Industry – Page 4 – The Designer Monologues

July 11, 2013

GenCon Concerns

Given recent adjustments to Indiana law, I’m having some serious concerns about whether I can in good conscience continue to attend GenCon after honoring my commitments this year.

They’ve had a gay marriage ban on the books for ages — including one which could imprison same-sex couples for applying for a marriage license on the basis that they’ve “falsified” the application. This was only recently noticed by some blogs, and reported as if it was new. However, what was new is that they’ve added a law stating that anyone who “solemnizes” the marriage of a same-sex couple can face up to 180 days in prison, and a $1,000 fine.

“Solemnizing” is nothing to do with the state — it’s purely ceremony. So Indiana has just criminalized private religious practice — even for those denominations that have no problems with same-sex marriage.

I talk a lot about slacktivism, meaningless feel-good “support” and the tendency of geek progressives to hedge and hem and haw when the rubber meets the road, and their principles slam head-first into stuff they like or want to do. (“Orson Scott Card is a toxic asshole with virulent anti-gay positions, who heads up an organization that lobbies to strip civil rights from same-sex couples…. but, but, Ender’s Game is a cool SF movie that I want to see!”)

GenCon is a big deal — especially for those of us who do work in the tabletop games business. A decision to stop attending would have a major affect on our business.

Perhaps those of us who come in to Indiana every year and pump (according to recent figures) 25-30 million dollars to the Indianapolis economy should make it known how we feel about this. I know that I, for one, will be talking to GenCon, LLC and asking what, if anything, they can do. (I will, of course, wait until after the show — they’ve got enough on their plate right now.)

If you have similar concerns, I urge you to share this post, or post your own — Facebook, Twitter, Google+, what-have-you. Let the concern be heard.

April 7, 2013

BoardGameGeek Interview

I didn’t spot this when it went up at the end of March: Steve Donohue (The Other Other Steve) at BoardGameGeek did an interview with me for the site:

Click here to read.

An excerpt:

What was the first project you worked on? What was that like?

My first game design was a “war game” — or rather what I thought was a wargame based on looking at advertisements for Avalon Hill and other publishers in various SF magazines and comics. Using a bunch of Avery labels, I created a “game board” out of the only real-world map I could find at my Grandmother’s house — a map of Canada from an issue of National Geographic. I came up with a scenario where we’d discovered the Canadians had been tapping into the Alaska pipeline, and so we invaded (naturally). I called the game “Conquer Canada.” I was around 11 or 12. Obviously, it never saw print.

My first commercial release was in 1993 — a small-press science fiction RPG called PERIPHERY: SCIENCE FICTION ROLEPLAYING ON THE EDGE, which was a percentile-based generic space-opera game that I designed and published with several college friends. We only had a print run of about 500 or so copies, but I still occasionally come across one at the GenCon auction.

Check out the rest over at BoardGameGeek.com

March 27, 2013March 27, 2013

PAXEast

I got back yesterday from PAXEast in Boston, my first time at that show. Aside from staying a day later than planned thanks to Delta Airlines (DELTA: Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport), the trip was great.

So, for this post, I’m returning to a long-held tradition of mine: To recap some of the things said or heard at the show, via context-free quotes.

“I’ve got some kind of magical animal.”

“You could park a zeppelin in here.”

“What could be better than dough?”

“The Walking Poor.”

“Sexy Foreign Guy Is Here For Your Womens.”

“This is my sister. She sang that Madonna song.”

“Occasions!”

“I tend to talk faster and get much more Welsh.”

“Enjoy your artisanal sandwich… it’s rustic. Says so on the plastic.”

“We’ve made the stretch goal! Everyone eats!”

“I think we need a Nemesis.”

As an aside — it is definitely a show worth attending for tabletop games companies. The population concentration in the northeast alone means that you’ll be seeing more traffic than you get at GenCon, even if the tabletop area is secondary to the main expo hall area.

Oh, and another thing you should be aware of: The tabletop exhibitor area runs around the open-gaming and tournament tables — which stay open until 2am — and there’s no separation. So even though expo hall ‘closes’ at 6, that’s not the case in tabletop, as people still come through. We’d wrap up around 9ish (3 hours after ‘close’), but could’ve stayed there the whole time… if we wanted to work a 16-hour day. Worth keeping in mind when considering staffing.