OLEDs Could be the Future of Board Games

[Valiance]

Considering I'm already a board-game fan, this is just...It's simply wonderful for the new generation of players.

 

[CyberKnight]

It's an interesting concept, although what they're showing here is mostly smoke and mirrors -- it's all a projector, a single unit. Somehow, you'd have to get the pieces to "talk" to each other (or talk to a central processor), to say nothing of getting the pieces to be self-powered, self-contained OLED displays that you can twist, turn, and position like they were showing with those pieces of white paper.

The good: fewer lost pieces, less arguments over rules, presumably less time to set up/clean up, more focus on playing the game and less on administration (when playing Monopoly the board game, did anyone ever take the "10%" for income tax? A computer can tally up your property values in an instant; in the board game, it was always the default "$200").

The bad: power, maintenance (how long will these things last), each piece is a lot more valuable (can't just draw a new Catan hexagon on paper or substitute a GI Joe for a Monopoly token if the hexagon or token is an electromechanical OLED screen or radio-enabled gadget), can't make up your own rules (maybe?).

The ugly: Going to be a lot more expensive, make me feel positively ancient ("You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!")

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

mmmmmmmm let see motion sensing + heat/touch plus wireless charging technology (charging pad + static), and the wireless video and possable audio sending and receiving on maybe wifi,BT or some future version there of and oh say the OLED square itself(as the point of this is to show what can be done with Oled squares minus the projector) the minimal price in a decade would be....50-200$ a square..... with the base unit that holds the game data in it... of course...

So a 20 square set could be in the range of 1000-20 grand....take away 30 or so percent for the package deal....... maybe in 50ish years it will cost the same as a 20$ board game.....


Tho I suppose if the projector dose all the heavy lifting and the squares are just for...er...show one could do it for 1/3rd or less the cost.....

/Intellectual incoherent

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Only if it's in 3D...

Spoiler

And what the hell is a OLED? I know all about LEDs, are they different???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_LED

Basically they have organic components,they are a bit more fickle for instance will save power on doing anything but while which then uses 3X more power.

Maybe the tech can be refined over the years to be as good as led,but led is where its at for now.

 

[Shycte]

I jizz in my pants....

That's all folks!

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I understand that evolution is a process and all that. But, why do board games need all that weird technobabble? The fun of a board game is it's simplicity. Crazy complicated board games that take hours to setup and then a few more hours to learn don't usually sell well. Even high end board games like Diplomacy are better when they don't try to have too many insane aspects to the game.

And then there's all that talking light up crap that requires batteries. It's no fun to pull out a board game, only to find out that the strange toy that runs the game has dead batteries and now you have to put everything on hold to go to the $.99 store and get batteries. Then of course there's Mouse Trap. You'd think that would be the exception. But playing the actual game just gets in the way of the fun part, setting off the trap. If the game is getting in the way, then that's a problem.

Chess hasn't changed much in 4000 years, and it's still pretty much the gold standard for board games. Can't really say the same thing for those whacko games that require batteries or DVDs.

Looking at how energy is developing its very plausible that this will have the battery and charging tech(nano fibers with nano capacitors can take energy from static and ambient electricity) but for now the best I can see is a charging pad/carpet.

 

[PunchClockVillain]

That looks incredible! I just hope board games like that don't end up being some $500.

The OLED technology will have to become easier to produce and thus cheaper first before this takes off I think.

Not to mention the lifetime on them is pretty short so far. Regular LEDs can last a hell of a long time, but they haven't figured out how to make the OLEDs last.

 

[Ridonculous_Ninja]

I was thinking this could be applied to a tabletop RTS. Sure it may get a little hectic but imagine the possibilities.

How would you hide your massive army though?