I have many Avalanche Press games, and in general, have enjoyed them. But I find myself staying away from purchasing any new games from them (for example the Great Pacific War). The reason is they do not support game play by Vassal. For me it is a lifestyle issue: I just can not find table space to keep a game safe on while I play over an extended period. Also, 1/2 of my board gaming these days is by PBEM.
So, if I am going to put down $50 - $80 for a game, I will go with one of the publishers who openly, actively support Vassal...and that is the vast majority of them.
I know this is a marketing / business decision for AP. But I am at least one "good customer" who is staying away from their products for lack of Vassal modules, and I am certain there are others.
That's a criticism that had been leveled against several publishers over time. IIRC, Decision Games has kept theirs off of VASSAL for a while, and also kept various older SPI games off, too.
I agree with your outlook Arizona (though I do still buy the occasional AP game).
I have two shelves on my bookcase filled with their games (mostly GW/WW2 at Sea) but have never been able to enjoy them because I have no opponant. SP gets old fast when the strategic game requires FOW. AP did grudgingly allow (iirc) two VASSAL mods to be made, one for a War at Sea game and one for a PzGr game, but that's it as far as I know. I tried to create my own VASSAL mod for Cruiser Warfare about 5 years ago but gave up because I couldn't get sharp enough scans of the pieces and had trouble knitting the scanned sections of map together. Also, my VASSAL-Fu is weak to begin with so I shelved the project.
The PzGr module (for Airborne) is available here: http://www.mcssl.com/store/4e466d3b9268494c82869d4417a53b/panzer-grenadier-airborne-vassal-module
The Zun Tzu version of the above is here: http://www.mcssl.com/store/4e466d3b9268494c82869d4417a53b/online-play-modules/panzer-grenadier-airborne-zuntzu-module
:( It looks like they no longer host the War at Sea module. It was for Coral Sea (WW2). They also discontinued their Third Reich/Great Pacific War modules.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on February 03, 2014, 06:34:02 AM
That's a criticism that had been leveled against several publishers over time. IIRC, Decision Games has kept theirs off of VASSAL for a while, and also kept various older SPI games off, too.
Agreed, Decision games er "decision" makes no sense...particularly with SPI games. At least Decision games allows some modules (D-Day and RAF for example).
Avalanche Press rules are enough to put me off their games, but the VASSAL thing is just another example of dated thinking and unwillingness to use these new opportunities to actually sell games. Most of the arguments against it seem to be that they will lose sales to people who won't buy the physical product, but you only have to look at the companies that do to see that it isn't the case, or at least the people who support the games are enough to run a successful business.
You can go and play "The Hunters" now if you want (though you should own the game first), they give you the VASSAL module, a ZunTzu module, and everything you need to play is up for download, yet that thing has sold out of it's first printing in no time and is already taking preorders for a second print run. Good games sell, and support like that is surely only going to help.