by Vidfreaky
The reply from FFG's CEO at the post linked above seems to explain it as far as I'm concerned.Andrea,
Since you're bringing this up in a public venue, and as your English writing, while excellent, may be cause for subtle confusion, allow me to clarify this publicly.
1) As (for roughly 6 years) FFG had been publishing "Wings of War," I thought it would be an idea to explore licensing the WoW system from NG International so that X-Wing could live side by side this family.
2) I proposed such an idea to the CEO of NG international in March 2010 (as we were nearing a deal with Lucas). To be clear, we never approached you personally, or had even a single discussion with you personally on the subject. This was 100% exploratory discussions between NG and FFG on a high level, and we had/have no idea what the NG CEO was communicating to you.
3) FFG had serious reservations about using the WoW system, however, as we felt there was possibly other (new) systems that would be better for the speed-character-quantity driven universe of SW. I told this to the NG CEO from the very beginning, and let him know this was likely our preferred route. We never asked for any design work from you, nor did we ever see any designs from you. Also, we are unaware of any design for pilots, actions, etc in WoW, whatsoever. In other words, our main reason for exploring the WoW license idea was that we (at the time) had WoW in our catalog and that a good marketing synergy could exist, not because the system was necessarily a good fit.
4) Due to a series of NG decisions and events in the early Spring of '11, it became clear FFG would no longer be the publisher of WoW. This took away the principal reason why we would pursue a WoW license.
5) So, it was decided to not pursue the WoW system and to use the system we had under development, and that we preferred, instead.
There have been MANY dogfighting systems on the marketplace over the years (as mentioned above) and they all share core similarities due to their subject matter. The principal design behind WoW is that it uses cards for planning -- and the same cards for maneuvers. In fact, WoW was originally a card game (it still is, as the bestselling box continues to be the great "Famous Aces" card game) Other than the unique card-to-maneuver system, WoW uses elements (with a slight variations) found in other games (tokens to represent damage, special card to represent combat damage, etc) as mentioned by others above.
I (and FFG dev team) feel strongly that, other than sharing a core concept (dogfighting) there are virtually no similarities between the games. To illustrate:
Maneuvers.
- In WoW, you must search through a deck of cards to find maneuvers. These are then pre-programmed (2 at a time) on player reference sheets. The same card is then used to maneuver the card on the table. (the brilliant, defining invention of WoW, in my opinion).
- X-Wing uses maneuver dials (single order) in which an order is easily assigned to fighters in the playing area. Such programmed maneuver is then translated into real movement by an array of different-sized cardboard movement templates (allowing for much broader differentials in movement distances and turns).
In X-Wing: Depending on maneuver type, a fighter my be punished or rewarded. For example, very difficult maneuvers (printed in red on the dial) may prevent the fighter from taken its action that follows its movement. An easy maneuver (printed in green) may give a boon to a good pilot or specialized craft.
Damage
- WoW uses cards for damage, which is then tracked with tokens (and symbols)
- Xwing uses dice for damage, damage is tracked by cards (in case of a direct hit (as per a dice result), the card is flipped to show its "special damage" -- a system borrowed from our own WFRP RPG, also by Jay Little who designed X-Wing).
- In X-wing, some fighters have have shields (which, obviously, act as buffers, and rechargeable depending on craft and equipment).
- In X-wing, defending fighters (when attacked) roll defensive maneuvers with the dice (preventing possible damage), the higher the pilot skill, the more defensive dice are rolled.
Other unique X-Wing design points:
- X-Wing uses "Pilot skill" as its primary vehicle of initiative and other tests. In WoW, pilots have no relevance except for the name of the plane (I'm not aware of other rules that would change this).
- After each maneuver, every SW fighter has an "action" which can be derived from the Pilot, the craft, equipment (such as weapon systems, astromech droids), etc.
- X-wing is a point-based "army building" system, allowing players to combine pilots, equipment, and number of craft in any way they desire (there are some scenario limitations, but this is generally true).
There are other differences, but I hope the above are sufficient to make it clear that FFG has not stolen or borrowed ideas presented to us, nor that we are stealing ideas from WoW. FFG is extremely designer friendly and fair, and it is important for us that this is obvious.
Andrea, we are huge fans of WoW, and saddened to see the line go. I can understand the frustration of NG situation from your side, and I hope your great games will find suitable homes.
Best Wishes,
Christian T. Petersen
CEO
FFG
Since you're bringing this up in a public venue, and as your English writing, while excellent, may be cause for subtle confusion, allow me to clarify this publicly.
1) As (for roughly 6 years) FFG had been publishing "Wings of War," I thought it would be an idea to explore licensing the WoW system from NG International so that X-Wing could live side by side this family.
2) I proposed such an idea to the CEO of NG international in March 2010 (as we were nearing a deal with Lucas). To be clear, we never approached you personally, or had even a single discussion with you personally on the subject. This was 100% exploratory discussions between NG and FFG on a high level, and we had/have no idea what the NG CEO was communicating to you.
3) FFG had serious reservations about using the WoW system, however, as we felt there was possibly other (new) systems that would be better for the speed-character-quantity driven universe of SW. I told this to the NG CEO from the very beginning, and let him know this was likely our preferred route. We never asked for any design work from you, nor did we ever see any designs from you. Also, we are unaware of any design for pilots, actions, etc in WoW, whatsoever. In other words, our main reason for exploring the WoW license idea was that we (at the time) had WoW in our catalog and that a good marketing synergy could exist, not because the system was necessarily a good fit.
4) Due to a series of NG decisions and events in the early Spring of '11, it became clear FFG would no longer be the publisher of WoW. This took away the principal reason why we would pursue a WoW license.
5) So, it was decided to not pursue the WoW system and to use the system we had under development, and that we preferred, instead.
There have been MANY dogfighting systems on the marketplace over the years (as mentioned above) and they all share core similarities due to their subject matter. The principal design behind WoW is that it uses cards for planning -- and the same cards for maneuvers. In fact, WoW was originally a card game (it still is, as the bestselling box continues to be the great "Famous Aces" card game) Other than the unique card-to-maneuver system, WoW uses elements (with a slight variations) found in other games (tokens to represent damage, special card to represent combat damage, etc) as mentioned by others above.
I (and FFG dev team) feel strongly that, other than sharing a core concept (dogfighting) there are virtually no similarities between the games. To illustrate:
Maneuvers.
- In WoW, you must search through a deck of cards to find maneuvers. These are then pre-programmed (2 at a time) on player reference sheets. The same card is then used to maneuver the card on the table. (the brilliant, defining invention of WoW, in my opinion).
- X-Wing uses maneuver dials (single order) in which an order is easily assigned to fighters in the playing area. Such programmed maneuver is then translated into real movement by an array of different-sized cardboard movement templates (allowing for much broader differentials in movement distances and turns).
In X-Wing: Depending on maneuver type, a fighter my be punished or rewarded. For example, very difficult maneuvers (printed in red on the dial) may prevent the fighter from taken its action that follows its movement. An easy maneuver (printed in green) may give a boon to a good pilot or specialized craft.
Damage
- WoW uses cards for damage, which is then tracked with tokens (and symbols)
- Xwing uses dice for damage, damage is tracked by cards (in case of a direct hit (as per a dice result), the card is flipped to show its "special damage" -- a system borrowed from our own WFRP RPG, also by Jay Little who designed X-Wing).
- In X-wing, some fighters have have shields (which, obviously, act as buffers, and rechargeable depending on craft and equipment).
- In X-wing, defending fighters (when attacked) roll defensive maneuvers with the dice (preventing possible damage), the higher the pilot skill, the more defensive dice are rolled.
Other unique X-Wing design points:
- X-Wing uses "Pilot skill" as its primary vehicle of initiative and other tests. In WoW, pilots have no relevance except for the name of the plane (I'm not aware of other rules that would change this).
- After each maneuver, every SW fighter has an "action" which can be derived from the Pilot, the craft, equipment (such as weapon systems, astromech droids), etc.
- X-wing is a point-based "army building" system, allowing players to combine pilots, equipment, and number of craft in any way they desire (there are some scenario limitations, but this is generally true).
There are other differences, but I hope the above are sufficient to make it clear that FFG has not stolen or borrowed ideas presented to us, nor that we are stealing ideas from WoW. FFG is extremely designer friendly and fair, and it is important for us that this is obvious.
Andrea, we are huge fans of WoW, and saddened to see the line go. I can understand the frustration of NG situation from your side, and I hope your great games will find suitable homes.
Best Wishes,
Christian T. Petersen
CEO
FFG