D&D sales now *third* behind Pathfinder and...

ICv2's latest rankings of retail gaming sales is out, and the news is grim indeed for Wizards of the Coast.

Not only are they once again being bested for RPG sales by Pathfinder, but now FFG's Star Wars RPG has apparently overtaken them as well. The Pathfinder thing is old news; they've been beating 4E regularly for quite some time now. The Star Wars thing is new, though, and I think D&D's weakness in the retail sector is driven largely by the perception that 4E is a lame duck, with everyone holding off major buying until 5E (DnD Next) comes out.

Sure, Magic: The Gathering is still undisputed king of collectible card games, and is their cash cow in the same way that Munchkin is for Steve Jackson Games, but D&D is a prestige title and it can't help but be embarrassing for them to be beaten consistently by a company they fired from publishing their D&D house organ...

Overall, though, the picture seems bright for the hobby gaming industry as a whole. Sales are up, new stores are opening, and more people are playing. Which is a good thing, regardless of what they're playing.

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Purple Pawn 2012 Game Industry Survey

The ever-interesting Purple Pawn has published its 2012 Game Industry Survey of retailers, publishers, and distributors. The link to the actual pdf report is in the above article, but the highlights from my perspective are:

• Pathfinder is outselling Dungeons & Dragons by a significant margin
• There are a ton of one-and-two-man game companies out there
• The larger companies are doing better, as a group, than the smaller ones
• Distributors are like the Federal Reserve. Seems like they print their own money. :-)

Read the whole survey; it's fascinating stuff.

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New York Toy Fair 2013

The first half of this week was spent at the New York Toy Fair, which is pretty much the big toy and game industry expo. I went there as a manufacturer representative (for BRW Games) with three main objectives.

First, to get contacts with the big game distributors to see about getting Adventures Dark and Deep into stores. That went swimmingly. Got great contacts, and my day was made when one of the salesmen from Alliance, having heard my elevator pitch for ADD, said, "That's a great concept. I can sell that." Awesome.

The second mission was less of a success. Unfortunately it's not something I can talk about "in the clear", but although I didn't get to meet with the person I wanted to meet, I did get their contact info and will seek them out later. Disappointing, but not a complete wash.

The third was just to have fun, and that I did. I got to see all sorts of new games and toys, met some of the industry folks, and generally had a blast.

Now, onto the pictures!

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WotC Reprints and the OSR

There has been a bit of discussion of late concerning the impact that Wizards of the Coast's reissue of the old (A)D&D pdfs will have on the OSR. First, JB at B/X Blackrazor asked "Have we won the battle only to lose the war?"

Is the OSR…as a movement to create new, good material in the Old School style (and thus to promote Old School role-playing)…is the OSR dead?

Why shouldn’t I put down the $10 to get original B/X over Labyrinth Lord? Why shouldn’t I take the original Erol Otus artwork over illustrations that are simply supposed to conjure nostalgia in my heart?

Within a day of JB's post, Dan at Goblinoid Games opined:

WotC has added their material back to the ecosphere where it was in the beginning, and I think that will only strengthen the cause for old-school gaming. People have already been converted to the idea that the older versions of the game are just as valid as the recent ones, and WotC's recent business decisions only reinforce that.

Erik Tenkar (one of the most prolific OSR bloggers around today) said:

The OSR isn't going anywhere. Putting the originals back into PDF format isn't going to gut the OSR of "old school players" anymore than DnD Next is. If anything, making the originals available in PDF format is likely to bring us the newly curious...

Dave at Blood of Procopius asks "Do we still need Labyrinth Lord?" and answers his own question:

I would answer that question with an unequivocal YES for two very important reasons:

LL is an established brand with a license that hobbyists like myself and small publishers can easily and legally publish under with full knowledge that whatever we produce can be used by those who want to do the B/X thing with virtually no conversion at all.

More importantly to me, LL has a library of compatible games that are specifically designed to be modular.

And I'm sure there are others out there whose contributions to the discussion I've missed. If I may be permitted to be self-referential, I believe that what I said about the OSR Phase II applies directly to JB's original point:

But while the first phase of the OSR has seen foundational works such as those mentioned above [straight or near clones of earlier games], what we are now seeing in the OSR is a flowering of material that take off in wild new directions. Now that the final holes in the retro-clone coverage have been filled (the basic game-play of (A)D&D 0E, 1E, and now 2E are covered by multiple products), the OSR as a whole seems self-confident enough to break off in new directions.

So, to bring this back to JB's original point, I don't think that WotC's re-release of the older games and modules will in any way dampen the creativity or productivity of the self-identified OSR. While acknowledging that the economy is tough and many people don't have as much disposable income as they might have had at the dawn of the OSR a few years ago, the OSR will take these WotC pdfs and use them to grow like green slime on a first-level magic user. Let me tell you why.

Right now, there are four basic types of products that the OSR is putting out; clones, adventures/settings, supplements, and what I'll call originals. Let's see how each one is impacted by the re-releases. I am not going to include the science-fiction, science fantasy, and other genres, but the same principles apply there as well (or will, if and when WotC starts releasing pdfs of Gamma World, Boot Hill, etc.).

First, we have the retro-clones; restatements of the original rules with more or less fidelity to the details. In this category we have products such as OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, For Gold & Glory, etc.

At first glance, the re-release of the WotC pdfs may seem to render this category obsolete, and indeed time will tell what the long-term impact on downloads and sales of these titles will be. The obvious rebuttal is that the retro-clones are better written, more organized, and generally more player-friendly than the originals were (although in the case of 2E and the Rules Compendium, this may be less true). Thus, new players who are introduced to these older games by way of the DnDClassics.com site may seek out the clones for sheer utility, in order to get the same experience with more easily-digestible rules. In any event, this category is pretty well not going to see growth (in terms of new products) because we've seen most of the restatements of the original rules already, and more complete restatements simply aren't needed any more. People chomping at the bit to do them and include their own favorite house rules should look to the third category below and simply publish those house rules on their own.

Second, we have adventure modules and settings; either specific scenarios or entire campaign worlds. There are hundreds of these currently available, supporting most of the retro-clones above, plus many more that are deliberately "generic" and which are intended to be usable with just about anything with a healthy dose of (A)D&D in its genome.

From the very dawn of the hobby, when the original rules were still in print, third party publishers were putting out adventure modules and settings. I would argue that the availability of the original rules in pdf format actually increases the market for new adventure modules and settings with which to use those rules. The market for adventures is only a limited one for a very small subset of the customer base; few people are going to be agonizing between buying Temple of Elemental Evil and Anomalous Subsurface Environment. While there may well be a short-term drop in third-party adventures while folks flock to DnDClassics.com to fill in the gaps in their collections, over the long term sales and downloads of the new stuff will pick up again as people get everything they've been looking to get of the old stuff. Everyone who buys the original Holmes rules is a potential LL and S&W customer.

Third, we have supplements; books that have rules that are designed to be used in addition to, or as a replacement for specific, rules in other games. In this category we have things like new monster books (Monsters of Myth, Malevolent and Benign, Teratic Tome) as well as straight-up rules supplements like Realms of Crawling Chaos, A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore, the Advanced Edition Companion (admittedly something of a hybrid), the B/X Companion, etc.

The products in this category actually should boom because of the new availability of the older titles, and indeed JB mentions in his post quoted above that he's seen an uptick in sales of his B/X Companion since the original B/X Rules were made available. The challenge to the publishers of these products is to get the word out about their existence and compatibility without violating the OGL rule against declaring compatibility. If they can get over that hurdle, they'll prosper. I also happen to think that this category and the one following will see enormous growth in the coming years, and DnDClassics.com will only fuel that growth.

Fourth, we have what I'm calling originals, but the term shouldn't be taken as disparaging in any way to items in other categories. Here we have games that are sufficiently different in terms of mechanics to be considered new games that attempt to recreate an old-school aesthetic. I include here Adventures Dark and Deep, Castles & Crusades, Dragons at Dawn, Adventurer Conqueror King, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Barbarians of Lemuria, etc.

Here, I think we see another medium for enormous growth, which will be incidentally helped by DnDClassics.com, but which is largely unconnected to it. What impact the reprints will have on this sector is in the general sense of validation of the old school aesthetic that the OSR champions. Whether one believes that this aesthetic is real or a bit of revisionist history, the fact is that it exists and is now a recognized force within the gaming hobby/industry. The mere fact that WotC wants to tap into it by making the old pdfs available once more is proof of that. As more people are introduced to the concepts and conceits of the older editions of the game, they'll be more willing to experiment with games that take those concepts and conceits into new areas with new mechanics, and thus this sector will grow. There is no real direct impact, of course, any more than there is a direct impact between WotC publishing the original Holmes rules and a game like Dogs in the Vineyard. But the indirect impact is certainly there.

So, I think that the republishing of the old classic pdfs will actually be a good thing for the OSR as a whole. There aren't any more retro-clones to create, and the ones that spurred the OSR in the first place are there for those who discover the original games and want something more player-friendly. Adventures and rules supplements will always be in demand, and work equally well for the classic games or their simulacra. New old-school games will benefit from new players being exposed to the older means and modes of play, with some players going from the Holmes rules into something more mechanically, but not aesthetically, experimental such as Barbarians of Lemuria. And, of course, we can only hope that the republication of the AD&D 1st edition rules will lead to an enormous demand for Adventures Dark and Deep. ;-)

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Space Marine Victory!

It's unclear at this point whether it was Games Workshop or Amazon that blinked, but someone responded to the enormous pressure and media attention that the recent Space Marine trademark issue brought. Spots the Space Marine is now back up and available in Kindle format on Amazon.com.

Congratulations to M.C.A. Hogarth and thanks to all of the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who stood up against trademark bullying on this issue.

Now to get to work on my next project, Space Marines of Greyhawk.

EDIT: Thanks are due to the EFF. Thanks, guys!

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Hasbro Announces 10% Workforce Cut

From the Boston Globe:

Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro, whose brands include Monopoly and Nerf, has about 5,500 employees worldwide. A 10 percent workforce cut would put about 550 people out of work.

While Hasbro said consumer demand was softer than it expected over the holidays, the season was expected to be tough. This was in part because retailers were ordering inventory more cautiously.
...
Spokesman Wayne Charness said that the job cuts will all be this year and will occur globally, with no particular business groups targeted.

He said that the facility consolidations could result in some closures but was not specific about which plants would be affected other than to say no closures were planned in Rhode Island or Massachusetts in 2013. Hasbro has offices in 40 countries worldwide.

So did WotC skip their annual Holiday Massacre layoffs just to have layoffs imposed from above?

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Interview With Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen

In a sort-of follow-up to the story about Games Workshop suing someone over 3D printing, here's an interview with 3D printing pioneer Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of Shapeways. It's not specifically about gaming, but the implications brought up in the interview apply just as well (in some ways, better) to the production of miniatures, which by their nature are only made of one material and thus are perfectly suited to the technology.

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OneBookShelf Discontinues Crowdsourcing Fulfillment Support

Well this is a kick in the head.

OneBookShelf, purveyors of RPGNow.com, DriveThruRPG.com, etc. just announced that they are no longer going to support publishers who need to fulfill crowdsourcing rewards:

Some of you will recall that we started a new program last August, helping publishers with Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaigns to fulfill your digital and print product orders. Since then, we have helped a number of our publishers to fulfill their Kickstarter obligations.

Unfortunately, after careful examination of the costs and benefits, we have decided to discontinue this program. We apologize to any of you who were considering using this method for your own Kickstarter campaigns.

Of course, you can still use our publisher tools and infrastructure to help send products to your backers.

Now, this is of particular moment to me, as I used RPGNow to fulfill the print and digital rewards for my first Kickstarter campaign with great success, and was planning on using them to fulfill the rewards for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual. Now that that option has been closed to me, I might need to re-evaluate my publishing strategy as a whole, and look to venues other than RPGNow.com entirely.

It could well turn out that having to switch to a new publisher at this late date, after the Kickstarter campaign is ended, but before the rewards were sent, could turn a slight profit that would have been folded back into new products into a not-so-slight loss. I find myself in this unenviable position; my planning and budgeting was built around the RPGNow.com fulfillment quotes. Now that's all out the window.

Gotta say doing this so suddenly really makes me feel like the rug has been pulled out from under my feet. Announcing that "as of XXX date, we will no longer support crowdsourcing fulfillment" would have been much better from my point of view, and allowed me (and, doubtless, other publishers caught in the same position) to make alternate plans. As it is, I am left with a very bad taste in my mouth regarding OneBookShelf.

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Lulu No Longer Allowing DRM Protection

Lulu.com, one of the leading print-on-demand services around, announced that they will no longer be accepting files that make use of Adobe's DRM protection for EPUB and Pdf files. Further, all files that are currently on Lulu with the protection will be required to have that protection removed from them before they can be sold again. Why? Here's the official explanation:

DRM works best when administered by those who control how content is purchased and viewed. Companies like Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble integrate a reader’s experience from purchasing to downloading and finally to reading. These companies do a fantastic job in this area, and eBooks published through Lulu and distributed through these retail sites will continue to have the same rights management applied as they do today.

For readers who download eBooks directly from Lulu.com to the device of their choice, removing DRM on EPUBs and PDFs will remove their need to create an Adobe account, authorize the purchase in Digital Editions or install a third-party application. This creates possibilities for the growing number of readers who want to shop, purchase and download books to their eReaders from sites other than large corporate providers. 

In other words, it seems that Lulu has discovered that they're losing sales because small publishers want to have DRM protection on their files, and having that protection introduces another step.

Now, I fully understand the arguments in favor of this move, and certainly Lulu has a right to do whatever it wants to do as a company. However, if I were a publisher with them, I'd feel more than a little miffed at the condescending attitude that "the big boys know how to do this right, but you don't, so we're taking away the option for you."

If the argument is, "DRM is a flawed technology that ultimately hurts both producers and consumers of media", then allowing it for Amazon and B&N but not for smaller publishers smacks of hypocrisy. If it's bad for me to use it, it's bad for Amazon to use it, and Lulu should take the principled stand and remove their works from those distribution outlets until they stop using it, too.

But here, the argument simply seems to be "We want to make more money, and so we're removing an option that some of our publishers choose to avail themselves of," and I personally find that less than idealistic. Let the producers of the content make the decision, and live with the consequences, good or ill.

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ICv2's Top Ten Hobby Games Business Events of 2012

Over at ICv2, they have a list of the top ten events, trends, etc. that impacted the gaming industry in 2012. Some of it is obvious, some of it is very insightful, and very little do I find myself disagreeing with. Bear in mind it covers all tabletop games, not just RPGs, and some of it is "inside baseball" industry-wise. Definitely do read all of their analysis, but the bullet-point list is:

• Hobby Games Up a Lot (As Videogames Decline)
• Kickstarter Becomes a Major Force in Hobby Games
• Tabletop Becomes Huge Sales Driver
• Licensing Drives Game Sales
• Magic: The Gathering Is the Largest Game Brand
• New D&D Edition Coming; Reprints in the Meantime
• High-powered TCG Launches
• 4Kids Assets Sold to Konami, Saban
• Mayfair Goes Exclusive
• Piracy Hits 3-D Objects

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An Absolutely Disgusting, Bigoted Game Gets Funded on Kickstarter

It is rare that I have a topic that is completely appropriate to post not only to my gaming blog, Greyhawk Grognard, but also to my blog that deals with issues relating to my Heathen faith, GOPagan. However, my attention has been drawn to just such a thing by an article in the Boston Globe (h/t to The Wild Hunt blog).

Let me preface this by saying I abhor Political Correctness. It's nothing but an excuse for professional offense-junkies to try to silence the free speech rights of those with whom they disagree by invoking a non-existent "right not to be offended". This is not that. This jackass has a right to make this game. Just as I have a right to weigh in on that question of whether or not, when one has a right, one necessarily should exercise that right, and whether there exists a line on such things that should or should not be crossed.

The game in question is Salem. It was successfully Kickstarted on November 1, with 553 insensitive assholes pledging $33,812 towards it. The premise?

See who can kill the most witches in Salem.

Modern-day witches and Pagans don't think it's at all funny that people were killed in all sorts of horrible ways just for being accused of being what they are today. It's not cute, it's not an historical footnote, and it's not something that begs to be made into a fucking game.

"You're insulting my faith by mocking it" is one thing, and utter nonsense. All beliefs should be open to critique, questioning, and even ridicule. "You're making a game out of slaughtering people who are like me" is quite another thing entirely.

Hey, I've got an idea. Let's make a new railroad game. Each player is the commandant of a Nazi death camp. The one who can ship the most cattle cars full of Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals to their camp, while still making the trains run on time, wins. Mazel tov!

Or another. This one's a resource allocation game. You have a limited number of negro slaves on your antebellum plantation. You need to allocate them between the cotton fields, the house, and in the slave huts making babies to increase your "labor supply". The player who earns the most money, either by selling cotton, selling slaves to others, or (in an exciting side-game) having your slaves run cockfights, wins. "Uppity nigger" cards can be negated by "If it's a whippin' you're a-wantin'..." cards. Hilarity ensues.

One more. A racing game. You're in Texas, and each player has a gay man chained to the back of your pickup truck. The one who can make it around the track first, without his faggot falling off the end of the chain, wins. Careful-- take a curve too fast and you'll lose 'em before they die. Game over.

Am I overstating the case? I don't think I am. It's a concept that's offensive on its face, the same way that nobody would think to make a game about the Holocaust, black slavery, or the murder of James Byrd, Jr.

For centuries, Christians engaged in witch-hunts, in which tens of thousands of accused witches were burned, hanged, stoned, and otherwise put to death. This is no "burning times" fantasy. It really happened. And for those who, in the modern day, identify themselves as witches, Pagans, and Heathens, it remains an open wound, even if most of those who were accused were guilty of nothing more than being widows and spinsters with property that was coveted by their accusers and judges. The fact that most of those murdered were killed not because they actually were witches, but because they were merely accused of being so, does not lessen the horror of their deaths, or their relevance in the modern day. People today are being slaughtered-- literally-- because they're accused of being witches.

It gets even better-- as a Kickstarter exclusive, you get little plastic nooses to use as player tokens, and a cardstock 3D gallows to adorn your game board. (I'm not making this up.) How jolly! The Zyklon-B replica canisters, real cowhide bull-whips, and 6' length of chain will make dandy props for your game as well.

I don't know how this vile game concept ever got approved by the Kickstarter staff, I don't know how it ever found 553 people to commit money to it, and I don't know how such a game could ever be published, when it essentially makes light of the concept of murdering a group of people who are roughly equal in size to the number of Sunni Muslims in the United States.

Joshua Balvin, head of Rock Paper Scissors Games, should be ashamed of himself. He is an insensitive jerk who obviously doesn't give a crap about making light of the murder of people because of their beliefs, and anyone who buys this game should also be entirely ashamed of themselves.

WARNING: The comments on this post will be monitored very closely, and not only will offensive comments be deleted, but the author of said comments will be banned. Caveat scriptor.

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Game News Roundup

Today seems to be a busy day in the gaming industry.

Slitherine has finally put up a pre-order page for the hard copy version of their Field of Glory miniatures rules version 2.0. FoG was very successful when it launched, owing in no small part to the outstanding design of the books themselves. When it was announced that the 2nd version of the rules would be available in electronic format only, it put off a lot of fans of the game, including myself. Fortunately, though, they reversed themselves, and now we Luddites can see the goodness for ourselves.

FASA has decided to fold their ludicrously overpriced Kickstarter for their 1879 game. After a week and a half, they had only raised $2,354 of their $325,000 (!) goal. I'm convinced that much of the problem stems from the sheer sprawl of it all. Not only was it going to be a new RPG in a new setting (a sort of Victorian-era steampunk on an alien world thing), but also a set of miniatures combat rules with full lines of figures and army books, plus a mobile app for the iPad to play an electronic version of the minis game. I think they'll do slightly better if they break it up into digestible chunks.

Mongoose Publishing has released their State of the Mongoose 2012 report. I love how they're so open about the inner workings of the company. Highlights include; fewer, but better, products; switching from full-time writers to freelancers; markets are "miserable" for RPGs and miniatures; apparently selling "a couple of hundred" copies of a new release is doing well, and even WotC (albeit not specifically named-- it could have been Paizo) couldn't make that modest goal with their latest offering; plus mentions of all the lines they produce. Very interesting stuff, and highly recommended.

Goblinworks has updated their Pathfinder Online Kickstarter to include a bunch of what they're calling "reward enhancements". Offerings include miniatures, battlemat books, and a hard copy of a "superdungeon". I'm a bit confused as to why such tabletop gaming items would be offered as part of the MMO Kickstarter (and even weirder, with the Pathfinder Online logo, rather than the regular Pathfinder logo), but stranger things have happened. Some are quite displeased with this approach.

Well, there 'tis. Enjoy!

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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!

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Pathfinder Tops D&D Again

According to the latest estimates released by ICV2.com, Pathfinder was once again the sales leader in the RPG field this summer, beating out the "genre-defining title" Dungeons & Dragons. Rounding out the field are Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader by FFG, Dragon Age, and Dungeon Crawl Classics.

I've got to say that last one surprises me a bit, but I'm pleased as anything that something that is deliberately being aimed at the old-school market is doing so well when stacked up against all the other RPGs that are out there. Even if I don't personally care for it, it's helping my corner of the hobby, and thus I wish it well.

Bear in mind that these are estimates based on a variety of different sources, since most gaming companies don't publish straightforward sales statistics. They're still regarded as pretty much the only source for comparison. 

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More PDF-anoia

So yesterday Cubicle 7 announced that they are not going to be making pdf copies of their RPG The One Ring available any more:

We are re-examining our pdf programme at this time and will not be offering pdf versions of The One Ring until further notice.

Many apologies for any inconvenience caused. 

What was interesting, however, is a statement that they made over at RPG.net:

Sorry for the frustration with the PDFs, we really appreciate that they are a mainstay of modern gaming and our other games will remain fully supported in PDF.

So, it's not so much a re-examination of their whole pdf program so much as something very specific to The One Ring, which is produced under license from the Tolkien estate. The inference is obvious; if it was Cubicle 7 that was behind the move, they certainly would have done the same with their other product lines. Since it was only The One Ring that is affected, the Tolkien estate must have done something to make them yank the pdfs.

Now, I don't really have a dog in this race. I don't play The One Ring, and I don't particularly care for pdfs. If I am forced to purchase a gaming product as a pdf, I print it out and put it in a binder. But I do recognize that a lot of people do like pdfs for various reasons, and it's certainly become a major segment of the RPG industry in general.

The reasons behind the move, and in all likelihood the move by WotC some time ago to remove all of their pdfs, is to combat piracy. If pdfs are made available by companies, so the theory goes, someone is going to put the files on file-sharing sites and the company will lose sales as a result. But this is an inane argument on a number of levels.

First, if people want to make illegal pdfs of books, not having a company-produced file is not going to stop them. Any 24-year-old with a scanner can make his own pdf in an hour or two. At best, you're going to slow them down; you will never stop them.

Second, if people prefer pdfs, they will resort to illegal pdfs if there is no legal avenue to obtain them. Plus, a lot of people are simply going to pass up a game if they are forced to buy a hard copy these days. A certain segment is just going to wait for someone to put up a torrent of the book, because the company won't allow them to spend $15 to get the file legitimately.

Third, pdf sales are now seen as a means to introduce a product to an audience at a relatively low price-point, which will then encourage the owner to spend money on the hard copy. I know I've done this more than once. I spend a pittance on a pdf, and then take the plunge into the hard copy once I've had a chance to read and use the book.

Now, I am 100% against illegal file sharing and IP theft. Posting a book that someone else took months to write and that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to put together (for art, editing, writing, layout, etc.) is no better than walking into your FLGS and stuffing the book into your backpack. It's not "free" at all; even an electronic-only file costs a lot of money to put together. Believe me; I've done it.

But this no-pdf policy is just insane. It's literally forcing folks who want to play by the rules, but prefer to get electronic copies, to either pass up the book entirely or resort to illegal file-sharing. I'm not saying that making pdfs available will end piracy and IP theft; that'll never happen. But at least companies don't have to shove their customers away, into the arms of bittorrent.

I hope they'll finally get the message someday soon. PDFs are a Good Thing and not a threat to their bottom line.

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Made for Play: Board Games & Modern Industry

Here's a fascinating documentary about how board games are manufactured.

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Some Virtual Gaming News from Wizards and Paizo

WotC's VTT

Here's a two-fer on a subject that a lot of gamers are following closely; virtual gaming.

First, from Wizards of the Coast, comes the announcement that they're shutting down the Beta test of their Virtual Table Top:

"I wanted to inform you all about an important decision that Wizards has made regarding the D&D Virtual Table and Virtual Table Beta. While we appreciate the enthusiasm and participation in the Beta phase, we were unable to generate enough support for the tool to launch a full version to the public. Effective July 30, 2012 the D&D Virtual Table Beta will be coming to an end and the VT will be closed.

Over the next three weeks, we encourage you to wrap up your existing campaigns and make sure to gather contact information from your online group members so that you can stay in touch if you like. We realize that because all data generated in the tool is in a proprietary format usable only by the Virtual Table, it is not possible to export your campaigns for use in another tool. You can, however, take screenshots of any notes, maps or adventures that you would like to hang on to or use in your home games.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in the VT Beta and look forward to continuing to support D&D game play through our D&D Insider digital tools and D&D Next."

Paizo's PGS

Certainly a bummer for those who like to (or must) do their gaming online with some sort of automated play aid. The most curious thing is the timing of the announcement, because it comes just two days after Paizo announced that they are coming out with their own online Paizo Game Space at Paizocon:

Paizo Game Space is amazing software that lets you play with the people you know... anywhere in the world. All you need is the internet.

It's a virtual tabletop. Now VTTs aren't new. I'm gonna say "VTT" a lot because "virtual tabletop" is kind of a mouthful.

Virtual tabletops aren't new. There have been literally dozens of them before this. Some of them we like. Some of them we like a lot.

But none of them is exactly what we think a virtual tabletop should be.

We've talked to a lot of people and they all say the same thing:

We love playing on a VTT. We can keep our group together after people move away.

We love playing on a VTT. As Cosmo told me the other day, it lets him game in his underwear without all the catcalling and wolf whistles.

People love playing on a VTT. But they're kind of annoying!

You have to find the software. And download it. Install it. Will it run on a Mac? That's a big one for us at Paizo.

And then you get the fun part. IP addresses and firewalls and port forwarding and all that. Even network administrators don't want to deal with that stuff. That's work! We're here for fun.

So today, Paizo is reinventing the virtual tabletop.

Paizo Game Space runs right in your web browser. There's no software to install! None. Not even a plug-in.

If you can get to paizo.com, you and your friends can play on Paizo Game Space.

(The full text of the script used in the announcement is at the above link, message #22.)

Reading through the whole thing, the PGS definitely sounds like a good thing for thems as uses such fancy thingamabobs.

As far as the timing of the two announcements go, while I can't help but think that the WotC announcement is related to the winding-down of 4th edition, the timing is truly unfortunate. It makes it look like they couldn't hack it, and Paizo is stepping in once again to take over where WotC dropped the ball.

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First Exposure Playtest Hall at GenCon

I just got an announcement with this pretty neato news from the folks who put on Dexcon, Dreamation, and Metatopia here in NJ. If you're going to be at GenCon this year, it's definitely worth looking into. Plus you get to try out brand-new games before they're even published!

Double Exposure, Inc. is pleased to announce a new area of Gen Con 2012 - the First Exposure Playtest Hall.

Double Exposure will be using their unique formula of reversing the focus of the games - allocating eager players to the requests of the Designers and Publishers!

Dozens of Designers and Publishers will present their prototypes for playtesting at the FEPH, and Gen Con attendees will be able to get FREE tickets to try out new concepts with the genres and mechanics they are interested in.

The FEPH will be running throughout Gen Con, from 9AM Thursday to 2PM Sunday. Role Playing and Story Games will be put into four-hour slots beginning at 9AM, 2PM and 8PM (10AM on Sunday). Board Games, Card Games and Wargames will be put into two-hour slots following the same schedule.

Designers and Publishers: This is your opportunity to officially tap into the giant pool of players at Gen Con - put your games on the tables and Double Exposure will find you the people you want to playtest with - give us your needs and we'll fill them!

Players: Help to shape the next generation of games - fill out a short questionnaire about yourself and your interests, and Double Exposure will match you up with a new game that you can assist in the development of. Designers and Publishers will even put your name into the playtest credits when they release their game!

Join us for the debut of the First Exposure Playtest Hall, to be located in Sagamore 6 & 7 at Gen Con 2012.

For more information, send email to: firstexposure@dexposure.com.

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Fantasy Flight Games and Stronghold Games Announce Resolution to the "Merchant of Venus" Board Game Publishing

There's been a resolution to the dispute over who has the rights to reprint the classic game Merchant of Venus (first reported back in October). From the press release issued by Stronghold Games:

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) and Stronghold Games (SG) are pleased to have reached a favorable resolution regarding the publishing of a new edition of the classic "Merchant of Venus" board game.

In the Fall of 2011, both SG and FFG announced separate plans to re-publish the classic "Merchant of Venus" board game. Today, FFG and SG jointly announce that FFG will proceed to publish its new edition of "Merchant of Venus," while SG's version of the game will be cancelled. SG will act as a consultant on FFG's version of the game, bringing some of SG's creative vision to the final release.

"This was a difficult and confusing situation," said Christian T. Petersen, CEO of Fantasy Flight Games. "All parties involved clearly had the best intentions in mind for the game, and none sought to cause damage to the other company. After a period of discussion and discovery, I'm thrilled that all parties now have clarity on the situation. I want to express my gratitude to WOTC for their assistance in this matter, and especially to Stephen Buonocore, the President of Stronghold Games, who has been both professional and practical in untangling this issue."

"While this was an unfortunate situation for all parties, everyone is a winner in the end," said Stephen M. Buonocore, President of Stronghold Games. "Fantasy Flight Games and Stronghold Games have forged a great bond that will last long after this event. In the face of crisis, Christian Petersen was a true leader who worked tirelessly to resolve the matter, and I am very thankful to him for that. The WOTC team was also instrumental in getting this done smoothly, and they too should be lauded. And above all, gamers worldwide are the biggest winners, since they will have this great game back in print, published by a great company, Fantasy Flight Games."

FFG is planning to release its new version of "Merchant of Venus" in Fall 2012. The new edition will feature both the classic game design by Richard Hamblen, as well as an updated game inspired by the original, designed by FFG's Rob Kouba. Stronghold Games is in discussion with Richard Hamblen with regard to other game designs, both old and new ones, which they hope to publish in 2013.

I'm pleased that there has been a resolution to the dispute, although it does seem to me that FFG pretty much "won" (although SG did get "consultation rights" as a consolation prize, but who knows just what that will entail).

(Full disclosure: I've been friends with Stephen Buonocore, one of the managing directors of Stronghold Games, for many years, but I have no special knowledge of how this issue was resolved.)

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Games Workshop Takes Legal Action Over 3D Printing

3D printing-- the ability to actually create three-dimensional models of things using a printer that lays down one layer of material at a time-- is about to hit our hobby big. Digital printers are finally coming into the realm of reality for consumers, price-wise, and will probably be relatively common within a decade. They're already available online, and people share their own designs on other sites as well. You'd think that would be a boon for gamers, especially those of us who are into minis.

Well, Games Workshop sees not an opportunity for the hobby, but a threat to their bottom line.

According to this article at Wired, GW sent over a C&D letter to a website that hosts 3D printing files. Not because someone had copied one or two of their figures. Because someone had created entirely new figures "in the style of the game" (in this case, Warhammer).

Now, I certainly would understand and support any company that was trying to protect their intellectual property. But neither copyright nor patent law protects style when it comes to objects. Not even trade dress, but just something that is evocative of something else. Tanks and two-legged mechs are out of bounds? Someone tell Battletech...

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Dave and Mike vs. Ocean Marketing

Oh...
Sweet...
REASON...

Pen-and-paper RPG companies have nothing on console video game companies when it comes to-- not only bad customer relations, but-- incredibly bad, nay, bad-of-Biblical Proportions public relations.

First, we see the string of emails between "Dave", an innocent customer who pre-ordered some sort of game controller that was intended to be a Christmas present, and Ocean Marketing, whence he was trying to get some idea of when the pre-paid-for controllers would arrive. He got some rude responses, and then Dave sent the emails to Mike Krahulik who, among other things, runs the website http://penny-arcade.com. Mike intervened and was treated to some choice replies by Ocean Marketing (which is apparently a one-man-show, so no convenient excuses about untrained Russian call center operatives). Read it first and then come back. Really, it's worth reading every... single... word (no worries-- I'll wait).

http://penny-arcade.com/2011/12/26/just-wow1

For those who don't know, penny-arcade gets as many hits in an hour as my blog gets in a couple of years and Mike Krahulik runs a couple of jinormous tech conventions in Boston and someplace out west that isn't Boston that are, pretty much, Ground Zero for console game companies. Well, turns out that the doofus from Ocean Marketing found out that Mike K. was really who he said he was, and sent a smarmy "If I had known who you were, I would never have been so rude to you, so can I please have my life back?" email, which you can read here (again, read it all... I'll wait):

http://penny-arcade.com/2011/12/26/an-update1

Needless to say, Mike K. ain't biting, and sees a smarmy "I'm sorry I got caught" apology when he sees one, and saw fit to let the rest of the gaming community know about the fracas. And the best part? It's gone viral. It's the game industry's cautionary marketing/PR tale of 2011, just under the wire. Here's what is currently (as of 11:32 PM on 12/27/2011 ET) on the Ocean Marketing website (note the part I've circled in red):

Annnnd, here's just the first few things you get on Google for "Ocean Marketing". The full list is pretty much completely negative, and all about the PR disaster that they engendered through trying to bully and out-bitch Penny Arcade:

And the best part? Someone put together a completely sarcastic video about this whole thing less than 12 hours after the incident became public:

I've got no dog in this race, but I'm completely serious when I say this. If anyone-- ever-- at any time-- gets an email like those from me in response to some customer service inquiry, I want-- nay, demand-- you simply reply with "Joe, you're obviously drunk. Email me tomorrow morning and all is forgiven. Remember Ocean Marketing."

And the name of this PR and customer service genius? Paul Christoforo (who has now earned himself a dedicated Google News feed!) If I ever find out that he works for a company I am contemplating doing business with in any capacity, I will go out of my way NOT to purchase any of their wares. Ever.

How do you like all your "free publicity" now, asshole? 

UPDATE: Looking for more info on this? (And there is a TON!) You can follow the ongoing saga --> here <--; criminal records, shady business dealings, steroid use... This is just priceless, and it just keeps going!  

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