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Could Skylanders Be the Future of Our Gaming?
April 12, 2013 by dracs
We all had something which got us into collectible gaming. With Warren and Lloyd this was games such as Hero Quest and other dungeon delving adventures. For myself it started with Pokemon, and the various card games and toys based around it. In the last few years a new one has emerged, a video game with collectible components: Skylanders.
Skylanders is a series of video games published by Activision (and lately Namco Bandai) and represent the latest instalments in the Spyro series which first started back in the days of the Playstation 1. What separates Skylanders from other games is its collectible elements. Players can go out and buy various toy characters from the series, which are then placed upon a "Portal of Power" device, allowing you to play that character in the game.
Despite it being around since 2011 I only properly came across Skylanders this weekend when one of my younger cousins was proudly showing off his collection of weird monster figurines which could be used in the game. I recognised the passion he had for this game, along with the winces of his parents who had to foot the bill, being reminiscent of my own love of Pokemon back in the day.
The game itself I found to be a rather mediocre platformer, but I could see that wasn't really where all the fun lay. What really drew my younger cousin in was collecting all these wondrous minis! Perhaps Skylanders would prove to be the gateway for younger gamers that Pokemon had been for me.
Then I began to think that Skylanders could possibly mean more than this in gaming terms. We have talked before on the site about the idea of tabletop games developing in the future into more of a hybrid of video and miniature gaming. Could Skylanders be this first step? Imagine it, you go out and buy the new unit for your army. You place the miniature upon some form of reader, such as the "portal" for Skylanders, and hey presto your miniatures are coming to life on the screen in front of you. Could this be a possible future our hobby could be heading towards?
Now don't get me wrong, I doubt that our regular tabletop games are in any real danger of disappearing, but it cannot be denied that for many the strategy games based around Warhammer 40K was their first step into the hobby.
Now what if those games came to include the collectible elements of miniatures gaming in a similar way to Skylanders? Whether this would be a good or bad thing for the hobby I will leave you to decide. It is certainly interesting to think that this platformer, aimed at younger people, could represent the first steps in the evolution of miniatures gaming and collectible games as a whole.
What direction do you think gaming is headed in?
I agree with what you say. My son has got loads of skylanders. I think he is more interested in collecting them rather than playing with them.
Dont get me wrong, when we buy him one he runs to his room to play with it then the novelty disappears. His skylanders still take pride of place in his room even though he hardly plays with them. On the same note he is always wanting more.
Since he has collected skylanders I have since gotten him interested in playing table top games. I did not really know anything of anything for his age bracket I decided to buy a copy of what introduced me into the hobby and that was Hero quest. This will probably be the launch platform into the hobby I had taken 20 odd years ago!
Considering how many Skylanders my two sons have between them I think you are on to something. Because they have varying stats and powers, both of them have their favourites and they have developed a good understanding of synergy between the characters when playing together. It even helped them understand the significance of the stats possessed by the characters in the Marvel Heroscape game and my oldest (8) is constantly moaning how underpowered Spiderman is in that game
Sorry, gotta be a bit geeky on that one… Having played Marvel Heroscape quite a few times… What?
Spirderman’s awesome in that game! I keep rolling 14’s when I play him.
I could certainly see this as a viable way of playing tabletop games virtually. Imagine playing a Warmachine version of this…
The hub thing would be styled like a Warjack maintenance platform (or customised to your faction for added mulah) and then you’d be able to put the miniatures you wanted onto it that would then appear in the game.
Then, like Skylanders they would level up, you could take them to a friends house etc.
BoW Ben
their was a warmachine game in the works at one point havent heard anything about it for a while though… maybe you should take a stab? sounds like you have some great ideas 🙂
but I’m not sure I’d like this direction for the hobby myself as while i enjoy console and pc gaming greatly my biggest attraction to the hobby is sitting down with some mates with some popcorn crisps pop booze etc and having a good laugh round a table… it might disappear if you could do it in a computerised (yes i know it’s not really a word 😉 ) fashion…
Nothing wrong with “computerised” as a word. As for gaming, I agree the social aspect of tabletop gaming is different to that of many if not most video games. The “beer and chips” aspect was still there back in the days of LAN parties but they’ve become less important since the advent of broadband connections.
The most obvious difference between video and tabletop games must surely be the tactile nature of the latter. Fancy graphics have their appeal but it’s a very different experience to the physicality of a miniatures game. This is especially true when the art and craft aspect of painting armies and making terrain is included.
Multimedia games like Skylanders and Ex illis blur this line by providing (presumably, as I’ve not played either) an experience somewhere between the two. If this broadens the opportunity for play and opens another path into the hobby then I’m all for it, even if it isn’t personally for me.
Talking just nuts and bolts I’d have to say both a yes and no. My kids love Skylanders but like most things it doesn’t hold their attention. I agree that this type of game could be a gateway to our hobby. The real question is how would the RFID technology be incorporated into a smart board design and still allow the modeling side of the hobby flourish? Clearly we are talking about the base here. But if you take a close look at the Giant models that light up, base only solutions limit hobbying possibilities. Then there is the cost increase to consider as well. Can the hobby support the cost increase for that type of embedded technology? Some sure, but anytime soon? I really doubt it.
It just makes me feel very old on out of touch lol
Me too. And I’m 22!
Didn’t they have something like this on the PS2 quite some time ago, it was with cards that where scanned in and then played on the console. It’s not a new idea by any means.
Trying to get something like 40K and all the rules onto a virtaul game….and then you some how scan a model in…don’t get me wrong, it would be great, it just aint gonna happen any time soon…i.e. more then 10 yers time at the least…where it will be affordable by all 🙂
Skylanders isn’t the future of our hobby. It’s something else. It doesn’t really compare to our hobby in any way except the presence of miniatures (which is totally incidental to the gameplay). The minis are not components of the game. They’re packages that contain game components. The actual game component is the RFID chip inside the little buggers.
Skylanders is a video game with purchaseable DLC. That DLC just happens to be delivered in the form of cute little plastic packages. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate either. The DLC is still downloaded from the internet. The cute little plastic packages just contain a key that lets you unlock the permission to use it. It’s basically a DRM key jammed inside an action figure.
Ex Illis attempts something much more interesting. I’m not actually a huge fan of it personally, but I think they were really trying to envision the future of our hobby and how it could intersect with technology in useful or fun ways. But Skylanders isn’t really akin to what we play, not even in a HeroClix sense. It’s a videogame with a collectible physical component tacked onto for one reason, to sell kids plastic. You could completely replace the minis with pure digital downloads, and the fundamental mechanics of the game wouldn’t change. It probably wouldn’t sell as well because kids like plastic, but it would really be the same game. This is one step removed from buying goods with real money in the Diablo III auction house. It is not one step removed from the wargaming hobby. The next obvious step for Skylanders is to ditch the plastic toys and go fully digital. Once kids are hooked on the idea of buying bits and pieces for their videogames, go right ahead and eliminate the costly plastic bits.
Where wargaming is going in the future is obvious in a couple cases and less so in others.
– Obviously, the way we play games now will continue for a long time. People still play Kriegspiel for fun. They’re going to keep playing with toy soldiers on terrain for a while too regardless of how else they play games on a different day of the week.
– PC strategy games like Total War, Starcraft, etc. will continue to take some of our attention away from the tabletop. Some of them will let use customize our troops (this will get better in time). Many of them will incorporate DLC. At some point, somebody will make a war game toolkit of some sort that will let users define their own units, rules, maps and whatever else. I see the digital side of our hobby being more like Minecraft (with better graphics eventually) or Neverwinter Nights than Skylanders.
– Experiments like Ex Illis will keep happening until somebody figures out something that sticks. Who knows what that will look like in the end, but it’s not likely to happen in any big way until a few more technologies become more affordable. Being able to detect the position of miniatures on a table, for instance, is possible but still too expensive for wide-scale deployment in hobby centers or widespread adoption at home. It will probably involve tablets/phones in some way (rather than books/cards/record sheets), and it may or may not replace dice-based mechanics. But it’s unlikely to replace tables and minis because the hobby is a big part of what wargaming is for many people. How about embedding LEDs in our minis’ bases to indicate model status and connecting that wirelessly to our mobile device of choice where we record damage and everything else we’re keeping track of? No more counters. Kind of like War Room but with added blinkenlichten. We’re not quite ready yet for that kind of stuff, but we will be.
But stuff like Skylanders? Temporary. At some point people will realize that the toys and the games are truly separate things, and then they’ll have one of two reactions:
1. Stop buying the toys and play games that don’t sell them digital goods because some people hate the idea of digital goods.
2. Stop buying the toys and play games that sell them digital goods without a plastic package because most people want the game more than they do the toy, and economics favors the lower cost delivery mechanism. This is what Activision is really hoping for. Skylanders is just a gateway drug for DLC and free-to-play incentive-buying mechanisms.
Either way, Skylanders model of attaching digital goods to physical packages (toys) is a temporary phenomenon. I wish I had thought of it first though. It’s making serious money right now, just like Beanie Babies did once (and POGs, and Garbage Pail Kids cards, and god knows how many other collectible tchotchkes targeted at kids before them).
absof#@kinglutley its a cute gimmick for kids, it has nothing to do with table top gaming in any way shape of form and the fad will fade out as they all do. Kids have a short attention span
I’m not sure I entirely agree. Skylanders will likely be a passing trend for sure but it is still putting miniatures used for gaming in the hands of children. I think it is wise to leave the particulars of rules up to a computer since it lowers the barrier of entry for a demographic that wouldn’t have the patience to roll the dice.
I see this as a gateway game of another kind that what we’ve seen in the past. It won’t lead directly into any established games but it lets kids know miniatures exist and they are a lot of fun. In ten years, when the children are older, we’ll see how well Skylanders pays off for miniatures gaming when nostalgic 20 year olds see see Warhammer 50,000 on a shelf and pick it up.
The problem is that Skylanders isn’t a gateway to tabletop games. It’s a gateway to video games. And once kids get into videogames, they’re not going to be nostalgic for the little bits of plastic. They’ll start buying DLC packs through Steam.
Our hobby is about the minis, sure. But it’s also about the terrain, the dice, the face-to-face contact with other players. Skylanders isn’t about any of those things. It’s not even about the minis. The minis are just a tool used by Activision to drive up the price of the DLC. If they could find a way to sell just as much DLC without the minis, they would in a heartbeat (lower production/distribution cost, higher profit).
By contrast, you can’t play Warmachine without some physical counter (minis or some proxy). Even when you do play Warmachine on a digital tabletop it’s simulating the physical counters (and it’s a lot less fun). There’s no way to engage in “our hobby” without the minis. There are lots of ways to play a game like Skylanders without the minis (every other game Activision publishes, in fact). That’s what they’re driving these kids towards.
It’s a gateway game alright, but it’s not a gateway to tabletop gaming. Not by a long shot.
I think a digital table and minis with RFID chips in there bases would be neat especially for Role
Playing Games
A french company is already working on something like that
http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/01/18/ces-2012-epawn-arena-brings-the-electronic-age-to-board-games/
http://www.trictrac.tv/video-epawn-mais-qu-est-ce-que-c-est
The second video is in french unfortunately but there they show some of the ideas they have been working on
I may be misunderstanding something here but I don’t see any real link to tabletop gaming.
The figures are more to do with collectable toys (Collect them all! batteries not included) than gaming minis imho.
A few Christmases ago I bought a friend’s little girls a plushie that had some electronic key for a game and online stuff. The actual figure seems rather passive once you pop it on the plinth and start playing with the console.