2008 JulyThis was supposed to be up yesterday – a little of the ol’ epic fail on my part there, sorry – but now, in all its glory: Joe Goodman tells us just how, exactly, he is making modules for D&D 4E and publishing them before the sanctioned October GSL threshold. Also, the West End Games sale, and: hey, what would you pick for this year’s Ogre’s Choice Awards? Let us know here.
“We’re not going to abandon the vision, but we are going to put large chunks of it on the backburner until we prove that we can succeed at the most important pieces. Those pieces are Magic Online and D&D Insider.” It’s a shame WotC doesn’t have the resources to execute on Gleemax right now, because the vision is pretty good. Someone could possibly beat them to it – maybe the BGG developers if they’re interested in developing for a more general community, but they probably aren’t, and anyway it’s unlikely that many others could get the industry behind one unified effort the way Wizards was trying to. The Gleemax forums, BTW, will be moving back to the Wizards URL they (largely) came from.
So what do y’all think – should I use some of my copious free time to hack up a social network? Or would any of you be interested in seeing some more social-ish features show up here on the Cave?
As has been mentioned on ENWorld, West End Games owner Eric Gibson has apparently decided to sell the company. After assuming control of WEG five years ago, it seems that economic difficulties have caused the cancellation of Bill Coffin’s Septimus. Fans of WEG have been inquiring about preorder refunds for a while, which is likely adding to stress levels at the company – and has led to a rather angry proclamation on the WEG Forums and another at RPGnet. The questions linger: does the nature of the tabletop game industry lend itself to early burnout for publishers (ala the original Hogshead Publishing)? Do game fans expect too much from companies with limited means? Or is it more that creative individuals struggle with creating solid business plans, much like Guardians of Order?
In our latest Audio Report episode, Lee Valentine joins us again as we discuss the more restricted nature of the D&D 4e Game System License. To us, it almost seems publishers will require a Will save to move to the new edition. Then we move on to the Mutant Chronicles CMG becoming non-random, and Days of Wonder issues. In Currently Playing, we’ve dabbled in everything from Red Dragon Inn and Carolus Magnus to Ticket to Ride: Switzerland. Have a listen, and be sure to check out our previous episodes.
The annual E3 craziness is going on this week, and Harmonix has chosen today to squash the unconfirmed Rock Band 2 playlist rumors by announcing the full track list (reorganized at G4tv.com, thankfully, and copied below). As expected, over 80 tracks will be part of the new game, all created from the master recordings. As a bonus, tracks from the original Rock Band, downloaded or otherwise, will be usable in the new game. The sequel will arrive this September, so start warming up now – that angry monkey noise from “Down with the Sickness” may require some practice to perfect. I’m working on it already.
(more…)
The annual Gen Con EN World RPG Awards – aka the ENnies – has announced its nominees for 2008 (copied below). Online voting for all 19 categories, plus a fan write-in category for Best Publisher, will begin on July 21, and end on August 3, so look over the list and prepare your ballots, folks. Winners will named at a Gen Con Indy ceremony on the evening of August 15.
(more…)
Right on schedule, this year’s shortlist for the Diana Jones Award, established to recognize excellence in gaming, has been finalized. The 2008 nominees are:
As always, the DJ Award committee has made worthy, thought-provoking selections, which will be narrowed down to a winner on August 13th, the night before GenCon Indy ’08 opens.
(more…)
I managed to get an early look at this weekend’s big sci-fi flick, Hellboy II – The Golden Army (Universal Pictures), and figured our readers should hear about it. After all, we’re down for any movie that inspires the urge to start gaming, so it’s a sure thing some of y’all feel the same. Have a look, and see what I thought of the comic-themed sequel. We’ll see about bringing you more film reviews in the future to inspire your gaming minds – or at least point out the good stuff.
When we heard of copies of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries being brought here from overseas and selling for $100 of more, we knew the game would probably see an English translation. The official announcement (see below) came from Days of Wonder today, allowing Ticket fans a collective sigh of relief, as they’ll get their chance to claim train routes across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. This will be a complete game, unlike the Switzerland expansion which required one of the main sets to play. Designed for 2-3 players, Nordic Countries should be available in September for $50.
(more…)
B1 Games will be bringing us the Halo Interactive Strategy Game, a modular, three-dimensional boardgame based on the immensely popular video game property, at “1527 hours, August 1, 2008″. According to company’s site, the game will include “Sculpted, 3D collectible character pieces”, Heroic and Legendary difficulty levels, and have “Special insider Halo DVD content” (how the DVD will factor into gameplay, if at all, is unknown – I’m kinda hoping it won’t). The game will have Campaign, Slayer, and Capture the Flag modes, and to top it all off, B1 Games also promises expansion products with “new adventures, vehicles, characters and weapons”. Could be interesting – or just the last licensee to the table. I’ll put myself in the “curious” column.
The crunch collectible card games are continuing to feel may have contributed to Fantasy Flight’s recent decision to make its Mutant Chronicles CMG non-random. Having already changed their significant CCG lines to “living card games” (read: non-random sets), making the same sort of move for Mutant Chronicles could be an excellent preemptive move for FFG to avoid becoming part of the seemingly-inevitable CMG crunch – which some say is already upon us. Makes me wonder if the supposed “packaging problems” the company had just after GTS were really problems, or a product launch being thrown into a sharp turn before heading down a new path. (FFG announcement copied below)
(more…)
Site copyright 2001-2013 Allan Sugarbaker. Trademarks and copyrights mentioned on this page owned by their respective owners.