X-COM Enemy Unknown FFG boardgame.

HA HA! Oh man...that was just mean...

SebastianBludd wrote:

The only X-Com game I would be interested in would be one that was like Descent: The Road to Legend where you have tactical missions on maps that are separate from the world map. I'd tweak the X-Com paradigm a bit and make it more cynical where each player represents the head of a privatized military force vying for a chance to be the sole firm contracted to defend earth against the alien menace. That way players could alternate playing their team and the aliens while still having an incentive to play for keeps as the aliens (i.e., if you do well as the aliens then you get a bonus for your X-Com squad).

The gamer coworker and I were kicking that idea around, where you dive into a tactical sort of game during missions. But that feels like it would take _longer_ than the actual PC game did. I bet that you (or the iPad) just roll dice. "I brought three grunts, a heavy cannon, a medic, and a sniper, armed like so. The aliens brought their usual Terror mission gang. We asked the iPad, and the mission was completed successfully. Two of the squad were injured and one of the grunts was killed."

While I do think that think this looks like utter crap, I would like to point out that this is by Eric M. Lang. The guy has done a number of really fucking good games. It's not enough to get me interested, but I guess there is the chance that this might turn out ok...though that's looking like really slim chances.

I just don't get the point why I'd play a tactical XCOM board game rather than, you know, just play XCOM on my PC.

And FFG is not going to make a tactical XCOM game. Not in 5 years...

This is probably going to be more controversial but also potentially much more innovative...Iello is doing a pirate game where your phone is literally the piece you put on the map that represents your ship. Battles between ships are fully animated. It uses Bluetooth to exchange information between ships.

This is way the fuck more interesting than XCOM- far more experimental and forward thinking. But the "well, what if I don't have a smartphone crowd" is going to slip their shit.

What if my phone's battery dies mid-game? Is there a rule that covers that eventuality? If not, this game is HOPELESSLY BROKEN.

Chaz wrote: What if my phone's battery dies mid-game? Is there a rule that covers that eventuality? If not, this game is HOPELESSLY BROKEN.

I'm not sure how we do it, but we've spent nearly 20 hours playing One Night Ultimate Werewolf using the App. I even played Escape: Curse of the Temple using someone's phone once. We're 21st century cardboard rebels.

Michael Barnes wrote:

This is way the fuck more interesting than XCOM- far more experimental and forward thinking. But the "well, what if I don't have a smartphone crowd" is going to slip their shit.

Nah, the problem is going to be with the folks who like to fuck with their phones while they're playing a game. People won't out-and-out complain about keeping their phone tied up in the game, but people wouldn't buy it or play the game either.

Sevej wrote: I just don't get the point why I'd play a tactical XCOM board game rather than, you know, just play XCOM on my PC.

And FFG is not going to make a tactical XCOM game. Not in 5 years...

THISTHISTHISTHISTHIS.

Why the FUCK would you play the board game when there's already multiplayer for Xbox and PC? It's like owning a Ferrari and then stealing a Yugo to drive. Makes no sense. I guess it could be said that Gears of War is the same thing, but you know what, I don't hear shit about that game anymore. Hell, I never really did, except occasionally, and here only.

Someone at FFG is seriously fucking wrong for greenlighting this. Don't make board games from video games, especially when the board game does EXACTLY what the video game does better, faster, and with no bookkeeping.

UGH.

SuperflyTNT wrote:

Sevej wrote: I just don't get the point why I'd play a tactical XCOM board game rather than, you know, just play XCOM on my PC.

And FFG is not going to make a tactical XCOM game. Not in 5 years...

THISTHISTHISTHISTHIS.

Why the FUCK would you play the board game when there's already multiplayer for Xbox and PC? It's like owning a Ferrari and then stealing a Yugo to drive. Makes no sense. I guess it could be said that Gears of War is the same thing, but you know what, I don't hear shit about that game anymore. Hell, I never really did, except occasionally, and here only.

Someone at FFG is seriously fucking wrong for greenlighting this. Don't make board games from video games, especially when the board game does EXACTLY what the video game does better, faster, and with no bookkeeping.

UGH.

So why do you still own Space Hulk then? Isn't the app version faster and easier to find opponents for?

I don't have the app, but if I did, chances are I wouldn't play the board game nearly as much. Apps/Software > Analog. 100 of 100 times, if its implemented equally well.

The only X factor is the "toy" factor. I love toys, and I love miniatures especially, and when you take an incredible game design and toss in a box of toys, it is at that point that you are the progenitor of distilled awesome.

Sorry, but FFG has never, will never, and can never produce miniatures of remotely the same quality of Games Workshop models. X-Wing is nice, no doubt, and the prepainting is quite nice, but there's nothing they have ever made that is even the same sport as....say....





or this...



And thus I conclude that no matter how much FFG might want to rape a license and produce a game that is attempting in vain to recreate the least interesting moments of one of the world's most incredible video game experiences, their toy factor is not remotely (and by remotely, I mean like the chance humanity will leave our galaxy, ever) good enough to make me forget that I'm playing a board game bastardization of one of my favorite licenses.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

SuperflyTNT wrote: I don't have the app, but if I did, chances are I wouldn't play the board game nearly as much. Apps/Software > Analog. 100 of 100 times, if its implemented equally well.

The only X factor is the "toy" factor. I love toys, and I love miniatures especially, and when you take an incredible game design and toss in a box of toys, it is at that point that you are the progenitor of distilled awesome.

I'm a sucker for "toy" factor too. But what about the social factor? What about actually hanging out with your friends? Playing a game with people you like in a setting where you can actually see their face rather than communicating with them via "lol" in a chat window?

Approaching the physical/touch factor - is there no value in actually manipulating cardboard or dice? I'm not talking about toys/miniatures/bling. I'm talking about the suspense of actually watching a dice bounce across the table and see it hover on a 6 before barely tipping on its side to a 2.

When I hang out with friends, I'm not generally playing board games, I'm playing pool, swimming, going to a race, playing disc golf, sparring, etc. We play board games on certain days - days that my dude (a physical wreck) is not able to do anything else, so we play them at those times, although for 3 years we really had a good stretch of Saturday game nights. I'm not knocking that "I can see your face!" as they wince in horror at their bad luck, I'm just saying that for me, it's the design that matters more than the "faces of death". When I play a backstabbing game, the fun is knowing that I fucked them as much as the face. Hell, maybe it's more fun not seeing their face because my imagination is always more vivid than reality.

There is zero value, to me, in manipulating cardboard or dice. They are a means to an end. I love game designs, and the components help exude the design. In this case, the design they can come up with will be, at best, an ersatz recreation of the least interesting half of a great design. Plus, I have to manually keep track of everything. It's like a luddite's version of XCom.

With regard to that "hanging 6", I see zero difference between that moment and the moment when camera zooms into Guzz Buzzanutt (my avatar in every game ever) just as he's about to fire the plasma rifle....my ass puckers just the same at that moment as it does when I toss the die. Especially considering that with the video game, I'm always rolling a D100.

SuperflyTNT wrote: When I hang out with friends, I'm not playing board games, I'm playing pool, swimming, going to a race, playing disc golf, sparring, etc.

There is zero value, to me, in manipulating cardboard or dice. They are a means to an end. I love game designs, and the components help exude the design. In this case, the design they can come up with will be, at best, an ersatz recreation of the least interesting half of a great design. Plus, I have to manually keep track of everything. It's like a luddite's version of XCom.

With regard to that "hanging 6", I see zero difference between that moment and the moment when camera zooms into Guzz Buzzanutt (my avatar in every game ever) just as he's about to fire the plasma rifle....my ass puckers just the same at that moment as it does when I toss the die. Especially considering that with the video game, I'm always rolling a D100.

Maybe i'm in the minority but I vividly remember a round of high fives when we slaughtered the Ork warboss in the Warhammer Quest expansion as we cheered in triumph, or the unrelenting trash talking that ensued as I made a perfect flick in Pitchcar. I don't remember many video game triumphs quite honestly. It's a completely different experience when playing with a group of people in a small communal space. It's why LANs are a thing.

I got your back, charlest.

Seriously, arguing that board games are beat by video games is like arguing that there's no point in reading _Lord of the Rings_ because they made some pretty good movies about it.

I think Superfly made some really good points yesterday, about doing an XCOM board game in particular. The nonfighting parts of XCOM are nice, but he and I think that there's not enough meat there to make a compelling boardgame. That would be true regardless of whether or not there was automation included. But that doesn't make the notion of a computerized board game suck because it isn't a video game.