movement choices. I love Breaking Away, and our group is good at the accounting, but on the Entertaible, Breaking Away would feel much more natural and have a better flow.

I also think it will make developing and play-testing a game a lot easier.

Boardgames were headed in this direction anyway, but having a major player like Philips involved is going to really move the process along. Even if this first stab at it fails, I think the merging of electronics and boardgames is a certainty, long-term.

Designers are a lot more hemmed-in by the limitations of production and price than we realize. Freed from these constraints, I think the imaginations of designers will be able to soar, and we, the gamers, will be the lucky recipients.

© 2006 Ward Batty

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Comments:

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I’m still skeptical, Ward.  Isn’t it more likely that the system will support mass marketed games, rather than niche ones like ours?  And is there sufficient incentive for publishers to provide their designs to it?  I agree that the system would be a marvelous tool for designers and developers, but that would require that the tools necessary to fully program the device would be provided to them--will that happen?  It’s a nice dream, but it may take a long time to happen and, more for economic reasons than technological ones, it may never occur. Posted by Larry Levy on Jan 15, 2006 at 12:05 AM | #

The existence of numerous websites hosting backgammon, euchre, chess, go, etc. hasn’t stopped us from developing websites for playing Wallenstein, Euphrate and Tigris, Puerto Rico, and more.  The omnipresence of Monopoly games in the computer gaming section of Best Buy hasn’t stopped us from developing hundreds of game packs for CyberBoard, ADC2 and VASSAL. I think Ward has it right.  It may be true that Phillips Entertaible will be pushing mass marketed games, but that won’t stop us from creating and implementing our own versions of the Entertaible.  I, for one, look forward to RFID chips in my game bits and liquid crystal displays in my game boards! Posted by Chris Shaffer on Jan 18, 2006 at 03:03 PM | #

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