The trade show had almost the exact same number of people as last year's at Atlantic City, NJ, but it was a substantially different group -- lots more West Coast retailers, many fewer East Coasters. All the major manufacturers -- and quite a few smaller ones -- were there. Many of the smaller companies I'd never even heard of, which is either a good sign signaling renewal in the industry or a bad sign signaling that my brain is slipping. Take your pick...
The single biggest bit of news was the sale of Mayfair Games to Iron Crown Enterprises, who will continue to operate Mayfair out of the Chicago area as a wholly-owned subsidiary. The new Mayfair will continue to produce their famous train games and their European imported board games (including the classic Settlers of Catan), but they're dropping their RPGs (Underground and Chill) and trading card games (SimCity and Fantasy Adventures). Those are still available to anyone who wants to buy 'em ... we'll keep you posted if anything happens on that front.
Lots more to talk about, but I'll spread it out over the week. See you later.
-- Scott Haring
Welcome aboard, Rick!
Gamer's World is a monthly online gaming webzine.
But on the way home, I realized that at a time like this, when some of our brightest minds destroy themselves for no reason we can understand, it’s very important to be the first on the net with a Top Ten list about it. So without further ado:
Top Ten Explanations for 39 Crashed Web Designers
10. Some people take a bad review in SUCK way too seriously.
9. They were working on this killer app . . .
8. They uploaded their minds and they’re living on the Web.
7. They saw the future and it was Microsoft.
6. You know how web designers are. One of them did it and the other
38 jumped on the bandwagon.
5. One word: www.miskatonic.edu. Or is that three words? Whatever.
4. There’s nothing to be afraid of. All browsers are fully tested
before release. Just don’t use the Web for ANYTHING until the new patch
for Explorer comes out, okay?
3. In a world where a million people call the Psychic Friends Hotline
every day, killing yourself so you can hitch a ride on a flying saucer
is comparatively sane.
2. Wouldn’t *you* die to be the lead story on CNN?
And the number one explanation for this senseless tragedy:
1. They starved to death waiting for their pages to load on AOL.
-- Steve Jackson
Filemaker Pro, Unix and HTML would all be useful. So would knowledge of our games, because this employee will be chiefly responsible for evaluation of freeware/shareware game aids submitted by fans.
Fax resumes, references, availability date and salary goals to 512-447-1144.
We have also considered contracting out the user-support part of the
job (not the game evaluation, obviously). If you are working with such
a company now and can recommend them highly, please send the recommendation
to kellyrs@io.com. Thanks!
Come by, meet us, sign up for a local playtest list, get exploited. If you're interested, please RSVP to Brenda Hurst at 447-7866.
See you there.
-- Steve Jackson
The trade show is an opportunity for distributors and (especially) retailers to meet with the manufacturers face-to-face over three days, find out about the new products planned for the rest of the year, give their feedback and just generally be better informed. All of the big game companies (and most of the rest) will be there, because it's in our best interest to help retailers become lean, mean selling machines.
Many game companies save big announcements for the trade show (maybe even us -- you never know . . .), so there's sure to be some news coming out of the show. Tell you all about it when I get back next week.
-- Scott Haring
If you know of any fan pages for Killer, please slip us
the information; we'll check them out and link to the good ones!
-- Steve Jackson
Our Sales Manager, Matthew Grau, has decided to return to the (relatively) frozen North and concentrate on his own life and his own writing. He'll continue to put his two sins' worth in with In Nomine. Woody Eblom, late of Atlas Games (and a good friend of Matthew, which makes the transition easier) will be stepping in. He will be telecommuting from his secret Northfield, MN headquarters, and flying here occasionally for top-level [fnord].
Our Art Director, Bruce Popky, got a very good offer from a local firm; they want him to come do web design, the Hot Job of the Nineties. Good for him. Scott's still working out how to fill the slot, but it may involve a change in the job description, which is why no job opening has been posted.
And our receptionist, Shannon Faseler, also got a great offer. (When you attract the kind of talent that a good game company does, and pay the lousy salaries that a game company does, this eventually happens. Not just to us, either. It seems to come with the territory.) Sarabeth Sorenson will be stepping in to fill the gap.
Good luck, all three of you. We'll miss you.
-- Steve Jackson
Be sure to ask your local game retailer to reserve a copy for you -- but if you can't get it locally, you can always order from us. And that gives me an excuse to point out Kira's new, improved online ordering catalog, ready for your browsing and shopping enjoyment. Check it out!
-- Scott Haring
One of the few negative comments that we have gotten about Dino Hunt is that there's not enough pre-game strategy. Some people really miss the deck-building aspects of other card games.
Well, Matthew Grau has addressed that objection brilliantly in a new set of Tournament Rules. The executive summary: Everybody needs their own cards. Before the game, build a deck of Specials (you can only draw from your own deck) and a "bid deck" of dinosaurs (coordinated with your Specials, which is where the strategy starts). Everybody's dinosaurs get shuffled together, and you play. You catch them, you keep them, regardless of who brought them.
I really like this. Thanks, Matthew!
-- Steve Jackson
Well, anyway.
If you live near here, know Amigas, and would be willing to do us a
favor (and/or accept a suitable bribe), please contact
jimr@io.com. Thanks!
(a) Space Gamers 79, 80, and 81, and any after Number 82 . . .
(b) Any Space Gamers published by 3W, Inc., or any of their successors, after their "Vol. II, No. 1" dated July/August 1989.
We need these issues to complete our office file of Space Gamer for the period after we sold it . . . and we're not even sure, at this remove, how many such issues there were.
And we don't have an office copy of Fantasy Gamer 6. Aw.....
If you've got any of these issues, and you're willing to let them go,
send me e-mail. We will attempt to offer a trade you can't refuse. Thanks!
-- Steve Jackson
And Science Fiction Weekly liked our dinosaur game . . .
"Dino
Hunt gets everything right... Although this game is for
folks eight years old and up, it will have a strong pull for older
players because of its potent ingredients: superb art, good concept,
strong science and fantastically awesome dinosaurs."
Earlier this week, I spoke on a SXSW panel entitled "Anarchy Online." The question before the panelists: does the government fear a wired society?
This, of course, is too easy; the answer is "Of course." The harder question: should we fear the loss of privacy, and increased opportunity for government control, that a wired society will bring? At that point, it got interesting . . .
The net is a two-edged sword. When does your right to collect information - to
conduct your business, to further your political or social goals, or just
to enjoy your hobby - step over the lines of your neighbor's privacy? Reply
hazy. Ask again later.
-- Steve Jackson
The stated reason was that they were "too far along" with the process of deGURPSizing the game. I asked if I could get any of this in writing. He laughed. But he said he'd talk with others there and "see" if he could send me a letter.
He also stated that Interplay was still interested in starting a new game using the GURPS system, and I replied that I would look at a proposal. But the saying "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" comes to mind.
I'll be at the Computer Game Developers Conference this April, and it looks
like I'll have a lot to talk about with the companies represented there.
-- Steve Jackson
First, we found out that most of those who bid on the Polish INWO sets were mainly interested in getting new cards . . . because months ago, we thought there would be new cards in the set, and said so on the INWO news page. But the Polish set, as published, includes no new ones. Whoops. Sorry! So all bidders were given the chance to withdraw or scale down their bids, and that auction has been restarted.
Second, the bidding for the In Nomine Angel and Demon hit the stratosphere and was still going. We started feeling self-conscious and contacted all the bidders who were still in it, and made a proposal: we scale back the price to only a little over what we thought might be vaguely reasonable, and everybody wins. Which probably also brings in more, overall, for the webserver. And all five of them agreed, so we're cool on that.
New auction
stuff will show up Real Soon Now. Again, thanks for the support.
-- Steve Jackson
Without further ado, here's the conversion. Many thanks to S. John Ross, who drafted the original version, and to Moriah, Hunter Johnson, and Kromm, all of whom helped with the final version. Comments should go to Hunter, who is now coordinating In Nomine errata.
We've also posted the In
Nomine FAQ. Thanks to John
Karakash for assembling and maintaining the FAQ!
-- Steve Jackson
I've finally moved to Austin, and am actually in the office (some of the time). My Mac showed up Monday, and I have a cozy little hideout under the stairs (formerly Derek's office).
Not sure yet what I think of Austin, though at least I know more people here than I did in Dallas, so there might even be (gasp) a hope of a social life here. We'll see...
Meanwhile I'm hacking away at the site. Did you know the SJ
Games website has approximately 2500 HTML pages? Scary, isn't it?
One thing that's going to happen soon is a search function for the
site... that's something we've needed for a while. Now if I just had
enough time in one day to do the million-or-so other things I want to do...
-- Kira
This is not a new edition or anything (so put down those torches and pitchforks...). This hardback edition has the same full-color, 208-page interior as the exisitng softcover rulebook -- in fact, the interiors were printed at the same time. We've just put a fancy new cover on these copies to entice those gamers who want a classier version of the game.
Actually, we're doing two new covers. The "angel" version features the In Nomine logo and a stylized cross in red foil on a white faux leather cover. The "demon" version comes in black ... with the cross inverted. We think which version people buy will say perhaps more about them than we want to know, but we're willing to take the risk. But why take chances -- buy both!
The In Nomine Hardback will ship in late March to distributors, and will be available in game stores in early April. You can also check out our online catalog if you like ...
-- Scott Haring
Also, this weekend the AOL gaming pooh-bahs are running an online gaming convention. AmeriCon starts Friday night and goes through Sunday. Live game demos (Pagan Publishing's John Tynes is running the new Delta Green supplement for Call of Cthulhu for one), panels, prizes, all sorts of stuff. I'll be on a "State of the Industry" panel Sunday afternoon (2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, etc., etc.). If you have an AOL account and can actually get on (hey, we wouldn't be cool internet dudes if we didn't take cheap shots at AOL), hope to see some of you there!
-- Scott Haring
The Reebok company, beset by sudden media attention, is making tracks to find a new name for its Incubus brand of women's running shoes. A Reebok spokesman was quoted as saying that their marketing department chose the name in 1995. Apparently nobody knew what the word meant. An "incubus" is a demon who seduces women . . .
Someplace out there, an energetic young servant of Nybbas just earned himself a
Word. Granted, "Demon of Athletic Shoes" isn't the sexiest job in the
corporeal realm, but he's made a Hell of a good start . . .
-- Steve Jackson
Other GURPS books that we'll run out of in the next few months include GURPS Bunnies & Burrows, GURPS Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and GURPS Scarlet Pimpernel.
Some of these titles may come back eventually - but fair
warning: that could mean years. Our priority is: keep core books in
print; release neat new stuff; then reprint non-core books.
-- Steve Jackson
This issue has a look at the new Jovian Chronicles game from Dream Pod 9, a mini-adventure for Pendragon, rules for magical tattoos in GURPS, and more for In Nomine, INWO and more.
When the rest of them get here on the truck, we'll send them out right away . . . watch those store shelves!
-- Scott Haring
