CMON and Xplored Announce New Digital Board Game Console

Read all about it here;

www.cmon.com/news/teburu-a-new-evolution-in-board-games

I have one, three letter word to describe this development. I'll put it in caps.

MEH

For those that are interested, I hope it works flawlessly, reliably, and for little money.
As I get older and grouchier, I prefer my board gaming experiences to be escapes from reality. A reality that has too much screen time.

Also, I don't mind doing math after rolling dice.

Remember Golem Arcana?

I was waiting for someone to post it here and see Barnes take (beyond his amusing tweet).

This will never succeed, at least not this iteration.

Problems:

A - It's a hassle (more setup, more hoops to jump through turn to turn, making sure minis register and dice come up correctly, connection issues)
B - It's going to be expensive as hell
C - Its titles will be limited (CMON only?)

I'm eager to see all the threads pop up after this delivers detailing all of the bugs.

I'm probably one of the most receptive here to the concept of digitizing some of this stuff, but not like this.

The only way something like this would succeed would be a surface mat that provides digital boards/tracks/etc for you to play on top of without requiring anything else electronic. It would need to have a large swathe of games and have a robust module for users to create additional content.

Count me in the "Nay" camp. This looks like a way to produce an average board game and an average video game.

As a general rule, I don't like media that desperately tries to be other media. You want your video game to be a movie? I'd rather watch a movie.

You want your board game to be like a video game? I already have TONS of video games and they are better than your board game hybrid.

I partake in board games for their social aspects, not so everyone can stare at their phones or wait for the iPad to puke out some tinny sound effects and "gripping" story bits.

My board games never need to be updated, charged, synced, etc.

Now, after that "get off my lawn" bit, I will say that the thought of playing a traditional miniatures game in VR completely appeals to me. Being able to virtually paint my virtual collection, virtually manipulate them on virtual terrain, etc. Give me that now.

But folks, it makes sound effects when you open a door!

This is total garbage and I can’t resist another opportunity to dunk on it.

Apps work best as assists- the Gloomhaven tracker or Roll20 for example. Not as a platform or format. Anything else is a gimmick, and this thing really doesn’t do anything fundamentally different than what Dark Tower was doing almost 40 years ago with about 50 cents worth of Radio Shack electronics.

It is going to be expensive, and as shown in the video each player has a mobile device and there is main tablet. I’m betting $500-$700 for the board at a minimum, which won’t include those devices or the copy of Zombicide Enhanced you’ll have to buy.

I just have to laugh at it being a CMON thing...like they have ever come up with a design complex enough to require computer assistance.

This kind of thing has already failed multiple times- Golem Arcana, World of Yoho...even FFG’s more successful attempts at this have been tentative and really kind of largely swept aside over time. If there were truly demand for this kind of thing, we’d already have it.

The whole thing reeks of coming from a meeting with an out-of-touch CEO or investor am pitching the idea of a “tabletop games console”...right down to the nonsensical bullshit product name.

I don’t even really give a shit about all of this fatuous “potential” it supposedly represents for designers. Designers today can’t even get a handle on how to express basic themes and innovative concepts in the format, let alone with a device that encourages more crossover into video games territory.

I can’t possibly hard pass on this more...I used to think apps were the future, now I’d rather just play a great Knizia game that explores the limits and boundaries of the format than pursue some pie in the sky bullshit like this.

Have they announced when this will be available at TJ Maxx?

Teburu sounds like a D&D demon.

The last thing we need is something that eliminates the last vestiges of math from our lives.

I don't know if it's bad, but it does seem like a boondoggle. VR more broadly has really struggled so these specialized takes feel doomed to me. This reminds me most of the Playstation Eye in its original form, where it came with that CCG and a board/grid.

Michael Barnes wrote: Have they announced when this will be available at TJ Maxx?

There it is. Thank you MB.

ubarose wrote: Maybe their market is game cafes/clubs/stores. A place by us that charges a fee to play was considering getting a giant tablet table that just displays maps and terrain for D & D and tabletop mini games.

I don't know the game cafe business or anything, but if I owned one I would not want this. I'd be worried patrons would damage/steal bits and pieces, and if you lose the chipped dice or they get damaged - how the hell do you replace them?

Not to mention the device costs and how much a single spill, drop, or grubby child could cost you in repairs/replacements.

This isn't -for- anyone aside from people who are actively looking for a way to spend more money on "tHe HObBy".

Michael Barnes wrote: ...and this thing really doesn’t do anything fundamentally different than what Dark Tower was doing almost 40 years ago with about 50 cents worth of Radio Shack electronics.

I bet if you hit the Haggle button you could get those components for a quarter.

Hardware is fiendishly hard even if you do it well. Ouna console, Pebble Smartwatch, Microsoft Zune ... so this is basically doomed even if they pull it off perfectly.

And even if they pull it off perfectly, hard pass from me. Something that works on a device I already have (i.e. companion app on my phone), I'll consider. I don't need another big lump of hardware in my house.