Internet TV as game table / VTT?


Technology


This Maximum PC article on internet television (specifically Google TV) mentions a "Poker Night" concept by the folks at Intel that is basically a webcam-enhanced virtual tabletop on the television. There's a picture (about 1/3 down) that basically features a scenario that could easily be MapTools-on-TV, enhanced by headsets, webcams, and linked-in tablet computers (or smartphones) to show player-specific information.

The article has the folks at Intel and Google gushing about how this could be the future, with their upcoming proprietary hardware/software. But it seems to me like most of the technology exists already:
- internet-connected home-theater PCs (or app-running set-tops like Boxee)
- headsets w/ optional webcams
- and either a port of current VTT software (MapTools, but there are others) or an as-yet-unwritten mobile/TV app.

Honestly, it looked to me like a ramped-up version of co-op games on Xbox Live (or a private LAN server).

Anybody else think this is feasible with current tech? And if so, could the software be cobbled together from existing sources, or is this something to watch out for on the horizon?


Yes, very much so. We are at that point in the related technology that it really is going to come down to who makes total package first. It is that "5 year mark" before it is both an easy to buy consumer product and at a price point where it isn't just a techie toy. I say we are "2 years" from it being an expensive techie toy.

Not to get snide but it's the reason why I had a big question mark over my head when Wizards tried to push the DDI and its VTT. To soon for the tech, to restricted in its ability to be ported or adapted.


Dorje Sylas wrote:
Yes, very much so. We are at that point in the related technology that it really is going to come down to who makes total package first.

That seems to be the clincher. After posting, I poked around the tech and game blogs for awhile to get reacquainted (grad school eats your life), and found several DIY options that would work in a range of time/cost/equipment scenarios.

But then there's that issue of compatibility & ubiquity among the gaming community. It's hard enough to find people you're socially game-compatible with, much less adding the extra wrinkle of tech-incompatibility. (My last couple of 4E games got disjointed between Win/Mac users over the Character Builder.)

I think it could work at the level of a little mini-box you could plug into any TV, easily update & add custom/homebrew modules to via USB/internet, use on-line or off, and pocket easily for transport.

I've got a previous-gen little box from Western Digital that plays video like this for <$100 and it's running some flavor of Linux on a low-power chip. I think something similar could be done for tabletop games in general - PnP, card/board, etc.


I'd bank on HTML 5 targeted to WebKit being the medium to go. That should hit the majorty of platforms from WebTVs, through smart phones, to computers with the least amount of total rewrites required. Not just because they are popular with Apple and H
Google, but a growing number of other companies are using it as their base for "Web Enabled" devices.

IMO the DDI programming was a joke. They seriously knee capped themselves by focusing purely on Windows executables and not Web 2.0. Not only can they not expand into mobile platforms but for each DM who can't use their software they basically loose 4 to 6 players. Lossing 6 to 10% of possible DMs is not good when the pool is already small.


I'm still not convinced of the universal-ness of HTML5. Too many years of getting excited about W3C standards only to see those standards implemented differently (or not at all) by browsers makes me hesitant to trust HTML5 as the webdev Holy Grail it's touted as. My understanding of the non-standard platforms, like mobiles, tablets/PDAs, and now TVs/set-tops is that they also have widely varying adoption of standards. So I'm not sure if I would rely on that for something where layout and user-interface design are really important.

I have mixed feelings about standalone apps, since it goes against the grain of interface standardization (which I believe in as a developer & user), but I think a modular app-based model would be the best solution for something like this. Kind of like how Maptools is part of a larger suite, or how Wizards' Char. Builder is meant to be part of a modular suite (if they ever finish it), people could take or leave whichever parts work for them.

Dorje Sylas wrote wrote:
IMO the DDI programming was a joke. They seriously knee capped themselves by focusing purely on Windows executables and not Web 2.0.

While I empathize with the Mac/Linux users who get screwed out of the DDI app tools, I can see where the WotC devs figured they'd focus their efforts on the most widely-used platform. Cloud-based apps have a lot of issues, not least of which is that not everyone has internet access at the table. If they want their apps to be used both in prep and at game time, something that could work as a standalone, without the need for web access seems like the best way to go. And the DDI articles/compendium aren't platform-dependent, so there's still value/usefulness there.

If there's a walled-fortress complaint to be made, it's against Microsoft (as usual), for not offering better .NET support to virtual machines like Parallels and Wine. Or maybe Apple, too - I've never really known them as a very friendly company to 3rd-party developers connecting directly to consumers.

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