WoWs warship design book opportunity?

[ArmouredCarriers]

With the extensive research being put into the ships of this game, perhaps there is the opportunity to publish an affiliated book?

 

Sure there are plenty books already out there about the likes of Yamato, Montana, Bismark etc.

 

But what about the likes of Izumo or Hakuryu? (Hell, it's hard to find more than a few sentences on the design and construction of Taiho).

 

There are a smattering of articles about Russian battleship and battlecruiser designs in English general consumer publications. But next to nothing about Russia's carrier designs.

 

This wealth of information is already being assembled by the World of Warships game designers.

And they've even already got the 3D models / armour distribution models etc necessary to help illustrate such a book.

 

I know I'd be happy to pitch into a crow-sourcing / kickstarter campaign to assemble these references and assessments into a print publication.

 

Perhaps there are others?

 

 

[CFagan1987]

Osprey Publishing has already done this ... their New Vanguard series has a large number of books regarding WOWS era cruisers, destroyers, battleships, etc. Alright, I will admit that they are very Western-centric but they do have an upcoming book about IJN ships of the Russo-Japanese War.

[ArmouredCarriers]

Yes: I have many of those books.

 

I'm referring more to the concept and design studies, though it would be good to see some of the less 'headline grabbing' actual builds given some coverage.

 

It's a niche market for sure. But WoWs has already captured that.

 

US owned Osprey has to go for the big popular names to sell the most books according to the old print publication economic models.

 

WoWs - having already assembled the material anyway - can use something like a kickstarter to 'put it out there' at a profit. 

[Faolan1237]

Where's my 1936A book of awesome pictures?

[MikeyBugs95]

So you're pretty much talking about a series of books along the lines of the R.P. Hunnicutt books? Well, both Osprey and Squadron/Signal and I believe Concord all put out well authored books on specific classes and types (just don't go for Squadron's book on US camouflage. Very inaccurate and poorly written). Squadron and Osprey (I don't know about Concord) publish books about specific ships. But, if WG was to do this, and do it with the utmost unbiased accuracy in mind, staying true to history and the records and individual accounts, and include many photos and details as well as line drawings, I'd most likely buy some. Even with WG being a moderately tarnished name in the modelling community (which number quite a few million around the world I believe), these books might sell well as long as the information is true and objective and the pictures and drawings legitimate. To sell any of these books within that community (which I am a part of) these books would need to be top-notch (Wargaming doesn't have very good standing among most model builders, well the builders who don't play WG games, because of the sometimes fantastical or imagined nature of some of the designs included, such as the T110 series or the WT E100. Many blame some companies for releasing sub-par kits due to the interest created by the games. I couldn't care less really... Except about DML's M103... That's just a disaster.)

 

That being said, I do have a few Osprey and Squadron books along with a box set of James Fahey's very nice "spotters type" books or whatever they are.  Along with many others but those don't really apply in this instance. 

[ArmouredCarriers]

I'd prefer books in this vein: Smallish but very detailed and well illustrated with diagrams and not so common images.

 

 

I'd not want to cover ground already trod: How many thousands of books cover the Iowas, Essexes etc? 

 

I'd like to see the rarer stuff and draft designs covered - but I guess they'd not sell as well. 

 

Or they could go all-out and do a massive tome on "The Forgotten Ships of WW1 and WW2" something like this (complete with the original engineer's line-drawings as centerfolds!)

 

 

 

 

[MikeyBugs95]

Or they could just have an extra-uber-extraordinarily-massive tome on every ship from WW2 in extensive detail such as in Hunnicutt's. But then no one would buy it. But I do agree, don't delve so much into the more commonly known and we'll documented classes like the Iowa and Essex and instead deal with the ones that don't see as much love. I haven't seen much on the Brooklyn, St. Louis or Cleveland classes in particular. Yes there have been books on the US cruiser fleet as a whole but I haven't seen much on those specifically. And with the Cleveland being the most produced cruiser class of World War II, I would that it would see more detail. But I would love to see WG do this and do it well.

[HellfireCity]

Dunno if anyone knows this but

they're thinking about how they're going to get the documents out there. They just don't have a strategy yet for it.

 

I'd assume it'd apply to all the documents they have for ships, planes, and tanks.