Slashdot Mirror

What OCR software do you use? (I thought of doing this once and found so many errors on a test Tesseract page that I gave up.)

I'm not sure how well it would work on "Tessaract" pages Tesseract [www.games-workshop.com] but for glossy magazines and bright to dull white regular 2D paper, the software that came with my Kodak ScanMate 1100 series works very well - enough so that I don't notice typos when I read the magazines, etc. Handwritten or odd fonts would be much worse of course. I think it is based on Omnipage 15's OCR, but I just use the one built into the scanner driver (i1120).

Beats the hell out of a camera rig if you are willing to slice the spines off and the pages are not much wider than 8.5 in.

...give them more info. Space Marines (humanities super elite, genetically modified warriors) in the Warhammer 40K universe are so superior, they don't fire bullets, they fire rocket propelled missiles that punch through walls, armor, and soft fleshy bits and explode causing ridonkulous damage; and they make a kool sound too. Much like this weapon, their "bolters" are good at killing things dead, especially idiots who try to hide behind cover. Assuming people clickity click on the links they might begin to understand. And maybe even get hooked. Heybiff

Did anyone notice the Eldar model they were using in the second image? I wonder if Games Workshop know about this? Even though its free advertising, their IP watchdogs will will probably litigate this into nonexistence.

I couldn't agree more. I'm into the current BloodBowl computer game they released in June for the PC, and over the past couple of months have seen them issue takedown notices to various bloodbowl fan websites. While obviously this isn't a great thing, I grudgingly have to support what they're doing - stopping people using their trademark, BloodBowl. As the takedown notice says, if they have a history of ignoring their trademark's infringement, than when it really _does_ matter, they don't have a legal leg to stand on. Here's the takedown for talkbloodbowl.com (and fumbbl just had a similar one): "Thank you for your email concerning the website www.talkbloodbowl.com. We understand that you are unhappy about the decision by the people running www.talkbloodbowl.com to shut their site down. The Blood Bowl community is important to Games Workshop and we are also disappointed that they have felt it necessary to take such a step. Unfortunately, that decision is entirely one for them and we can have no influence over what action they choose to take. Unlike many companies, Games Workshop usually only stops people from using our intellectual property if we must do so in order to protect it (provided that use is by and for hobbyists). For example, the law requires us to protect our trademarks in certain ways – and if we do not – we might lose them. As you can imagine, we do not want to lose our trademarks as we would no longer be able to create the great miniatures and table top hobby wargames that we pride ourselves on. ‘Blood Bowl’ is a trademark that belongs to Games Workshop. Therefore the use of it by third parties, without licence, is unlawful and an infringement of Games Workshop’s rights. Guidance has been available for our fans for many years in our Intellectual Property Policy that can be found on the legal pages of our website http://legal.games-workshop.com/ This sets out how our hobbyists can use our intellectual property in such a way that Games Workshop is not likely to object. Within the policy there are some simple rules, such as: 1) Do not mention any Games Workshop Trademarks, such as “Blood Bowl” or “Warhammer” in your URL or league name; and 2) Do not screenscrape any content from official websites. There are also a number of more general guidelines, setting out the spirit of the policy. If a fan follows the policy in spirit and letter, then it is highly unlikely that Games Workshop will take any action to prevent their use of Games Workshop’s IP. Games Workshop has not specifically targeted any particular website but instead has taken a consistent approach to all sites that we are aware of that are using our ‘Blood Bowl’ trademark without our permission. We have written to the owners or administrators of these sites detailing our concerns. In our letters, we gave the parties infringing our rights various options as to how they could address our concerns. At no time did Games Workshop demand that any website close down. We trust that this clarifies the situation."

Meanwhile companies like WizKids and Games Workshop continue to show their complete disdain for their customers and the fans of their products as well as their utter inability to properly market their games.

Wow. This part of the Terms of Service for Games Workshop is pretty disturbing:

"SUBMISSIONS
Any notes, e-mails, online messages or bulletin board postings, ideas, suggestions, concepts, designs, or other material submitted to any physical GW company address or to any web site owned or controlled by GW and/or to any e-mail addresses contained in or on those web sites ("GW Web Sites") will become the property of GW throughout the world and GW shall be entitled to use the material for any type of use forever, including in any media whether now known or hereafter devised. When you submit any material to any physical GW company address or any GW Web Sites, you agree, offer, warrant, and represent, both explicitly and tacitly (and GW accepts) that you are assigning all intellectual property rights in that material to GW and that GW has the right to use that material at any time entirely in its own discretion for whatsoever purpose including for commercial, promotional, and advertising purposes without any obligation (including any financial obligation) to you now or at any time in the future. You waive and relinquish any rights, including "moral rights," that may exist in any content to the furthest extent permissible by law and agree not to assert any rights over that content. We are afraid that in order to protect ourselves legally, this is the only way we can operate. If you are unhappy with this policy, then please do not post or send any material to GW.

Is this just Games Workshop being incredibly greedy, or is this SOP for online sites now?

Other gaming companies are embracing the idea of open source and digital distribution, for example: Catalyst Game Labs. More importantly, their open source release of Eclipse Phase, and perhaps even unofficial support for the fan-made MegaMek/MekWars for their Battletech line.

Meanwhile companies like WizKids and Games Workshop continue to show their complete disdain for their customers and the fans of their products as well as their utter inability to properly market their games. Which is especially evidenced by the utter failure of WizKids' "Mech Clix" line for Battletech, and arguably evidenced by Games Workshops' constant price increases for Warhammer 40k; Catalyst seems to be going in completely the opposite direction - embracing digital distribution and open source in ways essentially unheard of in this day and age.

Who would bother with the augmented reality toys?

Miniatures gaming

Are there that many people into dolls and make-believe or are there too many people who are too depressed just being themselves?

Hey now!

No one calls my Ultramarines dolls!

But seriously, humans (even older adults) like to play with things that many would consider to be toys or dolls. Take the Sims for example and the massive following of Warhammer 40,000.

You could say the same thing about people who watch sports or like to watch fast cars going around in circles all day. Its a pastime, not a sign of clinical depression.

That's about when they switched their focus from RPGs to the miniatures business.

...and after finding the link to their number, 1-800-394-4263, at their Contact Page, I called to get their take on this. I asked why they'd choose to alienate their fan base like this, and was told "to protect our IP". I asked just what the rationale was for this decision, and the response once again was "to protect our IP." I asked who made the decision, and the CS rep wouldn't say, just restating that it was their IP. "I know," I told them, "but using Star Trek as an example, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning was lovingly made by fans of ST and Bab5 as a nice spoof. They weren't sued; they were encouraged." The rep once again quietly parroted "but it's OUR IP...", and I gave up.

Dear Sir,

Over the last months, since I discovered about the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, I had read many positive reviews on what seems to be a really nice fictional universe with some pretty good games based on it.

However, after reading today's Slashdot article (link below) on how Games Workshop is bullying the producers of a German fan movie based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe, I must confess your misguided approach to the situation caused my interest to drop into nothingness.

Link to the Slashdot article:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/11/ 1536240
(I advise you to read both the article and the community comments below it.)

Thus, I'm sad to inform you that, effective today, I'm not only utterly uninterested on your games, but actively boycotting each, every and all products based on each, every and all pieces of Games Workshop intellectual property. I'm also advising all my contacts (those who play games and video-games, and those who read fantasy and sci-fi to do the same.

The moment you drop your bullying tactics towards fans is the moment I'll think about becoming one. Before that, sorry, but it's too risky.

In the meantime, I hope you take the backlash on your decision wisely, for your PR and legal departments certainly don't seem to understand how the fan/producers relationship is developed and maintained in the new world of 21st century Internet. The geometric progression you'll experience on this matter in the following days will surely be instructive, provided your management shows some willingness to learn from it.

Farewell, and good luck.

Sincerely,

Alexander Gieg
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Has anybody noticed how the top part of the rotating building:

http://archive.gulfnews.com/images/06/11/29/30_bs_ tower_4.jpg

has the same shape as the top part of Sauron's tower, Barad-dur?

http://uk.games-workshop.com/mordor/mordorhome/ima ges/mordor-sideimage.jpg

Something fishy's going on here...

Try opening this link in a new tab in Firefox 2 with Firefox maximised and other tabs open - http://uk.games-workshop.com/download/download.htm ?/spacemarines/deathwatch/assets/deathwatch.pdf

The actual Story comes from the Warhammer Universe.
GROMM THE PAUNCH

It is part of trend. Tens of thousands of years ago, elephants had 6 tusks instead of just 2.

What? Oh, my mistake. You're not talking about games with religion. You're talking about games that evangelize American Protestant Christianity. Well, no, I don't want to play a game that is trying to convert me or get me "fired up for Christ!" or any of that. It's nothing to do with the fact that it's religious. PETA likes to produce "activities" that evangelize their viewpoint, and I don't want that junk either.

I will go out on a limb and suggest that the only people who want a game that promotes a moral viewpoint are the ones who are already zealots.

Hrmm, i would say an XV88 http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.uk?d o=Individual&code=99140113005&orignav=10 should be sufficiant to carry at least 2 units, and of course a secondary weapons system... oh wait, my brains doing it again, damn it :/

Looks just the same to me

Very good game though if you've got some free time and you're a games workshop fan

Just stick a couple of snotlings on top (or better yet, one underneath holding the case on a pole in total contravention of the laws of physics) and it could win a Golden demonaward.

Just stick a couple of snotlings on top (or better yet, one underneath holding the case on a pole in total contravention of the laws of physics) and it could win a Golden demonaward.

A bunch of Warhammer 40000 players just thought, "Holy Shit, it's a real live Space Marine!"

A bunch of Xbox owners just thought, "Holy Shit, it's the Master Chief!"

And a bunch of anime geeks scoffed and said "Call me back when you make one that's 50 feet tall."

I'll admit my biases up front: I own and operate the online game Meridian 59 which requires a monthly subscription fee.

If you really think about it, the subscription for an online game really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Of course, there's the usual comparison between movies and online RPGs (2-3 hours of entertainment vs. 1 month of entertainment), but even if you compare it to standalone games it's a good bargain. Even if you only buy one new release game every 4 months (3 times per year), you'll still spend more per month than a typical online RPG ($50/4 = $12.50 per month compared to $10.95/month for a game like Meridian 59). Even compared to ISP charges we're talking about chump change here; I have paid much more $10-15/month for internet connectivity for many years now.

And, what do you get for that fee? You get a game with a developer that has a vested interest in fixing problems ASAP. You have stable servers with as much uptime as humanly possible on a connection that most home users can't afford. You have in-game assistance for your problems.

In addition, the online games market is growing, not becoming saturated. It might be easy to forget that the U.S. isn't the only market for these games. The biggest game, Mu Online, claimed to have 5 million people playing their game during peak times at E3. You probably haven't heard about the game much unless you're in Asia or attend E3. Anecdotally, most developers don't see a change in subscriptions when other games launch; online populations might dip, but the number of subscriptions generally remains constant. Some games even see a growth in overall subscription figures as new players are introduced to online games.

But, to bring this post back on-topic: making and operating an online RPG is a huge task. They are generally expensive and difficult to make, and just when you think the work is done (shipping the game, but traditional game development standards), you find out that the real work is only beginning. Most game companies now realize that online games are a service, not just a product, but this has taken a long time for many companies to understand. You have to continue to support the game after launch, and a bad decision can leave a large legacy of problems.

As for Warhammer Online, this official post shows that they learned a lot about the online game space and essentially didn't like the risks. I disagree with their assessment as an indie online RPG developer, but it's a reasonable reaction.

Have fun,

In the year 5057 A.D., a consortum of middle aged monks form a weapons production business, selling their wares exclusively to Christian battle outposts and missionaries in distant galaxies

Sound vaguely familiar to me.

There are also the Games Workshop Fantasy and SF wargames that both Warcraft and Starcraft take a lot of inspiration from.

which was a Games Workshop product, using their established Warhammer races.
Blood Bowl News

I just don't see how they are dumasses...

Visibility-wise if you type "games workshop" into a search engine I bet it shows you the GW corperate site first on the list. In fact I just tested a number of different key-words and the Games Workshop site came up #1 for all of them except "GW" which gave me a page about Bush. So if you are looking for info on GW products the fact that they have cut out the internet resellers (who usually don't have much info other than price-lists anyways) will mean little.

I'm quite sure that they will have done some market research to find out if they will lose many sales by doing this. Think of it this way. People will no longer be able to buy at 30% off. Some of these people will stop playing the game (since it is addictive like nicotine this percentage will be low). GW will lose these sales from which they were getting about 55% of MSRP. Other people will just sigh and go to the GW online store. Now instead of getting 55% from these people GW will get 100% of the MSRP. This is equal to Profit as long as the about half the people who shopped only on-line don't quit buying. I find it unlikely that they will see abandonment of this magnitude.

People have been hating GW for a long time. I have been hating GW for a long time. The thing is...everybody still plays. People will continue to buy because GW models are good and the ruleset is (despite the many flaws) the best and most played one out there.

-Pinkoir

Try Their Site
I'm sure they have one-click shopping...

When i wake up in the morning, I crack open the daily newspapaper and.... wait that's not true. Lets start again. When I wake up in the morning I turn on my computer, and check out... webcomics.

Angst Technology, Ctrl Alt Del, Dilbert, Errant Story, Force Monkeys, Fox Trot, goats, Life of Riley, Mac Hall, Megatokyo, Misfire, Penny Arcade!, Sinfest, Something Positive, and finally Wendy.

Then, after my daily webcomic barage (not to say that these all update on a daily basis. Some are good [ like ctrl alt del, and penny arcade ] and update regularly. others... well...) I frequent other sites, for information.

Slashdot of course (not linking it...)
Gamespot
Games workshop,
and
Unconventional Conformity.

Other than that, I have a few sites i goto every so often. Or ones which i check throughout the day. But they become less important than the comics.
-Gharbad

No reason why you cant have it: just watch out for all those warring minatures

This concept fleshed out in a computer game would be EXCELLENT. Not only do the gamers win, but the publishers have a way to make a good profit off of coninuing a game's expansion. Consider a computer version of a table top wargame, once the initial engine is written there is little work involved in creating new races, weapons, equipment, vehicles, powers, ect. Rather than spending several years in developement of the sequel release an expansion pack for $20 several times a year. Rather than wait four years to collect $50 for the sequel collect $200 or so for all of the expansions. A new compatible version of the engine could be released every couple of years at that point to keep up with technology.

I first heard about LOTR being made into a film about 2 years ago. I'd never read the books, but had always wanted to. I quickly bought the books, and read them even quicker. I fell in love with the story. I watched the film's developement very closely over those 2 years, reading Tolkien Online and TheOneRing.net almost daily. I bought the soundtrack (excellent!) and a couple books. I even bought some miniatures. I reread the books a few months before the film was released, and enjoyed them even more the second time. I caught a showing of the film on it's first day out, and have been back for a total of 7 times (so far!).

Now, if you had told me 2 years ago that LOTR would be nominated for 13 Oscars, I would have said you were nuts. This is truly an amazing accomplishment, and LOTR deserves every one of them.

Throw in the all night Counter Strike sessions and is it any wonder I'm getting divorced? ;)

And more in line with the idea of a (close to) human sized suit, check out the power armor wearing space marines in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k.

It's based on Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K universe, and looks like it has to possibility to be exciting (atleast to people who follow the hobby) Check out the Exile films site for some neat preview animations and renderings.

I fully understood what the parent post had in mind. If you are so curious as to why it was so large. It was an AI program that simulated battles for the Games Workshop game called Warhammer 40K. It can be found at this website.

Arathres


I love my iBook. I use it to run Linux!

They'd probably call it Windows 40,000, and it could run on a PC, a handheld, or a Predator Annihilator Tank.

Be is getting squeezed from all sides: Windows on the consumer desktop, Mac OS in multimedia, Linux and QNX on the set-top. They don't have the resources to fight on all fronts all the time, and the most wide-open field at this point in time is the web toaster. It's a smart move for them. Rejoice!