Why haven’t Games Workshop published their digital Codexes on Android as well as IOS?

Hey all - just published a detailed article about this on my blog, as a preparatory piece to preparing a proposal to GW about how they could open up their codexes to anyone who had access to a web browser.

Here's the article:
[url]http://www.tetsugaku.info/why-havent-games-workshop-published-their-digital-codexes-on-android-as-well-as-iosipad/[/url]

And here's an excerpt:

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A great many reasons. I grew tired of explaining them to fanboys on the internet so I’ll explain the problems here. Your comments are more than welcome, as is your feedback on my proposed solution.

1) Market Share.
The tablet market is split 60%/40% – IOS / Android according to the latest figures I could track down. This means that the largest single chunk, is resoundingly in Apples garden.

2) Fragmentation
Apple tablets are a single system. They all have the same size screen, one of two resolutions and predictable hardware. Android devices do not have *any* of these benefits as you can see in these info graphics. Designign for them is much, much harder as you have to account for so many more variables.

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I'd really appreciate your comments on the article as everything I can get from real gamers (you lot) helps me out with my user research.

Cheers :)

Your reasons being somewhat flawed aside - the solution is simple and as you pointed out - very easy to accomplish with HTML5.

Nice, straight forward read with really good links. Bravo on that.

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

Your reasons being somewhat flawed aside - the solution is simple and as you pointed out - very easy to accomplish with HTML5.

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Where are the reasons flawed. You keep saying this. What in this article comes with flawed reasoning?

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

Your reasons being somewhat flawed aside - the solution is simple and as you pointed out - very easy to accomplish with HTML5.

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Brilliant well this is the sort of feedback I'm looking for - if you could tell me what you think is flawed, source some stats and reply on the article I'd like to update it so it better reflects opinions?

I do understand the ease of writing for a single device vs multiple. But Android far out numbers iOS phones. Though tablets certainly are better for reading the codecies and such, It would be great to have them on the smaller screen as well.

Smartphone split:
50% = Android
30% = iOS

From here:
[url]http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/03/android-tops-50-ios-hits-30-in-u-s-smartphone-installed-user-base/[/url]

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Originally Posted by JMichael

I do understand the ease of writing for a single device vs multiple. But Android far out numbers iOS phones. Though tablets certainly are better for reading the codecies and such, It would be great to have them on the smaller screen as well.

Smartphone split:
50% = Android
30% = iOS

From here:
[url]http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/03/android-tops-50-ios-hits-30-in-u-s-smartphone-installed-user-base/[/url]

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Of you're definitely right about the share of the market - but those numbers don't tell the whole story, in fact they're positively misleading. As I go into in the main article there are a lot more reasons why IOS users are more likely to make the purchase than Android users, the marketplace, the accounts, the one click purchasing (linked to the credit cards), frankly IOS users are more likely to have a larger disposable income.

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Originally Posted by JMichael

I do understand the ease of writing for a single device vs multiple. But Android far out numbers iOS phones. Though tablets certainly are better for reading the codecies and such, It would be great to have them on the smaller screen as well.

Smartphone split:
50% = Android
30% = iOS

From here:
[url]http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/03/android-tops-50-ios-hits-30-in-u-s-smartphone-installed-user-base/[/url]

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No one disputes that. But who wants to read their codex on their phone?

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Originally Posted by wittdooley

No one disputes that. But who wants to read their codex on their phone?

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Well I'd want to access my army list in an easy to read format, compete with a quick reference table of all the special rules I might need at the tabletop?

I might want to tweak my army its whilst I was on the train on the way to work and didn't have my tablet.

The smart phone is ubiquitous, you always have it with you.

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Originally Posted by Tetsugaku

Well I'd want to access my army list in an easy to read format, compete with a quick reference table of all the special rules I might need at the tabletop?

I might want to tweak my army its whilst I was on the train on the way to work and didn't have my tablet.

The smart phone is ubiquitous, you always have it with you.

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Which is entirely different than what GW opted to do with the iPad Digital Codex. I would in no way, shape, or form want that simply ported over to the smaller screen. It would effectively need to be a different app.

But maybe I just have bad eyesight.

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Originally Posted by wittdooley

Which is entirely different than what GW opted to do with the iPad Digital Codex. I would in no way, shape, or form want that simply ported over to the smaller screen. It would effectively need to be a different app.

But maybe I just have bad eyesight.

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Indeed you are correct. The GW offering is exclusively for tablets, it doesn't even have a portrait mode over landscape, a glaring omission IMO.

However - it doesn't have to be like that, in fact the solution is available right now, it's called [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_Web_Design]responsive web design[/url]. Effectively it means reflowing content to fit the screen, whatever screen, that's being used to view the content. There's no reason why a web based GW subscription service would't be usable on your TV, your phone, your tablet, desktop and everything else whilst using a single code base.

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Originally Posted by Tetsugaku

Of you're definitely right about the share of the market - but those numbers don't tell the whole story, in fact they're positively misleading. As I go into in the main article there are a lot more reasons why IOS users are more likely to make the purchase than Android users, the marketplace, the accounts, the one click purchasing (linked to the credit cards), frankly IOS users are more likely to have a larger disposable income.

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(Almost) All android users have a Google Play account. Furthermore, content can be purchased from the web store on the PC and is immediately available on all android devices. "One click" perhaps its not, but its very very fast - and yes, the Play Store is linked to my credit card. I buy movies, books, music, magazines and apps all through the Play store with my credit card, or Google Wallet, or Carrier Billing. Its actually a lot harder to buy something from Amazon on my mobile devices than it is from the Play Store.

As for "who would want to read a codex on their phone" question is quite simply the myopic, anti-options, closed-ecosystem mentality of a iOS drone. Just because YOU can't see a reason for it, doesn't mean there isn't someone out there that would like that option.

Plus, I agree that I wouldn't want to read a codex on the postage stamp sized screen of the iPhone (even the new one that supposedly has a still inferior-sized screen).

On my Gnex however - I read kindle books all the time when I don't have my tablet handy (which conveniently synchs with my other devices automatically so I don't have to "catch up" on my tablet later).

As for the issues that the OP had on his website regarding the "issues" with developing for Android. Many of them have been debunked on other sites that aren't as skewed towards the Apple koolaid. Some of them are past complaints that have been antiquated due to developments in the ecosystem.

Ok so its possible to NOT have a google play account or even a google account to use an android device and still retain a lot of functionality.

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

As for the issues that the OP had on his website regarding the "issues" with developing for Android. Many of them have been debunked on other sites that aren't as skewed towards the Apple koolaid. Some of them are past complaints that have been antiquated due to developments in the ecosystem.

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Wow - that sure is a lot of anger - but hey that's cool, angry users are still users and they often have important things to say - so if you could tell me some of the places I went wrong so I could correct them, using independent sources and citations that would be really awesome.

I'm looking to update the article where required and use it to feed into my actual recommended solution, which, in case you didn't see it through that red haze of yours, was an open HTML based subscription model.

cheers!

Doesn't Apple iBooks Publisher require an exclusivity agreement?

By agreeing to publish for iOS (with the nice animation and navigation features) they've agreed to that material's exclusivity to iOS only.

I'm a little disappointed and would rather see it published on Amazon which is available to all platforms.


It's a little worse than that... even if you own a Mac you don't have an iBook viewer... you need an iOS device to view it.

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

As for "who would want to read a codex on their phone" question is quite simply the myopic, anti-options, closed-ecosystem mentality of a iOS drone. Just because YOU can't see a reason for it, doesn't mean there isn't someone out there that would like that option.

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Wow. You are angry!

And maybe I should have phrased it differently: I wouldn't want to use the Digital Codex "as is" on my iPhone, or any phone for that matter. FOR ME, it's far too graphical. I'd want something simpler to view on my phone. And yes, I read plenty of books on my phone thru my Kindle account.

As to the phone screen size: all those giant sized screen phones are far too large for my tastes. I'm very happy with the size of my iPhone screen, and quite frankly, don't know that I'd want it to be any bigger. But then again, I wouldn't buy a full-blown Otter Box for the same reason; they become more cumbersome when in your pocket.

Oh, and by the way. My Kindle Account synch both on my Kindle and my iOS devices, too. So do my iBooks. So there's that.

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Originally Posted by karlthepagan

Doesn't Apple iBooks Publisher require an exclusivity agreement?

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Basically - yes.

[url]http://betanews.com/2012/01/22/apples-ibooks-author-eula-is-more-and-less-evil-than-you-think/[/url]

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

Basically - yes.

[url]http://betanews.com/2012/01/22/apples-ibooks-author-eula-is-more-and-less-evil-than-you-think/[/url]

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However technically a slight change to the book would be fine I'm sure.

As for the argument, which may soon be a null point with the MS Surface coming out, is kinda silly. Android and ANY other coding platform is easier than the iOS coding platform (objective C), thus making it work on Android or Windows phones would be simple.

Since I mentioned the Surface, here is why iPads will be a null point. The Surface acts as a Windows computer, thus putting a .PDF (I would love it if GW would sell them so I could actually give them money for it) on it would be simple.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter because I feel the actual codex is superior to the iOS one. Yeah I'm a paper fanboi.

The reason why it is only on iPad is because the iAuthor software that allows the formatting of the content produces a unique file that isn't convertable to HTML5 or <insert your format here>. The only thing one can do is save the document as a PDF that will have a watermark on it. Doing so loses all of the DRM they gain from the closed iAuthor system and strips all of the interactivity allowed by the iBook format.

The reason why the codex is only in landscape format is because iAuthor doesn't do a very good job of reflowing text around other elements (images, videos, etc.) so the software has an option to lock the orientation if you have a more complicated document (inline interactive content).

The reason why it is not on Android has nothing to do with market share - rather it is all about the DRM that iAuthor provides (unique, non-transferrable format) and the development environment it provides (the iAuthor software itself). The only limitation Apple places is that the actual iAuthor file cannot be sold outside of iTunes. If as a developer I want to release my content on multiple systems I can do that, but I can't sell an iAuthor file format elsewhere - I have to use different authoring tools and produce a different content format to sell the content in a different store. This separate development process will come at a higher cost (different toolchain for putting the content together) and at a lack of content security (Android currently does not offer any digital text format that is as secure as iBooks).

I say all of this as someone who has been writing books using iAuthor (textbooks for education).

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Originally Posted by Morbid

However technically a slight change to the book would be fine I'm sure.

As for the argument, which may soon be a null point with the MS Surface coming out, is kinda silly. Android and ANY other coding platform is easier than the iOS coding platform (objective C), thus making it work on Android or Windows phones would be simple.

Since I mentioned the Surface, here is why iPads will be a null point. The Surface acts as a Windows computer, thus putting a .PDF (I would love it if GW would sell them so I could actually give them money for it) on it would be simple.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter because I feel the actual codex is superior to the iOS one. Yeah I'm a paper fanboi.

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The proper codex is just not superior in any way, obviously you've not used it, but the iOS one is a lot better, just for the instant links to special rules alone.

And to make this book they've not had to code an app, they've used iBooks Publisher which is amazingly easy and convenient, and publishes to the vast majority of the app buying tablet market, because, although the market share isn't as big as it was initially, the iPad users spend a lot more money, mostly because its a lot easier to. Also, as much as some people like android, and some people like it just because they don't want to like Apple, like our angry friend Defenestratus, there has yet to be a truly great android tablet that has captured the public imagination like the iPad, everything else, in the public perception at least, its trying to be an iPad.

^^ really? well you should read up on what apple wants to do with the output from their publisher tool.

Now before you go off kilter with your apple love again (because let's face it, your fanboyism is showing), I've sold iPads. I've also used the other tablets out there. Right now, the difference between all the tablets is minimal at best, and the other tablets are catching up FAST.

and the only reason it's "captured the public's imagination" is because apple MADE A GREAT SALES PITCH.

It could have been a market choice. I bet there was sampling done about the percentage of gamers who have a pc tablet or an iPad. It also could have been a preference choice, gamesworkshop could have been persuaded by the beauty of apples operating system and it's flawless functionality.

But the choice of gamesworkshop to release it exclusively for the iPad almost settles the issue on its own. Apple is a better company to sign with than windows. As a single company they have taken the electronic world by storm and left computer companies like dell(Alienware), hp, and all the rest at the starting line. It's all about presentation and ease of utility. Apples innovation in both aesthetic and internal parts of the digital world are unparalleled. Apple iPad and it's OS are more beautiful and functional.

For all you apple haters out there, scoreboard...:cool:

Something I've wanted is a program full of blank templates with different kinds of tables that you put stats in. You insert the info for your codex then the program would translate it into app form. You could customize your own codex! It would allow you to add forge world rules in with the rest of your codex, along with your allies, fortifications, army list, and fliers. You could have all the info you would ever need right in one spot. You could change the order of the pages, font, size, etc.

If you put some of the work into the hands of the user then you wouldn't have to wait around for GW to do it, and it could be used for other gaming systems.

The Android OS is too fragmented. When you create and App or even a book layout, you have to do it for a whole host of different OS's and hardware. With the iPad you have a much smaller hardware spec and a single OS. The tools for creating books for iOS are much easier to use. The Space Marine codex was probably done with electronic copies of text being cut and paste and their pictures and animations just being dropped in to the wizard.

I know this because I work in IT and work with Microsoft, Google, and Apple devices daily. I have no overall preference between makes as they are just tools that do a particular job. Some tools do some jobs better than others. When I publish manuals I prefer to use iOS as I can create a book/manual much quicker using their iAuthor software

Android Codex's will come but it will require a bigger investment from GW.

The big question you should be asking is why GW charge the same for their digital content as they do for their physical. Given the original electronic sources of text, pictures and animations anyone on this site could have created the Space Marine Codex in a week. If you don't believe me then get hold of a MAc and download iBooks Author (it's free) and try it yourself. My company has publish dozens of professional looking manuals on the iBook store and they were all done by our IT staff with no formal training.

Thanks for your great range of replies everybody - nice to know people can at least sometimes, have a discussion without it turning into a fan war eh? ;)

If you have any comments you think are especially worthy I'd really encourage you to [url=http://www.tetsugaku.info/why-havent-games-workshop-published-their-digital-codexes-on-android-as-well-as-iosipad/]put them on the original article[/url] as well.

Anyway - as you gathered from the original post, my suggestion is a subscription to an HTML based solution that covers all of the things we get out of codexes, as well as all the benefits of things like army builder and White Dwarf, without any of the drawbacks.

I'll be publishing more proposals on my own blog [url=www.tetsugaku.info]tetsugaku.info[/url] and on my professional portfolio [url=www.thetaalldesigner.com]The Tall Designer[/url] as I come up with them. Ultimately I'm going to have a detailed case study of how to build an open, accessible, usable system, based on web standards that serves the needs of gamers whilst making GW the profit that they deserve for creating the games and rules.

Who knows, it might even happen.

Cheers!

Erm.

Because owners of Apple hardware are more likely to buy a slightly upgraded version of something they already own?

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The Android OS is too fragmented.

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There's a lot of great things to have come from that actually - its not all a bad thing.

However, in the case of digital content - fragmentation has nothing to do with it. There are standards out there, like Tetsugaku has mentioned, that would work on any platform, any device. Furthermore, something like an e-codex, is easy to sell through existing app services like Google Play Books/Magazines.

BTW, where can I find a link to the Digital SM codex on the appstore?

I searched for "Games Workshop", "Codex", "Space Marine" and none of them returned the results I'm looking for.

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

There's a lot of great things to have come from that actually - its not all a bad thing.

However, in the case of digital content - fragmentation has nothing to do with it. There are standards out there, like Tetsugaku has mentioned, that would work on any platform, any device. Furthermore, something like an e-codex, is easy to sell through existing app services like Google Play Books/Magazines.

BTW, where can I find a link to the Digital SM codex on the appstore?

I searched for "Games Workshop", "Codex", "Space Marine" and none of them returned the results I'm looking for.

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They're in the iBooks store, not the AppStore.

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Originally Posted by wittdooley

They're in the iBooks store, not the AppStore.

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Ugh ... so you can't browse their iBooks collection on the web?

Why is it that I can't search for it from the Apple iTunes store? Apple Patented the universal search - put it to practice!

For example:
[url]https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Game+of+thrones[/url]

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

Ugh ... so you can't browse their iBooks collection on the web?

Why is it that I can't search for it from the Apple iTunes store? Apple Patented the universal search - put it to practice!

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[url=http://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/games-workshop/id536481148?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4%2522%2520target%253D%2522itunes_store%2 522%253EGames%2520Workshop]Luckily that's not true[/url] :)

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

Ugh ... so you can't browse their iBooks collection on the web?

Why is it that I can't search for it from the Apple iTunes store? Apple Patented the universal search - put it to practice!

For example:
[url]https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Game+of+thrones[/url]

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cmon Defenestratus, apple's way of doing things makes about as much sense as GW's way of doing things. you should know that by now.

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Originally Posted by Uncle Nutsy

cmon Defenestratus, apple's way of doing things makes about as much sense as GW's way of doing things. you should know that by now.

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Something that's actually a way better comparison between GW and Apple is the amount of FUD you see about them on the nets.

This isn't true - I linked to categorical proof , wonder if anyone ever reads discussions or just cherry picks the bits they like :)

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

There's a lot of great things to have come from that actually - its not all a bad thing

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What great things? From an app designers point of view Android apps take infinatly longer to create and debug than those for iOS. You have to cater for dozens of combinations of hardware and OS. Fragmentation is Androids Achilles heel, you can have 2 identicle devices and depending on your cellular provider or region you get a different OS version. If you want to make something fir the first time and it be fone cheaply, fast, and looks good you use iOS, and I'm far from being a fan boy of Apple.

how does a different OS relate to anything? at the core, honeycomb and ice cream sandwich are the same. and it's the apps themselves that process and display the data files. If the app can read the data file, it can display it. the OS is irrelevant.

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Originally Posted by Tetsugaku

This isn't true - I linked to categorical proof , wonder if anyone ever reads discussions or just cherry picks the bits they like :)

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how does any of the proof you linked to relate to what I said about apple?

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Originally Posted by Uncle Nutsy

how does any of the proof you linked to relate to what I said about apple?

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Because the question was:

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

Ugh ... so you can't browse their iBooks collection on the web?

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to which I answered:

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Originally Posted by Tetsugaku

[url=http://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/games-workshop/id536481148?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4%2522%2520target%253D%2522itunes_store%2 522%253EGames%2520Workshop]Luckily that's not true[/url] :)

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and you responded:

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Originally Posted by Uncle Nutsy

cmon Defenestratus, apple's way of doing things makes about as much sense as GW's way of doing things. you should know that by now.

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Therefore I concluded you didn;t bother to read what I said or look at the evidence I provided and were in fact happy enough with your existing opinions.

It's things like this that create rumour mill crap, like all that rubbish about GW not owning the rights to use the old paint names any more. A lie repeated enough times becomes truth.

the difference is, you focused on one thing, while I focused on all of apple's business practices. in other words, your conclusion is wrong.

what you linked to was not categorical proof, but only one tree in the entire forest. you might also want to revise your comparison of the ipad versus the android tablets.

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Originally Posted by Uncle Nutsy

in other words, your conclusion is wrong.

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And this is why I don't often visit the internet.

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Originally Posted by Uncle Nutsy

you might also want to revise your comparison of the ipad versus the android tablets.

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I will be, where it makes sense and where things I've presented can be better written using examples given to me by commentators here, other forums, my own blog and from GW themselves.

Considering on Saturday I met the guys who wrote the iBooks version and had a chat to them about it I don;t think I'll be using any of your valuable input.

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Anyway - the next step is to write out an outline of potential services and features that would be in an html based subscription service, any ideas please get in touch with me via [url=http://www.tetsugaku.info]my blog[/url], I'll be posting up here and elsewhere for feedback when it's done but ideas earlier than that are super useful.

Has anyone considered it could be as simple as some management type waved an ipad at the IT dept and said "make the codex for this" so they did literally what was asked...

Reminded me of this: [URL="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000061637&story_title=San-Francisco-to-stop-buying-Macs"]http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000061637&story_title=San-Francisco-to-stop-buying-Macs[/URL]

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Originally Posted by Tetsugaku

Considering on Saturday I met the guys who wrote the iBooks version and had a chat to them about it I don;t think I'll be using any of your valuable input.

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the biggest flub I saw in your blog post is the fragmentation part. Comparing android devices to iPads/iPhones is simply terrible and i'll tell you why. Using devices that run the android OS to the devices that run apple's OS will lead to a one-sided conclusion. A better comparison would be using the Operating System and core hardware in each, since all models using either Honeycomb and Ice Cream sandwich (different android OS builds) will have to run on compatible (and controlled) hardware, much like the hardware in the iPad and iPhone (where the iPad is a larger version of the iPhone, but lacking cellular functionality).

Apps that are on the android platform have to be able to run as bug-free as possible for it to work on that OS, much like Apps have to run as bug-free as possible. And those apps, regardless of what platform they are on, have to be able to display the data content included in the file that is loaded onto the platform (such as an eBook).

If GW was to release their ebooks on the Android platform, they are free to choose the storefront that benefits them the most. They could release their ebooks through only one place, such as Google's app store if they so choose. They don't HAVE to release their books on EVERY storefront.

Ease of purchase is only in the eyes of the account holder, and just about every app store either accepts only credit cards, or a compatible form of payment.

The tablets that are running Honeycomb or Ice Cream sandwich also have a comparable screen that lends themselves to ebooks like interactive codexes. it all comes down to the app that runs them, not the platform.

Piracy. Almost all platforms have some form of piracy, including iPhones and iPads. Thinking that only one platform has no piracy is quite simply.. naive and one-sided. And last i checked, [url=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_app_piracy_higher_on_the_ipad.php]piracy is quite rampant on the ipad aswell [/url] I'm sorry to break it to you but, GW's digital products WILL be pirated. it's just a question of when.

Cost to games workshop? you're comparing digital products with physical products, and stating apple's model is superior? did you not look into what any of the other estores' terms and conditions are?

I do agree with using a secured HTML site that is open to every platform out there. It would be a better solution to the exclusive but restrictive model they are using now.

Attachment 2241

How about this? What platform would allow GW to maintain the tightest control of it's IP than the fundamentally restrictive iOS?

:D