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[phoenix9797]

It looks like there is some sort of shakeup at Goko:

http://pockettactics.com/2013/08/08/goko-reverses-course-and-ditches-html-5-settlers-of-catan-and-dominion-coming-to-ios/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PocketTactics-MobileStrategyGameReviewsForAndroidIpadAndIphone+%28Pocket+Tactics+-+Mobile+Strategy+Game+Reviews+for+Android%2C+iPad%2C+and+iPhone%29

I didn't see this posted anywhere else in the forum (though admittedly my search was brief).  Could this mean that some of the severe deficiencies in the Goko implementation are on the way to being fixed (looking at you, 1000-room system), or do you just expect more of the same?

[sudgy]

Well, if this is the case, it should be good.

[heron]

Well, they're not likely to get much worse, so I guess this is at least neutral.

[GeoLib]

Except that I think one of the reason's Jay said yes to goko and no to a bunch of other companies was the fact that the implementation would be cross-platform. New leadership might be good in general though.

[Kirian]

Huh.  A new CEO.  Who apparently was VP at AddictingGames.  I didn't realize AG had VPs at all.  I certainly didn't know they were owned by Nickelodeon now.  What the hell?

I suspect this will not impact the Online Dominion experience significantly, though.  But if they don't make the implementation cross-platform... well, le sigh.

[blueblimp]

Makes sense. Their original company premise was the write-once run-everywhere HTML5 platform experiment, and that has failed in the way that matters most, as it's not doing them much good on mobile, where I'd guess most of the money is.

So, they've discarded that and looked at what they have, which is a lot of game licenses. The obvious next step is to make iOS games out of them. Better hope there's something in the contract about being cross-platform if you want to play them anywhere else...

[Watno]

It sounds like it could be pretty bad, like Dominion Online being shut down and replaced with an iOs-only version.
I'll be mad if that happens.

[jsh357]

It sounds like it could be pretty bad, like Dominion Online being shut down and replaced with an iOs-only version.
I'll be mad if that happens.

I am afraid of this too, especially if there isn't even an Android version.  The current Goko isn't ideal, but at least it works.

[DStu]

It sounds like it could be pretty bad, like Dominion Onlinebeing shut down and replaced with an iOs-only version.
I'll be mad if that happens.

Don't believe in this.  First, after all I heard it would surprise me if their contract with RGG allows them to make an iOS only game.  Second, they already have the code for the HTML client which mostly works, and a stable userbase (last time I run my script at least) there, so why drop them just becasue your server now also speaks to a different app?
If the iOS is more successfull, probably they will focus on this and the new features for the HTML don't keep rushing in like we are used to, and in the long run they maybe are not interested in the license anymore (but again RGG must be willing to sell them an iOS only licese...)

[AHoppy]

A stable user base maybe, but how much more money are they making since once you buy the sets, they're yours? Sounds to me like they are just going to focus on iOS and kind of ignore further development on the HTML 5 goko. Not necessarily a problem, hook just won't get better soon (like it was going to anyways...)

[ragingduckd]

I can't wait to drag Cartographer-revealed cards onto my deck/discard using my cell phone.

[sudgy]

Wait, if they take down the online version...  Does that mean Isotropic will be allowed to go back up?

[SCSN]

All that article really says is that Goko is building a native iOS app instead of relying on one HTML5 application that should run on every platform, as was the original plan. This is old news, and nothing suggests they're going to pull the plug on the desktop version.

[Beyond Awesome]

If they build the iOS app from the ground up, then it may very well be superior to the HTML version. That would kind of suck for us who already purchased the HTML version. Hmm...

A new CEO can only be a good thing. Whoever was in charge before was pretty inept or hired pretty inept people or both. So, from a business perspective this can probably only be good for Goko. But, if the iOS app for Settlers and Dominion fails, I say this company is a goner.

[Watno]

And for those of us who want to play on a system without ios.

[hsiale]

So, they've discarded that and looked at what they have, which is a lot of game licenses.

Do they really have a lot? From what I've read on GetSatisfaction where people reported problems, they don't have Settlers of Catan, they are allowed just to make some similar game, but different in a lot of aspects. I've heard of only two really popular games they have true license for, both from RGG (Dominion and Race for the Galaxy).

[blueblimp]

So, they've discarded that and looked at what they have, which is a lot of game licenses.

Do they really have a lot? From what I've read on GetSatisfaction where people reported problems, they don't have Settlers of Catan, they are allowed just to make some similar game, but different in a lot of aspects. I've heard of only two really popular games they have true license for, both from RGG (Dominion and Race for the Galaxy).

Well the linked article says:

The hundreds of exclusive contracts they’d signed meant that many of the board gaming world’s favourite properties were tied up to a wagon that wasn’t going anywhere.

I don't know what games those are specifically.

[rspeer]

Before its launch, Goko was announced to have hundreds of board game licenses, with most of them never being specified. I remember hearing that early on they were working on Citadels, for example. They thought their gaming platform was going to make it really easy to implement board games. Instead, it made it really hard.

The funny thing, to me, is that they got gobs of investment and gobs of board game licenses because their system was supposed to be "cross-platform" and "HTML5". The result they got is not very cross-platform and not very HTML5.

What do I mean by "not very HTML5"? They shoehorned basically everything into one tag, <canvas>, so that they could have complete control over their whiz-bang animations. The canvas tag is a crude stop-gap. It doesn't take advantage of the browser environment. It makes graphics in spite of the browser environment. There's no precise definition of HTML5, but it's certainly not about taking an element that's been around since HTML4 and bloating it with JavaScript until it pretends to be a freaking iPad.

And all this time, there already was a cross-platform, truly HTML5, system for playing board games. A system so expressive and flexible that a single programmer can implement two whole games on it in his spare time. That system is called Isotropic.

[yed]

And all this time, there already was a cross-platform, truly HTML5, system for playing board games. A system so expressive and flexible that a single programmer can implement two whole games on it in his spare time. That system is called Isotropic.

I'm not sure, but I think Isotropic did not use any new HTML5 features...

[rspeer]

WebSockets for real-time communication, for one thing.

Once again, HTML5 is hard to define. But part of the idea of HTML5 is using the combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript effectively for layout and interaction, letting the browser do the hard work.

Goko's platform does the hard work in nothing but JavaScript and tells the browser's layout engine to go away.

[ragingduckd]

So, they've discarded that and looked at what they have, which is a lot of game licenses. The obvious next step is to make iOS games out of them. Better hope there's something in the contract about being cross-platform if you want to play them anywhere else...

A company that has assets and no particular expertise in using them should sell those assets and shut down, returning what value it can to its investors rather than continuing to destroy value. That's what I would would want if I had [shudder] invested in Goko.

[Polk5440]

The funny thing, to me, is that they got gobs of investment and gobs of board game licenses because their system was supposed to be "cross-platform" and "HTML5". The result they got is not very cross-platform and not very HTML5.

What do I mean by "not very HTML5"? They shoehorned basically everything into one tag, <canvas>, so that they could have complete control over their whiz-bang animations. The canvas tag is a crude stop-gap. It doesn't take advantage of the browser environment. It makes graphics in spite of the browser environment. There's no precise definition of HTML5, but it's certainly not about taking an element that's been around since HTML4 and bloating it with JavaScript until it pretends to be a freaking iPad.

And all this time, there already was a cross-platform, truly HTML5, system for playing board games. A system so expressive and flexible that a single programmer can implement two whole games on it in his spare time. That system is called Isotropic.

I wonder how much of this is Goko's fault versus Apple's fault  (e.g. Apple tries very hard to maintain a closed system) versus HTML5 just not being ready for prime time yet (e.g. it took BROWSER updates to fix some of Goko's problems because they weren't HTML5-feature ready until late winter).

And I would never want to play Iso on my phone.... That is just silly.

All in all, I don't think this is good news for us or Goko.

[Kirian]

I would love to comment on that post--some of the comments show a striking lack of understanding on Dominion and Goko--but I'm not going to sign up for *yet another separate forum*.

[dougz]

WebSockets for real-time communication, for one thing.

Nah, I've never used WebSockets or anything else in the nebulous cloud of features collectively labeled "HTML5".  The spec for WebSockets wasn't even finalized until over a year after my public Dominion site went up.

Maybe in a couple more years, when essentially all browsers support them, and ISP proxies know about them, and most of the bugs have been found, and there is non-experimental server-side support for them, I'll revisit the issue.  They sure sound nicer than hanging GETs...

[Slyfox]

The same site posted a followup article in which they interview the new Goko CEO.  Not a whole lot of  information there over the first article, but one tidbit is that an iOS version of Goko Dominion is supposed to ship next month.

http://pockettactics.com/2013/08/13/visions-of-a-new-dominion-an-hour-with-gokos-new-ceo-kate-connally/