iTabletop: Rocks fall online, everyone still dies.
Shawn and I, here at 2phatgeeks are geeks.
I know that’s a long stretch for you guys. It’s hard to believe, what with hardly any posts about games, Star Wars, jokes about mudkips and the blog’s title and all that jazz–but it’s true. We’re geeks and we love our nerdling things. But there’s one part of geekery we’ve never experienced. There’s a badge to our nerd cred that we’re missing and what might that be, you ask?
We haven’t played D&D.
iTabletop has rolled a critical awesome.
In fact, we haven’t played any table top games. There are many reasons for this and I am sure some of you running these games will understand them. The rigmarole it takes to get a group of people to show up on time, consistently. Real life that happens to any game, where one couple can’t make it one weekend because the baby is sick, or another who can’t because their car broke down. Then, of course, there’s the idea for some of the truly new of opening your home up to those you don’t quite know yet or getting together in someones home that’s unfamiliar to you. There are countless other little things that all add up to becoming HUGE things when trying to run a table top game, and they’ve kept Shawn and I from enjoying them.
And then one fateful night I stumbled across something that may change my ideals on tabletop gaming entirely.
I give you: iTabletop.
iTabletop is a virtual online tabletop environment that’s striving to give all of you tabletop gamers an experience as close to what you’d find in your home, except, of course, without the home part. iTabletop has been designed to mimic the feel of an instant messenger, something simple and easy to use so that it appeals to all. Upload PDF’s, upload maps, character tokens, documents, music, NPC tokens, sound effects and even video clips. iTabletop is also designed to be used flexibly with any sort of game. You can take a virtual tour over there at iTabletop and check things out, or download it for free to delve even further in depth.
I’d like to think this will open up a whole new world to our geeklings, and I, for one, plan on welcoming our new geek overlords.
I have never heard of http://itabletop.com/ before but then again I am not much of a game person. I should pass this to my brother so I can make he’s day!
Salwa posted: Blog Marketing Scams and What You Should Be Aware of
We’re definitely uber geeks over here, and while we never truly got into playing D&D, for several reasons, and a virtual game environment would make getting into it much easier!
Unfortunately the developers of itabletop have stolen software from a company called Invisosoft. The developers were paid to develop online meeting software for them. They created the itabletop website without permission, nor did they aquire a license and now they are currently being sued by the company and the courts have force them to take down there site. Its a shame. dishonesty never leads you anywhere!
After some research and a little digging about, seems like there is probably more to this than just what’s commented here by you, Zorro.
I encourage readers to go out and take a look at both sides of the story
Hi Melissa, I am sure that there are two sides to a story , but the information given to me was factual. The developers probably have there reasons for creating the website but, It still doesn’t deter from the facts. I would love to hear both sides of the story because I believe the technology is awesome. I just don’t want to support and approve of that kind of activity, no matter what the potential profits can be for any company. neutral….
Hi Zorro!
I’m pretty sure that since it has, as you say, reached the courts that the courts will indeed decide what’s best.
Thanks again for visiting!
Hi Mellissa and other readers!
Well – this thread is quite funny really. I am the president of Auldsoft LLC, which released iTabletop through a valid reseller and licensing fee agreement.
I won’t go into any details, but suffice it to say I know this “Zorro” fellow quite well, and he’s not the impartial 3rd-party he’d like you to believe.
Anyway – I very much apprecate your nice article about iTabletop. We’ve got a number of subscribers who value iTabletop greatly – and I’m confident the court ruling will be favorable to us, as it usually does recognize truth from lies.
Thanks for your neutral and fair stance, Mellisa. Your site is great – and I have recommended it to a number of people since your article came out!
Hello James!
First, welcome to 2phatgeeks. I really appreciate you dropping by and reading us!
I certainly hope that you aren’t alluding to what I think you might be. Certainly, if Zorro was of course, a representative of the opposite site commenting anonymously trying to slander iTabletops name? …Well imagine how that would look and reflect on other other company!
I’m sure I’m totally incorrect about my guess, though!
Good to have you here, I really hope things get sorted out, and thank you for the recommendation!
This looks extremely tempting, Mel. Though it also looks like work. I’m now seriously considering taking back into consideration the running of an online D&D game. Especially because you and Shawn have never played! Gasp and horror! Oh the blasphemy! There. I said it. Now: thanks for sharing this juicy tidbit of information. Definitely gives me something to think about.
It does look like a lot of work, but I’m also thinking any D&D game sort of translates that way.
I would so use this for Shawn and I, to get into the game–but Shawn only has 2 days out of a week off. He usually spends that gaming, helping me around the house and working on everything he doesn’t have time to do during the week.
I know, we’ve lost some of our geek cred admitting to the fact we’ve never played. Incidentally though, the rule books and creature books have always fascinated me!
Melissa – I like your new logo! Sweet
Thanks very much James! I wish that I could take credit for it, but it was all Shawn, vectoring, and adobe photoshop!
Hi All,
You might like to checkout weRole.com for a similar service that focuses on sharing any tabletop environment via webcam. Not only does each player get audio and video chat, but the game master gets a big hi-def screen for broadcasting their tabletop setup (so those Dwarven Forge pieces you sold your left kidney for don’t go to waste =D).
weRole doesn’t require users to download and install anything and it’s cross platform, so convincing your friends to use it is super easy.
Check it out at http://www.weRole.com/tour