Hecatomb's "endbringers" have officially done their job

In a release titled “The End of Hecatomb” (oddly subtitled on the Hecatomb page as being an announcement on the futureof Hecatomb), the game’s design lead and all-around nice guy Ryan Miller announces the end of viagra on line purchase the game’s commercial life. It would have been a great standalone game, probably… but WotC’s goal for the product was to announce to the world that they’re willing to be all scary and dark again. I’m not sure that a non-collectible product could have done that. But I’m also not sure the message sunk in. I guess it’s time to take a closer look at the level of the Dreamblade content.

8 comments

  1. *holds his lighter up in respects to the dead expandable boardgame*

    Honestly, it’s a hard medium. Fancied up boardgames with a line development try to live up to everyone’s gaming needs but hurt in the mode that they try to do TOO much.

    Wetwar competes I think in the fact it stays to cheap materials unlike my cyberpunk wargame competitors at http://www.rezolutiondt.com ; but no disrespect there as they came out with a neat minis line. It boggles my mind how much was spent on Hecatomb; I end up doing everything myself to stay in a sane budget.

    In the end I think Hecatomb also suffered because it’s too much another wizardly duel product, content wise. Now what is the dream-thingie project about? Looks like YET another wizardly summoner throw-down?

    Del Esau
    Black Powder Games
    http://www.esprawl.com

  2. *holds his lighter up in respects to the dead expandable boardgame*

    Honestly, it’s a hard medium. Fancied up boardgames with a line development try to live up to everyone’s gaming needs but hurt in the mode that they try to do TOO much.

    Wetwar competes I think in the fact it stays to cheap materials unlike my cyberpunk wargame competitors at http://www.rezolutiondt.com ; but no disrespect there as they came out with a neat minis line. It boggles my mind how much was spent on Hecatomb; I end up doing everything myself to stay in a sane budget.

    In the end I think Hecatomb also suffered because it’s too much another wizardly duel product, content wise. Now what is the dream-thingie project about? Looks like YET another wizardly summoner throw-down?

    Del Esau
    Black Powder Games
    http://www.esprawl.com

  3. Shrug.
    Hecatomb had two major problems that kept me from even looking at the game.
    The first, and the biggest, is that it’s collectible. While making your game collectible is not a absolute block to having me look at it, it does set the barrier pretty high.
    Which leads to the second point. I’m not certain if it was hypocrisy or schizophrenia on their but they made a horror game without including the minions of Hell. I’m certain that it was the “safe” decision on WotC’s part but really… since when do safe and horror belong in the same sentence?

  4. Quick followup – now that the Call of Cthulhu CCG has dropped collectibility I may be picking that game up.

  5. Agreed. I’m also now interested in the CoC game now that I apparently won’t have to buy a million packs of it to get a set (unless I’m understanding how they’ll be marketing it now).

    Honestly, I think a lot of companies would be better off just making their cards games without the CCG element. You won’t sell as many but, then again, you’re also not looking down the barrel of a severe financial pounding if it tanks either. And, if it takes off, you can always release expansions for it.

  6. James, the real question here is how the same company that did exactly that with Blue Moon managed not to see that it was a good idea with CoC.

  7. We sure do sell a ton of Blue Moon. I may also be grabbing some CoC sold in this fashion as well…

  8. Going a bit off-topic: the only problem with Blue Moon is the two factions that are included in the starter set are well… less than fun to play with. Their implied tactics really don’t encourage strategic thinking. The game really kicks into high gear once you start adding in the allies and additional races expansions.

    I also have to admitt that I’m looking forward to Blue Moon City.

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