A Phone Call From Indy
I was over at CK's today, Kathy and I hiding out while the house was being shown. We were watching the Harry Potter marathon (well, we got through the first two before we snuck back home).
My phone rang, and it was my best friend from high school on the line, calling from GenCon. Actually, he is largely to blame for my time in Virginia, and meeting my wife for that matter, as we bought our first CCG cards together. I'm not sure he ever bought another card after those Magic starters, but obviously for me, the rest is history. Kathy and I drove by the shop in St. Louis where that happened while house hunting.
It was interesting hearing his take on GenCon this year (as essentially a once a year outsider who likes to show up and play some RPGs). He felt like the show is withering. Makes sense. Until some great new game type comes along, MMORPGs are going to continue to steal players and cash from adventure gaming, and the military being largely overseas right now stealing another group of players. Frankly, I'm not sure there is a deep and longterm future for paper gaming, though if it turns around, I'd expect the product that does it to come from Mark's new company out in Seattle, as they seem to be the one force with both creativity and management skills. And they can afford to pay for their phones.
He said even the big dogs are smaller than in the past though, much smaller. Don't know what to say without being there, of course.
Anyways, he was there with another buddy from high school, and I guess they were killing some time by playing a little Gain Ground on an emulator. Always one of our arcade favorites, and a 3 player game. "We just couldn't get throug some of those hard levels without the third player." Good to know I was missed.
My phone rang, and it was my best friend from high school on the line, calling from GenCon. Actually, he is largely to blame for my time in Virginia, and meeting my wife for that matter, as we bought our first CCG cards together. I'm not sure he ever bought another card after those Magic starters, but obviously for me, the rest is history. Kathy and I drove by the shop in St. Louis where that happened while house hunting.
It was interesting hearing his take on GenCon this year (as essentially a once a year outsider who likes to show up and play some RPGs). He felt like the show is withering. Makes sense. Until some great new game type comes along, MMORPGs are going to continue to steal players and cash from adventure gaming, and the military being largely overseas right now stealing another group of players. Frankly, I'm not sure there is a deep and longterm future for paper gaming, though if it turns around, I'd expect the product that does it to come from Mark's new company out in Seattle, as they seem to be the one force with both creativity and management skills. And they can afford to pay for their phones.
He said even the big dogs are smaller than in the past though, much smaller. Don't know what to say without being there, of course.
Anyways, he was there with another buddy from high school, and I guess they were killing some time by playing a little Gain Ground on an emulator. Always one of our arcade favorites, and a 3 player game. "We just couldn't get throug some of those hard levels without the third player." Good to know I was missed.
posted by Tom at 11:40 PM
1 Comments:
WizKids seems to be future of non-computer gaming. They deserve props for the Spanish Main game at least.
When UDE commands such a large presence you know that CCGs in general aren't getting any more creative or interesting. Throwing money into tournament purses is about the only way to draw large numbers of players.
While Decipher caused many of their own problems, they are also at the whim of the industry in general. Trek and Rings will likely continue to do decently because they happen to be good games... they'll last as long as Decipher lasts.
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