Tabletop Simulator copy?

[Enzo]

What's different from TTS?

[Kitsune Zeta]

It's more of a walled garden, akin to Apple's app store, but with both end users and producers having to pay a monthly fee to use some of the features of (for producers, that monthly fee allows them to have more than 2 different items on the Tabletopia game "store", and each setup of a game counts as 1 item, while for end-players, it allows for private games and access to "premium games" [games where the producer has decided to not make it available as a free game]).

If you have Tabletop Simulator and it works well, you're better off still using that over paying a monthly subscription for this. Worth a cursory look otherwise, although I'm not impressed by it yet.

[Pyro Fennec]

Kitsune Zeta eredeti hozzászólása:

It's more of a walled garden, akin to Apple's app store, but with both end users and producers having to pay a monthly fee to use some of the features of (for producers, that monthly fee allows them to have more than 2 different items on the Tabletopia game "store", and each setup of a game counts as 1 item, while for end-players, it allows for private games and access to "premium games" [games where the producer has decided to not make it available as a free game]).

If you have Tabletop Simulator and it works well, you're better off still using that over paying a monthly subscription for this. Worth a cursory look otherwise, although I'm not impressed by it yet.

You sure about that subscription thing? Couldn't see any mention of it on the store description...

Mind you, if that's true, and with those restrictions on free players, and no FFG in that list of publishers... I'll probably give this one a pass.

[Kitsune Zeta]

Pyro Fennec eredeti hozzászólása:

You sure about that subscription thing? Couldn't see any mention of it on the store description...

Mind you, if that's true, and with those restrictions on free players, and no FFG in that list of publishers... I'll probably give this one a pass.

Just double-checked on the official site:

For Bronze ("Free"), you don't get access to the "Premium Catalog", you can't invite guests to these games (since you don't have access to them), you don't have a private virtual gaming room, and you can only participate in 2 active games at a time. You also only have limited hotseat functionality ("Basic", and this is never elaborated upon). You can participate in guilds, but cannot create or manage one.

For Silver ($4.99 per month), you get access to the premium catalog and your simultaneous participation increases to 6 active games, but have no other special features.

For Gold ($9.99 per month), you get access to the premium catalog, a private virtual gaming room, the ability to invite ANY guest to participate in any game set up in said private virtual gaming room (premium or not), 10 simultaneous active game participation, guild creation and management, and "advanced" hotseat play.

As a point of reference, Tabletop Simulator has a single buy-in, per player, of $19.99 (or $59.99 for a four-pack), and each of the games available as DLC are a single-purchase, not a monthly subscription.

[PC]

omg subscription...
and i was looking forward to it...
just put it for $20 and let it be one time buy please for gods sake

[Excuritas]

Sūpā Saiya-jin Goddo eredeti hozzászólása:

omg subscription...
and i was looking forward to it...
just put it for $20 and let it be one time buy please for gods sake

agree, still sticking to tabletop simulator, no thanks for this rip-off

[Olsen]

I realize that you guys are not down witha subscription, However I would much prefer paying a monthly fee for access to alot of board games I dont own and a good chunk of that money going back to the game company/creators. I see alot of my favourites on TTS however its just outright stealing. If TT can get major compaines to start putting up games than it would allow for super crisp LEGAL copies of games to be played which would be nice. Also between TTS and TT I have found TT to be much smoother in the camera and controls (but not that different) also there is no flip the table in TT lol.

[Bobby Dodge]

The real difference is that Tabletopia supports game designers. There are a few paid dlcs, on TTS. Yet the majority of mods on TTS, are not from the rights holder. No rolayties going to the people who actually created these games. The designers do pay a subscription fee, yet you describe what they get in a very misleading way. The higher the level the more games and set-up you get, as well as access to premium game creation items. One of the lower tiers, allows 2 games with 3 set ups each. The subscription model is in part to pay the rights holders. Its like Spotify, or Netflx. The split is 70/30, with Tabletopia only taking %30 of the income.

As far as copy of TTS. I wholeheartedly disagree. TTS was created as a physics engine, that evolved into players creating mods of board games, and most recently having paid dlcs to buy and play games. The graphics are by far sub-par when comparred to Tabletopia. Tabletopia can be played via a browser, and mobile support coming soon. You can share a game link with anyone, they do not need to be paying members to access premium titles.

[Pyro Fennec]

In my case, the appeal would be to play boardgames I already physically own, but am unable to play with friends because of issues of geography (as we do not yet have teleporter technology that'd let me hop over a few thousand miles to play Arkham Horror with someone at a moment's notice).

Restrictions like this... yeah, pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

[crifmer]

The misconception here is that this is a game platform with downloadable content. It is not. It is a streaming service for digital board games.

Yes, the subscription model might put some people off, that's to be expected. But this is not a rip-off of TTS with a subscription. This is a wholly different (and in my opinion, superior) service.

There will be plenty of games available for free. I cannot speak with certainty, but I believe quite a few games will have both premium and free versions. The other thing is that a gold member can invite ANYONE into the game room to play with them, even if they do not have a subscription at all. So if you have people you play regularly with, only one of you needs a gold membership and everyone can play, so that's pennies per month split amongst the group.

Note also that it's already available via a web-based client, and will be hitting iOS and Android later this year, so it is compatible cross-platform.

I suggest people at least do the research and try it out (for free) before dismissing it offhand.

Even if the games you want aren't on the list, keep an eye on this. We are still in closed Beta, and have over 200 games available to play. Many indie developers are hopping on board to use this as a first-look platform, and more big-name games are showing up regularly.

Just keep an open mind.

Edit to add: I just noticed I have the [developer] tag there by my name. I'm not part of the dev team. I started as a Kickstarter backer and jumped on as their forum moderator to help out.

[Der Koomer]

Bobby Dodge eredeti hozzászólása:

The real difference is that Tabletopia supports game designers. There are a few paid dlcs, on TTS. Yet the majority of mods on TTS, are not from the rights holder. No rolayties going to the people who actually created these games. The designers do pay a subscription fee, yet you describe what they get in a very misleading way. The higher the level the more games and set-up you get, as well as access to premium game creation items. One of the lower tiers, allows 2 games with 3 set ups each. The subscription model is in part to pay the rights holders. Its like Spotify, or Netflx. The split is 70/30, with Tabletopia only taking %30 of the income.

As far as copy of TTS. I wholeheartedly disagree. TTS was created as a physics engine, that evolved into players creating mods of board games, and most recently having paid dlcs to buy and play games. The graphics are by far sub-par when comparred to Tabletopia. Tabletopia can be played via a browser, and mobile support coming soon. You can share a game link with anyone, they do not need to be paying members to access premium titles.

Yeah, no. I would assume that most people are using TTS to play games that they already own, a hard copy. That includes me. We already paid for a hard copy and 9 times out of 10, there isn't a digital version floating around anywhere. I love to play Ascension. There is a workshop item for it in TTS. I don't play it in TTS because I own the digital Ascension game which does a better job of running said game.

If boardgame publishers actually created digital versions of their games, across multiple platorms and not just iOS, then I don't think there would be quite as many people using either of these programs.

In short, most of the workshop mods come from scans from a hardcopy of the game, so I don't quite understand having to pay for "again" to play with other people. I own 7 Wonders, I play it on TTS as well. Does the publisher deserve my money again for some reason? To play their game online when they haven't put forth any effort to make it available to PC gamers otherwise? I don't think so.

So, in short, I'm not going to be paying this company to play a game that has scanned assets of a real board game that I already own, especially when it's already available on TTS and I don't have to pay anything extra for it.

Good luck.

[Dr0W]

I was about to say something but Arkterus said pretty much what I'd say about it. Getting back to TTS, thanks.

[Nesrie]

I would happily pay for Tabletopia and pay for each of the games. There's no way I am paying a sub to play board games online. I keep hoping this terrible business model will die, and we can shift to one time fees so the creatores and the platform can make money in a reasonable way.

It's almost like they want a Fantasy Grounds kind of model, except even FG also has one time purchaes and allows free users to work with paying users.

[isu-kun]

Honestly, I've used both and I find Tabletopia much more friendly to the user. And Arkterus, you gripe about the publishers or developer not putting in any effort to make their games available on PC, but that's exactly what Tabletopia is all about. The games that are available aren't coming from random people posting scans of board games, they're being put together and posted by the developers directly or the developers work with the Tabletopia team to create their game. These are officially supported versions of the games. Part of their goal in creating Tabletopia was to make an easy to use set of editing tools for game construction. It's far friendlier to designers than Tabletop Simulator ever will be.

And while some may not see the value in the subscription model, this isn't really targeting the people who are game collectors and regularly play with groups locally. I don't know about your game groups, but most of the groups I've been in aren't just run by one person who has all the games. Each person in the group would have different games they bring to the table. Now, $10 a month may seem like a decent amount, but just for the meager collection I have, I've spent enough on those games to pay that subscription fee for a decade or two, easily. With new games coming out and opportunities to play in person being pretty limited, it's a much better way to jump in than to take the plunge with buying physical games. And as their rep said, you only need one account of that type for your whole group to play any of the games that are available.

They also have some loftier goals they're trying to accomplish, such as writing AI scripts for games so you can play against the computer when your friends aren't around to play.

[Der Koomer]

Yes, but all the publishers are really doing is just that: Providing scans of the games instead of someone else, like me, doing it. That's not really impressive nor does it make me want to change my mind. Actual effort would be doing something like the Pathfinder Adventure Card game where they hired a developer to make a digital verison of the game.

Or the guys who made Sentinels of the Multiverse.

10 a month to have an intern apply scans to a 3d model that many other people have been doing, for free, doesn't do it for me.

[Geobaldi]

Not to mention that Tabletopia devs plan to add AI to their games in the future. Something TTS won't be adding. I've used Tabletopia for the last few months and I've enjoyed it much more then TTS primarily because it's just easier, and smoother to use. The games are higher resolution when zoomed in as well, unlike a lot of TTS games that are just too blurry to read at times. Both programs have their place in the community. Personally I prefer to useTabletopia as the board game developers themselves support it and have over 200 officially supported games on it as of now. Unlike TTS which only has eight currently.