Digital Copies & Tournaments

[Mr Mystery]

Talking about Apple...'appen I get a healthy discount through work......

Sadly, code isn't working. Discount partners are being berated as I type!

[DarkLink]

I'm not mad. Nor am I sure you're actually reading this whole thread.

Karathon replied to someone, saying 'not everyone can afford an ipad'. Someone else said 'yeah-huh, if you can afford a codex you can afford an ipad'. I replied 'no, that's not necessarily true'. And then you came out of the blue with a misunderstanding about what I was saying and who I was saying it too. So, what's your problem?

[SaveModifier]

I'm not mad. Nor am I sure you're actually reading this whole thread.

Karathon replied to someone, saying 'not everyone can afford an ipad'. Someone else said 'yeah-huh, if you can afford a codex you can afford an ipad'. I replied 'no, that's not necessarily true'. And then you came out of the blue with a misunderstanding about what I was saying and who I was saying it too. So, what's your problem?

No one said that.

[Orange]

I don't see why Digital Editions and the such would not be allowed. I currently have all of the codices on my iPad, including all of the Supplements and the new Formations and expect to be doing so with the new Escalation supplement as well. To not be able to field models because it is on an iPad/Digital Reader and not a hard copy is silly. I can just as easily pull up rules as anyone else and can usually find my opponent's rules faster than they can through their hard copy books as everything is bookmarked or interactive.

I keep digitally scanned copies of my hard codices not available to me on my digital reader so I am not hauling around a set of books from Forge World that many would love to get their hands on and also keep copies of the rules in Word Documents saved as PDFs for Experimental Rules, such as for my R'Varna, or when I write up my army list so I can show my opponent my list afterwards and can even e-mail it to them in the store if they want to look over it afterwards with all of the rules each model has and their statlines so they can be better prepared for the next time we play as I don't like sweeping people and like hard fought victories to improve my play.

[DarkLink]

They'd better be allowed. Take Sisters, for example. They are a digital only release. Ban that, and what are you going to do? Force them to go online and find a torrent of the White Dwarf armylist? Because that's pretty much the only way to get it. Banning their digital codex would basically ban them from the game.

No one said that.

Well, what was said was this:

Not everyone can afford the newest codex. As long as the person brings a digital copy for the other player to see what's the deal?

And, if you bothered to read the thread, you'd see I'm merely responding to this. So, again, what's your problem?

[His_Dudeness]

Just sayin you can get an original ipad on ebay for like $100. Other tablets are even cheaper. I would say there should be restrictions on people using their smart phone as their rulebook.

[Katharon]

Wow, things seem to have gone a bit nuts.

My comment was not to counter the quoted comment. I'm merely trying to point out that, even with the wide proliferation of eCodices and supplements that we shouldn't encourage or discourage the use of electronic means to looking at the game's rules. I personally am rather appalled at GW's recent upsurge in the selling of electronic content -- most of it is pure money-grabs, since it costs them nothing to produce and is all net-gain. As such, the success of their business model on that subject should be decided by the players. If we start encouraging or even, Emperor-forbid, demanding that players use electronic copies to keep track of everyting, then we will be nothing less than GW drones or cash cows.

So, if you are using a set of rules from a supplement, just make sure you have a copy of it -- either printed out, hardback book, or electronic version. We should encourage players to always have the rules for their armies with them, regardless of the method for viewing those rules.

Also, about a comment on players whose batteries die and no longer allowed to use their models as a result -- that's so severe as to be BS imho. Sh*t happens and sometimes a player's electronic means of viewing his or her rules might fail, be broken, or otherwise incapacitated beyond their ability to control. To punish them as a result of that is too harsh and should be the subject of another discussion thread -- not here in this thread.

[craftsnthings]

OK if I allow Digital format how do i confirm it is legally purchased?

[Katharon]

OK if I allow Digital format how do i confirm it is legally purchased?

You don't. It's none of your business how a person came into possession of the rules. If you're a GW employee at a GW-organized event, then you would have the responsibility to report the player in question to the TO's and that person would probably just be asked to leave. Private-organized events, it's not your content and it's not your prerogative to act like a witch-hunter.

[GravesDisease]

I personally am rather appalled at GW's recent upsurge in the selling of electronic content -- most of it is pure money-grabs, since it costs them nothing to produce and is all net-gain.

If this is a throwaway comment, that's fine. However, if it has informed your stance then you may want to reconsider. The quoted statement is completely fallacious. Using a digital publishing platform is fraught with pitfalls and costs. The mentality of "Oh we have bought the tool and fixed all the bugs, it's just a case of publishing content now right?" is what most products owners assume and are baffled by the ongoing IT costs. You don't have to worry about distribution or stock but it is a non trivial task to create a digital product - even with bespoke tools.

You do know they produce PDFs as well right? PDFs are viewable on pretty much anything with a screen and lend themselves to be printed rather well. To go back to the actual original point of the thread the new pdf format codices probably benefit tournaments MORE since it's easier to print out then to photocopy your hardback.